Dig My Grave Deep

  Dig My Grave Deep

  Peter Rabe

  * * *

  Dig My Grave Deep

  Peter Rabe

  This page formatted 2007 Blackmask Online.

  http://www.blackmask.com

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  * * *

  Chapter One

  At seven in the morning he turned over in bed and woke up. There was a cup of cold coffee on the night-stand next to his bed. He swung his legs to the floor, drank the coffee, and looked across the room with no show of interest. He could have lived there a week or a year—the room didn't tell—or maybe he didn't spend time there. He put the empty cup down and went to take a shower, after which he got dressed. At seven-thirty, when he opened the door to go out, the phone started ringing. It rang three times while he looked at it and moved his mouth to whistle. He walked out of the room and closed the door. The phone was still ringing when he went downstairs.

  After a two-block walk he stopped at the glass and tile front with the big sign that saidUnited and went in. There was a well-groomed girl behind the counter who smiled at him happily, because that's how she'd been trained.

  “Daniel Port,” he said to the girl. “Reservation on your noon flight to New York.”

  She got it ready and said, “Are you paying for it now?” and then she took his two large bills and gave him a little bit of change. When he walked out, the girl smiled at him the way she had been trained, but Port wasn't paying attention. He wondered what he should do between now and noon, and whether it wouldn't have been better to leave town some other way. It was eight in the morning and he felt hungry. When he found that there wasn't enough change in his pocket he decided to go back to his room for some money.

  His door wasn't locked, but that wasn't unusual.

  He closed the door and said, “Why don't you give up, Stoker?”

  Stoker was short, and big around the middle. There was much loose skin in his face, like when a fat man goes on a sudden diet. The skin had the flush that comes from a bad heart. Stoker was sitting, and the other man stood next to his chair. He was the same size as Daniel Port, but very stringy, with no show of muscle. He kept his face in a tight scowl, except when it broke because of the tic under one eye.

  “If it were up to Fries,” said Stoker, and he gave the man next to him a look that was tired, “I wouldn't have come.”

  “Why did you?” said Port.

  “You didn't answer,” and Stoker looked at the phone.

  “You got my answer. The last time you got my answer was yesterday.”

  “I remember.”

  They looked at each other for a moment, and then Daniel Port went to the closet and pulled out a suitcase. The rest of the closet was empty. He put the suitcase on the bed, opened it up, and took out some money. He closed the suitcase and looked back at Stoker, who had been watching without a word.

  “You want to hear it again?” said Port.

  “Better I didn't hear you the first time, Danny.”

  Daniel Port sat down on the bed and pulled out a cigarette and lit it. He couldn't say anything new because he had told Stoker all there was to be said several times before.

  “Nobody walks out,” said Fries. “Not even the fair-haired boy of the old man himself.”

  “Don't say that,” said Stoker.

  Fries reacted as if he had been insulted. It was a habit with him. He controlled himself and said, “Look at the closet, empty, and the suitcase there—”

  “Don't call me old man,” said Stoker. Then he turned to Daniel Port and looked him straight in the face. “About the rest, he's right, Danny. You don't walk out.”

  “I'm not walking out. I'm leaving.”

  “Nobody leaves,” said Fries. “Did you ever hear of somebody leaving?”

  “No—not before me.” The way Port said it, without trying for any effect, Stoker and Fries both knew that he meant it. Stoker made his face go tired because he had to stay calm all the time. Only the flush in his skin started to waver.

  Fries said, “You're so special? You any different from me? Don't forget it, Port, you're just a hood!”

  “Was,” said Port. “I was a hood.”

  Fries leaned forward a little, stretching his mourn to show how disgusted he was. “If I had my way, you sure as hell would be.”

  Daniel Port blew out smoke. He kept his mouth that way to give a tuneless whistle. He mashed out the cigarette in the tray next to the bed and when he was through and got up he was still whistling. The sound was mostly a hiss and he wasn't looking at anybody.

  “I don't want it this way,” said Stoker. “Don't listen to Fries right now. Danny, listen to me.”

  Port stopped the whistling noise and looked at Stoker, who looked pink in the face, but exhausted. Then he smiled at Port. “We still friends, Danny?”

  “Sure,” said Port. “You know that, Max.”

  “So listen to a friend, Danny. I don't want it the way Fries was saying.”

  “I know. But there it is. Either your way, or Fries' way. Right?”

  “Right.”

  “How about my way?”

  Then Stoker got up and went to the door. Fries opened it for him, but Stoker didn't go out yet.

  “Don't leave, Daniel.” He stepped out into the hall, then turned back. “I'm at the office all day. I'll be waiting. Come visit, like a friend.” He walked down the hall, not wanting to talk any more.

  Daniel Port closed the door behind them and went to the window. Stoker's car was in front. It was long and specially built, with a back door that was cut partway into the roof so that a man didn't have to stoop when he got in or out of the car. Stoker got into the back and Fries sat next to the driver. After they drove off, the street was empty. There wouldn't be anyone waiting for Port because Stoker didn't want it that way. He had said so. They had been friends and Stoker would wait for him, because that's the way Stoker wanted to run it. Fries was something else, but Fries wouldn't go against the old man.

