Welcome Home, Sucker by Joe Archibald Read online

hear Al Ford yell at me any moment, but I The police teletypes would be clicking from breathed easy and let my nerves loosen up here to hellangone. Maybe Al was talking when the car door finally slammed behind me.

  with Nora now. But he wouldn’t get that I ducked my head down as far as it

  blackjack. Nora was used to handling cops, would go into the collar of my coat, and held a even though she was a little out of practice.

  newspaper in front of my face. I felt as if Around midnight, I slipped downstairs, every person in the car was trying to stare and Lew Fraser called to me. He was leaning through the paper.

  against the wall near the door of the dim The place where Fleck Maslin had

  lobby.

  stashed his dough was on the West Side, in a

  “Taking a powder, Jimmy?”

  dingy-looking tenement with fire escapes built

  “I got to get the dough, don’t I?” I outside. I went into the hallway and studied demanded.

  the piece of Fleck’s note under the one light

  “Not tonight, pal. I got a tip that the that was burning. It said the flat was on the cops are on the way here. Get down in the second floor in the back. I had to think of what cellar. There’s a lot of old boxes you can hide I wanted to say to whoever occupied the place.

  under. Make it fast. I was just on the way up Settling on a certain tack, I walked up to warn you, pal.”

  the creaky stairs. I was going to say that I had

  “Okay.” The sweat that came out of

  heard the place would be vacant soon and that me was like ice against my skin.

  I wanted first crack at it.

  I went down to the cellar. A little while I knocked on a door and a little

  later, I heard cops moving up and down the pinched-face girl about eleven years old stairs and along the corridors. I guess they did opened up.

  not bother to look in the cellar because it was

  “I’d like to see your ma,”’ I said.

  in their minds that I must have left town.

  “She’s gone out,” the kid said, a little A long time later, Fraser came down scared.

  and the coast was clear. The cops had

  “I’m from the fire insurance

  searched every room.

  company,” I said, shifting my strategy. “I got

  “Why do you think Al Ford would

  to look around.”

  come to a joint like this?” Fraser asked.

  Sure, it was in my mind what I had to

  “Jimmy Rohan would know they’d fine-comb do. I’d tie something around the girl’s mouth every suspicious joint in town? Better lay low and fix her so she could not move. I wouldn’t for a couple days, and then make a try for that hurt her any.

  Welcome Home, Sucker 7

  “Your folks be back soon?” I asked as She wore a short, fur coat, with a gold flower I pushed my way in.

  on it.”

  “Not until late,” the kid said.

  The room started to get darker. The I saw a little service flag hanging from the punch nearly floored me.

  window screen. There were two stars on it.

  “I wish you’d go,” the kid said.

  “Got brothers in the Army, kid?”

  “Take it easy, baby,” I said.

  “One is in the Army and the other is in I was walking around again, and it was the Navy,” the kid said. “That is how ma and not me. I saw buildings swimming around pa got free tickets to a show tonight on under water. I saw Hardesty’s twisted face. It Broadway.”

  all started to make some sense. I pieced some

  “I don’t get it,” I said.

  floundering thoughts together, and the picture

  “A lady came this morning and gave

  I got was sickening.

  them two tickets.” The kid’s eyes lighted up.

  “Is there a phone in here?”

  “A very pretty lady. She said she was from the

  “In the hall downstairs.”

  USO, and that they thought it would be nice to

  “Lock the door,” I said. “Don’t let do something for the mothers and fathers of anybody in, you hear?”

  the boys who are in service. Like giving them The kid nodded.

  tickets to shows and—”

  I went downstairs and called

  “That is sweet,” I said, thinking of Headquarters. It was funny, me talking to what a break this was.

  cops. They did not know who I was.

  I looked into the next room, guessed

  “Put Al Ford on,” I said.

  the closet would be there.

  I had to wait. I had time to think of I was thinking of what to do with the Nora dancing with Dave Randau. For the first kid when I happened to see a cigarette in an time, I tumbled to the fact that they’d danced ashtray on the table.

  pretty close. My hat? Randau had a little skull.

