Complete works of peter.., p.21
Complete Works of Peter Cheyney. Illustrated, page 21
Yonnie pulls himself up over the wheel. His face is covered with blood an' I can see where I have hit him again through the neck.
He points to me.
"We're crossed up," he gasps. "That dirty... the cops... I the cops...!"
XV. CONNIE PULLS ONE
I YANK up my rod an' am just about to start a little fireworks when I realise that the gun is empty, an' before I can do anything about half a dozen guys are on top of me an' they are not bein' particularly gentle.
Eventually when I get on to my feet, I can see Siegella bendin' over Yonnie, an' then he straightens up an' looks at me with his usual grin.
"Shut the doors, boys," he says, "an' fix it so they won't open."
Then he looks at me.
"So you did it again, you rat, did you?" he says. "So you shot your mouth to the cops, did you? Alright, well, you see what we're goin' to do to you."
I straighten up. From up the stairs an' outa the other rooms a whole lotta guys have streamed in. There are about fifteen of these toughs an' they are all hardboiled as hell.
"Listen, Siegella," I say. "Get this straight. I ain't been shootin' off my mouth to the cops, because I am a cop, see, an' I'm takin' you an' the rest of this bunch."
He starts to laugh.
"So you're takin' us, are you, Mr. G man?" he says. "Listen to me laughin". We ain't goin' to be taken by nobody an' I reckon I'm goin' to give you a paraffin bath, an' Constance here will light it for you."
I stall for time.
"Listen, wop," I say. "Here's how it is. You ain't got a dog's chance, an' this place is lousy with cops. They'll be here in a minute anyhow, an' you can see for yourself. Now why don't you be your age an' not make it any worse for yourself than it's goin' to be?"
"Nuts," says Siegella. "You an' your tin badge make me sick. Just like your little frame-up with Miranda upstairs made me sick. Connie just got that gun off her when she tried to do a big wild west act with it, an' we're goin' to give it to her too, an'..."
Just then some guy busts down the stairs.
"Boss," he croaks, "they're all round the place. They're in the signal huts on the other side of the field.... they're comin' across now."
"O.K.," says Siegella, an' he starts to laugh.
"Here's the showdown, boys," he says. "Close the place up pull the shutters an' get two Tommy guns on the roof. It's them or us an' if they take us we'll die anyhow, because there ain't a guy here would get away anything so easy as fifty years."
He signals to Ritzkin.
"Take him upstairs an' chuck him in that room with little Miranda," he says, "an' then get some guy to sneak out the back way round to the garage an' get half a dozen tins of petrol. Say boys, you remember what we did to that guy at Joplin the one who crossed us up there well, we'll repeat the dose."
He turns to me.
"Lemmy," he says. "I reckon I finish here, an' I'm goin' to see that you get yours. In about five minutes we're goin' to give you a nice little bath, an' Miranda can watch you take it before we give her the heat. Take him up, Tony."
The place is bristlin' with guns as Ritzkin takes me up the stairs. I am feelin' pretty lousy because this wound I have got in my shoulder is not so good.
Ritzkin takes me along to the room where I left Miranda, an' some other guy who is with us ties up my wrists an' they chuck me in the room an' lock the door. I can see Miranda is tied to the bedposts an' is tryin' hard to smile.
Just then there is a burst of fire from somewhere above us, an' I reckon that somebody has opened fire on the cops from the roof with a Tommy gun. I can hear shootin' from all around the house.
I flop down on the floor an' lean up against the wall, because it looks like to me this was the end of the story so far as I am concerned an' it don't look so good for Miranda either.
Presently she starts talkin'.
"What will they do to us, Lemmy?" she asks.
I try to grin.
"Why ask me?" I say. "What do you think?"
I don't allow that they're goin' to give us the freedom of the city. I reckon that this is where we get the heat good an' proper. It's curtains for two, Miranda, an' if you've got religion or anything like that in your system, I'd get down an' say my prayers nice an' quick, just so's you don't get interrupted."
While I am talkin' the door opens an' I can see it is Connie. The shootin' has died away a bit, although there is an occasional rattle from upstairs as the guy on the roof starts to play tunes with the Tommy gun.