  Port remembered mat he hadn't eaten. He left his room without bothering to lock it and went to the diner at the end of the street, where he ordered breakfast. He ordered the coffee first and let it get almost cold before he drank it. Then he walked back to his apartment. There were a few cars on the street, and a cruising taxi came toward Port, who could see the hackie's face, smiling and expectant Port shook his head when the taxi stopped, but the hackie had the rear door open already. Then somebody stepped out of a doorway close by and came up fast. Port had never seen the man before, but when he was close Port hit the man under the heart. He could just see the man gag when Port suddenly felt that his head was coming off.

  Chapter Two

  The sore spot was on the back of his head and because he was lying against the car seat the movement gave him a lot of pain. He must have made a sound, because they were all looking at him when he opened his eyes.

  They were all suntanned; the one who had played the cabby, the wiry man next to the cabby, and the tall one in gray who sat with Port. The cabby turned around again to watch his driving, but the wiry one kept looking at Port over the back of the se
at. He was chewing his lip, and there was a glimmery light in his eyes, hard and mean. Port remembered the man from the street.

  The tall one next to Port said, “Sit still, Daniel.” He didn't hold a gun in his hand, but Port sat back anyway and tried to relax. There was no point trying anything else.

  The cab had left the residential streets, cut through midtown traffic, and headed out through the factory section. If this was a ride to the country, they weren't doing it right. If they wanted the river, or the warehouses, that was the other way. And they weren't going to any of Stoker's places, but perhaps that didn't make sense. It wouldn't make sense for Stoker to pick him up for another talk. The cab turned into the slums. They were getting close to Ward Nine, Stoker's own hot potato, but that wasn't going to help any now. Port knew the place well, all the streets and a lot of the people, but on this ride that wouldn't mean a thing. The man in front had his gun out now and the big one next to Port started to shift. When the cab stopped by the curb they were ready.

  “Now you go out easy, Daniel,” said the big one, “and mind you step where we say to step.”

  Port did as he was told, because the one with the gun was on the sidewalk already and his gun, back in the pocket now, was waiting for Port. The man stood with a crouch, a careful bend of the back, as if he were holding a basket of eggs in front and afraid something might happen to them. The man was still hurting. Port stood on the sidewalk and watched the cabby and the tall one get out. They didn't hurry, but the one with the gun looked eager.

  They had picked their place well. They could have shot him right there by the curb and not caused enough of a stir to worry about. The cabby was locking the car, because of the neighborhood, and Port waited, the gun spiking his back. There was cardboard on broken windows, and in some places there were scrawls making ugly figures on the sidewalk. Port thought that Ward Nine hadn't looked so ugly before; all the colors were lead-gray, as if the sky had a permanent overcast.

  “In here,” said the tall one, and the one with the gun took it up, poking the barrel into the soft flesh next to Port's spine. Port turned and walked to the basement door. There was a girl walking across the street now, watching the men go into the basement but not wondering about it. Port stumbled going down the steps. He waited while the cabby opened the door, and then he walked through. He thought he would like to see the street again, even the way it was, and, once more, the girl across the way.

  The door banged and the cabby leaned against it. Port saw that much. And he made out a chair but nothing else. The room smelled wet.

  “Sit.” The tall one waved at the chair.

  “Let him stand,” said the one with the gun, and the gun came out of his pocket, butt end up. But the tall one reached out for the gun and pulled it free with hardly an effort. He dropped it into his pocket.

  “We only talk, Kirby,” and when Kirby made a quick move for his gun the tall one reached over and gave a push. Kirby stumbled across the room and slammed into the wall.

  If Kirby hadn't been without the gun he wouldn't have stood there, but the tall one kept the gun in his pocket and turned to Port.

  “He's sore on account of that poke you give him. We just came to talk.”

  Port felt the back of his head and said nothing.

  “That's because you hit Kirby,” said the tall one. “Else I wouldn't have clipped you.”

  Kirby came away from the wall and stood by the chair where Port was sitting. Port felt jumpy and it showed.

  “Later,” said the tall one. “Maybe later, Kirby. First we talk.”

  Kirby stepped away from the chair again, but just far enough not to rile the tall one. Port didn't relax. They were so slow about it, making no sense, that Port couldn't think straight. He had to look around the room to shake off the feeling of nowhere, but there was nothing to look at. Just the walls, one high window, and the door where the cabby was leaning. He was unwrapping a stick of gum.

  Port had to say something. “What's your name?” he said to the tall one. “I'm George,” said the tall one. “I'm here to tell you, Daniel, we want you shouldn't leave town.”

  “You working for Fries?”

  “I don't know any Fries.” George treated it like an interruption, very patient about it, and then got back to the subject. “Because you're leaving Stoker...”

  “He sent you himself?”

  George made an annoyed face, but he was still patient. “I never seen Stoker,” he said. It meant nothing.

  “You left him, didn't you?” and George stood in front of the chair, waiting for an answer. Port said, “Why?”

