Free April Evil by John D. MacDonald Page A

a bar.
    This trip was different. This trip was a change in routine. A thick-set man with white hair and a thin high voice had given him the instructions in person. That, in itself, was a departure.
    “You know Harry Mullin?”
    “I know of him.”
    “Know he crashed out?”
    “I read about it.”
    “He’s got good connections. He’s got something lined up. He wants a box man and a gun. He asked for the Ace for the box. You’re the gun.”
    “It’s not my line.”
    “It was your line once.”
    “It didn’t work out.”
    “You’re going into it again, one more time.”
    “Okay. Why the pressure?”
    “No pressure. What we know about what Mullin has lined up, it sounds sour. Anyway, the word is that it has to go sour, not for Mullin but for the Ace. The Ace got loose too easy. Nobody wondered too much about it. Now we know.”
    “He made a little trade?”
    “A couple of little trades. We just bought us a new assistant D.A. out there, and he had the word on it. It would be hard to pick off the Ace, as a straight deal. So it goes this way. You go in on it as the gun. Let the Ace do the box work before you take him. Don’t tip Mullin in advance because he’s nervous. You can tell him afterward, if you have to.”
    “I’d like it better if it was both of them.”
    “Nobody has anything against Mullin.”
    “Has anybody got anything for him, particularly?”
    “I see what you mean, kid. But don’t get ape sweat. Mullin is nervous, but they couldn’t jar anything out of him.”
    “If I decide to make it both, would there be a big kickback?”
    “Not too much. Riverio might yelp, but not loud. Riverio thought the gun ought to come out of another area, and that gives us the chance to use you.”
    “Does Mullin know I’m in?”
    “And the Ace does too.”
    “No squawk?”
    “Nothing I heard of. It’s a place called Flamingo, Florida. On the west coast. Get down there by April 12th or 13th. Check the book in the Chamber of Commerce. There’ll be a message there for you.”
    “What’s their deal?”
    “All I know is Riverio said it sounded sour to him. It could even be a bank. Mullin likes banks.”
    “If it’s a bank, I’ll take both of them before it starts.”
    “Use your judgment.”
    “I don’t want any part of banks.”
    “They’ll be strangers in town, and keeping their heads down, so it ought to be easy.”
    “Don’t pay me like it was easy.”
    “It will be fat pay.”
    “Won’t the Ace be jumpy?”
    “He’s been loose for two years. He’s stopped worrying by now. You better wait and see how they plan to score. It might be a good thing. You might make out.”
    “No banks.”
    “Then it would probably have to be both.”
    “Mullin is pretty heavy right now.”
    “There’s that, too. But he’s smart enough to stay off the streets.”
    “I haven’t seen the Ace in five years. We didn’t get along.”
    “Doesn’t that make it easier?”
    “Maybe.”
    Ronnie opened the car door and got out. The car drove away. Ronnie watched the tail-lights through light snow, until the car turned a corner. Then he turned his overcoat collar up and started walking the ten blocks to the Broad Street Station in Philadelphia.
    Now he walked down Bay Avenue in Flamingo in holiday mood. This one pleased him. He was glad it had worked out this way. It would be a special treat to be with the Ace and Mullin, knowing he was going to take both of them. He’d known he was going to take the pair of them as soon as it had been explained to him. Maybe they knew it too, the ones who decided policy. Taking both would be the safe way in the long run. Safer than any chance of being seen with Mullin. It would be nice to sit and chat and eat together and drink together and smile and tell stories and know every minute that those were their last few hours on earth. They wouldn’t know it. They’d feel safe with him.
    He remembered the first of the two women. It had been just like that. Some drinks