I put bullets in all those bastards.

  Then I leaped for the dining room archway, fumbling in my garter-belt for one of the bullet clips I’d slipped in there. I inserted it with shaking fingers, hoping and praying that someone wouldn’t come around the archway corner and find me with an empty gun.

  No such luck.

  In fact, two of the Gallino killers stepped into the dining room. They saw the bodyguard who had risen to his feet at the sound of the shooting in the front hall and was framed against the window behind him.

  The Tommy guns just about cut him in half.

  My automatic clip clicked into place. Just in time. I was off to one side, having stepped behind the wall of the archway. The hit men hadn’t seen me yet.

  I shot at such close range I couldn’t possibly have missed. The hit men turned surprised faces in my direction but already their eyes were rolling up in their sockets as my bullets cut into them.

  They fell and lay there.

  I turned and stared at the bodyguard. He was dead. There was nothing I or anyone else could do for him.

  Sliding through the archway with the Colt automatic up and ready to fire, I saw two dead bodies just inside the doorway. I had shot better than I knew. I paused a moment, listening.

  There wasn’t a sound anywhere. Had we polished off all the hit men? It didn’t seem possible. Everything had happened so fast I hadn’t been able to keep track.

  I moved into the living room. The bodyguard I had last seen in here alive was crumpled near a front window. Evidently he had stopped some lead when those four killers were moving toward the house, firing up at my window. They must have seen him staring and had given him a burst too.

  Zooie Arretino was moaning. I headed toward him, bent down to loosen the tourniquet. His eyelids lifted and he stared at me out of glassy eyes.

  “I don’t hear nothin’,” he whispered.

  “They’re all dead.”

  He grunted, then eyed me sharply. “Eddie? Benny?”

  “They your bodyguards?”

  When he nodded I muttered, “They’re gone too. Caught bullets from Gallino’s boys.”

  His eyebrows arched and he drew a deep breath. “Who got the hit men then? You?”

  “Most of them, if not all. Your boys couldn’t shoot worth a damn. There, that ought to do it, for a time. I have to bandage that arm of yours. Towels in the bathroom?”

  When he nodded I ran upstairs and snatched up a couple of big Cannons, then ran back downstairs to rip open his pajamas and wrap the towels around him. It was a crude job but it was the best I could do under the circumstances.

  I lifted him to his feet. He swayed. He had lost some blood and the pain was pretty bad, but he nodded when I asked him if he could negotiate under his own power. After we had dressed, we moved out of the house—me with the Gold Cup in my hand just in case I had missed somebody. It was only an hour or so past dawn but time didn’t mean anything to me except that I had to get Zooie Arretino to N.Y.M.P.H.O. before very long. I wanted a doctor to look at him, fix his arm.

  I led the way to my Volks, opened the door, and watched him get in. I ran around to the other side of the car and slid behind the wheel.

  As I turned the ignition key I said, “I hope you’ve learned your lesson. You’re a dead man if I leave you on your own. You’re safe with N.Y.M.P.H.O. We already have Johnny Orrendo in custody.”

  He stared straight ahead for a few seconds, scowling. I knew what I was asking of him. I wanted him to testify against The Family. He had taken the omerta, the blood oath, and it meant death for him to do what I asked. But hell! His just being alive meant death with Gabbo Gallino sending hit men to silence his tongue forever.

  He was thinking of all this sitting there. I drove without speaking, letting him ponder. I didn’t want to say anything to influence his judgment. Not yet anyhow. His decision had to come from his own head, his own heart.

  “Nothing much else I can do, is there?” There was bitterness in his voice, a realization that he had come to the end of his trail.

  No matter what he did, Gallino was out to get him. The only way he could save his skin was to do what I asked.

  I finally murmured, “You’ll be helping the Mafia in a way, you know. You’re exposing Gallino for the bastard he is. What he’s done won’t sit so well with the other capo di tutti capi. They’ll want revenge on him the way you do.”

  “Yeah, but they would be satisfied with some bullets through his gut. They’d want him dead not sent to jail where he could dream up other schemes.”

  “Who says I don’t?”

