"Daniels, Norman A - Paid To Die - Avenger 4003 backstory" - читать интересную книгу автора (Daniels Norman A)

The commissioner looked and gasped. Ames was there--tied up efficiently and with a gag between
his lips. O'Hara removed it.

"I nailed him early this morning, sir," he explained. "I thought he might get wise and slip
away, so I brought him down here to watch the fireworks. It's murder he's wanted for, sir."

"I demand an explanation," Ames managed when he had wetted his lips. "This ex-detective took me
prisoner and brought me here. I know nothing of what has happened. It's kidnaping--"

"Shut up!" O'Hara growled, "or I'll put the gag back. You're responsible for this. You had
Detective King murdered because you wanted to make the police look like fools and double-crossers.
You knew the commissioner was trying to stop agencies like yours from functioning. Your armed guards
are ex-cons, crooks and murderers. You wouldn't even let them be fingerprinted. Soon as you realized
this racket was on its way out, you started a wave of robberies. The loot runs over a million, but
you'll tell where it is."

"I killed King?" Ames made a wry face. "You're crazy!"

"King went to get his dinner while I watched the store you knocked over later on. Nick the Greek
was in your pay. King ate his dinner and some of your men jumped him so he wouldn't interfere with
the stick-up. Then, when Clayton had to be murdered, you smuggled King to the roof of the hospital.
One of your men impersonated King and got into the sick room. He killed Clayton, but he didn't kill
me even though he had the chance. That was so I'd follow him. He went on the roof, disappeared
behind some obstruction and another of your playboys threw King off the edge. Don't bother to deny
it. They slugged him back in Nick's joint, broke his scalp so that he bled. But the blood was dry
before you put one of those bandage-masks over his head. If that wound had been caused by his fall,
the bandages would have been bloody. They weren't!

"Nick denied seeing King, too, and I knew he lied. The autopsy showed that King had eaten
mushrooms, and Nick was the only restaurant owner that had any. Your men snatched me at Nick's
place. Wouldn't you like to know just how I got out of the foot bath of plaster of Paris, Ames?"

Ames lowered his gaze. He knew now that he was defeated. O'Hara grinned down at him.

"That was a nice hide-out you fixed up--even to getting Nick the Greek to stock it with food.
Nick thought he'd have to hide out too so he put plenty of stuff in that supply room. Part of it
consisted of two bags of flour. I opened one of them and poured half of it into the plaster-of-Paris
barrel. Your hoods scooped the stuff out in pails and half of what they took was flour. It weakened
the plaster of Paris without preventing it from setting on the surface. Underneath, it was as soft
as mush."

O'Hara sighed and leaned against the counter. "Boy, am I tired." He smiled weakly.

"Don't blame you," the commissioner said. "I'll have a lieutenant's badge ready for you in a few
days. Too bad about King. I'd have given anything to have saved him."

O'Hara's eyes were hard. "Don't worry about him, sir. He'll be all right now with Ames and his
mob slated to pay their debts. Anyway, cops expect to die, don't they? They get paid to die. Why
King was making sixty bucks a week just for the privilege."