The Leather Duke

Elliott Towner stared at Johnny, wide-eyed. “Have you gone completely crazy?”

“No,” said Johnny. “I like the Lakeside Club. There’s nothing like a good steam and rubdown after a hard day’s work, then a good soft bed afterwards. We had to sleep in a flophouse on Halsted Street last night...”

“You got some money from Dad, you can go to a hotel.”

“I’d rather stay at the Lakeside — at least until I’ve cleaned up this business.”

Elliott hesitated. “If I refuse to get the guest cards for you, you’ll go to Dad?”

“Yes.”

“There’ll be cards waiting for you at the club tonight.”

“Thanks, Elliott, that’s nice co-operating. Now, do you suppose you could crowd it a little more?”

“You’ve crowded me too far already.”

“This is business. Did you know Al Piper?”

“I didn’t start to work here until Monday. Al didn’t show up for work until yesterday morning...”

“At eight o’clock. He wasn’t killed until nine.”

Elliott shook his head. “Piper wasn’t even a name to me until after he was dead. I never heard of him before, I never saw him.”

“But he was killed right behind you, not more than thirty feet away. Uh, you didn’t hear anything?”

“I heard nothing. With those machines out in the other room, you can’t hear yourself think most of the time. Then they were piling up barrels back here...”

“I didn’t start piling ’em up until ten o’clock,” Sam cut in. “Hey!” He suddenly whirled and headed for Joe Genara. “Hey, Joe, you were piling up barrels yesterday when I came to help you...”

Joe Genara grinned, showing even white teeth. “I was gettin’ the barrels ready for piling, big boy. I’m not as strong as you are. I gotta use the elevator and with it, it takes two men to pile up the barrels. One to put them on the elevator and ride up with the barrel and the other to crank the thing. That’s what Carmella was doing when he got sore and quit.”

Johnny moved up quickly beside Sam. “Carmella was helping you back there, yesterday morning?”

“Sure, him and me usually did the piling when there was piling to do.”

“You started at eight o’clock yesterday morning?”

“Five-ten minutes after eight.”

“And he worked with you until he got fired?”

“Who says he got fired?”

“Didn’t he?”

“Nah, he quit. Kessler came back and started jawing at him and Carmella got sore and walked off the job.”

“What was Kessler complaining about?”

“Well, Carmella wasn’t the fastest worker in the world.”

“ ‘Small pay, small work,’ ” quoted Sam.

“Sure, he was always saying that.”

“You said it to me yesterday.”

“I got it from Carmella. He never hurt himself working. Count twelve-thirteen hundred pairs of counters a day. Take all morning to pile up a dozen barrels.”

“With you helping him,” suggested Johnny.

Joe shrugged. “Takes two people to pile up barrels. I still had to wait for him to do the cranking.”

Johnny nodded. “While you were piling up barrels yesterday, or with Carmella, did Al Piper happen to come along?”

“No,” said Joe quickly.

“What time did Carmella quit the job?”

“We’d only been working about a half hour or so when Kessler came up and started squawking. They went at it for a few minutes, then Carmella said the hell with it... about quarter to nine, I’d say.”

“You stayed back with the barrels, after Carmella walked off the job?”

“No, I came back here, for ten-fifteen minutes. Then Kessler told me to go back and get the barrels ready and he’d have someone else help me in a little while.” Joe nodded to Sam. “I was only back there a little while when you came along.”

“I think,” said Johnny slowly, “that you’ve set the time of the murder pretty accurately — between a quarter to nine when Carmella got sore and quit his job, and nine o’clock when you came back here to get more barrels ready for further stacking.”

“Could be,” said Joe Genara.

Johnny caught Sam’s eye and walked off a few feet. “Sam, I’ve got to run out for an hour or two. Maybe longer. You stick around here and keep on talking to people.”

“You’ll be back by five?”

“I hope so, but if I should happen to get tied up, go down to the Lakeside Athletic Club. Elliott’s fixing us up with guest cards. Get a good double room and wait for me.”

“All right, Johnny, but try to get back here by five o’clock, will you?”

“I will.”

Johnny started down the aisle, past Johnson’s desk, then whirled back and scooped up the telephone directory. He found a number, nodded and left.

Down in the office Nancy Miller looked at Johnny in surprise.

“Knocking off for the day?”

“Nope, Taffy, believe it or not, I’m working. In case I don’t get back before five, remember eight o’clock.”

He winked at her and left the building.

Chapter Fifteen

Across the street the Wiggins man in the black Chevrolet came to attention. Johnny waved at him, then pointed in the direction of Larrabee Street.

As he reached the corner of Larrabee Street he looked over his shoulder. The Chevrolet was crawling to a halt at the curb a short distance away.

Johnny looked down Larrabee Street and saw a taxicab approaching. He stepped into the street, held up his hand and the cab screeched to a halt. Johnny got in.