The Deep Read Free Page B

back?” I asked him.
    His hand wiped more hate-sweat away. “Yeah,” he said “I think I know. I’ll even talk about it because I hope I can get something on you that will hang you high as a kite.”
    â€œThen why?”
    â€œYou want the outfit. It’s yours by inheritance. A whole mob of blank-faced idiots to go with it. A hand-hewn chunk of corruption and violence all set to roll into action. Brother, you and Bennett were some buddies, I can say that all right. You guys really stuck to the creed of the old gang. You make a blood pact and you sure keep it!” He stopped, his teeth an uneven line across his face. “So Bennett wills you the whole works ... the buildings, the clubs, the dough... everything.” “Nice of him.” “There’s only one hitch... you got to be louse enough to keep it.”
    I looked at him for a long time, the grin getting bigger. “You sure that’s why I came back?”
    â€œYeah. I’m sure. You’ve been away too long for anything else. It’s big dough now. A million bucks and a tailor-made mob. If you can keep it. Murder’s a tough rap and easy enough to prove.”
    I let the grin drop. “You little screwball, I didn’t come back for any million bucks. I don’t need any mob or any million.” I stopped, then, “I didn’t kill him, you pothead! You think I’d stick my neck out for that kind of stuff?”
    Something happened to the expression on his face. The tenseness came out of it and there was an excited nervousness in its place. Roscoe said quickly, “Then you know where it is. Bennett left you that too.”
    I stood up and pushed the chair back to the wall. “Buddy, I came back for one reason. I want the laddie who bumped Bennett. Bad, I want him. You know?”
    His voice was almost hushed. “I know.” His mouth was a fine, tight line now. “That crazy kid stuff stuck with you. The blood crap. You want a kill, don’t you?” He didn’t let me answer at all. He said, “So okay, find him. I’m with you all the way. I hope you kill the pig so I can put the whammy on you. I want so bad to write your obit that it’s coming out my ears. I’ll help you find him, Deep. I hope you wipe out all the old pig crowd. Decimate the block if you have to. All the kids are growing up in Bennett’s shadow and somehow I’m getting the feeling that you’re even worse.”
    His chair skidded back and he stood up, his head tilting up into mine. “Tell me one thing, Deep. You’re big where you came from just now. You’re real big, aren’t you?”
    I laughed at him again. “Real big,” I said.
    His eyes flattened out. “Bigger than Bennett?”
    â€œA lot bigger,” I told him.
    He accepted it with a nod. “I’ll write your obit yet.”
    â€œThat’s okay. I’ll even rough you in on background details as long as you help me find out who bumped Bennett.”
    â€œDeep, I’ll be glad to. Happy is the word. Happy, happy. We get him, then you.”
    â€œYou talking or doing?”
    It was his turn to smile now. “You know me better. You were all bigger, but I don’t scare. Not one damn bit. The pigs all know me and the way I feel. I’ll blast hell out of them in my column anytime I can and they know it. So they lay off. You know the pigs. They figure me for an occupational hazard and anybody I tag deserves it. At the same time they’re pretty cagy. I may come from the block, but this boy’s no part of it. If they tag me they get bounced by the cops and hard or the paper steams things up something awful.” His grin spread. “Bennett’s gone... and now I think you’ll be next. That’ll be good.”
    I watched the pleasure of the vision creep into his eyes, watched him satisfy himself with a probing thought into the future. Then he said,