A Killer is Loose Read Online Free Page A

while. The Luger was banging against my hip and beginning to chafe, what with all this fast walking and the sweat. Up ahead on the far corner by the railroad tracks was Jake’s Place. Jake Halloran owned the place and he had seen the Luger and wanted to buy it. Well, maybe I should sell it to him. We’d have a little money, anyway, enough to stock up on some food. I didn’t feel much like holding up a gas station any more, not much like anything. And now this guy.
    A car stopped by the curb and somebody called my name: “Steve!”
    It was Betty Graham.
    I went over to the car. The guy in the suit stood there watching, then he looked down the street and just stood there.
    “Stevie, Stevie!” she said. “You get your tail right over to the hospital.”
    “What?”
    “It’s happening,” she said. “Ruby called me over and she was having pains and I took her to the hospital and the doc says any time. She told me you might be at Jake’s—that’s where you used to hang out, anyway. What a break, my finding you!”
    “The baby,” I said.
    “Get over there, Steve. Ruby’s worried about you.”
    “Yes.”
    “Shall I drive you over, Steve?”
    “No, I’ll walk. It isn’t far, only a couple blocks.”
    She grinned behind the wheel of her old blue coupé. She was still in the shorts and sweater and her red hair was in damp ringlets across her forehead. She looked over my shoulder where I leaned on the door of her car and whispered, “Who’s that guy there? He with you?”
    “I don’t know,” I said. “Listen. All right. I’ll get right over there. Is Ruby all right?”
    “Sure. She’s fine.” Betty frowned. “Only she’s worried about you, Steve. She wouldn’t tell me what, but she’s plenty worried. Everything all right, Steve?”
    “Sure,” I said. “Everything’s fine. You go ahead now. I’ll get right on over there.” I backed away from the car. “And thanks, Betty. Thanks for taking care of Ruby.”
    “Forget it.” She grinned, slapped the car in gear, shot another look at the guy who still stood waiting, and drove off.
    “Baby, huh?” he said.
    “Yeah.”
    “That’s great, pal.”
    “I got to get right over there.”
    “Sure, pal. Sure. Here’s a place, down here. Let’s have that drink.” He nudged me and we walked along toward Jake’s Place. I could use a drink. Maybe that was his way of saying thanks, or something. The hell with it. Anyway, it would give me a chance to sell the gun, if Jake still wanted it. I was pretty sure he did. Then I’d get on over there to the hospital with our twenty-five or thirty bucks. It was like a thick black cloud inside me, empty and sick and black. Lost, that was it; lost and lost and lost. Like being way up there in the sky in a goldfish bowl with Ruby down here calling for me and no way to get to her with any good. Like when you need a drink of water, or you’ll die, and all the taps run dry. You crazy bastard, I thought, go sell the gun and get a drink and eat a hamburg and get the hell over to the hospital and shut your face.
    The world hasn’t changed, or ended, I thought. It’s just you’re hungry and broke and you need a job and things are a little tough right now, so quit knocking yourself just because you’re out of gas. So your wife’s going to have a baby, so what? That’s what women are made for, having babies. Almost every one of them has a baby sometime or other. You’ve got the house, haven’t you? Well, all right, so the bank’s got the house, but you’re living in it, aren’t you? You’ll pay off the bank and everything will be fine. What’s this about not letting them leave the hospital until the bill’s paid? Now, that’s a great one, isn’t it? Well, we’ll pay the bill, somehow. There’s a way. There’s always a way.
    “Something bothering you, pal?”
    I had forgotten about him. He was still with me. We were in front of Jake’s now.
    “No,” I said. “I’m all right. I got to go in