Believed Violent by James Hadley Chase Read Free Book Online Page B

it . . . don’t kill him,” Silk said. “Just bust him up for a nice two week stay in hospital.”
    “Sure, I know,” Keegan said, and as Silk returned to the Thunderbird, he swung his foot back and kicked Sherman viciously in the face.
    Silk got into the car. He glanced at his watch, saw the time was a few minutes to eight o’clock. He tilted his hat over his nose and closed his eye.
    Some minutes later, Keegan came through the weeds, pausing every now and then to wipe his shoes on the rough grass, then he slid under the driving wheel.
    “He’s fine,” he said as he started the engine. “He’ll be as troublesome as an ant for the next two weeks. Where now?”
    Silk knew and admired Keegan’s expertise. Keegan could kick a man to within a heartbeat of death, and yet the man could still survive although he would be nothing to get worked up about after the beating.
    “Where now?” he repeated, pushing his hat to the back of his head. “The City Court. You leave me there. No need for both of us to check this. The Magistrate sits at nine o’clock. I’ll get a taxi back.”
    “Anything you say,” Keegan said and sent the Thunderbird shooting down the dark street.
    At ten o’clock, Silk walked into the Belevedere Hotel, entered the elevator and was whisked up to the penthouse suite. Here, he found Lindsey on the terrace, looking down at the bright lights far below and at the young people still bathing in the warm, moonlit sea.
    Lindsey turned as he heard Silk come across the red and white tiles.
    “Well?”
    “Just the way you wanted it,” Silk said. “Very smooth: no trouble. She drew a week in the Pen and a twenty-five dollar fine. The Magistrate was a fat old queer who hates girls. He took one look at her and threw the book at her.”
    “Sherman?”
    “He didn’t know what hit him. Right now, he’s in the State Hospital: fractured jaw, four broken ribs and a beautiful concussion. He’ll survive but it will take time.”
    Lindsey winced. He hated violence, but when working for Radnitz, he had found he had to live with it.
    “You’ve done well.” He looked down at the screaming, happy crowd on the beach. He envied them. How uncomplicated were their lives! “This girl . . . find out when she’ll be released and pick her up. Get someone to go to her apartment, pack her things and settle her rent . . . use a woman.”
    “I’ll take care of it,” Silk said and looked expectantly at Lindsey. “Anything else?”
    “Not right now.”
    Lindsey took a roll of $50 bills from his hip pocket and handed it to Silk.
    “The big operation gets going when we have the girl,” he said. “I’ll go over the details with you at the end of the week.”
    “Okay.” Silk examined the roll of bills, nodded his satisfaction, then left the penthouse suite.
    Lindsey wandered to the terrace balcony and looked down at the young people, splashing in the sea. He watched them for several minutes, then leaving the terrace, he entered Radnitz’s study. He sat down at the desk and began to re-read the notes Radnitz had left him. When Lindsey had an operation in his lap, he concentrated his whole mind on it. This was the trickiest operation he had been given. It involved a madman and four million dollars. For the first time since he had worked for Radnitz, he wondered, uneasily if he would succeed.
    Sheila Latimer was Keegan’s slave.
    The previous summer, she had been the runner up for a Miss Florida competition, and would have won it had she been willing to have slept with two or three of the judges.
    Chet Keegan was fond of young, well built girls. When he wasn’t working with Silk, he was roaming around, looking for likely material to corrupt.
    Any local beauty competition was his happy hunting ground. He had regarded Sheila Latimer with approval. She was tall, beautifully built, blonde with big blue eyes and full curved, red lips. What he didn’t realize was that she was not only a virgin, but frightened of sex.
    He