  He swiveled around and stared at me. “You don’t want him arrested?”

  “I want him dead, same as you and the other Family bosses do.”

  He let out his breath in a long sigh. “If only I could trust you.” He chuckled. “I got no other course, do I? With this bum arm, I’m out of action for a while.”

  Zooie waited, then stared at me again. “I guess I owe you for that beating I gave you too. I—I’m sorry about that. I shouldn’t have done it. But how was I to know that Gabbo would turn on us boys? It didn’t make sense.”

  “Forget it.”

  “You don’t hold no grudge?”

  “I got you out alive, which was what I started out to do. All I’m asking is that you and Orrendo put your heads together and figure out some way I can get at Gabbo Gallino.”

  He laughed and winced, his hand going to his arm. “I almost feel sorry for Gabbo, with you after him. If it hadn’t been for you, I wouldn’t be alive now.”

  “You realize that, do you?”

  “You got all them hit guys. Or mostly all of them, I didn’t count. Eddie and Benny are dead. I’m wounded. I’d never have been able to drop the ones you did.”

  “It’s my job.”

  He nodded. “That’s why I almost pity Gallino. You really mean to kill him, don’t you?”

  “As dead as a door-nail”

  Neither of us said anything else on the ride to the N.Y.M.P.H.O. compound. The pain in his arm kept Zooie quiet—I could see beads of perspiration on his forehead—and I was too busy trying to think up ways and means to put an end to Gabbo Gallino’s career to feel much like yakking.

  When I swung through the guarded entrance-way into the compound, waving a hand at the uniformed men on duty, Zooie stared around him.

  “It’s like a goddamn fort, this place. Or an army barracks.”

  “We’re in a war—with your side.”

  “If the other agents can fight like you, I pity us.”

  The first order of the day, after I’d gotten Zooie out of the car and into an easy chair, was to send for a doctor. I loosened his tourniquet and made him as comfortable as I could with a pot of steaming coffee and a pack of cigarettes, then went to the office of the head agent where I made phone calls to Avery King and Mark Condon.

  I reported my failure with Tommy Donetto and my success with Zooie to Avery King. The boss-man was highly pleased and even unbent a little to compliment me. I explained my plan of action to get Zooie Arretino and Johnny Orrendo to cooperate with me in setting Gabbo Gallino up for the kill.

  “Don’t you think we ought to arrest Gallino?” wondered my boss-man

  “Sure, if you say so. But he’s going to resist.”

  “What makes you so sure? Oh …”

  “He’s better off dead, Chief. You know that and so do I. If he stays alive there’ll be a big gangland war. We don’t want that because honest citizens would get killed too. Not to speak of the cops who may be on the receiving end of gangland bullets.”

  “Okay, okay. It’s your case. But no outright murder.”

  “I kill only in self defense.”

  Mark Condon was more enthusiastic. “You outdid yourself this time, Cherry. I honest to God don’t know how you do it. But now that you’ve got Orrendo and Arretino in your pretty little hands, can you make them cooperate?”

  “I can only hope.”

  “Keep in touch. Let me know what has to be done.”

  By the time I was finished on the phone, the doctor was working on Zooie. There is a small hospital as part of the N.Y.M.P.H.O. compound. I found Zooie stripped to the waist and under sedation on a table as the doc worked on him. He brought out a bullet and showed it to me.

  “He’ll be all right with a little rest. The pain of the wound was what was getting to him. I recommend a couple of days in bed.”

  “He can talk, can’t he?”

  “Oh, yes, when he comes out of the sedation I gave him. Let him sleep it off, though.”

  I went and ate breakfast while they took Zooie to a room and put him to bed. Then I paid a visit to Johnny Orrendo who was in one of the cottages that formed part of the compound.

  He was living the life of Riley. His breakfast had been served to him and he was finishing the coffee, clad in brightly striped pajamas and a warm bathrobe. He seemed surprised to see me.

  “Thought you were on duty or whatever it is you call it.”

  “I was. Gabbo Gallino got your buddy Donetto and came damn close to getting Zooie as well.”