  It was stained with lipstick. I picked it My hat would be too big for him. I guess he up. I had seen plenty of butts not so long ago could get my shoes on, all right.

  at my welcome-home party. The brand was Oh, he’d worn the hat!

  the same. It was a brand of cigarette that had

  “Detective Al Ford? Listen, this is just not been popular until the shortage came. I for you.”

  looked at the butt closer, wheels going around

  “Hurry it up.”

  in my head. There was lastex in my knees.

  “I’m Jimmy Rohan. I got to see you

  “You got a sister, kid?”

  but quick. I know—I didn’t knock Hardesty She shook her head.

  off. Listen, here is where I am. You come alone. Don’t wait.”

  LUCKILY, the shade of lipstick on the I hung up. I went out on the steps, cigarette got me. I remembered the new stuff watching every car that came up, everybody Nora wore. It tasted good. “Pink Lightning”

  that turned into the building. I wished I had a she said they called it. I guessed I was going gun or even the blackjack.

  crazy.

  A lot can happen in three years. A

  “Was anybody with the girl who gave dame can go high hat and want the Randau your folks the tickets?” I asked the girl.

  type. I should have figured it while I was up

  “No.”

  there.

  “Describe her to me.”

  What a stunt! USO handing out tickets

  “She was pretty. Had long, black hair.

  to parents of service men. Where was Al

  Black Book Detective 8

  Ford? It must have been nine o’clock or a little the flat,” I said. “My trusting wife and her after, just about the time the kid’s folks would sweety-pie are coming after it. Tonight. It be enjoying a big Broadway show.

  looks like they are not only going to frame me Nice thinking, Nora, but the tickets for the chair but will get paid nicely for the were for the wrong night. Who said “Never work. They worked a smart trick getting the the twain shall meet?”

  Just the night I

  couple out of that flat for the night. Any happened to pick, Nora picked.

  minute now, Al. I’m staking everything on it.”

  A car came up. Al Ford got out. He

  “Well, let’s go up there and get that dough.

  was not too tall, but he was plenty broad.

  Who left it there, Jimmy?”

  When he spotted me, his hand was close to his

  “Fleck Maslih. He died in the Big

  Police Positive.

  House. I figured he’d earned it after doing all

  “No need of that, Al.”

  those years. He wanted to will it to a friend.”

  “Look, Rohan, what are you pulling?”

  “Still a movie,” Al Ford said, but he

  “Al, I was framed. Listen fast while I followed me upstairs.

  give you it to you. The breaks are with me for We are about to knock on th
e door of the flat a wonder.”

  when we heard somebody coming up the Under the light in the dingy hallway, I creaky risers. “In here,” I said, and pulled Al showed him the piece of note paper, and told Ford into a smelly closet, where they kept him how I happened to have it.

  mops and pails and insecticide.

  “Nobody knew but me, Al. Not unless We heard a knock, then a door opened, somebody happened to find it in the sweat-and I recognized the kid’s squeaky voice. It band of my hat. Randau saw my hat was too broke off quick and then there was a low big for him, and padded it with cardboard or scuffle. The door slammed.

  paper, and he happened across Fleck’s note.

  “A movie, Al?” I growled. “Come on.

  “Wouldn’t you think fast if you found You do a nice job on that door, pal”

  that in an ex-con’s hat? Right away it would look like buried treasure, Al. Most likely this AL FORD hurled himself against the door, Randau and his pals shook me up and asked breaking the lock. We tumbled into the flat.

  me things which I answered through the booze There was a man there putting a gag on the fog. A guy blabs crazy when he’s jagged. He little girl. Another man was going into the pretended to work on my side, and now I next room. It was Randau. He turned in a tumble he wanted Nora bad. I tumble to a lot hurry. There was a gun in his hand.

  of things.”

  Al Ford fired first. Randau jackknifed,

  “We ain’t in the movies, Rohan,” Al went to his knees.

  snapped. “We found that blackjack at your I recognized the guy who had been

  place.”

  gagging the kid.

