Free The Long Wait by Mickey Spillane

did she continue to work there?”
    â€œNot very long. The two of them took their vacations together. It was during that time that the auditors checked the books and uncovered the theft. I never got to see Vera to talk to after that. She just left the bank and started hanging around the gambling houses in town. She was making quite a splash when Servo picked her up. After that she was with him constantly until the day she just dropped out of sight.”
    â€œNo trace of her since?”
    â€œNo trace,” he repeated dully.
    â€œI want a picture of her, Logan. Got one?”
    He reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. “There’s one in the cardcase,” he told me, “on the bottom of the pile.”
    I shuffled through the cards until I found it, a two-by-three-inch photo on heavy linen paper. And there she was, a lovely natural blonde with hair like new butter flowing down to her shoulders. The photographer had caught her in a coquettish pose, but there was a freshness about her that had to be real. Her mouth was full and soft, her nose tilted gently, ready to laugh. It was hard to tell much about her eyes. They might have been soft eyes or they might have been hard. I couldn’t tell.
    Logan said, “What do you think?”
    â€œBeautifuL”
    â€œShe was that all right. You can keep that picture if you want it.”
    â€œThanks.” I stuck it in my pocket and handed his wallet back.
    â€œYou still didn’t tell me what you were going to do about it,” he said.
    I watched the houses flash by the window a minute. “Logan, Johnny was run out of town because he was involved in something big. Like two hundred thousand bucks is big. I don’t think Johnny took that dough.”
    â€œFrame?”
    â€œMaybe. Vera was involved and when I find her I’ll find the answers.”
    There was a red light up ahead and Logan slowed down for it. When he came to a stop he stared at me meaningly. “I’m pretty well convinced you’re not McBride, but when you started telling me about those unnatural talents of yours I started thinking of something.”
    I caught it fast. “You mean did I discover I was a handy man with figures too?” I asked him.
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œChum, the only figures I’m good with walk on high heels. I still count on my fingers. I’d make a lousy bank teller.”
    â€œAnd the Johnny McBride you knew?”
    I bobbed my head. “He was a mathematical whiz, that guy. He kept the company accounts.”
    The light changed and the car rolled ahead. We were on the edge of town now and Logan took the time to point out some of the bigger hot spots. Most of the places were just starting to get a play and before the hour was out they’d be packed to the doors. Most of the cars in the parking lots were from out of town and about half from out of the state entirely. Lyncastle had the kind of reputation to draw the tourists.
    I noticed little blue signs in a lot of the windows and mentioned it to Logan.
    â€œMembers of the Business Group,” he said, “Servo’s outfit.”
    â€œWhat happens if you don’t belong?”
    â€œOh hell, there’s no rough stuff involved. About a tenth of the places are independents, but they don’t make out so well. If there is any trouble and you are a member of the group, there’s a lot of money for the best lawyers. Besides that, Servo has a liquor monoply in town and if you don’t belong you don’t get the kind of stuff the customers want.”
    â€œNever any trouble from the public?”
    Logan grunted mirthlessly. “There would have been at one time. There would still be if the damn public would get the merchants out of politics and run the town themselves. What the hell, you can’t blame them too much. There’s a lot of new money in town now if you can stand to live with the kind of people who have