The Mackenzie Fabric Inc. was an enormous clearing-house for stolen goods. It worked like this: with the big imports from China and England of clothes and silks, all kinds of stolen articles were smuggled in the bales. In the same way articles stolen in America could be shipped out to the various continental agencies representing Mackenzie Fabrics abroad.
Spencer was the big shot. It was his job to buy or to sell whatever came into his hands from the various gangs operating throughout the States. With most of the high officials getting a rake-off in the form of dividends, the racket was watertight.
I knew that once Katz got free he'd stop at nothing to finish us both. We knew too much now ever to be safe. There was only one way and that was to see that Katz was under cover long enough to give me the time to bust the racket.
I didn't fancy knocking him off in cold blood, but at the moment I couldn't see what else I could do. Ackie was watching me and he understood what I was thinking about.
“Leave it to me,” he said, “I guess it'd be easy to frame him for twenty-four hours.”
I looked at him hard. “Twenty-four hours ain't so long,” I said. “It's going to take most of that to get into action.”
Ackie shrugged. “That's as long as we can hold him, I guess,” he said. “We just gotta make things move.”
The longer we argued about it the more time we wasted, so I let Ackie go ahead with his idea.
“We get this bird down to the station house and book him under assault. I can tip the sergeant to keep him under cover for a bit. He's a pal of mine an' he'd lose a rat like that for a little while.”
I stood up. “Okay... let's go.”
Katz wasn't putting up a beef. He went with us down the stairs, his hands still tied behind him. Ackie went first, then Katz and then I followed. Before leaving the room I made certain that we'd left no tell-tale clues that might hook us up with Blondie's death, then with one last look at the still figure in the chair I snapped off the light and followed Katz down.
When we got to the Street door I rammed his gun into his back. “Don't start anything, brother,” I said. “We've got nothing to lose and I'd like the chance of putting a slug into you.”
He hobbled across the pavement and got into the car. I got in beside him and Ackie got under the wheel.
“If there's any liquor left,” I said, “I guess a slug apiece wouldn't come hard.”
Ackie groped around and shook his head. “There ain't none,” he said dispiritedly. “Ain't that hell?”
“Well, go on... the sooner we get this bird put away the better.”
During the run to the station house I was busy thinking. The first thing I'd got to do was to find Mardi. Nothing else mattered as long as I found her. Then I'd got to find enough evidence to bust up Spencer. If I wanted a clear field, I'd gotta do that within twenty-four hours. Not an easy programme, but I guess I had to do it.
If Spencer hadn't kidnapped Mardi, who had? I might be wrong thinking that Spencer hadn't done it, but Katz hadn't known anything about it, and Katz was Spencer's right-hand man. Maybe the fat guy and Gus had pulled it, but even then Katz would have known about it. And that was one thing I was sure about. Katz knew nothing about it at all.
I suddenly remembered. I could see Mardi's frightened face and I remembered what she had said. “You don't know Sarah Spencer. I'm scared. She's dangerous. She won't stop at anything.”
Sarah Spencer! I sat up. Was she at the bottom of all this? Was it she who had taken Mardi away from me? The more I thought about it, the more likely it seemed to be. By the time we got to the station I was itching to get after that dame.
Ackie drove round to the back entrance and got out. “You stay here,” he said. “I want to see if the coast's clear.”
I looked at Katz and dug him in the ribs with the gun. “You're soon going to have a nice long rest,” I said, “an' I hope you'll have plenty to think about.”
Without looking at me, he said, “You won't last long now, Mason. If you think you can buck this racket you're nuts. You're the nearest thing to a corpse I've ever put my eyes on.”
When he'd got that little lot off his chest, he laughed. Oh yes, this guy had got his nerve back, once he knew we weren't going to knock him off. I didn't like the sound of his laugh either.
Ackie came out and jerked his head. “I'm glad I went in,” he said, keeping his voice down. “Lazard was in there. The smartest mouthpiece in town. If he'd spotted this guy coming in, he'd have sprung him so fast he'd've made you dizzy.”
I looked at Katz uneasily. A lot depended on keeping this guy out of mischief.
“Where's this Lazard now?” I asked.
“He's just comin' out. We'll wait until he's scrammed, then we'll go on in.”
While Ackie was saying this, I saw a figure come out through the rear exit. A short, fat figure with a large gallon hat on his head. Katz saw him the same time as I did and he let out a hell of a squawk.