  “Because otherwise I got nothing to talk about.” Port said, “Yes, I left him.” That's what he had wanted to do and if he hadn't said yes, George might have stopped talking too early.

  “It's about the setup you got here in town,” said George. “Stoker's bunch, where you come from, and Bellamy, the one that heads up the Reform party. You know who I mean.”

  Port knew what was coming. The relief he had felt hadn't lasted long, and he almost wished that George had been sent by Stoker. But that wouldn't have made any sense, Stoker pulling an act like this. Instead, he would wait in his office, just as he had said, and wait for Port to come back, because Stoker couldn't believe anything else.

  But Bellamy would. He knew Port less and had more the temperament for a primitive stunt like this.

  “Bellamy wants you,” said George.

  Stoker's loss would be Bellamy's gain. He would think like that. If you don't like Stoker, you got to like Bellamy. What else was there?

  Port started to whistle and sat back in his chair. He waited till he felt that he wasn't going to lose his temper, that he could push it out of the way for a while. He said, “Tell me, George, then why any of this? Why this basement stunt?”

  “Bellamy thought you'd be used to it.”

  “Or if you ain't,” said Kirby, “then Bellamy figured it's time you knew what it's like.”

  “I'm surprised. Shocked and surprised,” said Port. “After all, the Reform party in this town...”

  “She's reforming,” said Kirby.

  “And then you had to come along and spoil it,” said Port. He put his hands in his pockets to hunt for a cigarette, when Kirby swung with his fist Port went blind with the water that shot into his eyes, because the punch had caught the bridge of his nose. A slow pain started to grow, leaving Port awake but feeling weak and alone. He even had room to think of the man who had hit him, what kind of man he must be, and real amazement went through Port's mind. Then the second punch knocked him out.

  There was the bare wall again, then the high window, next to Kirby. This time Kirby was on the chair. And this time he had his gun. The tail end of a conversation went on with George saying something about wasting time and Kirby laughing that it was worth it, that there was nothing to worry about because it had only been the butt end of the gun, not the real McCoy.

  “He's up,” said the cabby at the door. He had a newspaper in his hand, looking over it.

  Kirby stood up and gave Port a kick. Then George was there too. He reached down, took Port by one hand, and pulled him off the floor. It felt worse than the kick. Port leaned against the wall and heard them talking at him.

  “You're making a mistake, Daniel—”

  “Make it again. Come on, sport, make it again—”

  “He wants you to listen to sense. Bellamy says—”

  “One way or the other, sport, have it any way you want—”

  “Not the same deal like this Stoker. Bellamy wants you—”

  “But the works, sport, whichever way—”

  “Kirby,” said Port, “which way is up?”

  They both stopped. They watched Port straighten up, pushing away from the wall.

  “Up? Up what?” said Kirby.

  “Up yours,” and Port swung from low down, catching Kirby under the nose so his head flipped back and then the whole man went over backward.

  George caught h
im in his arms, because he was standing that way, and tossed the limp Kirby right back at Port. George would do something like that. Port had stepped dear and saw Kirby crash into the wall.

  “About our talk,” said Port. He hadn't moved again, watching George, and George didn't come any closer. As long as Port didn't make a wrong move, George wouldn't. That's where Kirby had been different, but now Kirby was out.

  “Bellamy wants you to come over,” said George, “and I'm here to give you the message.”

  “I left Stoker,” said Port, “because I want out I've had mine and now I want out.”

  “You can't leave.”

  “That's what Stoker said.”

  “Forget about Stoker. It's Bellamy now.”

  “I wouldn't do him any good.”

  “He wants you to come over. There's all kinds of dirt on Stoker, and you're the one who would know about it Bellamy...”

  “I told you, George, I'm through with the local dirt.”

  “You selling elsewhere?”

  “No.”

  “You protecting Stoker?”

  “You don't listen, do you?”

  George shrugged, gave a short look at Kirby out on the floor, then turned back to Port.

  “Bellamy wants the dirt.”

  “He can make his own.”

  George gave a short grin, which surprised Port, and said, “He mentioned that. To start with, he can make his own.”

  “Fine. That leaves me out.”

  “But you're in it.” George laughed again. Then he changed back and was sober. “Think it over, boy. And don't try to leave town. Won't work.”

  George went over where Kirby was on the floor and picked him up. He carried him to the door and gave him to the cabby. Then he came back.

  “And keep your hands off Kirby,” he said to Port. He hit under the heart and didn't wait to see Port sink to the floor. Then the door opened, and when Port looked again the door was still open but the men were gone.

  Chapter Three

  When he left the building it was getting dark and the same overcast lay everywhere. Port gave himself time to rest and to look at the street. Then he saw the girl again, he was coming the other way, on his side of the street, and she was wearing a different outfit of white nylon, buttoned down the front and very antiseptic-looking, like a nurse's uniform. But he was sure she wasn't a nurse. Her legs were bare and over one breast she wore a red carnation. Her skin was dark and her thick hair shiny black, making the red flower more vivid and the nylon more white. As she came closer she looked at him standing by the steps, but without special interest. She still didn't look away when she came past.