There is a light in the passage outside an' behind Connie I can see a guy with a lotta tins of petrol on his way. Down the passage I can hear 'em emptyin' this stuff into a bath.
Now an' then a fierce beam of light comes in through the window, an' I reckon the cops outside have got a searchlight from somewhere playin' on the house, but I don't know that it is goin' to do me any good, because I reckon that they cannot rush this place an' are goin' to take their time about it, because I suppose that they believe that after this waitin' about Miranda an' me are already ironed out.
At this moment I am wishin' more than anything else that I had a cigarette.
Just then Connie opens the door wide an' comes in. She walks over to me an' she puts a cigarette in my mouth an' she lights it, an' then she does the same to Miranda.
From the roof above there comes another burst of firin', an' downstairs somebody gives a howl as he gets some hot lead.
"Listen, Lemmy," says Connie, "I wanta talk to yon."
I look up at her. She has shut the door behind her but the moon is now shinin' through the window an' I can see her pretty plain. She has got an automatic gun in one hand an' a cigarette in the other, an' she is sorta smilin' a faraway smile like the look on the face of your favourite film star when she does a close-up all teeth an' what have you got.
Anyhow I know that Constance is as screwy as hell, an' I would just as soon believe anything she said as I would listen to a travellin' salesman, but I reckon that she is goin' to pull some act, an' when she gets that faraway look in her eyes I know that she is goin' to talk about love or something else just as screwy.
I can see Miranda lookin' at her, an' then at me an' she looks like a tiger. I reckon that if Miranda an' Connie got down to it good an' proper an' no stallin' they would just about tear each other to pieces, because these two dames were just opposites. Miranda was a thrill-seekin' sportin' young woman who had been brought up to believe that she was entitled to anything she wanted, an' Connie, like the rest of her sort, had brought herself up to know what she wanted an' go out an' get it.
Anyhow Connie comes over to where I am, an' she stands there lookin' down at me, an' I can see that she has sure got swell feet an' ankles, an' it's durn funny, but even fixed as I was there with darn little hope, I got comparin' Connie's ankles with Miranda's which just goes to show what mugs some guys can be, don't it?
Then Connie starts to talk:
"Listen, big boy," she says, "I gotta talk quick an' you gotta listen an' think quick. I don't know why it is, but you know, Lemmy, I've always had a soft spot for you, an' I suppose that underneath everything I'm a woman same as any other one."
"I wouldn't know that, Connie," I say, "I ain't looked, but I'm prepared to take your word for it. So what?"
"Well," she says, "What about you an' me doin' a deal? I reckon that if I can get you two guys outa here, then you ought to give me a break. You ain't got anything on me anyhow, except this kidnappin' business, an' if I get Miranda outa this then I reckon I've squared the book."
"Ain't you marvellous, Connie?" I say, an' I am hopin' that Miranda will kill that look of hope that is comin' over her face " but you gotta remember that you been an accessary right the way through, an' all I could do for you would be to prove that you did your best to get us outa here when you knew the game was up, an' that we had got Siegella in the bag, but if you're content to do that then it's O.K. with me."
"Alright," she says. "Well, here I got another proposition. I gotta car parked near here. I had it for two days hidden in a dump in the bushes down the road. If I spring you two guys outa here an' we three get off together, will you give me a break an' let me get away in that car, an' see if I can beat the cops to it. I reckon that's fair enough..... if they get me they get me, an' if I am smart enough to make a getaway I reckon I've given you a fair deal."
"It sounds good," I say, "an' what is Siegella doin' while all this is goin' on."
She smiles.
"Don't you realise that I'm for you, Lemmy?" she says. "I reckon that I've always been stuck on you, an' I just can't bear the idea of your dyin' the way Siegella has fixed for you. Can't you see I'm tryin' to give you a break an' this silly jane too?"
I start breathin' again because it looks to me as if Constance means what she says an' am I tickled at the idea of even gettin' a chance to get outa this hell-broth that I am sittin' in.
"O.K.," I say, "but the first thing you can do is to cut my hands an' give me a gun, an' then I'm agreein' an' not before."
