The By-Pass Control (10 page)

“It was handled, all right.” “What’s your next step?”

“I’ll bring in I.A.T.S. Let them shuffle it around.”

“You think you can make it work after the Salvi deal?”

“They’ll be spooked.”

“Then duck out. I’ve already contacted Martin Grady and this thing is too big for any delays. He’ll cover you in anything you’ll need. He wants you active, not hamstrung in an inquiry.”

“Will do, Virg. I’ll check out of here and into another place.”

“Better use our own premises.... There’s a new place on Fifty-sixth off Seventh Avenue, first floor over Shigley’s. All utilities and a month’s stock of food with some booze on the side if you need it. Grady owns the whole building and the key is with Shigley. The code word is
Hallmark.
Don’t let anybody near you.... We want to keep this spot in operation.”

“Who’s replacing Don?”

“I’ve already dispatched Mason to Detroit to pick up Dave Elroy if it’s all right with you.”

“Good choice. He knows the narcotics end.”

“That’s why I asked for him.”

“Get him right on Don’s assignment then.”

“Roger. Got a report?”

I brought him up to date, made sure it was recorded, and signed off. As quickly as I could I packed up, went downstairs to pay my bill and picked a dime out of my change to use in the phone booth. I dialed Charlie Corbinet’s number and said, “We lost another one, Colonel. Don Lavois ... he’s in my room at the Salem. I’d suggest you get over here before they try to clean up the room and get a story ready for the city police.”

“You know what Hal Randolph is going to do.”

“Damn right, so I’m taking off.”

“You’d better stick around. This might be a stiff one.”

“Sorry, buddy.”

“Okay, I’ll see what I can do.”

“Anything from the teams in the field?”

“Only that the last trace of Agrounsky was in the Myrtle Beach area.”

“How about the Post Office Department?”

Charlie didn’t answer for a moment, musing over the question. “You sure about that letter?”

“Check it yourself. Well?”

“They went through every General Delivery station in New York, Jersey and Connecticut and didn’t turn up anything.”

“So try Pennsylvania.”

“I’ve already asked. They will tomorrow. Now what about Lavois?”

“Tonight I’ll type out a report for your eyes only. Process as you think fit.”

“Don’t take too big a bite.”

“It seems like I always do.”

“Keep in touch.”

I put the phone back, stepped out of the booth and carried my bag outside and walked two blocks before I picked up a cab and had him drop me a few blocks away from Fifty-sixth. When I was sure I didn’t have a tail I cut east until I saw the sign that said
Shigley’s,
found the doorbell and pushed it.

I had seen these strange people Martin Grady had in his employ before—funny little people who were well paid, asked for nothing, and did what they were told. I said, “Hallmark,” and the little old man in the worn sweater barely gave me a second glance over his glasses before taking a single key from his pocket and pointing upstairs.

Grady took good care of his operatives. The three-room apartment had every convenience anybody could ask for, completely antithetical to the outside of the house or the neighborhood. The kitchen windows led to an exterior fire escape and a steel ladder going to the roof had been recently installed outside the bathroom, not visible unless you looked up to spot it. Two escape ways and a normal entrance. The back of the door was steel plated and fitted with a massive slide bolt designed to give the occupant time to clear out before it could be battered down.

I threw my bag down beside the bed, undressed, and got into bed. For an hour I lay there thinking of the times Don Lavois and I had had together since the first drop into occupied France in ’43 and all I could picture was him lying there on the floor with a damn .22 bullet through his skull.

 

I met Dave Elroy at Newark Airport, told Mason Armstrong to stand by and took Dave into the lounge where I briefed him on events up to date. He was a tall, lean kind of guy, his face weatherbeaten out of season, a little older looking than the thirty-two years his staff card indicated. He wasn’t the talkative type, preferring to listen and to look, but every question was pointed and direct.

He knew most of those involved in the international narcotics cartel who lived out of reach of the law, but he enjoyed working on a local level where his attitude and personality could make his work profitable to the Grady organization. I didn’t have to ask for his record—he was fast with a gun and would go in anywhere low and quick, able to make snap decisions and make them right. In a way I envied him the plus ten years he had on me—he had that much longer to go before something gave out that made you want a quiet life with a place in the country.

Dave wrote nothing down, committing it all to memory, then said, “That big a buy of H Salvi made would leave some taking behind it. No pusher handles that much stuff so it probably was made direct with the importers.”

“Know who to contact?”

“For the kind of money I’m authorized to pay for information, I know a lot of them.”

“Okay then, take it from there. We’ll stay in touch through Newark Control. Adams will assign you quarters and you can handle it on your own.”

“How’re you going to play it?”

“From Hamilton’s end. He’s still the key.” I gave him a copy of the Agrounsky photos and let him study them. “Show them around and see what you come up with. If Salvi was after him and Salvi was involved in a narcotics transaction there might be a three-way connection. We can’t afford to pass up any possibilities. If you do get anything, contact me before moving in.”

“Suppose there isn’t time?”

“You know the answers then. Just make sure you leave a record behind in case you feel like keeping company with Don.”

“Hell, you’re a happy one,” he said sourly, hiding a grin.

“It’s happened before,” I told him.

“All right, Tiger. Good to see you again. Sorry Don caught one, but we all know the risks involved. Nice to be working with you.”

“Same here.”

We shook hands briefly and split up at the cashier’s counter. I started out to the cab stand, stopped just inside the door, then turned back to the telephone booths and called Charlie Corbinet. The police had already been notified about the body in my room, but I.A.T.S. had kept a lid on the news and Hal Randolph was raising hell about my involvement, threatening everything he could think of if I didn’t show.

