Free He Won't Need it Now by James Hadley Chase Page B

much you don't know about that rat,” he said, “you know what he did. Dope, women, and white slaving. Cattley's certainly been making plenty of dough these last months. No one's sure of where he got it. He's moved up a lot since we knew him. Does, or rather did, everything on a big scale. The cops can't get a line on him, but they watch him from time to time.”
     “Is he going to be missed?”
     Sam shrugged. “Not unless someone who knows him gets worried and blows to the police. That ain't likely.”
     Duffy brooded some more. “You done a swell job of work,” he said at last. “What I want to know, is where do I go from here?”
     Sam said, “I'd take it easy for a bit.”
     Duffy shook his head. “I got to get those pictures,” he said, “and I've got to get 'em fast.”
     Alice said, “Has Morgan got them, do you think?”
     “No. Morgan hasn't got them. It was Morgan's crowd who pushed me around. It looks to me that some other party has horned in and helped themselves. Just as long as Cattley remains in that vault, trouble will stay still. As soon as he pokes up his head, the balloon will go up.”
     “Don't you run a risk of being made an accessory after the fact or something?” Alice asked, her brow wrinkled.
     Duffy said, “I guess I've been in worse spots than accessory charges.”
     Sam got up and began to pile the plates in the kitchen. Alice went out to help him. Duffy sat in the arm-chair and brooded. His body was one dull ache, but he wouldn't let his mind dwell on it. There was a bitter angry feeling smoldering inside him. Furious with Morgan, revengeful against those three toughs, and determined to get those photos back, he thought of Annabel. Then he got up and went over to the telephone. He dialled a number, after consulting the book.
     He recognized her voice at once.
     “This is Duffy here,” he said.
     “Have you got them?” her voice was eager.
     “Listen, baby,” he said, speaking low and fast, “you don't know half what happened last night.”
     “What is it?”
     “For one thing Morgan ain't got those pictures. For another, he wants them mighty bad. When I got home last night, three birds were waiting for me and they beat me silly when I couldn't give them the camera.”
     She was silent for a moment. “But who has got it?” she said at last.
     “I don't know,” he had to admit it; “this is a line up against your Pa. Why the hell didn't you tell me who you were?”
     “Well, who am I?”
     “You're Edwin English's daughter.”
     “I prefer to say I am Annabel English.”
     He laughed. He couldn't help himself. “I've been looking up your record, baby, it ain't so hot.”
     “You think so?” She sounded very cool. “I thought you'd appreciate me.”
     “I think you ought to go very slow for a bit,” he said, .”you just lie low, and don't start anything. It wouldn't be a bad idea for you to get out of town for a little while.”
     “Oh no,” she was very definite, “I won't do that.”
     “Okay, but watch your step from now on.”
     “When am I seeing you?”
     He grinned, but he felt no mirth. “Sooner than you think,” he said quietly, and hung up.
      
     

CHAPTER VI
         
     IT TOOK DUFFY TWO impatient days to shake himself loose. Sam and Alice, their nerves frayed, were at last forced to give way to his insistence.
     In a new suit, his face still battered, his temper vile, Duffy walked into the street. Sam came along at his heels.
     “I feel,” said Sam, “that you're going to run into trouble so fast we ain't going to have any time to stick you together again.”
     Duffy was walking fast. “You don't know nothing,” he said shortly; “I feel fine, and I ain't going to