Have Gat—Will Travel Read Online Free Page B

divan. I'd half expected a naked woman running around in there, but she was fully clothed — as fully clothed as she could be in that dress. Her lipstick was smeared, that was all.
    Most of the kids were on their feet now, near me. They looked at me, then watched Chuck, waiting for the word. Chuck stepped toward me with his hand curling into a fist.
    "I wouldn't," I said. My hand was still on the gun in my coat pocket, and with the other hand I flipped back the lapel of my coat, let him see the empty holster.
    He stopped fast, glanced at my pocket, then at the kids. Finally he jerked his head toward the room behind him and said to me, "Get in here." He backed into the room and I followed him, slamming the door shut behind me.
    He asked me, "What's this chatter?"
    "You know what it is. The Franklin girl — Pam. You said you didn't know her. I know you did."
    He looked at the blonde, "Beat it, Lucille."
    "Chuckie! Well, I like that. I sure like that! Ain't I your girl? Huh, Chuckie?" This gal made me slightly ill, but a jealous blonde might help. She kept going, "You got nothin' you don't want me to hear, do you?"
    "I told you to beat it," he said.
    "What's the matter, Chuck?" I asked him. "She right? Maybe you don't want her to hear this."
    He shrugged, staring at me.
    "Elysian Park," I said. He just kept looking at me. "Picnic on the sixteenth. That's one time."
    "So I saw her. So what? You think I'm about to say so to a lousy slewfoot when there's so much heat in the papers? I got my reasons, and they're not your business."
    "I know your reasons. You read the papers, Chuck, so you know about the young guy that got killed." I grinned. "Only he didn't get killed. He's in the hospital. Talking."
    All that happened was that he paused a moment, then seemed to get angrier. "I don't know what you're driving at."
    The blonde, Lucille, stood near us now. "You stupid man," she twanged. "You're talking about the girl that got raped." She said it like two words: rape-ed. "My golly, why you askin' Chuckie for? Why'n't you ask me already?"
    Her hands were on her hips, and if she had still been wearing her shoulder bag, she'd have been quite a sight; but the bag was on the couch. Even so, she was something to see.
    "What does that mean?" I said.
    "I'm not so dumb; you're bullyin' Chuckie about it, ain't you? Well, Chuckie and me, we was together last night. Ain't that right, honey?"
    He hesitated, then said, "That's right, sweetheart." He looked at me. "You satisfied? Or do you want to land on your butt again?" Lucille giggled.
    If Lucille were telling the truth, Chuck had a tasty alibi — but I was almost sure she was lying. For one thing, Samson had told me Chuck couldn't account for his time between eight and ten.
    I said, "How, about, say, from eight to ten last night?"
    "Oh, stop it, snooper. I'm gonna —"
    He didn't get to tell me what he was going to do, because Lucille said, "Eight to ten? Six to twelve, you mean." She squeezed Chuck's arm and said, "Chuckie was with me, I told ya." She glared at me with a very unpleasant look on her painted face. "You want details already?"
    Chuck opened the door and jerked his head. Half a dozen of the young guys walked over and stood in the doorway. I suddenly felt hemmed in, even with the gun in my pocket. I had a hunch I was leaving, one way or another — but I wanted to talk to the blonde. Alone. I wanted to ask her more about last night, and a fat roll of dollars might help her tell the truth. She acted like a gal you could buy almost anything from.
    Chuck said, "Out, Slewfoot." Then he turned and spoke to the kids, "You want to take him, pallies?" The nasty rumble from them meant they'd like that very much.
    While Chuck's back was to me, I caught the platinum blonde's eye, jerked my head toward the front of the house. Her eyes got puzzled. I turned as Chuck grabbed my arm and yanked me toward the door, toward the kids waiting for me.
    They were waiting — and ready. I