The Mike Hammer Collection

“I’ve had to read a lot of minds the past seven years. I knew how it would work. I just wanted you ready.”

“I don’t know whether to kiss you or smack your ass.”

She grinned impishly. “You can always kiss me.”

“Don’t ask for it.”

“Why not? It’s the only way I’m going to get it, I think.”

Teddy’s place is a lush restaurant about as far downtown as it’s possible to get without falling in the river. It seemed an unlikely spot for good food and celebrities, but there you got both. Hy Gardner was having a late supper with Joey and Cindy Adams, and when he spotted us, waved us over to the table.

Before we could talk he ordered up scampi and a steak for both of us, then: “You come down for supper or information?”

“Both.”

“You got Joey really researching. He comes to me, I go to somebody else, and little by little I’m beginning to get some mighty curious ideas. When are you going to recite for publication?”

“When I have it where it should be.”

“So what’s the pitch on Sally Devon?”

“All yours, Joey,” I said.

He could hardly wait to get it out. “Boy, what a deal you handed me. You threw an old broad my way. There was more dust on her records than a Joe Miller joke. Then you know who comes up with the answers?”

“Sure, Cindy.”

“How’d you know?”

“Who else?”

“Drop dead. Anyway, we contacted some of the kids who worked with her only like now they’re ready for the old ladies’ home. Sure, she was in show business, but with her it didn’t last long and was more of a front. Her old friends wouldn’t say too much, being old friends and all, but you knew what they were thinking. Sally Devon was a high-priced whore. She ran with some of the big ones for a while, then got busted and wound up with some of the racket boys.”

Velda looked at me, puzzled. “If she was involved with the rackets, how’d she end up with Sim Torrence, who was supposed to be so clean? That doesn’t make sense.”

“Sure it does,” Hy told her. “He got her off a hook when he was still an assistant D.A. Look, she was still a beautiful doll then and you know the power of a doll. So they became friends. Later he married her. I can name a couple other top politicos who are married to women who used to be in the business. It isn’t as uncommon as you think.”

He put his fork down and sipped at his drink. “What do you make of it now?” When I didn’t answer he said, “Blackmail?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted.

“Well, what else do you want?”

For a moment I sat there thinking. “Torrence is a pretty big wheel now, isn’t he?”

“As big as they get without being in office.”

“Okay, he said repeated threats were made on him by guys he helped put away.”

“Ah, they all get that.”

“They all don’t have a mess like this either.”

“So what?”

“This, Hy . . . I’d like a rundown on his big cases, on everyone who ever laid a threat on him. You ought to have that much in your morgue.”

Hy shrugged and grinned at me. “I suppose you want it tonight.” “Why not?”

“So we’ll finish the party in my office. Come on.”

Hy’s file on Sim Torrence was a thick one composed of hundreds of clippings. We all took a handful and found desk space to look them over. A little after one we had everything classified and cross-indexed. Joey had four cases of threats on Sim’s life, Cindy had six, Velda and I both had three, and Hy one. He put all the clips in a Thermofax machine, pulled copies, handed them over, and put the files back.

“Now can we go home?” he said.

Joey wanted to go on with it until Cindy gave him a poke in the ribs.

“So let’s all go home,” I told him.

We said so-long downstairs and Velda and I headed back toward the Stem. In the lower Forties I checked both of us into a hotel, kissed her at the door, and went down to my room. She didn’t like it, but I still had work to do.

After a shower I sat on the bed and started through the clips. One by one I threw them all down until I had four left. All the rest who had threatened Sim Torrence were either dead or back in prison. Four were free, three on parole, and one having served a life sentence of thirty years.

Life.

Thirty years.

He was forty-two when he went in, seventy-two when he came out. His name was Sonny Motley and there was a picture of him in a shoe repair shop he ran on Amsterdam Avenue. I put the clips in the discard pile and looked at the others.

Sherman Buff, a two-time loser that Sim had put the screws to in court so that he caught a big fall. He threatened everybody including the judge, but Torrence in particular.

Arnold Goodwin who liked to be called Stud. Sex artist. Rapist. He put the full blame for his fall on Torrence, who not only prosecuted his case but processed it from the first complaint until his capture. No known address, but his parole officer could supply that.