The McBain Brief Read Free

Thirty-three years old. Picked up in a bar on 43rd and Broadway, carrying a .45 Colt automatic. No statement. How about it, Gus?”
    â€œHow about what?” Assisi asked.
    â€œWere you carrying a gun?”
    â€œYes, I was carrying a gun.” Assisi seemed to realize his shoulders were slumped. He pulled them back suddenly, standing erect.
    â€œWhere, Gus?”
    â€œIn my pocket.”
    â€œWhat were you doing with the gun, Gus?”
    â€œI was just carrying it.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œListen, I’m not going to answer any questions,” Assisi said. “You’re gonna put me through a third-degree, I ain’t answering nothing. I want a lawyer.”
    â€œYou’ll get plenty opportunity to have a lawyer,” the Chief of Detectives said. “And nobody’s giving you a third-degree. We justwant to know what you were doing with a gun. You know that’s against the law, don’t you?”
    â€œI’ve got a permit for the gun,” Assisi said.
    â€œWe checked with Pistol Permits, and they say no. This is a Navy gun, isn’t it?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI said yeah, it’s a Navy gun.”
    â€œWhat were you doing with it? Why were you carrying it around?”
    â€œI like guns.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œWhy what? Why do I like guns? Because . . .”
    â€œWhy were you carrying it around?”
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œWell, you must have a reason for carrying a loaded .45. The gun was loaded, wasn’t it?”
    â€œYeah, it was loaded.”
    â€œYou have any other guns?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œWe found a .38 in your room. How about that one?”
    â€œIt’s no good.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œThe .38.”
    â€œWhat do you mean, no good?”
    â€œThe firin’ mechanism is busted.”
    â€œYou want a gun that works, is that it?”
    â€œI didn’t say that.”
    â€œYou said the .38’s no good because it won’t fire, didn’t you?”
    â€œWell, what good’s a gun that won’t fire?”
    â€œWhy do you need a gun that fires?”
    â€œI was just carrying it. I didn’t shoot anybody, did I?”
    â€œNo, you didn’t. Were you planning on shooting somebody?”
    â€œSure,” Assisi said. “That’s just what I was planning.”
    â€œWho?”
    â€œI don’t know,” Assisi said sarcastically. “Anybody. The first guy I saw, all right? Everybody, all right? I was planning on wholesale murder.”
    â€œNot murder, maybe, but a little larceny, huh?”
    â€œMurder,” Assisi insisted, in his stride now. “I was just going to shoot up the whole town. Okay? You happy now?”
    â€œWhere’d you get the gun?”
    â€œIn the Navy.”
    â€œWhere?”
    â€œFrom my ship.”
    â€œIt’s a stolen gun?”
    â€œNo, I found it.”
    â€œYou stole government property, is that it?”
    â€œI found it.”
    â€œWhen’d you get out of the Navy?”
    â€œThree months ago.”
    â€œYou worked since?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œWhere were you discharged?”
    â€œPensacola.”
    â€œIs that where you stole the gun?”
    â€œI didn’t steal it.”
    â€œWhy’d you leave the Navy?”
    Assisi hesitated for a long time.
    â€œWhy’d you leave the Navy?” the Chief of Detectives asked again.
    â€œThey kicked me out!” Assisi snapped.
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œI was undesirable!” he shouted.
    â€œWhy?”
    Assisi did not answer.
    â€œWhy?”
    There was silence in the darkened room. Stevie watched Assisi’s face, the twitching mouth, the blinking eyelids.
    â€œNext case,” the Chief of Detectives said.
    Stevie watched as Assisi walked across the stage and down the steps on the other side, where the uniformed cop met him. He’d handled himself well, Assisi had. They’d