5 Detective Novels Magazine — page 94: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

94 can,” he told her savagely. “If your arm- busts, it’s your fault, not mine. And if you let out a yell, we'll gag you and use matches on your feet. You might as well save yourself the agony and come clean.” She didn’t answer. Brg Jake continued to turn her wrist. She twisted her body in a vain effort to relieve the tension. Big Jake only twisted harder. “All right,” she groaned. “Let go. I’ll come clean.” Big Jake relaxed the pressure a little. “Tt’s—underneath the dresser—in my bedroom,” she gasned. “Stuck to the boards on the bottom—with Scotch tape.” Lippy wheeled and went into the bed- room. There was a big grin on his face when he returned. He held up the neck- lace. “That does it.” he gloated. “Fair enough,” Big Jake said. He let go of the girl’s wrist and stepped back. “We got some tape ourselves,” he told her. “We might need a little leeway. We'll tape you up light so you can get loose in a few minutes. All right, Gus. Fix her up.” Gus moved over, pulling a roll of tape from his pocket. Quickly he lashed her arms to the arms of the chair and her ankles to the legs. He finished by gag- ging her. “No hard feelings,” Big Jake told her as they prepared to leave. “Just one of those breaks. Now you stay right here and be a good girl. One of us will slip you a grand for getgway money just as soon as we can peddle the brights.” The three men opened the door, filed out, closed the door behind them. The girl began to sway her body as she sought to loosen the tape that held her wrists. Joseph Malik sat in his private office. From time to time he glanced expectant- ly at his phone as though he might be awaiting a word of good news. He didn’t hear the door of his office open, didn’t realize that he had a visitor until he looked up and saw the girl. OR a moment he blinked and stared. Then he frowned hard. “T told you not to come here again!” he snapped in a highly irritated tone. “I told you I’d get in touch with you when I was ready to talk to you again.” As FIVE DETECTIVE NOVELS MAGAZINE he spoke, he turned his head and looked sharply through the little window that viewed the salesroom of his shop. But his pasty-faced clerk was not in sight. “You needn’t get excited about it, Malik,” she said soberly. “Even if the cops walked in on us now, they wouldn’t have a thing on us. J don’t have that Staunton necklace on me.” “Well, I’m glad of that, at least,” Malik said. He tried to conceal his ela- tion. His scheme had worked out. Big Jake had carried out his share of the plan. Malik leaned back in his chair and relaxed, even permitted himself a slight smile as he looked at his victim. Some- how she looked better now. The neat gray suit she wore was becoming, and she. had been more careful with the make-up this time. She was really a neat number, he thought. Too bad she was so dumb. “If the cops ever caught you with that necklace, it would be just too bad,” he concluded. “The cops haven’t a chance to catch me with it now, Malik,” she said evenly. “Because I haven’t got it. A while ago three very tough customers walked in on me at my apartment. In some way they had managed to find out a little about me and get my address. They knew I had the necklace. It wasn’t too hard for them to put pressure on and take it away from me.” “You don’t say!” Malik exclaimed in simulated sympathy. “Well, that news- paper story was probably read by every mobster in town. And some of ’em have ways of finding out things. Some of ’em may even have had a line on you before you pulled that job. This pal of yours may have got acquainted with some of the local boys.” “T’m quite sure that he didn’t, Malik,” she returned. “This mob that took the necklace from me said they had phoned Chicago and got a line on me through a pal there after they had read the news- paper story. But I knew better than that. They were just trying to make it look good.” “You think somebody tipped them off?” Malik said blandly. “Maybe some- body in the building where you live had got ideas.” She slowly shook her head. “It wasn’t anybody in the building, Malik. It was GOmMiGcbdoo CS