The Killing Read online

  Chapter One

  The aggressive determination on his long, bony face was in sharp contrast to the short, smal -boned body which he used as a wedge to shoulder his way slowly through the hurrying crowd of stragglers rushing through the wide doors to the grandstand.

  Marvin Unger was only vaguely aware of the emotional y pitched voice coming over the public address system. He was very alert to everything taking place around him, but he didn't need to hear that voice to know what was happening. The sudden roar of the thousands out there in the hot, yel ow, afternoon sunlight made it quite clear. They were off in the fourth race.

  Unconsciously his right hand tightened around the thick packet of tickets he had buried in the side pocket of his linen jacket. The tension was purely automatic. Of the hundred thousand and more persons at the track that afternoon, he alone felt no thril as the twelve thoroughbreds left the post for the big race of the day.

  Turning into the abruptly deserted lobby of the clubhouse, his tight mouth relaxed in a wry smile. He would, in any case, cash a winning ticket. He had a ten dol ar win bet on every horse in the race.

  In the course of his thirty-seven years, Unger had been at a track less than half a dozen times. He was total y disinterested in horse racing; in fact, had never gambled at al . He had a neat, orderly mind, a very clear sense of logic and an inbred aversion to al “sporting events.” He considered gambling not only stupid, but strictly a losing proposition. Fifteen years as a court stenographer had given him frequent opportunity to see what usual y happened when men place their faith in luck in opposition to definitely established mathematical odds.

  He didn't look up at the large electric tote board over the soft drink stand, the board which showed the final change in odds as the horses broke from the starting gate and raced down the long straight stretch in front of the clubhouse, on the first lap of the mile and a half classic.

  Passing down the almost endless line of deserted pay-off windows, waiting like silent sentinels for the impatient queues of holders of the lucky tickets, Unger continued toward the open bar at the end of the clubhouse. He walked at a normal pace and kept his sharp, observant eyes straight ahead.

  He didn't want to appear conspicuous. Although Clay had told him the Pinkerton men would be out in the stands during the running of each race, he took no chances. One could never tel .

  When he reached the bar and saw the big heavy-set man with the shock of white hair, standing alone at one end, he shook his head almost imperceptibly. He had expected him to be there; Clay had said he would. But stil and al , he experienced an odd sense of surprise. It was strange, that after four years, Clay should have known.

  The others, the three apron clad bartenders and the cashier who had left his box at the center of the long bar, stood in a smal tight group at the end, near the opened doors leading out to the stands. They were straining to hear the words coming over the loud-speaker as the announcer fol owed the race.

  There was a towel in the ham-like hand of the big man who stood alone and he was casual y wiping up the bar and putting empty and half empty glasses in the stainless steel sink under it.

  Unger stopped directly in front of him. He took the scratch sheet from his coat pocket and laid it on the damp counter, and then leaned on it with one elbow. The big man looked up at him, his wide, flat face careful y devoid of al expression.

  “I would like a bottle of Heineken's,” Unger said in his cool, precise voice.

  “No Heineken's.” The voice grated like a steel file, but also contained a gruff, good-natured undertone. “Can give you Mil er's or Bud.”

  Unger nodded.

  “Mil er's,” he said.

  When the bottle and glass was placed in front of him, the bartender spoke, casual y.

  “Favorite broke bad—could be anybody's race.”

  “It could be,” Unger said.

  The big man leaned forward so that his paunch leaned heavily against the thick wide mahogany separating them. He kept his voice low and spoke in a conversational tone.

  “He's in the ten win window, third one down, next to the six dol ar combination.”

  Unger, when he answered, spoke in a slightly louder tone than was necessary.

  “It is a big crowd,” he said.

  He drank half his beer and turned away.

  This whole thing, this extreme caution on Clay's part, was beginning to strike him as a little foolish. Clay was playing it much too cagey. The man must have some sort of definite anxiety complex. Wel , he supposed that was natural enough. Four years in state's prison would tend to make him a trifle neurotic.

  The studiously hysterical voice of the announcer came alive in a high, intense pitch of excitement, but at once the context of his words was lost as the roar of the vast crowd swel ed and penetrated the amphitheater of the al but deserted clubhouse.

  Over and above the anonymous thunder of the onlookers, isolated, frenzied cries and sharp, wild islands of laughter reached the little man's ears.

  Too, there was the usual undercurrent of groans and the reverberations of thousands of stamping feet. And then there was the din as a terrific cheer went up.

  Unger made his way, unhurriedly, once more toward the wide doors leading to the stands.

  With definite interest, but no sense of expectancy, his eyes went to the tote board in the center of the infield. Number eight had been posted as the winner. The red letters of the photo finish sign showed for second place. As the horses which had reached the neighborhood of the third pole slowed to a halt and turned back toward the finish line, Marvin Unger shrugged and turned to re-enter the clubhouse. He went at once to the men's room, hurrying in ahead of the crowd.

  Placing a dime in the slot, he entered a private toilet. He sat on the closed seat and took the handful of pasteboards from his pocket. Quickly he found the ticket on the number eight horse. He placed it on top of the others and then, removing his fountain pen from the breast pocket of his jacket, he careful y wrote on the margin of the ticket.

