Read Lady, Go Die! for Free Online Page A

This is Mike. Sober and sassy.”
    “Well, about time you gave me a buzz. How goes the getaway?”
    “About as well as that time Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson went to that lodge in Wisconsin.”
    He laughed, but said, “I hope you’re kidding. How’s Sidon look to you?”
    “Dead on its feet, but right now the only tourists in town are Velda and me. It’ll get livelier.”
    “You mean when the season opens? Or because you’re in town? I can tell that this is no social call. What’s up?”
    “Not very much... yet. Do you have any information on Sharron Wesley dating from after the trial? I mean, has she been booked for anything or been connected with anything shady?”
    “So why the sudden interest in Sharron Wesley?”
    That guy had a hair-trigger mind that could figure angles faster than I could snap my fingers. I was willing to bet that he had already mentally reviewed the Wesley dame’s entire past including the most recent episodes involving the tabloids’ favorite black widow.
    “She seems to be Sidon’s most prominent notorious citizen,” I said. “Humor me.”
    “Just a minute,” he said, “let me check my files.”
    He was back in seconds and I could hear the rustle of paper as he thumbed through. “Yeah, here’s something. Mrs. Wesley was given a ticket for illegal parking on an express street about a month ago.”
    “That it?”
    “No. No... then she was arrested for disturbing the peace two days later.”
    “Interesting.”
    “There’s more. She had a catfight with another babe in a night club. Seems like it continued out onto the street after they were put out of the place and a window got broken. She paid for the window and her fine.”
    “She can afford to.”
    “The last time she was in the custody of the city was two weeks ago. Mrs. Wesley was picked up when the vice squad raided a high-stakes card game in a suite of rooms in a downtown hotel. She was released along with three other women who apparently weren’t in on the game.”
    “Pat, you’re not saying this was prostitution. She’s not a damn call girl.”
    “I don’t know what she is, other than not a grieving widow. We’ve had some big-time gamblers in town lately, Mike, and she might have been backing somebody’s play. She can afford that, too.”
    “Yes, she can.”
    “Anyway, pal, that’s all I have.” I heard the file hit his desk like a slap. “Okay, I showed you mine, now you show me yours—what gives on your end?”
    I started from the beginning and took it through to the police station visit this morning.
    When I finished, he muttered, “Dekkert, huh?”
    “Yup.”
    “Would it surprise you to hear I’ve had all kinds of bad reports on that bastard since he was kicked off the force?”
    “Nope.”
    “Seems Dekkert got in a jam in Miami, working for a security outfit that was burgling its own clients. Somehow he managed not to do any time—maybe he ratted his gang out. Then he wasn’t heard from until we got a teletype from San Francisco requesting his history. He landed a private dick’s license there, and during the course of a case beat a guy to death. When they caught up withhim, his license got revoked and he was given twenty-four hours to get out of the state.”
    “Sounds like he manages to leave dirty smudges on his record when it should be filthy as hell.”
    Pat grunted agreement. “Dekkert’s always had a way of finding some mob angel to cover for him. When the trouble hits, he makes a deal, pays off whoever he has to, and starts somewhere else.”
    “But how can he wrangle another police job, even in Sidon?”
    “Mike, he was asked to resign from the New York force. The administration at that time had too much dirty laundry to risk exposing every lousy racket Dekkert was tied into. Read his jacket and you’ll see medals of valor, between those dirty smudges. This is one very hard case. Be careful of him, chum.”
    “Don’t worry about me,” I laughed. “After the two