Read Online Killer Mine by Mickey Spillane - Free Book Online Page A

and took out another bottle of beer. She didn’t offer me one. When she jacked the top off she said, “It was fresh money he didn’t expect. It came sudden like, but I’ll tell you this… he couldn’t get his hands on all of it. What he had was plenty, but not the large stuff. He liked to talk big, and kept hinting at what he was going to come into, but I knew that slob too damn well. He was thinking and working on something he didn’t have but sure damn well expected to get one way or another. That bastard wouldn’t let a penny get past him if he could help it”
    “Who supplied it?”
    “What’s it get me, copper?” She eyed me curiously, waiting for my answer.
    “Ask,” I said.
    She started to speak, stopped and gave me one more of those shrugs and went back to her beer.
    “I can give you advice,” I said.
    “Screw your advice,” she told me coldly. “No advice from a cop.”
    “I got a friend who makes pictures. We were in the war together. He might be able to use your type if you have the guts to try. Maybe it won’t work, but I can always ask.”
    “Why?”
    “Why not?”
    I was starting to feel like a damn dogooder and didn’t like it. Thirty days in the can would probably make more of an impression, but she was from the place I grew up and couldn’t get out and I knew what she felt like.
    Rose looked at me, the beer motionless in her hand. “You mean it, don’t you?”
    I nodded.
    “What’s this world coming to?” she said. “So I’ve tried everything, why not advice from a cop?” The hardness washed out of her eyes and the expression turned serious. “René had somebody stashed in his apartment. Somebody he knew.”
    “How did you know that?”
    “Because he was buying groceries for two, that’s why. I saw him at the deli, old Pops mentioned it and once I saw the laundry he brought into the laundromat. He bought booze he’d never buy for himself and he had those allover smiles he never had when times was hard.”
    “Who, Rose?”
    “I never inquired. If I did it would mean a belt in the mouth and I had enough of that, and in my business that would be…”
    “Disastrous,” I supplied. “Yeah.”
    I got up and pushed the chair back where it was. “I’ll make that call for you. Take it.”
    “Okay, copper,” she said. She lifted the bottle to her lips, sipped at it without taking her eyes from mine, then put it down and smiled. “And you know what? I’ll make it, too.” When I agreed with a little grin she said, “Watch out for that Al Reese. He had the bull on René and was pushing him. You’re the copper I’ve been hearing about, aren’t you?”
    “Probably.”
    “Then watch him. He knew René had dough coming. I saw them arguing one day and it was all on Al’s side. He had René pinned because of something he knew René did, like he does with everybody else, and held it over his head. When René started flashing that cabbage, Al was there, so he put things together and put the squeeze on him. Don’t play that fat boy down, copper. He’s just a precinct captain around here, but dig his place on the Sound and that boat he has and the broads he pays for and you’ll see more. The tax people ought to do him like they did Capone. Where he lives here is only for show to get the votes for the party like he’s one of the boys, but he’s a power, man, a big power.”
    “I’ll watch him,” I said.
    “He’s smart.”
    “So am I.”
    “He’s tough.”
    “I’m a helluva lot tougher, sugar.”
    “But he knows more about René and that’s what you’re interested in, isn’t it?”
    “You’re on the ball.”
    “I like you, copper. You’re welcome to stay a while if you want.”
    For fun I winked like maybe I’d be back, but we both knew what it meant. Twice now I’d been invited to a bed party free by a couple of pros who could make it interesting and twice I kissed off the deal. Too much training, I thought. Too many Army VD films.
    Hell, that wasn’t