  I gave him a brief account of my night’s activities. He was all excited, he just couldn’t believe Gallino had turned on his think tank members. Well, Zooie Arretino hadn’t been able to believe it either. He walked around the room, slapping his forehead and shaking his head.

  “How many of his hit men you say you got?”

  I shrugged. “I didn’t count. Seven or eight. Maybe more. Who cares? I got them. And I convinced Zooie that Gallino is out to double-cross the lot of you. He’s going to cooperate with me.”

  “Zooie said that?”

  “He did. He’s a dead man if we turn him loose. So are you, Johnny. The only thing you can do to save your hide is work with me. You’re supposed to have brains, I want you to use them to help yourself. Tell me how I can get to Gallino and you’re safe.”

  “I’ll want to talk to Zooie about this.”

  “And so you shall, as soon as he’s able. He caught a slug in his arm, remember.”

  Orrendo nodded gloomily.

  I started yawning and remembered I’d been up all night, and on the go for most of that time. My only rest had come when I’d been flat on my back getting belted by Arretino. I told Johnny Orrendo to stay put, then went to find an empty bed.

  I didn’t bother to undress. I just lay down in my rumpled clothes and fell asleep. It was dark when I woke up.

  A quarter past eight at night. I heard my stomach complain and after dousing my face with cold water and putting up my hair, I went to the commissary where they were still serving prime ribs of beef and baked potatoes. I wolfed the food ravenously, even had some cheese cake with cherries on it, and four cups of coffee. I smoked a couple of Virginia Slims while I drank the coffee and did some heavy thinking.

  One way or another, I had to get Zooie Arretino and Johnny Orrendo to work with me. I felt that I had convinced Zooie but I was not at all certain of Johnny. I had given him a good beating but the effects had mostly worn off and he had seemed a bit reluctant to cooperate when I had gone to see him.

  The best thing to do was put them together, let them talk it out. I felt that Zooie would change Orrendo’s mind if it needed changing.

  I went to see Zooie. He was sitting up in bed looking none the worse for his experience. His arm was bandaged and in a sling but he waved his free hand and grinned at me.

  “The service couldn’t be better,” he admitted.

  “I’m glad to hear it and to see you’re awake now and paying attention to things. I’ve just been with Johnny Orrendo. I want you to talk to him, Zooie, convince him that if he doesn’t do what I ask, he hasn’t the chance of a snowball in Hell where Gallino’s concerned.”

  He nodded heavily. “Yeah, I know. But whether I can talk him into playing ball with us is something I can’t tell.”

  “Make the effort. It’s all I ask.”

  I went and got Orrendo who was dressed by this time. He came with me agreeably enough, he wanted to see Zooie himself. When he stepped into the room he halted, obviously surprised to see his think tank mate with the bandages and sling despite the fact that I had told him Zooie had been wounded.

  Zooie said, touching his bad arm, “Gabbo’s boys did this to me, Johnny. He sent about ten hit men to rub out me, Eddie, and Benny. They got Eddie and Benny. If it hadn’t been for Cherry here, I wouldn’t be alive now.”

  He paused and squinted up at Orrendo. “You know they got Tommy, don’t you?”

  Orrendo nodded gloomily. “If it was Gabbo and not some of her pals.” He jerked his thumb at me.

  Zooie chuckled. “You don’t think she’d have killed ten N.Y.M.P.H.O. agents, do you? And she killed them, Johnny. I saw her gun down some of them, heard her finish off the others. Oh, they were Gabbo’s men all right. I even knew one or two of them.”

  Johnny sat down. Me? I propped my back against the wall and waited.

  Zooie began talking. He was quiet about it without getting dramatic. He pointed out that they were marked men, that once N.Y.M.P.H.O. let them go, Gallino would rub them out.

  Orrendo looked a little startled at that and turned his eyes toward me. “You ain’t gonna send us outta here, are you? Not knowing that Gallino may—I say, may—send more men to gun us down?”

  He looked pale and worried.

  I shrugged. “I can’t keep you here, you know that. I have to let you go unless you decide to cooperate with us. Then I can hold you legally as material witnesses.”