  “I can believe that now,” I said. “Look,

  “Augie Dern!” I yelled, and went at they got me out like a light, and took my hat him.

  and coat and shoes. Some other guy killed Augie had a gun, too, but he did not Mitch Hardesty, not me, Al.”

  get to use it. There was nothing in the world Then I told him about the dame from that could have stopped me at the moment.

  the USO and the tickets.

  I caught Augie in the jaw with my fist,

  “Well, what am I supposed to do now, and lifted him over a chair. I dove behind the Jimmy?”

  chair, climbed aboard him and nearly ground

  “There’s nearly ten grand up there in his head through the old rug and the board

  Welcome Home, Sucker 9

  floor of the room. I was still hitting Augie

  “Nora said, ‘Look in his hat!’”

  when Al Ford got to me.

  “She was always pretty smart,” I said,

  “All right, Jimmy,” he said. “Leave and I enjoyed watching Randau suffer.

  some of him for the D.A.”

  “We finally got enough out of you to Al pulled me loose.

  steer us right,” Randau went on. “I Dave Randau was not feeling too remembered Fleck Maslin. I defended him. He happy with the slug through his side. He was lifted a payroll, and the cops never found it. It giving up a lot of vital sap! He yelled for a was Nora’s idea to buy the theatre tickets.

  doctor. We saw to it that the little girl was

  “I wish I’d never set eyes on her,”

  taken to a flat across the way before we gave Randau said. “I was crazy about her. You Randau his chance to talk.

  were in the way, Jimmy. I put up that dough

  “Let’s have it,” I told Randau. “Nora for the hat shop. We had this all figured out a was in this up to her pretty neck, wasn’t she?”

  month before you were paroled. We found out Randau

  nodded.

  we were that way about each other a couple of I couldn’t say anything for a while. It months after you went to prison. Well, you got was like somebody had hit me with a jack. I’d all you need to know. Get a doctor.”

  sure loved Nora.

  “If you are smart you will bleed to Randau let loose and his story was

  death here, you two-timing mouthpiece,” I pretty close to the one I’d told Al Ford said. “All right, let’s see if Fleck was in his downstairs. But after all, I’d only been right mind and stashed that payroll dough guessing then.

  here. I don’t want a dollar, if it happens to be It had been Augie, not Dave, who had here. I’m in the clear, and I’m young and slugged Mitch Hardesty. Augie had worn my healthy. As healthy as a 4F can be. Maybe hat, coat and shoes. Augie had been advised with a new setup I can get in the Merchant not to hit Hardesty too hard. Just enough to Marine, Al. That’s for me.”

  put him out. All the cops would naturally

  “I see what you mean,” Al said.

  think Jimmy Rohan had done it. It would have We found Fleck’s dough. There was

  been enough to send Jimmy Rohan back to the about nine grand under the floor of the closet.

  Big House for a long time.

  The cops could easily trace through the files But the cop had seen Augie just as the and see who the dough really belonged to.

  runt swung the jack. So Augie had to go all We left Headquarters about ten-thirty, the way, or he would not have had a chance to and went to look up Nora.

  spend some of the dough Randau had

  She opened the door quick when I

  promised him.

  knocked. When she saw it was me, and not They had not found the slip of paper in Randau, she nearly fainted in her tracks. She my hat until I—started blabbing about it while got as gray as death under her make-up. Right drunk as an owl.

  then and there, I started hating her.

  “You kept saying, ‘In my hat,’”

  “Surprised?” I said. “Dave Randau

  Randau told us. “Nora gave you another drink will not see you for awhile, baby. He’s in the with a pill in it. You kept talking about ten jug with Augie, our old pal. You told me all grand in a closet. Your future was in your hat.

  the time that you were all going straight. Well, It sounded crazy for awhile. Then we stopped you got a lot of questions to answer the D.A.

  laughing.”

  So you’d better put on your glad rags—and

  “I must have been a scream,” I come along with me and Al.”

  snapped.

  They gave Dave Randau and Augie

  Black Book Detective 10

  life. Nora got off with from-three-to-ten. After office. I figured that after what I’d been I saw Al Ford and Nora off at the railroad through, the only place where I really could terminal, I headed for the nearest shipping get adjusted was in a war.