She don't say anything. She just comes over an' takes my safety razor blade outa my pocket where I tell her an' cuts the cord around my wrists; then she does the same for Miranda, an' then she hands me the automatic.
"I can't do much fairer than that, can I, Lemmy?" she says sorta piteous, an' when I look at her I see tears in her eyes.
"Now listen," she goes on. "In a minute Siegella is goin' into one of the back rooms downstairs to burn some papers he don't want the cops to get their hooks on. I'm goin' to get myself another gun an' when he's in there I'm goin' to let him have it. I reckon I gotta choose between him an' you, Lemmy, an' I'm choosin' you."
"That's swell, Connie," I say, "but there's just one thing that I wanta make certain of an' that is that the wop does get his, an' I don't mean maybe."
"Don't you trust me, Lemmy?" she says.
"You bet I don't," I tell her. "I been listenin' to people like you for a long time, Connie," I go on, "ever since I first started gettin' around with the mobs an' it don't get me no place."
I walk over to her.
"Listen, baby," I say, "I'm for Siegella gettin' his quick, first of all it saves a whole lot of trouble an' secondly, that is supposin' they extradite him when they get him, that he don't pull any of his usual stunts with the jury. You gotta remember that this guy can pull a lot over the other side that he wouldn't be able to pull here. But if these cops get him then I reckon that Uncle Sam is goin' to ask to try him first an' there's just a chance that the wop might pull a very fast one an' get away with it, so I'm all for execution on the spot, an' I don't know anybody who's better suited to do it than you, an' if you do it then I'll believe you're tryin' to play straight with me."
She looks at me sorta piteous again.
"I'll fix him, Lemmy," she says. "I gotta make you believe in me. I gotta show you I'm trying to make out. Just stick around for a minute an' I'll fix him."
"Okey doke," I say, "but I didn't sorta reckon that you would take a run-out^ powder on Siegella, Connie. Ain't this a bit sudden?"
She is almost at the door an' she spins around.
"Ain't you got any sense, Lemmy," she says, "or are you dead from the neck up? The cops are all around us. They're closing in from the runaway side of the field. They're down on the road, an' it's just a matter of an hour or so before they'll get us.
"Well, ain't I entitled to a chance? What has Siegella done for me anyhow? I reckon I hate that punk, an' I allow that here's where I give him his, an' what's more I'm goin' to like doin' it."
"O.K., sister," I say, "only mind he don't see you comin'. Otherwise he might iron you out first an' what would we do without our little Constance."
While I am speakin' there is a grunt from outside the door. The guy who has been standin' at the window in the corridor has got his. Some cop has registered on this guy's neck an' he slides down to the floor in a lump and dies. Connie goes over to him an' she takes the rod out of his fist an' she sorta looks wise at me over her shoulder an' she goes off.
Miranda comes up for some more air.
"Oh, it's wonderful, Lemmy," she says. "We're goin' to get out of here. I didn't think we had a chance....."
"Pipe down, gorgeous," I say, "an' don't start countin' any chickens yet."
I walk over to the window an' standin' with my back to Miranda I pull the ammunition clip out of the automatic that Connie has just given me. It is empty. There ain't a shell in it, which just goes to show you what a sweet little four-flushin' twicer this dame Constance is. I tell you the dame is so screwy that she would make a corkscrew look like a West Point flagpole.
"Listen, Miranda," I say to this jane, who is still rubbing her wrists, "if you think that you're outa this jam come again. You ain't an' you might never be. This Connie bit has just handed me out an empty gun an' I don't like it, an' if I know anything of her she's goin' to pull a fast one in a minute so watch your step, Miranda, otherwise some guy will probably have you on a catsmeat stand next week."
After a minute or two we hear Connie comin' back. She comes in an' she is very white about the mouth, an' she is cryin' like smoke.
"I done it, Lemmy," she says. "I bumped him. He was in the back room an' I gave it to him. He fell over the desk sorta lookin' at me an' it made me feel like hell. Now come on an' let's get outa here!"
She leads the way down the passage, an' we go through a room at the end an' down a stairway, an' we cross the room at the bottom an' go along some balcony an' into a sorta loft and from here we drop down into the garage.
