Chapter 31 third chapter

The fat man put his face close to Carmady's and gasped, "You think this game is being rigged, friend?" "Yes, for Villa to win." "How much do you want to bet?" "Count the money in your own pocket first." "I bet 500." "Deal," Kamady said quietly, staring at the back of the pale blond head in the front row.A white shawl trimmed with white fur trimmed under her lustrous, wavy hair.He couldn't see her face and didn't need to see her face. The fat man blinked, and carefully took out a bulging wallet from his vest pocket.He counted ten fifty-dollar bills against his knees, rolled them up, and tucked the wallet back to his chest.

"That's it, fool," he gasped, "let me see your money." Carmady withdrew his gaze, took out a stack of brand new hundred-dollar bills, flipped through them, counted five and handed them to him. "Good guy, just got it out of the bank." The chubby man said.He brought his face closer to Carmady's again. "I'm Skeets O'Neill. Seems like you've got something to do, don't you?" Kamady smiled slowly, and slipped the money into the chubby man's hand. "Go ahead, Skeeters, I'm Carmady, son of old Marcus Carmady. My bullets will go faster than you if you run away—we'll see. .”

The fat man took a deep breath and leaned back on his seat.Tony Acosta's docile eyes fixed on the money in the fat man's fat hands, he licked his mouth, and gave Carmady an awkward smile. "My God, the money is going to go to waste, Mr. Carmady," he said softly, "unless—unless you get some inside information." "Worth the five-hundred-dollar risk," Carmady grumbled. The bell rang for the sixth inning. The first five innings weren't interesting at all.The tall blond boy, Duke Targo, simply wasn't giving it his all.And there was Deacon Vera, dark-skinned, of Polish blood, strong and lithe, with a bad tooth and two ears disfigured by beatings.Although his physical condition is outstanding, he has no rules. He only punches indiscriminately. He only knows how to bluff, which has no effect at all. So far, he can resist Tago.The audience below booed Targo from time to time.

After the stool was removed from the ring, Tago touched his black and silver shorts and forced a nervous smile at the girl in the white shawl.He was handsome and had no injuries on his face.There was blood on his left shoulder - it was from Vera's nose. The bell rang and Vera lunged across the ring, slipping away from Targo's shoulder and throwing a left hook.Tago was beaten frequently, was thrown back on the sideline rope, bounced back, and hugged Villa. Kamadi smiled quietly in the darkness. The referee separated them easily.Vera hooked the fist net, Tugo jumped away, missed, and they went back and forth for a minute.There was waltz music from the attic, and Vera jumped up and threw her fist at Tago, who seemed to be waiting for the fist to come, with a weird, nervous smile on his face, the girl in the white shawl Stand up suddenly.

Vera's fist just brushed against Targo's chin without him even moving, and then Targo threw a long right hook that hit Vera in the eye and a left hook that hit Vera. The chin was pulled, and a right uppercut almost landed in the same place again. The dark-skinned boy landed on all fours and slowly slid to the ground, with both fists pressed down by his body.The referee began counting loudly, and the audience below booed. The fat man stood up with difficulty, grinned happily, and said, "How about it, friend? Do you still think someone is manipulating this game?" "It just didn't work." Kamadi's voice was as calm as a police announcement.The fat man said, "That's it, friend, come and play more often." As he passed by, he kicked Kamady's ankle.

Kamady sat motionless, watching the gym slowly empty.Boxers and their coaches walked down the steps below the ring, and girls in white shawls trimmed with white fur disappeared into the crowd, and the barn structure of the gymnasium looked cheap and dirty when the lights were turned off . Tony Acosta fidgets as he watches a man in a striped jumpsuit pick up newspapers between the seats. Carmady stood up suddenly and said, "I'm going to talk to that bastard, Tony. Meet me in the car outside." He walked briskly up the ramp leading to the foyer, through the crowd who hadn't had time to leave, to a gray door marked "Do Not Enter".He went through the door down a ramp and came to another door, also marked "No Entry," where a guard in a faded, buttonless khaki uniform stood with a bottle in one hand. Beer, a hamburger in the other hand.

Kamady flashed his police ID, and the doorman stepped aside without even looking, and he hiccupped calmly as Kamady entered.Carmady entered a narrow hallway lined with numbered doors, behind which came a loud noise, and on the fourth door to the left, on a card tacked on, was scrawled " Duke Targo" name. Kamadi opened the door and walked in. He heard the sound of the shower, but there was no one there.In a small, terribly empty room, sitting at the end of a massage table in a white sweatshirt with his clothes scattered, Kamady recognized him as Targo's trainer. He said, "Where's Duke?"

The man in the sweatshirt pointed with his thumb in the direction of the sound of running water.Then a man swayed to the door and staggered up to Kamady.He was tall, with curly brown hair mixed with dark gray, a large bottle of wine in his hand, and it was evident from his face that he was very drunk.His hair was wet, his eyes were bloodshot, his lips were opened and closed for a while, with a meaningless smile on his face, and some unintelligible words were said in a rough voice. Kamady closed the door calmly, then leaned against it and began to fish his cigarette case from the waistcoat pocket of his open blue raincoat without even looking at the curly-haired man.

