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He was surprised enough for three, rocking back on his heels with a sharp yelp I almost did the same, but the door was directly behind and wouldn&039;t allow the movement Instinct took over I struck out fast, popped hi uys in the room and an unconscious one out here in the hall

Who had seen me appear out of thin air

A simple proble myself No Couldn&039;t chance it

Daet Strome out of here, then I&039;d deal hat he&039;d seen I hauled hiht elevator The area beloas clear, though there were three flat trolleys piled high with paper-wrapped goods parked along the hall People were talking around a corner, co our way I hurried toward the exit and pushed aardly through, Stro my balance off The cold air didn&039;t wake him

We were in an unused part of a blind alley Not s, so the last snowfall, glazed over by a layer of sleet, was still in thick drifts I braced Stroainst a wall, scooped up some mostly clean snow, and rubbed it in his face

"Strome? Hey, c&039;gering and staring around, his hand auto

"What the ?" he focused on ht back "Did you do it?"

Confusion Just what I wanted "Do what? Where am I?"

"Outside the Ruzzo&039;s hotel Did you kill them?"

"What? I-" He felt his jaw and froze "Ruzzo&039;s dead?"

"Since earlier today Someone bashed their heads in Capone-style with a baseball bat That&039;s why I popped you one

Was it you?"

"No!" He was outraged and perhaps a little scared I was scared myself

I was used to his stone face as the nor true Besides, it took his h to send you unconscious was usually enough to scramble your memory You could lose the last half hour or the last one were the last teninconvenient questions That was my job

"Why were you at the hotel then?" I asked

"Looking for Ruzzo I got a line they were hiding there Thought theyHoyle, too"

"Sure you didn&039;t kill them?"

"Never! I never went near &039;em! No!"

I took hied clothes and washed, I&039;d have picked up the bloodsh "Did you put a bomb in Gordy&039;s car?"

His reaction to that one was also convincing "A bo about?"

I told hiet a look at me "Believe it," I said "Kroun&039;s dead I think Hoyle teamed with Mitchell, and I need to knohich side of the fence you&039;re on"

"With you and Gordy!"

"What about Mitchell?"

"I hate that weasel-eyed son of a bitch He ain&039;t stand-up Never was"

"Do you knohere he is?"

"No"

"What about Hoyle? You knohere Hoyle is now?"

"Yeah I got a line Maybe"

"Maybe?"

"If he wasn&039;t with Ruzzo, I was gonna check on it Word&039;s out on that reward, but the guy I talked to don&039;t have the stones to go after him I promised him a hundred for the news, but only if it was solid"

Interesting "Why didn&039;t you tellunfair Which was true He&039;d hardly had tiet soo in Hoyle ain&039;t the sort to coe where he keeps his car"

That ht of it

"You wanna check out Hoyle&039;s garage, Boss?" he asked

"Lead the way"

Stro iving him the creeps Not my probleot in I thought about phoning Lady Cry how long Hoyle e or if he was even still around If he had brains, he&039;d be putting distance between himself and the murders

If he really had brains, he&039;d have never crossed me from the start

"Ruzzo&039;s murder," I said "If Hoyle didn&039;t do it, who else would?"

"Anybody who met them"

"Seriously What about Mitchell?"

"Yeah, he could do it Donno why he would You just covering the bases, Boss?"

Considering how the murders had been accomplished, his choice of phrase was unfortunate "Yeah Can you think of any reason why Mitchell would want to kill me?" So far as I knew, Strome was unaware of the run-in I&039;d had with Mitchell at Crymsyn

"He&039;d only do it if Kroun told hiht Kroun ed things to take er door It was o off when he had company Derner said Hoyle knows explosives"

"Yeah, learned &039;eot him to make one? But why should Mitchell kill his boss?"

"With Kroun gone, Mitchell ets the bla his own backyard clean doing it here Sound reasonable to you?"

"Yeah"

"Ruzzo becomes inconvenient to Hoyle for some reason, and they die What you bet maybe Hoyle becomes inconvenient to Mitchell?"

"Because he don&039;t want Hoyle to talk about the bo Hoyle is say it was payback for Kroun&039;s death"

"Sed "Depends whether they want to believe hiot pals back there who don&039;t like hiet the blaoes, they don&039;t know you and don&039;t want you"

"The feeling&039;s otta find out one way or another froht have a chance to talk with hirudge on for you, and I never heard of hi back ever on one of those"

"He&039;ll just have to take his chances I&039; too damned kindhearted toward him, either"

The area Strome drove to was one of those little pockets of the city where the deep-night creeps couldthe day it was a place of cheap shops and s out God-knohat for who-knohy The griood, but struggling along At noon the workers could descend upon the corner bar at the end of the street for a quick beer, sop up the sports scores, and lay bets down for the next event with their friendly local bookie It was very likely part of Gordy&039;s operation, and if I troubled to walk down there and give my name, I&039;d have his same level of respect

Or be shot at Territorial concerns were ongoing and strong in this town

Strome parked the car and pointed At the other end of the block from the bar was a low, one-storied structure It looked like it had started out to be one thing, then changed to another halfway through, then no one finished the job

Brick and mortar with blackened s, the roof was sheet tin that cracked and rattled as the wind passed over it

Part of one wall had been cut wide enough for cars to roll inside There was no real driveway into it, someone had simply se fron next to it offered rates and a nu both ways a lot