Connie is leadin' the way an' she has got her handbag under her arm, an' just when she gets to the doors of the garage I pull the handbag away from her an' I open it.
"Now, don't get excited, sweetheart," I crack, "because upstairs you issued me with a gun that ain't got any lead, in it an' when I use a gun I like one that shoots."
I take the gun she has got in the handbag an' put the empty automatic in its place. She don't say nothin', she just leads the way out of the garage an' we start to make for the path leadin' down to the road.
From away over at the right I can hear a lotta shootin' an' I reckon that the cops are closin' in on the house from that side, an' they are not worryin' much about this side because they have got plenty people down on the road, an' they reckon that nobody can make a getaway from this direction.
When we have got about one hundred yards down the track Connie takes a path leadin' off to the left an' we go down this for a bit an' away at the bottom I can see a clearin' an' on the other side of it is a roadster standin' there with the moonlight shinin' on it.
An' my nose tells me that a whole lot about this business is screwy so I let Connie go well in advance of me, with Miranda bringing up the rear, an' I am just waitin' for something to happen, an' as we walk into the clearin' it happens.
Siegella gets up from behind the car where he has been hidin'. He is grinnin' like a coupla hyenas. He has got a rod in his hand and he don't seem to be worryin' about the one I've got. I get a sorta sickenin' feelin' that there is something wrong about this rod too.
Connie suddenly springs ahead an' runs round the car to Siegella. I jerk up my gun, an' she starts laughin'.
"Be your age, Lemmy," she says. "That gun ain't loaded either. I thought that you might get clever about the first one an' pull mine off me so I took the shells out. Well, how d'ya like it?"
"Nice work, Connie," I say, "but one of these fine days somebody is goin' to give you yours an' it won't feel so good."
Siegella laughs. He is pointin' the gun at me, an' it looks like he is enjoyin' himself.
"Well, sucker," he says. "I'm goin' to give you two the heat an' then we're scrammin' outa here. I reckon that you fell for that little story of Connie's pretty good, didn't you! Maybe we'll get away with it, and maybe we won't but we'll make a certainty of you two first. So if you believe in Santa Claus you can get down an' say a few prayers, Mr. G man, because I'm goin' to blast you an' I'm goin' to give it to you in the guts."
Miranda has been standin' behind me, an' I feel her move. She walks round to my side.
"Just one minute, Mr. Siegella," she says. "I think that you're forgettin' something." She takes a coupla paces forward so naturally that he don't do anything an' then, quick as a knife, she throws her shoe straight at him. While she was standin' behind me she had been slippin' it off.
The wop fires, but his aim is deflected an' he gets me through the top of the shoulder which is the second one that night. I reckon that there ain't anything to it but a showdown an' I go straight for him, an' I am lucky because the next time he fires the automatic jams which is a very nice thing to happen when some guy is shootin' at you.
I jump straight for the car an' out the other side as he is backin' away. I go straight at him an' I hit him with my head as I arrive which is an old trick I learned in the Philippines.
The wop is no fool at infightin' an' he lets me have it in the stomach with his knee an' I feel that I have been kicked by a squad of racehorses, but I grab him again, an' we roll down a bank into a sorta dip beneath.
We do everything we know, an' the wop is fightin' like he never fought in his life. I am not feelin' so very good myself, because my shoulder is givin' me hell, but I am pullin' a lot of dirty tricks that I have learned since I have been gettin' around with the mobs an' by the time I have got my thumbs in one of his eyes an' am screwin' his head round with my leg an' kickin' him in the face every time his head jerks back he is not feelin' so good either.
But I know that I am gettin' weaker every minute because I can feel that I am bleedin' from my shoulder an' this wop is in good condition an' I reckon that I have gotta pull a fast one on him otherwise it is goin' to be curtains for Lemmy.
So all of a sudden I go sorta limp, as if I was finished. I let go with my hands, an' I relax with a grunt, an' the sucker falls for it. For just a split second he lets go, an', as he does so, I shoot out my two legs, scissor him an' throw him flat, then, before he can move, I get a leg lock round his neck an' after a minute I get a first-class Japanese neck hold on him.
