Free Shakedown by William Campbell Gault Page B

Joe. Remember—about that girl.”
    “I’ll treat her right.” Josie’s hand was warm and strong.
    They went out and I checked the bills he’d given me. Two twenties and a ten.
    He’d paid top dollar.

CHAPTER SIX
    J EAN PHONED AT SEVEN-THIRTY to tell me they’d left for the ballet. “Want to come up here and wait until a few minutes before they’re due back?” she asked me.
    “It might be risky,” I said. “I’ll stake out and wait for him.”
    Her voice was cool. “In other words you don’t want to be alone with me?”
    “There’s nothing I’d like better. But I’d rather put it off until we can be alone and rich.”
    “Is Josie there?” There was meaning in that.
    “She’s gone. Tomorrow she’ll be out of town. The man was very pleased with her.”
    “All right. I’ll phone you tomorrow. Or you can phone me. Willi knows you’re investigating this Company.”
    “I’ll phone you in the morning.”
    As I hung up I wondered if I’d annoyed her. She was the kind of hot-head who might queer the whole deal over a slight. But she was also the kind of girl who’d cherish a man she wasn’t too sure of. I had to be solid with her. Until the pay-off.
    I put a stamp on the letter Josie had written to Deutscher and put the letter in my inside jacket pocket. It was a letter Deutscher would undoubtedly destroy soon after he received it. I would need to be there when he got it.
    I found a place with an eight o’clock pick-up and mailed it on the way to dinner. I had a good meal, and a few drinks and then went down Sunset to park about a half block from the luxury apartment building that housed Jean Roland.
    I sat there in the Chev, figuring the angles. Of all the people involved in this steal, only Willi Clifford could run to the law. And she could only complain about Charles Adam Roland. Would Roland tell her I’d taken the money? That would be the crux of it.
    If he did, the law would come for me, but he’d be implicated. They might not find me. I’d rather they didn’t even have a reason to look for me. But Roland probably wouldn’t squeal on me to the law. What he would probably do is milk Willi of a few more dollars, and take off, himself.
    And here was another angle I was overlooking: would Willi run to the law? Willi was a member of a very prominent Eastern family. And a Lesbian. Would she risk the possibility of that being uncovered in an investigation? I doubted it like hell. I was probably safe from Willi. Which left the Rolands, who’d undoubtedly be miffed about my steal but hardly in a position to go to the law. I didn’t fear them any other way.
    I could grab the boodle and leave town and only the Rolands would know I had the money. If I could get my hands on the money. I couldn’t plan that until I learned how the money was to be transferred. But a gun could play a big part in that. And I had a gun.
    The big cars moved by, a siren wailed a few blocks down. Beyond the apartment building, I could see the lights of the city below. I turned on the radio and got a Long Beach platter program. I was still listening to it when Roland’s Cad slid in toward the curb a half block down. It was a green curb zone, which meant fifteen minutes of parking. He was probably only going to see her to the door.
    He couldn’t have taken her any further than the elevator. He was out in a couple minutes and hurrying toward his car. He moved like a man who had an engagement.
    He had a hundred and ninety horses under his hood. I had about ninety. That didn’t matter, in traffic, until we’d be stopped by a light. Then he’d be halfway into the next block before the Chev’s clutch took hold. In most towns a Cad’s rudder tail-lights are distinctive enough to make the car easy to spot. In this town there were too many Cads.
    But I stayed with him as he cut down to Santa Monica Boulevard and headed west on that toward the ocean. He really moved on Santa Monica. There were a couple times he made a light