Special Agent Page #3

you the question in the first place.

Listen, honey face, you run along.

I got a lot of chores to do tonight.

Oh, I've got the horrors.

Can't I stick around?

Sorry, I'll stop in on my way home.

Promise?

Sure.

Hello. Bradford. Get it.

Underworld bulletry reaped a grim harvest

tonight in front of the famous 122 Club.

Just as the police were taking Armitage

down the steps...

Five men to get one.

A rotten butcher.

If we can't hang it on Carston this time

the press is gonna run more

than a blast with our departments.

It's gonna run more than after the jobs

of Police Commissioner and District Attorney

I think we got a chance of pinning it

on him this time, Walter.

That's what I thought last time.

So help me, I'd give ten years of my life

to send him to the chair.

We've got a break. Carston has killed

more than 4 innocent bystanders.

He's killed a thing we've never

been able to lick.

The public's half-baked hero worship

of a tough guy.

Well, tonight showed him up

for the bloody butcher that he is.

If we get any sort of evidence

the jury will have found him guilty

before you make your opening address.

If we can get any evidence.

Yes, if...

If we had any evidence last time

there wouldn't be this time...

and if...

Come in.

Mr Bradford is here.

Tell him and the rest of the newspapermen

the we expect to make an arrest

within a few hours.

Yeah, but you haven't any idea

who you can arrest.

Hello, Chief.

How are you, Roger?

Now see here, Bill, we haven't a thing.

As soon as we do...

Listen, I didn't come here to get a story,

but I've got a hunch I think you can use.

Yeah?

Yeah.

That's all, Williams.

Did you think of Carston?

Naturally.

Well, Andrews is Armitage's assistant.

More than likely he's in the know.

Well, suppose he is.

Carston's men are afraid to talk.

I have a hunch Andrews will

if you bluff him right.

I think you can sweat him down until

there's nothing left but his yellow streak.

Bluff him on what?

There's something

I've never been able to prove.

But I'll bet 100 to 1 he did the trick.

Remember the Walker case?

Extra! Five mowed down

by gangland bullets.

Extra! Read all about it.

Well, I see we made

the front page again.

Well, it was unlikely they got tired of them.

You guys gonna eat?

Yeah.

I gotta go up

and tell the big guy about this.

Meet you in Joe's in 5 minutes.

Order me a steak.

Okay.

See this?

Not a very neat job.

What do you mean?

I got Armitage, didn't I?

Yes.

And everybody else on the block.

What's the difference?

The more of those guys you knock off

the less talking there is afterwards.

There's gonna be plenty of talking

about this one.

Joe, you've gone gun crazy.

That kind of a guy ain't worth a nickel.

I see.

I see.

Okay.

There's your nickle.

That pays us off.

Surprising how much trouble

a guy can buy for a nickel.

Phone McKelson and tell the boys

they're going fishing.

Take Joe along for bait.

We got Andrews out here.

Remember, take the cues from me.

All right, bring him in.

You stay.

Get everything down.

You want him alone?

Yes.

The D.A....

the Commissioner...

and myself.

Hm, how chummy.

What's the matter? Getting one of your campaign

cigars by mistake and lose your taste for smoking?

Sit down.

Well, would it help start the conversation any

if I told a cute little story?

Let me tell you a story, Andrews.

A nasty story.

That no lawyer in the world

could get any jury to laugh off.

It's about a guy that married

a little kid

just when he was starting in the racket

with Carston.

After a while she wasn't fancy enough

for him.

So he walked out on her just when

she was about to have a baby.

She asked him for dough so he had

the other dame tell her off.

So she goes to a lawyer.

She's going to sue him.

That kind of frightened this cur

because he was afraid the lawyer

might tell the court

what he earned and how.

Well, one day the little kid was found

in her apartment dead.

With the gas on.

But she had been chlorophormed first,

Andrews.

We know who did it, but

we can't prove it.

How do you like the first chapter

of the story, Andrews?

Commissioner...

you oughta write fiction.

That's what they call stories

you can't prove, isn't it?

Yes, it could have passed for fiction.

If this guy hadn't dumped

the other dame.

Gladys Warren was drunk

at a cocktail bar the other night.

and talked before witnesses.

Why, that lying skirt, who'd believe her?

The jury. Because she told things

that checked.

The murder of a mother and

an unborn child.

Another American tragedy.

The papers will love that.

You'll be lucky if you reach the chair,

Andrews.

Because no sheriff is gonna protect

a rat like you from a mob.

By the time they get through with you

and get around to string you up

you'll look like something hanging

on a hook in the meat market.

Fiend, that's what the newspapers

will call you.

The people in the street will talk

about the ways they'd like to talk to you.

The mob will get bigger and bigger

around the jail.

They'll start yelling...

Then someone will throw a rock.

No!

No, I'd kill myself first.

Suppose you didn't have

to take the rap?

Suppose you could talk your way

out of the chair?

Sure, sure I'll talk.

We want Carston.

If we get him,

we might compromise with you.

I don't know anything about Carston.

Come on.

What about tonight?

I'd rather take the chair,

take it from the mob,

anything but do a sore one on Carston.

They'll take me up to the castle

and work over me like they did

to Ferretti.

It was weeks before they finished him.

Listen, Andrews,

you could protect yourself.

Give us your testimony and then go on

just as though nothing had happened.

Mingle with the mob.

Then we'll spring you

as a surprise witness at the trial.

They'll send Carston to the chair so fast

he won't have a chance to put a finger on you.

Yeah, I could do that.

You will or you'll go to the chair yourself.

It was Carston who put the finger

on Armitage.

Here you are, Andrews.

Put your John Henry on it.

It's a pardon for you

and a death warrant for Carston.

Put this in the file.

Now get out of here.

Tell the mob we worked you over,

but it didn't take.

Do exactly as you have been doing

until the trial when you're safe.

It's a cinch you won't talk

and this office won't leak.

Because you're our ace in the hole

and we don't want that hole to be

a grave.

Don't get in touch with me until the trial.

It might wise up the mob.

All right.

All we want to know is in that file.

I can get away with this

if you protect me.

Don't worry.

We'll strap Carston to the chair

this time.

Gonna get him tonight?

No.

Use the newspapers a couple of days

to work the public up into a lather

about the innocent bystanders

and their families. Then I'll make the pull.

Carston's too smart to try

and make a getaway.

Besides, he doesn't know

we got the evidence on ice.

I'd like to see Mr Carston, please.

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