I said slowly, “It wouldn’t be Vessi’s moll, would it?”
Ackie looked suddenly uncomfortable. “Listen, Nick,” he said, “I like you, but I’ve got to keep out of this… do you understand? You go ahead if you want a funeral on your hands, but you’ve gotta keep me out of it.”
“All right, all right,” I said, “Forget it. I’ll look into this on my own.”
Ackie nodded. “You’re the sorta guy who might crack this without gettin’ hurt.”
A nice line in comfort this guy had got, I thought. I looked at my watch. It was getting on for lunchtime. “Okay, Mo,” I said, “I’ll be seeing you.” I left him giving himself another rye.
I stood on the kerb thinking. It was a theory of mine to take the fight always to the other guy. I was not quite sure if I was going to be right this time. Maybe I’d start something that I couldn’t finish. I didn’t know. Then I thought I might as well go ahead and see what happened, so I signalled a taxi and told the driver to take me to the Hoffman Building quick.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE TAXI TURNED me loose outside the Hoffman Building, and I took the elevator to the tenth floor.
The Mackenzie Fabric Corporation was some joint. The entrance was the finest exhibition for chromium wear I’d seen all in one spot, and, once inside, I nearly sank up to my knees in the pile of the carpet. The big reception lobby was as busy as a main-line railway station. At the far end I could make out the reception-desk, that was pretty near swamped by a crowd of shouting men, yelling to see Mr. Someone or other.
I stood inside the door, taking a look around. Every now and then a dame would come out of a room and flounce across the lobby. They were all hand-picked, and I began to think I wouldn’t mind having a job of work here myself.