Bring Him Back Dead

Bring Him Back Dead by Day Keene Read Free Book Online Page A

Book: Bring Him Back Dead by Day Keene Read Free Book Online
Authors: Day Keene
his time or what he hoped to do in the United States, besides sponging off Latour, was an unknown factor.
    I ought to throw him out on his can, Latour thought.
    Georgi heard him in the hallway and turned. There was a hurt tone to his voice. “The whisky is almost gone,” he complained.
    “Take it up with the U.N.,” Latour said. “Or, better still, break down and buy a few bottles.” He glanced at the rifle on the wall. “And while we’re at it, did you use my rifle today?”
    Georgi drank what was left of the whisky. “As a matter of fact, I did. I took the gun down to that marshy place and killed several large water rodents. What is it you call them in this country? Muskrats?” He added virtuously, “But I cleaned the gun after I shot it.”
    “So I noticed.” Latour took a four-cell flashlight from his neatly stacked hunting equipment and walked through the house, across the open gallery to his car.
    Georgi was still the candidate for the honor of being the man who’d shot at him four times. Georgi hated his guts and his hate showed like a red flag every time they had occasion to speak to each other.
    Georgi would be very pleased to light a candle for him.

Chapter Seven
    L ATOUR FORCED HIMSELF to think logically. True, with him dead, Olga would be free to marry again. But Georgi couldn’t be the man who’d fired the shots. The man in the cane brake would have to know the back country around French Bayou. He had to know that Latour would pass the Lacosta land on his return from smashing Lant Turner’s still. It had to be someone who’d known he was serving a warrant on Turner.
    He parked his car across the street from the Planters’ Hotel and climbed the carpeted stairs off the lobby. As he’d hoped, Tom Mullen was sitting in the high-stake poker game in Suite IA.
    The other players were local businessmen and oil-company officials. Several pretty girls, most of them in their slips, were kibitzing the game. One was the little brunette who’d laughed at him on the walk.
    Latour imagined that from time to time, to change his luck, a player would take a girl into the bedroom provided for that purpose. It was much more satisfactory than walking around a chair.
    When the brunette saw Latour she squealed with delight. “Jiggers, it’s that man. The joint is pinched.”
    The players were too intent on the game even to look up from their cards. Latour waited until Mullen, faced with a raise he didn’t want to meet, tossed in his hand, then asked him if he could speak to him privately.
    The first deputy pushed back his chair. “Of course.” Mullen led the way into the temporarily unoccupied bedroom. “What’s on your mind, Andy?” He motioned to a chair. “Sit down.”
    Latour straddled the chair. “I was just wondering if, after I left the office this afternoon to pick up Turner, anyone happened to drop in and ask where I was.”
    Mullen lighted his dead cigar. “Frankly, I don’t remember. We were fairly busy this afternoon. Why?”
    “I’m still thinking about those shots someone took at me.
    Mullen was impatient with him. “For God’s sake, Andy, are you still off on that kick? When you push people around the way you do, you can’t expect everyone to like you.”
    “I’m just doing what I’m paid to do.”
    “You don’t have to be so enthusiastic about it. Take Lant Turner, for example. I tried to give you a break. I tried to let you make yourself a few dollars. I said it was up to you whether or not you brought him in. I made it clear that all I was interested in was putting him out of business. Am I right so far?”
    “You are.”
    “So what do you do? You bring him in. And now one of the young punks in Jean Avart’s office, one of those eager young beavers that Jean brought down from New Orleans to take some of the paper work off his shoulders, has bailed him out. For two hundred dollars cash. Jean probably got another hundred for drawing up the writ. And the odds are ten to one

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