No watchman seemed to be on duty; the place was purely to park a car under shelter and good luck to you if it was still there in the anized thieves would know better than to go after anything belonging to themuch to see, about twenty cars parked nose to the wall, ten to a side, all berths full No lights There was a string of bulbs hanging fro, but a thrifty landlord had switched off the juice

The racket fro, then annoying The pops and bangs were irregular, and if anything else ht not hear it

The far end wall had been likewise cut open for a wide entry, but one of the berths was eht have been Hoyle&039;s space and he&039;d long cleared out, but there was his car right next to it I reallery in front of my club Good news at last I hoped he&039;d be close to his transportation

Right against the wall next to the entry were ce down The steel door at the bottoht be hiding out down there I don&039;t kno Stroently tried the knob, it turned, but the door reot the lock open, then shot o in first"

"I&039;m boss It&039;s my job You watch my back and coht not be in, and I don&039;t want hi me"

He didn&039;t much like that, but went up the stairs As soon as he was out of sight, so was I The gap at the botto h the bricks I hated that

I very slowly re-formed on the other side

The pessiht there was, electric, its source at the other end of a cellar that was as wide and long as the building above It strongly reed everything This one didn&039;t look like any ahts would ever chase away the shadows

The rough ceiling was low and, froe flanked by walls and support coluht be a partitioned-off roo I breathed to get a scent of the place; the thin vapor hung miserably in the air Cozy The s hint of urine and sewer stink

No bloodse relief, too I&039;d been ht be down there

Breathe in, sort out the flavors

And there very faint hu after reaching a certain age This sample wasn&039;t quite to the level of workhouse bum, that would take another couple weeks; so so the place for shelter A duencies only Hoyle&039;s circuarette sotten lonely and hired soh my head Then a far more insane idea cropped up: Evie Montana

If he&039;d killed Alan Caine, too, oh, hell Had to get down to the end, see if she was still alive

I&039;d been right about the noisy tin ceiling; it al froht Partially transparent, Isilent over the uneven floor Coht, I went solid, hugging the wall, and listened

And son of a bitch, he was behind ain

"Hold it!" Hoyle&039;s voice booe If he shot me, it wouldn&039;t kill, but it&039;d hurt like hell Hoyle thought he was in charge, but that could be a valuable advantage

Half-turned, I glimpsed his revolver aimed square on me, and the ave the illusion of being er He was ten or twelve feet away He could hit e for it

"Hands up! Stay right like that"

No problem I raised et in?" he asked

I thought his first question would be how the hell had I ht was pretty bad in the alcove, though He&039;d seen me come in, but perhaps only as a shape in the darkness, and could have ht not even knoas ht tickets There&039;s a bunch ?"

"Yeah" I went se Wanted to see his face Solidified, I turned a little more

"I said hold still!"

I cooperated

"Out there March"

I assuht was and ducked under the hanging blanket Since he didn&039;t fire when I did that, I ht

He had more space than my walled-up sanctuary, but that was all the nice you could say about it Aharsh shadows There were bits of debris on the floor, empty tin cans, a lot of beer bottles In one far area were sons painted all over thes, and tools I knew just enough about bo to be uneasy

More prosaically, a pile of blankets lay on an aged army cot, and close to it stood an electric heater, the source of the hu Alan Caine&039;s tan coat, was tied up on the cot, a rag stuffed in her mouth, a blindfold on Her body was tensed head to toe, listening

I paused in thehard, and started to face him

"No, you stay just like that" Hoyle was close behind, but not too close I could still spin and take the gun away much faster than he could react, but he&039;d talk ot me Gonna bash er that was real for me, I was exceptionally vulnerable to any weapon un, I was fairly safe

"What do you know about it?" he snarled

"I found what you left of theuys, and they said where you kept your heap Just call me Sherlock Junior Why&039;d you do it?"

"Maybe they had it cos they shouldn&039;t"

"Like about the bomb Mitchell had you put on Gordy&039;s car?"

"Who told you that?"

"I figured it out You&039;re going to have to buy Gordy a new car, you know"

"Stupid punk Think you&039;re so damned funny, think the sun rises and sets on your ass?"

"Not quite" No point sharing the irony of that with his really work around here, and punks like you don&039;t know squat"

"Why don&039;t you tell

I flinched, but was unharmed The bullet bit a hole in the wall in front of round next to his head, this was just returning the favor We were lucky the mortar was soft and the bricks crumbly A ricochet would have made this room a hell of a lot sonna faint in a few days if there&039;s much more excitement"

Another shot I&039;d expected it, so I didn&039;t flinch asto clear the pretty boring Even looking at your e" I started to turn, but he told n He was the boss of the room, but he was nervous "What&039;s the h on what I said about killing you the other night? You&039;ve got the gun"

"I kno you work I heard the boys talk They say you can just look at soht That&039;s how I grew up to be president of these United States I talked everyone into voting forso near Surprising it was that I could hear anything after the gunfire booot ood idea Gordy&039;s on the mend-"

"Gordy&039;s on the outs! You can&039;t hide behind hi Ruzzo is one thing, but buo after you for that one"

"Yeah, and if I don&039;t take you out, you&039;ll still be after ive about Mitchell&039;s plans"

"I don&039;t know nothing"

"He told you plenty That&039;s hoas able to talk you into the boht you&039;d be the best bet Aht? Then he sees to it you&039;re protected froht popped into my head "Of course this place ain&039;t his idea-it&039;s yours You&039;re hiding from him"

No response

"An&039; the only reason you&039;d wanna hide from him is if he&039;d killed Ruzzo It&039;s a double cross Aht?"

"Maybe"