When we got to the Street door I rammed his gun into his back. “Don’t start anything, brother,” I said. “We’ve got nothing to lose and I’d like the chance of putting a slug into you.”
He hobbled across the pavement and got into the car. I got in beside him and Ackie got under the wheel.
“If there’s any liquor left,” I said, “I guess a slug apiece wouldn’t come hard.”
Ackie groped around and shook his head. “There ain’t none,” he said dispiritedly. “Ain’t that hell?”
“Well, go on… the sooner we get this bird put away the better.”
During the run to the station house I was busy thinking. The first thing I’d got to do was to find Mardi. Nothing else mattered as long as I found her. Then I’d got to find enough evidence to bust up Spencer. If I wanted a clear field, I’d gotta do that within twenty-four hours. Not an easy programme, but I guess I had to do it.
If Spencer hadn’t kidnapped Mardi, who had? I might be wrong thinking that Spencer hadn’t done it, but Katz hadn’t known anything about it, and Katz was Spencer’s right-hand man. Maybe the fat guy and Gus had pulled it, but even then Katz would have known about it. And that was one thing I was sure about. Katz knew nothing about it at all.
I suddenly remembered. I could see Mardi’s frightened face and I remembered what she had said. “You don’t know Sarah Spencer. I’m scared. She’s dangerous. She won’t stop at anything.”
Sarah Spencer! I sat up. Was she at the bottom of all this? Was it she who had taken Mardi away from me? The more I thought about it, the more likely it seemed to be. By the time we got to the station I was itching to get after that dame.
Ackie drove round to the back entrance and got out. “You stay here,” he said. “I want to see if the coast’s clear.”