The time was 11.20. Just time for a couple more drinks. Those guys belted their rye like they expected to die themselves.
Outside, we crowded into three cars that were waiting to take us to the prison. Hughson, Hackenschmidt and I, with two other guys, got in the first car. Hughson drove and I sat beside him.
When he’d got the car moving, he said: “Why the interest, Nick?”
I grinned in the darkness. Hughson was a cagy bird, but he wasn’t getting anything from me. “Why not?” I asked him. “Vessi made a big noise, didn’t he? I thought I’d see him go. Anyway, this gas stunt’s a new one on me.”
Hughson swung the car past an overloaded truck.
“Not much you miss, is there?”
I shrugged. “I get by.”
“Think Vessi did it?”
I grinned again. “Don’t you?”
Hughson swore softly: “Listen, you bum, if there’s anything behind this, let me have it. I’ve done things for you, an’ I guess—”