Deadly Weapon by Wade Miller Read Free Book Online Page B

his coat carefully in the closet. Then he sat down at the desk and took off his tie. His fountain pen scratched out three names on a piece of paper.
    Laura Gilbert
    Shasta Lynn
    Ethel Lantz
    Suddenly, he crossed bold lines through the outside names and sat looking at the remaining two words. He lit a cigarette and puffed a cloud of smoke over the one last name. The cloud swirled a moment and melted away into the shadows of the room.
    Shasta Lynn.

7
. Sunday, September 24, 11:00 A.M.
    A T PRECISELY ELEVEN O’CLOCK , Walter James pushed his slim hand against AUSTIN CLAPP HOMICIDE and sauntered into the small office. Clapp was snuggling a telephone receiver against his head.
    “ — guilty as all hell. But it’ll take time. Bye.” He cradled the receiver and grinned broadly. “Just talking about you, James. Have part of a chair.”
    Walter James sat on the corner of the desk with one foot on the floor and lit a cigarette.
    “Get a good night’s rest?”
    “What there was of it. Where’s the girl? Didn’t she come with you?”
    “No. She didn’t come with me. I told her to get some sleep and you’d call her if you needed her.”
    “That’s okay, too,” Clapp agreed. “A killing that doesn’t break in twelve hours generally takes a week at least. Funny how that time lag always works out — must be mathematics.”
    “Did you get all your wires off to Atlanta and Denver?’ the slender man asked. His blue eyes were intent on a hibiscus blossom nodding through the window.
    Clapp squinted curiously. “Yes. What makes you so sure I wired Denver?”
    “You’re no fool, Clapp,” Walter James announced indulgently, “You figure that if my partner was following a lead to San Diego while on a trip to Denver, he might very well have had some ideas about Denver, too.”
    “Is that the way you figure?”
    “That’s the way we both figure.”
    “How long did you stop over in Denver on your way out here?”
    “I didn’t. I took Highway 66.”
    “Weren’t you interested in Denver?”
    “My lead was in San Diego. Also, I have a saving nature. I’ll let you send all the long and involved telegrams to the Denver authorities and charge it to the San Diego taxpayers.”
    “The taxpayers are getting their money’s worth. The wires were long and involved all right.” Clapp reared back in his chair and stretched. “Jesus! How I’d like a day off!”
    Walter James smiled gently,. “Why? This is your life work. What would you rather be doing?”
    “Deep-sea fishing. Like albacore?”
    “I can’t remember ever having any.”
    “Fine stuff.” After a moment the big man brought his thoughts back to Walter James. “Well, you’re anxious to know what happened this morning.”
    “I’m interested.”
    Clapp leaned forward and thrummed his big fingers on the green blotter. “I checked with Jim Crane. You know, he inventoried the audience last night. He says there were quite a few drunks but no one was reefed up. Course, if they’d been smoking the stuff and drinking, too, it’d be a little hard to tell. And he wasn’t looking for that angle particularly.”
    “Were there any known characters in the house last night?”
    “Only one that Jim found, and Jim’s a pretty sharp boy. It was a jig that got mixed up in a straight-edge brawl up at Front and Market a few months ago. But he was buried in the center section. Jim checked the customers all around him. Naturally, there were the usual number of drunk tank patrons.”
    “Any ex-Atlanta citizens drifted in here lately?”
    “No. Not with guns on them at any rate.” Clapp snorted. “You don’t know our town very well. We got a tourist trade to keep up and they’re not the kind that go for that sort of thing.”
    “Any of your local boys play with 45’s?”
    “No. And for the same reason. We don’t have much of any gang trouble down here, James.”
    Walter James ground his cigarette out against the inside of the wastebasket and watched the sparks die