Before going to his office, Adams looked into the charge room.
“Anything new?” he asked the desk sergeant, who stiffened to attention at the sight of him.
“The Commissioner and the Captain are on their way over, sir,” the sergeant said. “This guy Holland hasn’t been picked up yet. We have a couple of men and Detective Duncan waiting for him at his house. Sergeant Donovan has just come in and is waiting for the Commissioner.”
Adams grunted.
“I’ll be in my office if the Commissioner wants me,” he said. “Nothing else?”
“Nothing that’d interest you, sir. Paradise Louie is in trouble. He was picked up ten minutes ago on a vacant lot on West Street. Someone has
given him the treatment. O’Sullivan, who found him, reports he isn’t likely to live. He’s had a beating, and whoever beat him hit him a little too hard.”
Adams remembered what Darcy had told him. Paradise Louie had told Johnny where he cold find Fay Carson and now he had been beaten up. A coincidence?
“Where is he?” he asked sharply.
“Ward Six, County hospital,” the sergeant told him.
“Tell the Commissioner if he wants me I’ll be back in an hour,” Adams said, and went quickly back to his car.
He got over to the County hospital in five minutes.
“Manchini ?” the house surgeon said when Adams asked him if he could talk to Louie. “Not much hope for him. He has an abnormally thin skull. Someone hit him with a bicycle chain. I doubt if he’ll last the night.”
“Is he conscious?”
“No, but he might come round at any moment. One of your men is with him. You can go up if you want to. There’s nothing more we can do for him.”
Paradise Louie lay in bed, his bruised and broken face swathed in bandages. Detective Watson sat glumly at his side. He got up hurriedly when he saw Adams, nearly upsetting his chair.
“Is he conscious?” Adams asked.
“Yes, sir, but he’s pretty bad.”
Adams bent over the still body.
“Louie ! Wake up!” he barked, and shook Louie’s arm.
Louie opened his eyes and stared up at Adams.
“Leave me alone, can’t you?” he snarled faintly. “Get the hell out of here!”
Adams sat on the edge of the bed.
“Who did it to you?” he said.
Watson automatically opened his notebook and waited expectantly.
“I’m not talking, copper,” Louie said. “Leave me alone.”
Adams took out a box of matches, struck one and held the flame to Louie’s hand while Watson watched, goggle-eyed,
Louie snatched his hand away, his lips coming off his teeth.
“Next time I’ll hold your wrist,” Adams said quietly. “Who did it?”
The thin, ruthless face that hung over him scared Louie.
“Tux and Whitey,” he mumbled. “Leave me alone, can’t you?”
“Why did they do it?”
“I don’t remember,” Louie said, but went on hurriedly as Adams struck another match. “Okay, okay, I’ll tell you.”
He gave Adams a watered-down account of his attempt to blackmail Gilda. It took some minutes, but Watson got it down after Adams had made Louie go over it again.
“Did you give Johnny Fay Carson’s address?” Adams demanded.
“I told him where he could find her.”
“Where was that?”
“I told him she went to the Blue Rose most nights.”
“You didn’t give him her address?”
“I don’t know it.”
“What time did you tell him?”
“About eleven, I think it was.”
“So Tux works for O’Brien?” Adams said, aware he had made an important discovery.
“Yeah. O’Brien has always been his boss.”
Adams looked at Watson.
“Got it all?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Louie, you’re going to sign this.”
He read Louie’s statement over to him, held the book while Louie scrawled his signature on each page, then he got Watson also to sign each page.
“I’ll take it,” he said to Watson, and slipped the notebook into his pocket. “Come on, you don’t have to waste any more time with this punk.”
Outside in the passage, he went on, “Keep your mouth shut about this statement, Watson. There’s a political angle to it that could be tricky. Understand?”
“Yes, sir,” Watson said blankly. He didn’t understand, but he had long ago learned it wasn’t safe to ask Adams questions.
“Okay. Come with me. I have a job for you.”
Bewildered, Watson followed Adams down the steps and across the sidewalk to his car.