  It took him not more than twenty seconds.

  Getting to his feet, he tore the remaining tickets in two and scattered them on the floor. He then left the booth. He hadn't waited, outside there in the grandstand, to see what price the number eight horse paid. He had used his own money to place his bets, and although he was ordinarily an extremely prudent man as far as financial matters were concerned, he real y wasn't interested. Irrespective of what the horse paid off, it must be considered a negligible sum.

  After al , a few dol ars could mean very little to a man who was thinking in terms of vastly larger amounts. A man who was thinking in the neighborhood of say a mil ion to two mil ion.

  Moving toward the rapidly forming lines at the pay-off windows, Unger thought again of Clay. He wished that it was Clay himself who was doing this.

  But then, in al fairness, he had to admit that Clay had been right. It would have been far too risky for him to have appeared at the track. Fresh out of prison after doing that stretch and on probation even now, he would almost be sure to be recognized.

  As a smal cog in the metropolitan judicial system, Marvin Unger had a great deal of respect for the forces of law and order. He knew only too wel the precautions Clay would have to take. His appearance, and recognition, at the track would be more than sufficient to put him back behind bars as a parole violator.

  Unger once more reflected that Clay was unusual y cautious. However, that element of caution in the man's character was al for the best. Even this more or less cloak and dagger method of making the initial contacts might prove to be the safest plan. They couldn't be too careful.

  Regardless of the logic of his reasoning, he stil resented being the instrument used. He would have preferred that the other man assume the ris
ks.

  He found a place behind a large, perspiring woman in a crumpled print dress, who fanned herself futilely with a half dozen yel ow tickets, as the long line slowly moved toward the gril ed window. It was the ten dol ar pay-off window, the third one, and the one next to the six dol ar combination.

  The fat woman had made a mistake and she was told to take her tickets, which were two dol ar tickets, to another window. She protested but the cashier, in a tired and bored voice, final y straightened her out. The annoyance of having to start al over at the end of another long line, however, failed to wipe the good-natured expression from her heavy face. She was stil very happy that she had picked the winner.

  Unger looked up at the face of the man behind the iron gril work as he pushed his single win ticket across the counter. The ticket was faced down.

  Without apparently observing him, the man's hand reached for the ticket and he turned it over and looked at it for just a second. Expressionless, he tore off one corner and then careful y compared it with the master ticket under the rubber at his right. As he did so he memorized the writing which Unger had put on the ticket in the men's room.

  His face was stil completely without expression as he read: “712 East 31st Street room 4118 o'clock.”

  A moment later he tossed the ticket into a wicker basket under the counter and his lean, agile fingers leafed through several bil s.

  “Fifty-eight twenty,” he said in a monotonous voice, shoving the money under the gril .

  For the first time he looked up at Unger and he was unable to completely conceal the glint of curiosity in his faded, gray-blue eyes. But he gave no other sign.

  Unger took the money and careful y put it in his trouser pocket before turning away from the window.

  Clay is being overcautious, he thought, as he went out through the clubhouse and into the stands. It would have been safe enough for that bloated, red-faced Irishman back of the bar to have given the man the address. However, Clay had insisted that he knew what he was doing. He wanted to take no chances at al .

  Marvin Unger remembered Clay's words when he, Marvin, had protested that the whole thing had seemed far too complicated.

  “You don't know race tracks,” he had said. “Everybody is watched, the bartenders, the waiters, the cleanup men—everybody. Particularly the cashiers. It wil be dangerous enough to have us al get together in town—we can't take any chances of arousing suspicion by having Big Mike and Peatty seen talking together at the track.”

  Wel , at least it was arranged. Peatty had the address now and Big Mike also had it. It had been written on the edge of the scratch sheet which Unger had left on the bar when he had finished his beer.

  Unconsciously he belched and the thin corners of his mouth tightened at once in annoyance. He didn't like beer; in fact he very rarely drank at al .

  Unger sat far back in the grandstands during the rest of the day's card. He made no other bets. A quick mental calculation informed him that he was already out approximately sixty dol ars or more as a result of his activities. It bothered him and he couldn't help resenting the expenditure. It was a lot of money to throw away for a man who made slightly less than five thousand a year. It was a damned nuisance, he thought, that Clay lacked the money to finance the thing himself. On the other hand, he had to admit that had Clay possessed the necessary capital, he, Marvin Unger, would never have been taken in on the deal.

  He shrugged it off and stopped thinking about it. What, indeed, would a few hundred or a couple of thousand mean in comparison to the vast sum of money which was involved? His final thought on the subject was that he was lucky in at least one respect—he might have to put up the expenses but at least he wouldn't have to be in on the violence. He wouldn't have to face the gunfire which would almost be sure to take place when the plan was ultimately consummated.

  His natural y aggressive personality, the normal complement of smal stature and the inferiority complex he suffered as the result of an avocation which he considered far beneath his natural intel ectual abilities, didn't encompass the characteristic of unusual physical courage. His aggressiveness was largely a matter of a deep-seated distaste for his fel ow man and a sneering condescension toward their activities and pastimes.

