Mickey Spillane - [Mike Hammer 13] Read Online Free Page B

“I cleaned up in here,” Velda said. “Then I kept it clean.”
    “Yes,” I told her. “I could tell.”
    “How?” she asked me with a verbal smirk.
    “The toilet seat was down,” I said.
    She started to laugh and when she stopped her eyes did that thing that always unnerved me somehow. It was something only a woman could do and she seemed to know just when to do it.
    Her voice was low and throaty, her words soft and inviting. She let the look linger a few seconds longer, knowing what it was doing to me, then she husked, “How are you going to thank me, Mike?”
    I could time a reaction, too. I knew what she wanted and what she expected me to tell her, but this was my time now and she needed something so utterly unexpected it would rock her down to her socks. It was going to rock me just as well, and for a brief second, I hoped I wasn’t hopping in over my head . . . but that moment passed and the time was right now. I reached out and took both of her hands in mine. I could feel the strength and warmth and felt a little bit of a tremor too.
    Very quietly I said to her, “You know what happened to me, doll. I’m all shot up and not worth a damn thing. People are going to be looking for me to make sure I’m out of it for good. Economically I’m a bad risk, though that’s not a totally hopeless situation as long as I can stay alive, and believe me, that last part’s not going to be easy.”
    Her frown was back, bewilderment clouded her eyes like she was trying to solve some strange riddle, one that had no good answer.
    I took one hand away from hers, then reached up to stroke that lovely auburn hair that still rolled under at her shoulders in a soft pageboy. I said, “I want to marry you, kitten. I think I’ve always wanted to since you walked into my office looking for a job.”
    The way her hands squeezed mine told me she had had that same wanting too. Sheer surprise still showed in her eyes at having heard the totally unexpected. There was joy too, but subdued, as if she were reading my mind. “That was the good news,” she said, then waited patiently for my answer.
    An odd grunt came up into my throat. “We have a little longer to wait,” I said.
    “Why?”
    “Because I have to finish something.”
    “Marcos Dooley?”
    I nodded. “Pat tell you?”
    “Everything.”
    “What do you want me to do, Velda?”
    Without any hesitation at all, she said, “Finish it, Mike. Unless you do you won’t be any good at all.”
     
    Pat had made the way easy for me. A plainclothesman I recognized met me at Bellevue Hospital and said with a grin, “You sure are like a bad penny. Everything has been nice and quiet and now you show up again.”
    “Maybe I can hold it down this time.” I grinned back. “How’s Dooley doing?”
    “Dying fast, Mike. If he hadn’t known you were coming in he would’ve been gone by now.”
    We got on the elevator and the cop pushed the button to our floor. “Who’s got him under guard?” I asked him.
    “The usual,” he told me, then explained, “The DA’s office has a big interest in him, but his doctor won’t let them question him yet.”
    “The DA trying to get a fix on the Ponti bunch?”
    “You got it.”
    “He say anything yet?”
    “No. He just asked for you.”
    I shrugged as the car stopped and the door opened. “He knew Pat as well as he did me.”
    “He just asked for you, though.”
    “Who’s on the door?”
    “Nobody from the DA’s squad.”
    When we turned the corner I saw the pair of uniforms flanking the entrance. The taller one rocked back and forth on his heels while his partner did a slow, steady survey of the corridor. They spotted us, then parted slightly to let us through. The plainclothes dick stopped at the door and motioned for me to go ahead in.
    “You’re not coming?” I asked him.
    “He won’t talk if there’s anyone else around.”
    “The place wired?”
    “No.”
    “How come?”
    The cop let out a little laugh.