  I grinned wolfishly. “Otherwise, I damn well have to push you out—to take your chances. Why, you might even decide to sue us for false imprisonment or kidnapping or something like that.”

  “I’d never do anything like that.”

  I shrugged. “We just can’t take the chance.”

  Zooie said, “Don’t be a damn fool, Johnny. I tell you, Gabbo’s after us. He don’t dare let us live to spill what we know to the other Family bosses.”

  Orrendo nodded. “Yeah. I can see that all right.”

  “Then why not join forces with us?” I asked.

  He got up and paced the floor, very worried and anxious. After a few moments he said, “I just can’t bring myself to believe that Gabbo would do such a thing.”

  Zooie laughed. “Neither could I. So I tied Cherry up on a bed and was using a belt on her to get her to tell me the truth. Then the shooting started.”

  He made a face, then went on. “A good thing I didn’t tie her too tightly or I wouldn’t be here. Wasn’t for her, as I keep saying, I’d be a dead man right now.”

  Johnny sat down heavily, gripping the arms of the easy chair and staring at the wall. I didn’t say anything, neither did Zooie. We both realized that Johnny Orrendo had to make his own decision. We could argue and point out reasons for joining us but he had to see this in his own mind, clearly and without doubt.

  Finally he sighed and nodded. “Okay, okay. You both make sense. I wouldn’t have thought it of Gabbo—”

  “Why not?” I snapped. “You know he double-crossed his other bosses when he set up that think tank racket. What makes you think he wouldn’t double-cross you when he felt you were losing your usefulness? He wouldn’t dare let any of you live once he decided that. The proof of that pudding is the fact that he killed Tommy and damn near killed Zooie. If you hadn’t been holed up here where I’d brought you, you’d probably be dead right now too.”

  Johnny sighed. “What do you want from me?”

  I smiled at him. “You boys are brains. Or you have that reputation at least. I want Gallino dead. So do you. Now tell me, how do I go about it?”

  Johnny Orrendo stared. “There’s no way. He never makes the same move twice. He always travels a different way each time, in a different car. He always takes different bodyguards with him and never tells them where he’s bound until they’re on their way so no word can leak out which way he’s going.

  “If you’re thinking of some sort of ambush, forget it.”

  Zooie nodded gloomily. “He’s right. Gabbo Gallino is one careful guy. I don’t see any way of trapping him.”

  “Neither do I.”

  I went over and sat on the edge of the bed.

  “Not at first, perhaps, but you will. That’s all I want from you, a few ideas on how to snap the trap on that bastard. You know the way he operates. Talk it over between the two of you. Take your time. Don’t rush.”

  They yakked at one another for over an hour, promising schemes and then discarding them. I listened to them carefully, doing some thinking myself, but nothing came to any of us. I was getting a little desperate.

  There had to be a way.

  We talked some more, then I glanced at my watch. It was a little past midnight. I got to my feet.

  “Tomorrow morning after breakfast we’ll have another session, the three of us. Meanwhile, do some thinking before you fall asleep.”

  I walked back with Johnny Orrendo to his room. It was a clear night. The stars overhead were glittering in the blue expanse of sky. The air was clear, fresh, and utterly breatheable, which only reminded me that I was really grimy and in desperate need of a bath.

  So I made up my mind then and there not to stay at the compound, but to drive back to my own pad, bathe, and put on some fresh clothes. Those I had on I had worn forever or so it seemed. I told Johnny goodnight and reminded him to keep thinking about our problem.

  I drove back slowly, doing some thinking of my own. If Gabbo Gallino was so careful, I had to find a sure-fire way to eliminate him. No ordinary method would work. There had to be bait he would snap at, something like an offer he couldn’t resist.

  No solution came to me. I undressed and let my naked body down into the bubble bath I had prepared for it. I luxuriated in that warm water for over an hour, lazily soaping myself from time to time. When I climbed out and toweled off I was really ready for the sack.

  Next morning I woke at eleven. I put on fresh panties and pantyhose, and slithered into a lemon blouse and bottle-green velour three-piece suit with gold filigree buttons. I did up my red hair and the mirror told me I looked absolutely eatable.

 

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