The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps

“But if I couldn’t find out anything about Michelle Gorgon’s former wife, whose, at least claimed to be, father-in-law got rubbed out the other night — I have found out plenty about his present wife. More than any man in the world knows; more than Michelle Gorgon himself knows; more than the wife herself knows. Laugh that off.” There was a ring of pride in his voice.

“And Gorgon’s wife—. What do you intend to do?”

“I intend to talk to her. I understand she’s slightly loose in the upper story. And I know that she had a terrible accident, airplane accident, in which Michelle Gorgon didn’t get hurt, and I understand that she had a gentleman friend, for she was a very beautiful woman. There’s a story that Michelle Gorgon maimed her purposely, but like his other activities it can’t be proved. Anyway, she didn’t jump from the plane, but crashed with it. I want to talk to her before anything happens to her. That’s that. If that isn’t playing the game with you, Race, nothing is.”

“But you promised not to put a tail on me, and—”

“So that rankles. Well, forget it. I didn’t. No more questions about that, now. Let it drop. But the phone in Colonel McBride’s house leaked as soon as it rang. Anyway, we’ll forget who you came here to meet. But come on. We’ll have to chance the discovery of the body. You’d have chanced that anyway.”

“Isn’t it a little late for a hospital interview?” I asked.

“Sure,” said O’Rourke. “But if it were four in the morning I’d go anyway. It isn’t something, I think, that can be delayed overlong.

“You know, Race,” O’Rourke told me, when we were safely out of the Maria Cafe and speeding to the private hospital in my car, “you’re a man of your word and I’m a man of mine. Remember that. We’ve got to work fast on this, before something else happens. I work for the city. I work against time. I use stool-pigeons. Play on crooks who have been, or think they have been, double crossed. Even ignore some small crime if the individual will give information concerning a bigger one. I thought I’d go any length to reach my ends, and I have — I did. I’ve stirred up thoughts of passion, hatred, and vengeance. Now and here’s a terrible thing for a lad who’s been an honest cop over twenty years to say. If you were to put a bullet between them cute eyes of Michelle Gorgon, I’d, well, I don’t ask you to do it and I don’t say I’d thank you for doing it, but I’d sleep easier at night and, and, by God! I might even go on the witness stand and perjure myself that I saw Doctor Gorgon draw a rod and heard him threaten to kill you.”

“You’ve got a little hatred for this bird yourself, O’Rourke.”

“Yes,” he said, “I have. But it isn’t so much hatred of Michelle Gorgon, but fear, fear of what I’ve done, fear of the uncontrollable fires I lit. But maybe the day will come, Race, when you’ll be wanting to put a little lead bullet between these same two eyes of mine.”

I laughed and said:

“It wouldn’t be a hard mark to hit.”

“No,” said O’Rourke, very seriously, “it wouldn’t. But this’ll be the place. And it’s as respectable as it looks.” I stopped the car before the building, as O’Rourke talked on. “Ritzy too, and high priced. There’s a doctor’s name behind this institution that’s gospel to the medical profession; a lad to run it who hasn’t had ten minutes to himself to hobnob in the underworld since he graduated from medical school. It looks just like the sort of a place to faze the lowly Mick, known as Detective Sergeant O’Rourke. So, under those conditions, we’ll go through with it. In we go.”

And in we went.

Somehow O’Rourke seemed different to me. He talked more. Was it nerves? But surely, after his years as the most active detective on the police force, he wouldn’t get finicky over a few murders more or less. I guess, maybe, he was just the man hunter on the hunt. The eagerness gets under your skin, you know. Still, he seemed different. But then, every one seemed different. Maybe we were all feeling that sinister air of superiority of the Third Gorgon. And I grinned to myself — of the Second Gorgon now. After all, Eddie was one of them. Eddie was protected by his association and relationship. And you couldn’t get away from the fact that all Eddie needed now was a shovel and some loose dirt.

The nurse who let us in was not so much surprised, but the lad in the white coat, who came out of the little room behind her, was more than surprised. He was shocked, and let us know it.

“Mrs. Gorgon — really. You can’t see her, of course. And at this hour, under no circumstances.”

“I know it’s irregular.” O’Rourke scratched his head.

“Irregular!” Doctor Importance, in the white coat, elevated his nose to avoid the stench of our presence. “It’s impossible.”