Read Delta Factor, The for Free Online

none of the crowd uses the place. I got to depend on them stinking transients or the bunch from the ships.”
    â€œYou don’t seem surprised to see me.”
    She lit the stub of a butt and blew a cloud of smoke my way. “They all come back sooner or later. Only you ain’t staying, Morgan. This time they’d really bounce me.”
    â€œNo sweat, Gussie.”
    â€œSo why’d you come?”
    â€œInformation.”
    â€œI ain’t got any.”
    â€œNobody gets hurt and if it pans out you’ll make a bundle,” I said.
    Her massive shoulders heaved in a shrug and she waved one pudgy hand at me. “So ask. It ain’t saying I got to answer.”
    I pulled up a straight-backed chair with my foot and sat down. “Who had my room before me?”
    Gussie frowned and said, “Before you got nailed here?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œHell, Morgan ...” She frowned at me and shrugged again, then reached over into a cracked wicker basket beside the couch and pulled out a ragged ledger. She thumbed back through it until she found what she wanted and nodded thoughtfully. “Character named Melvin Gross. He was a waiter on a ship. Spent his shore time here twice. Kind of a ...”
    â€œBefore that, Gussie.”
    She poked a couple more pages over with a moistened forefinger then poked at a name. “Mario Tullius. He came here sick, spent three days in bed, then they took him to Bellevue where he died from pneumonia. Dockhand, I think he was.”
    â€œTry another,” I told her.
    â€œGorman Yard. He was here three weeks. Joey Jolley called me to take him on account they had a warrant out on him in Syracuse.”
    â€œWhat for?”
    â€œHit-and-run. Tagged some pedestrian up there. My money is that he was paid to do it. Looked like that kind. I don’t know where he went to after he left.” She glanced up at me suspiciously. “What’s this all about?”
    I didn’t answer her. “Try the one before that.”
    She didn’t bother to look it up. “Bernice Case,” she said. “Cute little hooker who kept the room three years. No trouble at all. She never brought her marks here with her and slipped me some extra dough whenever she landed a real live one. She did real well, that girl.”
    â€œWhy’d she stay in a place like this?”
    Gussie let out a little grunt that was supposed to be a chuckle. “Sentiment, that’s why. Even a prostie can have that, Morgan. She was born here, right up on the top floor. If it wasn’t that she found a guy who wanted to marry her she’d be here yet.” She squashed the butt out in a wet saucer on the arm of the couch, then let her eyes roll up to meet mine again. “You ain’t said what you wanted.”
    â€œGuess,” I said.
    Old Gussie nodded sagely. “You figure one of ’em came back to get something they stashed up there, spotted you and put the squeal in.”
    â€œSomething like that.”
    â€œYou’re tagging Gorman Yard, ain’t you?”
    â€œMaybe.”
    â€œHe might be the kind if he wanted an in with the cops. A little grease helps out when you got a warrant on you. Want me to check it with Joey Jolley?”
    â€œNever mind. I’ll do it myself.”
    â€œGo ahead.” She grinned through her layers of fat and added, “When you gonna give me a slice of that forty mil, Morgan?”
    â€œLater, baby.”
    â€œWell, I know it ain’t around here. I like to tore that place apart after the cops got done with it just to make sure you didn’t leave it lying around.”
    â€œSuppose you found it?”
    â€œMan, would I still be here in this dump?”
    Â 
    Joey Jolley ran a gin mill on the edge of Greenwich Village and dabbled in fencing jewels to keep his hand in. He was an old-time thief who could be counted on to come up with a contact if the price was right.
    He met me