Ed McBain by Learning to Kill: Stories Read Free Book Online

lives on the seventh floor. I spot this guy up ahead of me, and he's walking with a limp and right off I start thinking of the guys in the neighborhood who limp, and all I come up with is Carl. And then I remember Harry."
    "There must be a million guys who limp."
    "Sure, but name me another one, dad. Anyway, I get a look at his face. It was Harry."
    "How'd you see his face?"
    "He went up the seventh floor, too. I was knocking on Louise's door, and this guy with the limp goes down the end of the hall and sticks a key in the latch. Then he remembers I'm behind him, and he turns to cop a look, and that's when I see his face. It was Harry, all right."
    "What'dyoudo?"
    "Nothing. I turned away fast so he wouldn't see I spotted him. Man, that cat's wanted in more states..."
    "You tell Louise this?"
    "No."
    "You sure?"
    "Dad, I'm sure." Aiello looked at me peculiar, and then he turned his eyes away.
    "Who'd you tell, A?"
    "Nobody. Danny, I swear it on my mother's eyes. You the first one I'm talking to."
    "How'd he look?" I said.
    "Harry? Oh, fine. He. looked fine, Danny."
    "Whyn't you tell me sooner?"
    "I just now seen you!" Aiello complained.
    "Whyn't you look for me?"
    "I don't know. I was busy."
    "Doing what? Standing in a doorway?"
    "I was..." Aiello paused. "I was looking for you. I figured you'd come by."
    "How'd you figure that?"
    "Well, I figured once the word leaked, you'd be around."
    "How'd the word leak if you're the only one knows it?"
    "Well, I figured..."
    Aiello stopped talking, and I stopped listening. We both heard it at the same time, the high scream of a squad car siren.
    "Cops," I said.
    And then we heard another siren, and then the whole damn block was being busted up all at once, sirens screaming down on it from all the side streets.

    In fifteen minutes, every damn cop in the city was on our block. They put up their barricades, and they hung around behind their cars while they figured what to do. I spotted Donlevy in the bunch, too, strutting around like a big wheel. He had me in once because some jerk from the Blooded Royals took a slug from a zip gun, and he figured it was one of my boys who done it, and he tried to hang it on me. I told Donlevy where he could hang his phony rap, and I also told him he better not walk alone on our block after dark or he'd be using his shield for a funeral emblem. He kicked me in the butt, and told me I was the one better watch out, so I spit at his feet and called him a name my old man always uses, and Donlevy wasn't hip to it so he didn't get too sore, even though he knew I was cursing.
    So he was there, too, making like a big wheel, with his tin pinned to his coat so that everybody could know he was a cop. All the bulls were wearing their tin outside, so you could tell them from the people who were just watching. There were a lot of people in the streets now, and the cops kept shoving them back behind the barricades which they'd set up in front of the building where Harry was. It didn't take an Einstein to figure that somebody'd blown the whistle on Harry and that the bulls were ready to try for a pinch. Only thing, I figured, they didn't know whether he was heeled or not, and so they were making their strategy behind their cars, afraid to show their stupid faces in case he
was
heeled. I'd already sent Aiello for the boys, and I hung around on the outside of the crowd now because I didn't want Donlevy to spot me and start getting wise. Also, there were a lot of bulls all over the place, and outside of the tin you couldn't tell the bulls from the people without a scorecard, and nobody was selling scorecards. So when a bull's back was turned and the tin couldn't be seen, he looked just like anybody else, and Christ knows which bull had spotted me somewhere doing something or other, and I didn't want to take chances until all the boys were with me.
    There was a lot of uniformed brass around the cars, too, and they all talked it up, figuring who was going to be the first to