The Mike Hammer Collection - Mickey Spillane [227]
“Where’s Grange, Mallory?”
“The shed.” He tried to plead with me not to hit him, but I cracked him one anyway.
“Where’s the Cook girl?”
No answer. I reached for my rod and cradled it in my hand.
“Look at me, Mallory.”
His eyes opened halfway. “My hand hurts. Answer me or I use this on you. Maybe you won’t live through it. Where’s the Cook girl?”
“Nobody else. Grange . . . is the . . . only one.”
“You’re lying, Mallory.”
“No . . . just Grange.”
I couldn’t doubt but what he was telling the truth. After what I gave him he was ready to spill his guts. But that still didn’t account for Cook. “Okay, who does have her then?”
Blood bubbled out of his mouth from his split gums. “Don’t know her.”
“She was Grange’s alibi, Mallory. She was with the Cook dame the night York was butchered. She would have given Grange an out.”
His eyes came open all the way. “She’s a bitch,” he mouthed. “She doesn’t deserve an alibi. They kidnapped my kid, that’s what they did!”
“And you kidnapped him back . . . fourteen years later.”
“He was mine, wasn’t he? He didn’t belong to York.”
I gave it to him slowly. “You didn’t really want him, did you? You didn’t give a damn about the kid. All you wanted was to get even with York. Wasn’t that it?”
Mallory turned his head to one side. “Answer me, damn you!”
“Yes.”
“Who killed York?”
I waited for his answer. I had to be sure I was right. This was one time I had to be sure. “It . . . it wasn’t me.”
I raised the gun and laid the barrel against his forehead. Mallory was staring into the mouth of hell. “Lie to me, Mallory,” I said, “and I’ll shoot you in the belly, then shoot you again a little higher. Not where you’ll die quick, but where you’ll wish you did. Say it was you and you die fast . . . like you don’t deserve. Say it wasn’t you and I may believe you and I may not . . . only don’t lie to me because I know who killed York.”
Once more his eyes met mine, showing pain and terror. “It . . . wasn’t me. No, it wasn’t me. You’ve got to believe that.” I let the gun stay where it was, right against his forehead. “I didn’t even know he was dead. It was Grange I wanted.”
Even with his shattered mouth the words were coming freely as he begged for his life. “I got the news clipping in the mail. The one about the trouble in the hospital. There was no signature, but the letter said that Grange was Rita Cambell and she was a big shot now and if I kidnapped the kid, instead of ransom I could get positive information from York that his kid was my son. I wouldn’t have snatched him if it wasn’t so easy. The letter said the watchman on the gate would be drugged and the door to the house open on a certain night. All I had to do to get the kid was go in after him. I was still pretty mad at York and the letter made it worse. I wanted Myra Grange more than the old man, that’s why when those crazy lugs I sent after the kid lost him I made a try for her. I followed her from her house to another place then waited for her to come out before I grabbed her. She was in there when York was killed and I was waiting outside. Honest, I didn’t kill him. She didn’t know who I was until I told her. Ever since that time when York stole my kid I used the name Nelson. She started to fight with me in the car and hit me over the head with the heel of her shoes. While I was still dizzy she beat it and got in her car and scrammed. I chased her and forced her off the road by the river and she went in. I thought she was dead . . .”
The footsteps coming up the stairs stopped him. I whipped around and sent a shot crashing through the door. Somebody swore and yelled for reinforcements. I prodded Mallory with the tip of the rod. “The window and be quick.”
He didn’t need any urging. The gun in his back was good incentive. That damn warning trip. Either it went