The curly-haired man suddenly put his right hand into his coat and pulled it out again. There was a blue pistol in his hand. The pistol was shining in front of his light-colored suit, and the wine in his left hand was splashed. out. "Don't move!" he yelled. Carmady took out his cigarette case slowly, let him look at it, opened it, and put a cigarette in his mouth.The blue gun was very close to him, but it was not very steady, and the hand holding the wine glass seemed to be shaking rhythmically. "You're looking for trouble," Kamady said casually. The man in the sweatshirt got off the massage table and stared steadily at the pistol.The curly-haired man said, "We just like trouble, search him, Mike."

The man in the sweatshirt said, "I don't want to mess with this, Shwar, for God's sake, don't mess around, you're too drunk." "Do a search, I don't have a gun," Kamady said. "No," said the man in the sweatshirt. "This guy is Duke's bodyguard, and I have nothing to do with it." "Yeah, I'm drunk," said the curly-haired man, and giggled. "Are you friends with Duke?" said the man in the sweatshirt. "I have something to tell him," Camady replied. "About what?" Kamady didn't answer. "Okay," said the man in the sweatshirt, shrugging nonchalantly.

"You know what, Mike?" the curly-haired man said suddenly and roughly, "I think this son of a bitch is going to take my job, damn it, that's it." He poked Carmady with the muzzle of his gun, "You don't Will it be a private eye, sir?" "Maybe," Carmady said, "point the gun in your own stomach, please?" The curly-haired man tilted his head and grinned over his shoulder. "You know what, Mike? He's a private eye. He must be coming to take my job, it must be." "Put the gun away, idiot," said the man in the sweatshirt with disgust. The curly-haired man turned his head slightly. "I was just keeping him safe, wasn't I?" he complained. Carmady pushed the gun aside seemingly casually with his hand on the cigarette case.The curly-haired man turned his head in an instant, and Kamady walked up to him and punched him hard in the stomach while elbowing the gun away.The curly-haired man choked, the wine glass shattered on the ground, spilling the wine on the raincoat in front of Kamadi, the blue gun fell out of his hand, and slipped into the corner, the man in the sweatshirt hurried over to pick it up . Before he knew it, the sound of the rushing shower had stopped, and the blond boxer came out, wiping his body vigorously with a towel, and he watched the dramatic scene in front of him in surprise."Okay, that's it," said Carmady. He pushed the curly-haired man away, and when he fell, he punched him hard on the chin with his right hand, and the curly-haired man swayed and hit the opposite wall, sliding to the ground. The man in the sweatshirt picked up the gun and stood there stiffly, looking at Carmady.Carmady took out a handkerchief and wiped the front of his raincoat as Targo slowly closed his beautifully parted mouth and began to wipe his chest back and forth, and after a moment he said :"who are you?" "I'm a former private eye and my name is Kamady. I think you need help," Kamadi said. Tago's face was redder than when he just came out of the bathroom, "Why?" "I heard you were going to lose and you tried, but Villa were so bad you couldn't bear to lose to him. But that means you're going to be in trouble now." Tago said slowly: "I will beat anyone who says such a thing until he has teeth all over the place." For a while, the room became very quiet.The drunk sat on the ground blinking his eyes, tried to stand up, and finally gave up. Carmady added softly: "Benny Chirano is my friend, he's your backer, isn't he?" The man in the sweatshirt laughed shrilly, and then he opened the gun, took out the bullets, dropped the gun on the ground, and walked out the door, closing it behind him. Targo looked at the closed door, and returned his gaze to Kamadi. He said very slowly, "What did you hear?" "Your girlfriend Jane Adrian lives in my hotel, on the same floor as me. Some bastard knocked her out this afternoon. I happened to pass by. I saw the man run away, so I helped her back to her room. She Talk about it a little bit." Targo put on underwear and shoes and socks, and took a black satin shirt from the cabinet and put it on.He said, "Why didn't she tell me?" "It's going to be a game—how could she tell you?" Tago nodded lightly, and then said: "If you know Benny, you shouldn't be a bad person. I've been threatened by people, maybe it's a bunch of idiots, maybe it's the gangsters on Water Spring Street who want to make some easy money .but I can fight all I want. You can go, sir." He put on a pair of black high-waisted trousers, tied a white bow tie over the black shirt, took from the wardrobe a white serge coat trimmed with black and put it on, leaving a black and white handkerchief peeking out of the pocket. horn. Carmady stared at his clothes and walked towards the door, looking at the drunk on the floor. "Okay," he said, "I see you already have bodyguards, it's just my opinion, sorry." He went out, closed the door softly, and walked up the ramp back to the lobby to the street. superior.He walked around the corner of the building in the rain to a large gravel parking lot. The headlights flashed twice on him, and his coupe came up to him over the wet gravel and stopped, with Tony Acosta in the driver's seat. Carmady got to the right of the car and said, "Let's go get a drink at Kyrano's, Tony." "My God, that would be wonderful! That's where Miss Adrian on the ninth floor, you know, the blonde I told you about." "I met Targo and kind of liked him — but I didn't like the way he was dressed," Camady said.