Chapter 18 Chapter 18 Painter's Street

The canned goods in the shed failed to whet our appetite for breakfast.We just made some coffee with very stale water in a galvanized bucket. We walked the next mile to a farmhouse whose teenagers wouldn't mind driving us into town in a Ford for a few bucks.He asked a lot of questions and we made them up or didn't answer them at all.He dropped us off in front of a little restaurant on the north end of King Street, and we ate a heap of buckwheat cake and bacon. Just before nine o'clock, the taxi drove us to Dinah's house.I searched the whole room for her, from the roof to the basement, but found no sign of anyone's presence.

"When are you coming back?" She followed me to the door. "I'll try to come over before midnight, if only for a few minutes. Where does Lu Yard live?" "1622 Painter Street. Walk three blocks, and 1662 is at the top of the fourth block. What are you going there for?" Before I could answer, she grabbed my arm with both hands and begged, " Catch Max, will you? I'm afraid of him." "Maybe I'll try to persuade Noonan to arrest him later. It depends on how things go." She called me a bloody traitor or something for doing her own dirty work and not caring about her life.

I head to Painters Street.1622 was a red brick building with a garage off the porch. Across the street, I saw Dick Fry sitting in the driver's seat of a rented Buick.I got into the car and asked, "How is it?" "Start at two. Out at three-thirty to Wilson's. Mickey. Five. Home. Busy. Keep watching. Leave at three, continue at seven. Nothing so far." What he wants to tell me is: he started following Lu Yard at two o'clock yesterday afternoon; followed him to Wilson's house at three thirty, where he met Mickey who was following Pete; followed Yard back to the residence at five o'clock; saw People came and went, but no one was followed; the house was watched until three o'clock in the morning, and then seven o'clock; no one has been seen coming or going since then.

"Leave this alone and watch the Wilsons' house," I said. "I heard that Thaler the Whisperer is nesting there. I want someone to watch him until I make up my mind whether to hand him over to Noonan." Dick nodded and started the engine.I got out of the car and went back to the hotel. There is a telegram from an old man: I put the telegram in my pocket, hoping things would go a little faster.Sending him a report now would be tantamount to submitting his resignation. I put on a clean fake collar and walked briskly to City Hall. "Hi!" Noonan greeted me. "I was expecting you. I went to the hotel to see you, but they said you weren't there."

He didn't look too happy this morning, but after the routine warm handshake, he seemed genuinely happy to see me. I had just sat down when a phone on his desk rang.He pressed the receiver to his ear and asked, "What's the matter?" After listening for a while he said, "Mike, you'd better go yourself." It took two tries before he hung up.His face was pale, but his voice was almost as usual when he spoke. "Lu Yard was killed—just now, on the stairs in front of his house." "Know the details?" I asked, cursing myself for removing Dick Fry from Painters Row an hour early, which was a big breakthrough.

Noonan shook his head, staring at his thigh. "Shall we go and see the body?" I suggested, standing up. He neither stood up nor looked up. "No." He said wearily, looking at his thighs. "Honestly, I don't want to go. I don't think I'm going to last. I'm getting sick of all this carnage. I mean they make me... make me sit It's hard to be safe." I sat down again, thinking about his low mood, and asked, "Who do you think killed him?" "God knows," he muttered, "you kill me and I kill you. When will you be tall?"

"Did Raynor do it?" Noonan twitched, looked up at me, seemed to have a change of heart, and repeated, "God only knows." I changed the angle. "How many people died in Silver Arrow last night?" "Only three." "Who are they?" "A pair of brothers, Black Boy Whalen and Putt Collins, were released on bail yesterday at around five o'clock. There is also a Dutchman Jack Wall who is a fugitive." "what happened?" "I guess it was a brawl. Looks like Putt and Nigger and the other guys who got out of jail together were celebrating and it ended up fighting."

"Are they all from Lu Yard?" "I don't know that." I stood up, said, "Oh, all right," and headed for the door. "Wait," he yelled, "don't just go away. I guess they all are!" I sat back in the chair, and Noonan looked at the tabletop, his gray face sagged and dejected, as if he had just put putty on it. "The Whisperer's at Wilson's," I told him. He raised his head abruptly, his eyes deep.Then the mouth twisted, the head drooped again, and the eyes dimmed. "I can't go on," he grumbled. "I'm sick of all this slaughter. I can't take it anymore."

"Too annoyed to give up on Tim's killing? Even if that brings peace?" "right." "But that's where it all started," I reminded him, "and if you want to calm things down, there's a way." He looked up at me with eyes like a dog looking at a bone. "Others should be just as fed up as you are," I continued. "Tell them how you feel. Come together and make peace." "They'll think I'm plotting something," he protested pitifully. "Go to Wilson's house. The Whisperer nests there. It's your risk. Aren't you afraid?"

He frowned and asked, "Will you come with me?" "As long as you need." "Thanks," he said, "I—give it a try."