“You saw her?”
“I saw her the next second—with the gat in her hand.”
“That’s no good to either of us,” I said. “I don’t know how far you’ve got it cooked. Rigged right, you could make it stick in court, maybe, but you’ll not get a chance to make your play there. If Noonan takes you at all he’ll take you stiff. Give me the straight of it. I only need that to pop the job.”
He dropped his cigarette on the floor, mashed it under his foot, and asked:
“You that hot?”
“Give me your slant on it and I’m ready to make the pinch—if I can get out of here.”
He lit another cigarette and asked:
“ Mrs. Willsson said it was me that phoned her?”
“Yeah—after Noonan had persuaded her. She believes it now—maybe.”
“You dropped Big Nick,” he said. “I’ll take a chance on you. A man phoned me that night. I don’t know him, don’t know who he was. He said Willsson had gone to Dinah’s with a check for five grand. What the hell did I care? But, see, it was funny somebody I didn’t know cracked it to me. So I went around. Dan stalled me away from the door. That was all right. But still it was funny as hell that guy phoned me.
“I went up the street and took a plant in a vestibule. I saw Mrs. Willsson’s heap standing in the street, but I didn’t know then that it was hers or that she was in it. He came out pretty soon and walked down the street. I didn’t see the shots. I heard them. Then this woman jumps out of the