Dead Reckoning Page #3

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How could Johnny be a murderer?

Why come back here where he was

hotter than the weather? And why?

Why not another word

from him since that first call?

Listen, honey.

Haven't you got any

radio news programs in this city?

All I get is commercials

and a lot of that apple pan dowdy.

Not until 12:
00?

Well, thank you kindly, ma'am.

I thought I'd turned the juice off.

But I'd flipped it

to the police call band.

Car 42 reporting in.

Car 42 reporting in.

Broken railing on Tarpon Springs

Turnpike was due to auto smash.

A burned sedan.

Body, charred beyond identification.

Been there two days.

Send morgue wagon.

- Car 42 reporting. Got it?

- Okay, 42. Got it.

Two days ago. That'd be the night

Johnny was to call me. Maybe he...?

I was getting desperate,

but it might be a lead.

There was one place in town

where I could find out for sure.

Evening.

- Could I take a look in your icebox?

- Somebody special?

Missing Persons

thought I ought to look.

- Who's missing?

- What's it to you?

- Homicide Squad.

- Lieutenant Kincaid.

- I thought you was a morgue buff.

- Buff?

A nut like those guys

that chase fires.

I didn't know Homicide men

hung out in the morgue.

- Where you from?

- Out of town.

- Frisco.

- How did you know?

The accent. I can spot any accent.

What's the name?

Charlie Wilson. Met him on the train.

I thought I talked him out of suicide.

He didn't show for dinner.

No word since.

- Yeah? I meant your name.

- I gave all that to Missing Persons.

Okay, mister. Okay.

I'll handle this, Willie.

Thanks, Willie.

- Fished this one out of the Gulf.

- Pass.

- Hit and run.

- No, he's too old.

- What'd he look like?

- Medium.

- Medium what?

- Medium young, medium height.

- Medium weight.

- Very illuminating.

You can call him medium, what's left

of him. Barracuda got the rest.

That's the lot.

- All the rest empty?

- Yeah.

Not much business

for the one cool spot in town.

- One just came in, but he don't fit.

- How do you know?

- You said suicide.

- I was guessing.

This one came from a car smash.

You don't want to see him.

- I might as well blanket the field.

- He's as crisp as bacon.

- I can stand it if you can.

- Okay.

He was like a lump of charcoal.

Johnny's build.

It might be Johnny.

It might not.

No hardware on him?

Wilson had a wristwatch.

Nothing. He'd been cleaned as though

somebody didn't want him identified.

The only thing was a hunk

of melted gold, like a tooth.

Only it's big for a tooth

and it's got some black stuff on it.

Black enamel and gold.

Johnny's senior society pin.

So, Johnny had taken his last jump.

- What's it look like to you?

- Gold bullet?

Are you kidding?

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