Killer Mine Read Free Page B

day.”
    “I’m going to stretch this one out,” Marty said. I glanced at her and grunted. So did Mack. “Why not?” she said seriously. “Until now it was all juvenile. Wouldn’t even put me out in the field where the dips were working.”
    Mack and I looked at each other and laughed.
    “What’s so funny about that?” she demanded.
    “You,” I told her. “I can see you trying like hell to be inconspicuous. Anyway, baby, you were good enough to save for the big one.”
    Mack laughed again and Marty made a face at me.
    I said to Mack, “We’re going to play this one on the cool side. They laid out the pattern before they gave it to me, and it might work. I’d sooner go after this chappie through regular channels, but someplace along the line politics got involved and you know district captains can raise a stink, specially when he can pull five thousand votes.”
    “Well, it happens. What can you do?”
    “Marty still lives in the old neighborhood. Nobody knows she’s in the department. In that neighborhood it doesn’t make for a good rep.”
    “I know.”
    “So I court her.” I grinned at Marty and she smiled back.
    “Things can get mighty interesting in the line of duty,” Mack said.
    In a stage whisper Marty said, “I hope!” and we all laughed.
    For some crazy reason all the tension was gone and I had a fat lazy feeling like I used to have back on the beat when it was a hello to everybody and the kids still played stickball and not switchblades and you liked your job, even at the end of the day when your feet hurt but you weren’t really tired,
    “So what do you think, Mack?”
    “It’s a toughie. There’re nineteen stoolies who put in their two bits out of which we got nothing. The only tie-in is that they were knocked off with the same gun, presumably in the same hand. All neat jobs, no stray shots and strictly big-time pro. The slugs were all .38 specials out of the same box. The lab could check the lube left on each slug.”
    “That’s calling it.”
    “But that’s all they’re calling, Joe. You can go through those reports all week and still be out in the bleachers.”
    “It figures. That’s why they’re making a damned federal case out of it.”
    Mack got up and tapped the inch of ash off his cigar into the tray on my desk. “You be careful, Joe. I don’t like this one.”
    “I don’t either.”
    “You know why?”
    “No. Clue me,”
    “Some rumbles been coming out of there lately. That Phil Borley extortion thing. Nobody knew he had left Chi until he muffed this operation here. Then that mob business. Nothing’s come of it yet, but the word is that a few of the uptown crowd have been hanging around in strange places. Those lads are working close to the politicos. The campaigning starts early nowadays.”
    Across from me, Marta frowned in concentration, taking it all in.
    “If these kills are inside an organization,” Mack said, “you’re pushing a big one. If they’re outside, the organization won’t like their field having a light turned on it and might try to clean up the deal themselves. Either way, you can get caught in a pocket.”
    I grinned at him. “Don’t worry so much. I’ve been around some.”
    Mack nodded. “Okay, you know what you can do with that reputation of yours. Always some punk ready to take you on from behind. What I don’t like is you going it alone. It just ain’t S.O.P.”
    “Neither is this case.”
    “You been assigned any help?”
    “Just Marty. The rest gets played by ear.”
    Marta leaned back and crossed her arms. “We can always call for the beat cop.”
    “Great,” Mack said. “Anyway, if it gets too cozy, a few of us who know that strip can hang around in our spare time.”
    “Thanks. I might need something like that.”
    “Sure. You yell. Now, anything you want from our section?”
    “I don’t think so.” I tapped the envelope on the desk. “Thanks for this.”
    He winked, waved at Marty and sauntered out. On