Call in the Feds. Gordon Landsborough

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СКАЧАТЬ kept his eyes down the road. He said, “Sure, you know how it is. You don’t know how far you’ve gone until it’s got a bit late to do anything.”

      Lanny said, “Now tell me what all this adds up to?” And then he knew he was speaking to an honest cop, even though he had taken softeners.

      For Pedersen said, impatiently, “I know what I’ve done, and I’m prepared to take what comes for it. Not that I’ve got in deep. But I keep thinking, and I don’t reckon to a lot of no-goods and politicians running a police force. I’d like to see the place cleaned up. And I reckon you’re the man that can do it, and wants to do it after that Alastair Myrtle business.”

      He looked round. No one was near. “I’ll give you a tip, captain. Watch your step. They know you’re dangerous, because you can’t be bought. But these grafters are making too much dough out of Freshwater, and they won’t let a police captain stand in the way. You’ll have to go, captain, and the grape vine says they’ve started moving in on you already.”

      Lanny kept watching that fresh, pink face, and Pedersen all the time kept his eyes up the road.

      He asked, “How do you know all this? And what do they intend to do?”

      Pedersen shrugged. “There are whispers, that’s all. Nothing you can pin anyone down to, but they add up, all the same. Just things some of our no-good cops let fall when someone mentions your name. I guess a whole parcel of Freshwater cops is in Boss Myrtle’s pocket.”

      “Yeah,” Lanny growled. “And don’t I know it.”

      He was thinking of Alastair Myrtle, Boss Myrtle’s brother. Thinking of what happened less than a week ago.

      He’d been cruising in a squad car with Sergeant Aubie Gillis and a couple of patrolmen down town. They’d seen a couple of big cars parked down the Waterway, and Lanny recognized the licence plate of one of them. Boss Myrtle’s own car.

      The cars were so big, there was no room to pass, and Lanny had got out to find the drivers. They were in back of Jules Stedmann’s ramshackle old shop—Stedmann the gunsmith who had offered to supply arms to the newly-formed Freshwater Vigilance Committee. And they were beating the daylights out of him.

      Jules wasn’t pretty, with his face bruised and puffy and leaking blood out of his nose and corners of his mouth. A couple of Boss Myrtle’s over-fed apes were holding him, while Alastair Myrtle worked on him with a piece of rubber.

      He was beating old Jules across the face, and he wore his usual expression of grim good humour. He was a fine-built man, erect and military, with a big, handsome brown face, and a neatly waxed moustache; his clothes were sporty and the best that a New York tailor could supply.

      Lanny came out with his gun, and Aubie Gillis and a patrolman who had followed in case someone had to be booked, came out with theirs, too.

      Alastair Myrtle looked across with amusement and casually gave old Jules another blow across the ear. Jules sagged as if that last blow had been too much for his powers of resistance.

      Lanny rapped, “Do that again. Myrtle, and you won’t use your arm for a month.”

      Myrtle for answer threw the hose on to the floor and said, “And you’re not kidding! Okay, I won’t take you up on it. We’ll go now, boys. C’mon.”

      He found Lanny behind a gun blocking his way. Jules found strength in his legs again and stood up. He looked a wreck. Alastair looked down at the gun as though there was a joke attached to it. He said, “Now, captain, that doesn’t look friendly.”

      Lanny’s voice clipped, “Who says I feel friendly, seeing you beating up an old guy like that? I’m gonna book you, so get moving out to the car.”

      Two more apes came in from the workroom that overhung the creek. One was carrying a shotgun with a splintered stock. Lanny thought: So that’s it. They’re wrecking the place. They don’t want an armed Vigilance Committee here in Freshwater.

      But Alastair Myrtle didn’t turn a hair. He said, “My lawyer will want to know the charge, so let’s be knowing it now.”

      Lanny’s eyes glinted. He’d had truck with Boss Myrtle’s brother before. “I’m booking you on a charge of assault.”

      Alastair Myrtle turned with infinite leisure, surveyed old Jules and then looked at his companions. He said, with an air of surprise, “Now, that beats everything. Nobody’s been assaulted here, has there?”

      His apes relaxed into confident grins and shuffled with awkward good-humour while they shook their heads. Jules didn’t say anything. Alastair Myrtle spoke to him directly.

      “You don’t say anything, Stedmann. But you don’t remember seeing anyone assaulted, do you? Better think carefully before you answer.” The voice was pleasant, but there was a leavening of significance in the tone, and Jules got it first time.

      He lifted his head tiredly. “No,” he said. “Nobody ain’t bin beat up that I remember. Ain’t bin no assault, captain....”

      He said it even though he could hardly get the words through his bruised mouth, and then he sagged again and passed out.

      Lanny said. “Intimidation of a witness, huh? Well, you’re still going through on a charge of assault, Myrtle. Three witnesses saw you beating up this old man—me and my men. We don’t need Stedmann’s corroboration. Now, get moving!”

      Alastair Myrtle shrugged resignedly, and without any apparent loss of equanimity he went out to the police car.

      An hour later Lanny was summoned to the police chief’s office. The chief, an old man brought up in the school of crooked Tammany politics, announced abruptly, “You’d better withdraw your charge against Alastair Myrtle, captain.”

      “Why?” Lanny’s narrowed eyes were hostile.

      The chief leaned forward heavily. “Because you might as well. You’ll never make it stick. There’s only your word against half a dozen witnesses who’re saying you’ve been imagining things.”

      “Myrtle and his apes?” Then softly, because he knew the answer—“But what about Sergeant Gillis and the patrolmen? They saw as much as I did.”

      The chief looked at a lot of things around the room and then suddenly his eyes came back and met his subordinate’s. Harshly he said, “They tell me they never saw a thing. Stedmann says he fell down the stairs and some customers were giving him treatment when you came in. Gillis says all they saw was Stedmann being supported by Myrtle’s men. So your charge wouldn’t stick, captain.”

      “I get it.” Lanny rose slowly. He looked very big silhouetted against the wide window that overlooked the bay. He said, “Myrtle—or his brother—have got at my men.”

      The chief said, unpleasantly, “Better be careful what you say, captain.”

      Lanny put his hands on the desk, and leaned forward so that his hard grey eyes were within inches of his chief’s. His voice had the bite of a hand saw. “Chief, you know it as well as I do. They’ve been got at. And it isn’t the first time Boss Myrtle’s racketeers have twisted the law as they wanted it. This town’s sick of graft and corruption and they won’t stand for much more. They think so little of Freshwater police СКАЧАТЬ