I said, “Relax, Charlie, I’ll come in when I have something going for me. Look, I forgot to ask you something.... Doug Hamilton filed reports on everyone he investigated including the unsatisfactory ones. Washington has copies of his information. You know what bureau handles that sort of thing?”

“I can find out.”

“Then get me the names of those not considered fit for jobs requiring security. I’d say hit the reports dated from the last two months. How long will it take?”

“If I call now and it’s available it will be in the mail tomorrow and here the day after.”

“Good. Suppose we meet at the Blue Ribbon for lunch then ... twelve o’clock.”

“In the open? I have a feeling Hal Randolph is going to be watching me a little closely now.”

“So I’ll give you something to ease the pain. You know the shot that killed Don?”

“22 Magnum. Nobody heard it so the gun probably had a silencer.”

“Throw a net out for Niger Hoppes. That’s his trademark and he’s in this country now.”

“Hoppes!”

“You remember him, don’t you?”

“Certainly. He’s been suspected of being the gun in quite a few high-level political kills in Europe.”

“Check through ballistics. Interpol can get you a telephoto of the slugs they have there and if they match you know who to go after.”

“Nobody’s ever seen him.”

“Don Lavois did,” I said. “Somebody else will. I hope it’s me.”

“Okay, Tiger, if this matches out maybe some of the heat will come off you. Just do me one favor.”

“What?”

“Pass on any information. Don’t go into this alone.”

“That’s too big a favor to ask, Colonel. Don’t forget, I have an official position now.”

“And I outrank you.”

“So I’ll resign,” I laughed and hung up.

It had started to rain again, a dreary, slow rain that seemed to ooze out of the cloud cover overhead. There was a chill in the air too, but I couldn’t tell if it was the temperature or what I was thinking.

An annoying little faraway thought that was always there because I was playing in a dangerous game where the stakes were beyond comprehension and the rules limitless. If there were any rules at all.

By now the committee in Moscow would know how Vito Salvi died. They had their own ways of finding out things just as we did and the orders would be out. No matter where I went I would be a target whether on assignment or not. They wouldn’t know just how I got involved ... they wouldn’t know what Vito Salvi had told me in a vain attempt to stay alive. They’d figure I was in at the beginning the same as they were and an obstacle to be eliminated in the search for Agrounsky.

Unlike Niger Hoppes, my photos were on file. I wasn’t exactly unknown in the operational areas and until now could be reached without too much trouble. The only thing that slowed the process of elimination was that the Soviets had too much to lose by knocking me off as a direct project because they could expect the entire Martin Grady machine to grind into action and take their men out of play ten for one.

That was
before
. Now with the stakes what they were it would be worth the risk. Oh, they’d play their game well. It could be direct or insidious, but it would have a purpose. If they couldn’t get me directly, they’d get to me somehow and that was the little faraway thought that was always there like a snake waiting to strike from the shadows.

I hopped in a cab and gave the cabbie Rondine’s address and sat against the cushions while he threaded through the traffic to the Jersey Turnpike and in the Lincoln Tunnel. He cut right on Forty-second, turned north on Eighth Avenue, making the lights all the way, then eased across town and stopped outside her apartment.

The big doorman gave me a nod of recognition after I paid off the cab, his battered Irish face that had seen too many prelim fights in the Garden squinching up a little because he had lent a hand in a game before with me and knew the results. I asked, “Edith Caine at home?”

“Yes, sir,” he nodded. “Came in about an hour ago.”

“Alone?”

“Staff car from the U.N. brought her. Somebody was with her but didn’t get out,” he told me. “Everything all right?”

I knew what he was thinking. I said, “Anybody nosing around?”

He shrugged his heavy shoulders under his uniform, his mouth twisting into a thoughtful grimace. “Nothing I can say for sure.”

“You don’t have to be sure.”

“So I know the regulars in the buildin‘, y’know?”

“So?”

“Like I know most of ’em who go up and down the street. People from the other apartments, tradesmen, the walkers from the other block ... all that. Standin’ out here all day for a few years you get to know them things. So today I get a cruiser in a cab, like a guy looking for a street number.”

“What’s so unusual about that?”

“Hell, man, the cabbies do the lookin’ for you. They all know this number anyway. I see this guy just looking and the cabbie going straight ahead like he’s been told to do or somethin’ and it’s outa place. Later he does it again. Sometimes they cruise for broads that way but not on this block. No hookers work this section. The next time it’s the same face in a blue sedan.”

“Think you could recognize him?”

“Hell no. It was just a face. It was what he was doing, I saw. He was lookin’ only didn’t want to be seen.”

“When did he go by the last time?”

“Maybe a half hour ago.”

I reached in my pocket and took out a ten-spot, folded it and handed it to him. “Keep your eyes open. I’ll be upstairs if it happens again. Don’t let anybody into the building you don’t know and if one comes in supposedly asking for anybody else, call me right away. Watch the elevator pointer and tell me what floor it stops at.”

“Sure enough.” He put the bill in his pocket with a grin. “I could stop ’em here for you to look at if you want.”

“Don’t bother. Just make sure you’d be able to recognize them again.”

“Expecting trouble?”

“All the time, friend.”

“I’m on your side,” he said. “If you need help I can always get Bert from across the street or Herman from next door. They was both heavies a few years back. They owe me some favors.”

“I’ll keep it in mind,” I told him, then went inside and pushed the buzzer under
Caine
and waited impatiently for the series of clicks that would unlock the door.

When I reached her apartment I knocked on the panel, saw the light shoot through the thick glass of the peephole in the door, and heard her low, throaty chuckle behind it. She held it open, pleasure bathing her face, and reached out her arms for me. “Hello, my darling,” she said and let her lips tickle against mine in a teasing gesture before I grabbed her with all the hunger I had built up inside me.

I kicked the door closed with my foot and held her off with a grin. “Ummm,” I said.