“She was followed to her room,” I said. “Probably up the fire escape.”
“From where?”
“Who knows?”
“Maybe you do?”
“You’re fishing again, McKegnie.”
“But I’m not catching.” He shrugged. “Well, you made your locate, Amsterdam. Now you can collect your fee.”
“Not now,” I laughed. “You might be putting one of your mastiffs on my tail.”
“I might at that.”
“You’d be wasting your time, believe me.”
We left him standing there, his big hand flipping the earring into the air. He would stand that way for only a moment after we reached the hall. Then he would move into action and have both Dave and me followed.
“You head for the Glennon Hospital,” I told Dave. “Stay with Helen Tate for a while. She may come alive for us. She may remember who slugged her. I’ll see you later.”
We paused at the corner, allowing the two plainclothesmen behind us to take a deep breath before the chase. When Dave moved off, the tall tail skipped after him down First Avenue. My man was a dumpy type, a fleshy leech who waddled and puffed as he followed me uptown. I exercised his corpuscles for a while, striding a dozen blocks at a lively clip.
At Eighty-First and Second Avenue I caught a cab down town. We circled the midtown area and came back to Grand Central Station. The clock over the information booth stood at 1:21. The big station hummed and seethed with activity, hordes of vacationers crowding the gates. The going was slow through the open areas, bin the pedestrian tide ebbed at the Lexington Avenue doors. Beyond, a waiting cab sped me downtown again. I directed him to the east at Forty-First Street.
And when we reached First Avenue, the block behind me was clear of all traffic.
McKegnie’s man was lost somewhere in Grand Central Station.
Buy I Like It Cool Now!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lawrence Lariar (1908–1981) was an American novelist, cartoonist and cartoon editor, known for his Best Cartoons of the Year series of cartoon collections. He wrote crime novels, sometimes using the pseudonyms Michael Stark, Adam Knight and Marston la France.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this book or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1952 by Lawrence Lariar
Cover design by Ian Koviak
ISBN: 978-1-5040-5749-3
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