“Sure, he’s the hottest thing I’ve seen.”
“That’s Earl Katz,” Ackie said. “Well! Well!”
I shook my head. “That’s a new one on me.”
“Yeah, you wouldn’t know him. He’s a bad guy all right. One of Lu Spencer’s gunmen.”
I put my glass on the bar with a sharp little click. “Lu Spencer?” I said.
Ackie nodded. “Yeah… looks to me like they’re watchin’ you already.”
“What makes Hank get the jitters about a dope like that?” I asked.
“Katz a dope?” Ackie wagged his bullet head. “You’re crazy. That guy’s as deadly as a rattlesnake. Don’t go gettin’ ideas about him. Why, Hank and the rest of us are scared sick of him.”
I took another poke at the rye. “Well, I don’t mind telling you,” I said quietly, “that guy ain’t goin’ to make me nervous.”
Ackie shrugged. “You wait till you know him,” he said.