  Waiting stolidly until the end of the last race, Marvin Unger joined the thousands rushing pel -mel from the track to crowd into the special trains which carried the winners and losers alike back from Long Island to Manhattan.

  He reached his furnished rooms on Thirty-first Street, on the fourth floor of the smal apartment house, shortly after seven o'clock, having stopped off first for dinner.

  * * *

  Michael Aloysious Henty was exceptional y busy for the first twenty minutes after the finish of the last race. The usual winners stood five and six deep, cal ing for Scotch and rye and Bourbon and anxious to get in a last drink or two before joining the lines in front of the pay-off windows. The excitement of having won was stil in them and the talk was loud and boisterous. A few of the last minute customers, however, leaned against the bar and morosely tore their losing tickets into tiny fragments before scattering them to the floor where they joined the tens of thousands of other discarded pasteboards which had been disgustedly thrown away by those without the foresight to select the winning horse.

  Big Mike always hated this last half hour of his job. There was far too much work for the four of them and then there was always the argument with the half dozen or so customers who wished to linger on past closing time. Even after the final drink had been served, there was the bar to be cleaned up, the glasses to be washed and the endless chores of getting the place in order. Invariably the bartenders missed the last special train of the day and would have to wait an extra twenty or twenty-five minutes to get a regularly scheduled train back to New York.

  Mike was always in a hurry to get on that train. He was an inveterate gambler and in spite of endless years of consistently losing more than half of his weekly pay check on the horses, he stil had a great deal of difficulty knowing just where he stood at the close of the last race. He had no mind for figures at al .

  Of course, as an employee of the track—or at least of the concessionaire who had the bar franchise at the track—he wasn't al owed to make bets at the regular windows. Instead, each night he would dope the fol owing day's events and then in the morning, on his way to work, he'd drop off at the bookie's and place his bets. A solid, dependable man in spite of his weakness for the horses, he was given credit by his bookmaker and usual y settled up at the end of the week when he received his salary check.

  It was during the long train ride home that he would take out his scratch sheet and start figuring out how he had made out on the day. On this particular day, he was more than normal y anxious to begin figuring. Because of what happened—of Clay getting in touch with him and the excitement and everything—he had been a little too optimistic and bet a good deal heavier than usual.

  He knew that he had lost on the day, but he wasn't quite sure how much. Not only had he a poor mind for figures, but he couldn't remember pay-off prices from one minute to the next. He was only sure of one thing; he had bet a total of wel over two hundred dol ars on the afternoon's races and only one of his horses had come in.

  There was a deep frown on his smooth forehead as he thought about it. And then, oddly enough, the same fragment of a thought passed through his mind which had passed through that of Marvin Unger.

  What the hel was a few dol ars, after al , in comparison to the hundreds of thousands which had preoccupied his mind these last few days?

  Big Mike was suddenly aware of a commotion at the end of the bar and he looked down to see a tal slender girl who couldn't have been more than nineteen or twenty, laughing hysterical y. The girl screamed something to her companion, a fat, middle-aged man with a bald perspiring head, and then, with a snake-like movement, she lifted the tal glass in her hand and dumped the contents down the front of the man's gaily flowered sport shirt.

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sp; Two of the other boys were already straightening things out and a private track policeman was rapidly moving toward the group, so Mike turned back to the work in front of him.

  There was a look of stern reproach on his wide, flat face. Big Mike was a moral and straight-laced man, in spite of a weakness for playing the horses and an even greater weakness for over excess in eating. Sixty years old, a good Catholic and the father of a teen-aged daughter, he highly disapproved of the younger generation. Particularly that segment of it he saw each day lined up at the bar in front of himself.

  Automatical y he picked up a handful of used glasses from the bar and went back to thinking of money. Once more he thought of that vast sum—a mil ion, perhaps even two mil ion dol ars. And then, from the money, his mind went to Johnny Clay.

  Johnny Clay was a good boy. In spite of the four years in prison, in spite of his criminal record and everything else, Johnny was stil a good boy.

  Mike's vanity had been very pleased when Johnny had remembered him from the old days and had looked him up, once he was out of prison and back in circulation.

  Big Mike had known Johnny from the time he was a tow-headed kid on the Avenue, when Mike himself was behind the stick at Costel o's old bar and gril . Even in those days, when he had been stil in knee pants, Johnny had been wild. But his heart had always been in the right place. He'd been smart, too. A natural-born leader.

  Mike remembered him later, when he'd begun to hang around the bar and play the juke box. He'd never been a fresh kid and he drank very little. He'd never given Mike any trouble at al .

  Of course Big Mike hadn't approved of the way Johnny got by. There was no doubt but what he'd been on the wrong side of the law. And Mike had been pretty upset when the cops had final y picked up young Johnny and put him away on that robbery rap.

  It was only in recent years that Mike had become a little more liberal in his thinking. The endless poverty of his life and his constant struggle to get along on a bartender's salary—a salary which he invariably shared with a series of bookmakers—had embittered and soured him. When he thought of al that money which went through the gril ed windows of the track every day, he began to wonder if there would be real y anything wrong in diverting some of it in his own direction.