The Soft Centre

Lucille said, ‘Stop acting like a miser! What are we going to do with this right now?’

Hare looked sharply at her.?‘What’s the matter? You getting an attack of nerves or something?’?‘You’re goddamn right I’m getting an attack of nerves! Suppose the cops walked in now, how would you explain away this amount of money?’

Hare looked towards Karsh. He smiled his evil smile.?‘You married a bright girl, Sammy.’ He opened a drawer in his desk and took out a battered brief-case. Quickly he scooped the money into the case, clipped the case shut and then pushed it across the desk towards Karsh. ‘Get moving, Sammy. Rent a safe at the Miami Safe Deposit. Use any name that comes to your fertile mind so long as it isn’t one of ours and get moving. The quicker this is salted away, the safer it will be for us.’

Karsh shied away from the case.?‘Not me! Lucille can take it. Suppose some cop stops me on the street? I’m not all that crazy!’

‘Take it!’ There was a rasp in Hare’s voice. ‘If you want your cut, you work for it!’

Karsh eyed the brief-case, then he looked at his wife who stared blankly at him. He got no encouragement from her, and finally, he picked up the case.

‘If I walk into trouble,’ he said to Hare, ‘I’ll sing like a lark.’?‘Go ahead and sing,’ Hare said. ‘It’ll be the last Prima Donna act you’ll ever put on!’ Karsh suddenly grinned.?‘Forget it! For a third of half a million, I’d cut my wife’s throat.’?‘And I believe you,’ Lucille said in a flat, hard voice.

Karsh smiled at her.?‘Relax, baby. I was just talking, besides, it’d need a hacksaw to saw through your throat.’ Tilting his hat over his right eye, he left the office, swinging the brief-case in his hand. Jacobs, waiting in the lobby, saw Karsh come out of the elevator. He saw the briefcase in his hand. As Karsh walked briefly out on to the street, Jacobs followed him. Karsh got into the office car and searched his pockets for the ignition key. When he found it, and as be was about to sink the key into the ignition lock, Jacobs opened the offside door and slid into the car beside Karsh.

‘Hello, peeper,’ he said and smiled at Karsh who lost colour as he recognised Jacobs. ‘Headquarters: the Chief wants to talk to you.’

Karsh’s eyes went furtively to the brief-case that lay on the seat between the two men. ‘I’m busy right now,’ he said. ‘I’ll see him later. What’s he want anyway?’?‘He didn’t tell me,’ Jacobs said, lighting a cigarette. ‘Headquarters, Karsh, and snap it up!’

‘I tell you, I’m busy right now,’ Karsh said desperately. ‘I’m on a job! Get out of my car! I’ll see your Chief in half-an-hour. Go on, copper, beat it!’

‘You may not know it,’ Jacobs said, his face suddenly like granite, ‘but there are some thirty officers, including me, who long to punch you in your left eye. We all think you are the nastiest maggot that crawled out of stinking meat! It would give us all great pleasure to push your horrible eye ball into your horrible brain. I said… headquarters!’

‘You threatening me?’ Karsh said, losing colour.?‘That’s it, Karsh. I’ll give you five seconds to get this car moving. At the end of five seconds, you’ll get the sweetest slam in the eye any maggot’s ever had.’

‘I’ll fix you,’ Karsh said breathlessly. He started the car engine. ‘Don’t make any mistake about it! I’ll have your badge taken away!’

‘If you listen hard enough, maggot, you’ll hear my knees knocking,’ Jacobs said and grinned.

Ten minutes later, Karsh, carrying the brief-case, walked into Terrell’s office with Jacobs at his heels.

Terrell looked up from the mass of papers spread out over his desk. Jacobs pointed to the brief-case that Karsh was carrying and nodded his head. This signal went unseen by Karsh as Jacobs was behind him.

‘Now listen, Chief,’ Karsh said furiously, ‘this punk has no right to take me off a job. He threatened me! I’m going to report him…’

Jacobs laced his fingers together, lifted his arms and slammed his hands down on the back of Karsh’s neck.

Karsh went down on hands and knees, dropping the briefcase. He thought the ceiling had fallen on him. He remained like that until Jacobs planted a solid kick on the seat of his shiny trousers.

Karsh staggered to his feet and fell, groaning, into the nearest chair.?‘You can’t bit a man like that,’ Terrell said severely, although his eyes were twinkling. ‘There was a wasp on his neck, Chief,’ Jacobs said, looking sad. ‘I didn’t want the poor guy to get stung.’

‘Is that right?’ Terrell said. ‘For a moment, I thought you were playing rough with him.’ ‘Not me, Chief, you know me,’ Jacobs said, smiling broadly.

Karsh snarled at him.

‘I’ll fix you!’ he quavered. ‘You just wait and see.’?‘There’s that wasp again,’ Terrell said. ‘Better kill it, Max. Look, its right on top of the poor guy’s head.’

As Jacobs, grinning, moved towards Karsh, Karsh scrambled out of the chair and ran across the room, setting his back against the wall.

‘Don’t touch me!’ he yelled frantically. ‘Leave me alone!’