5 Detective Novels Magazine Cover — page 15: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

DEATH ALL AROUND ME couple of kids. A girl about seventeen, with long blond hair, and a boy about two years older in a blue-and-white polo shirt. Their arms were around one another, her head resting on his shoul- der, and they sat before an old radio through which a torch singer droned a popular number. This is a city of incongruities. By the time I reached ninety, maybe I’d make up my mind if I liked it. Chapter II ITH two fingers I typed half a dozen reports to. mail order houses which had sent me bills to col- lect. The results of the previous day’s work. My take was sixty bucks, and I didn’t consider it too bad for a young lawyer who.wasn’t rising very fast. At least, I wasn’t chasing ambulanc- es the way so many others were. Espe- cially the lawyers who shared this big office with me. My name was on the directory in the lobby, all right. To reach me, you had to get through a re- ceptionist first. No easy matter if you were trying to collect money from me. Otherwise, anyone got through. A visi- tor would pass from a decently appoint- ed reception room into an office which occupied half the floor of this big build- ing. Inside this big room were forty cubicles, each one big enough to hold a desk, a filing cabinet, and two chairs. You could actually be comfortable if you didn’t have long legs. I did. The lawyers who occupied these quar- ters changed as often as the days of the month. I was considered an old-timer because 1’d been there a year and a half. Most of the boys found them- selves something better. One good case and they were on their way. None of the good cases ever seemed to hit me. Here you could get a will or the papers for a real estate transfer drawn up cheap. You could get a man to defend you in night court or even take your case to Common Pleas. Everybody here seemed to have a specialty, something they’d drifted into. I’d drifted into col- lecting bills. There was one advantage in being a combination bill collector and lawyer. If you met a stubborn case, you could 15 fill out a writ of replevin and have it served right away. Or start a civil ac- tion easily. The big mail order credit houses knew this, and that’s why I got plenty of business. Too much some- timés, because it kept me so _ busy chasing I didn’t have time to take on a regular case with a retainer and regu- lar fees. I gathered up my mail, plastered stamps on it, and carried it out to the corridor where I dumped it down the mail slot. It was eight o’clock. There were twenty bucks waiting for me at Joan Haven’s place, and half of twenty bucks is ten bucks. Worth going after. In my line of work it doesn’t pay to be proud. I ate in a joint around the corner and laughed at my old dreams about when I’d be in practice and have people paging me in fancy hotels and restau- rants. What the hell, I thought, the food was good here, it wasn’t expensive, and. everything was clean. So what if a Sweaty guy, smelling of stale perspira- tion, wanted to sit at the same table? I could always move. I finished my coffee, then took a down- town bus and walked west a couple of blocks to where Mrs. Haven lived. Things hadn’t changed since the day be- fore. Maybe there were more men sprawled out on the steps, more kids helling around. You could hardly tell the difference. I climbed the stairs, stepping between a couple of blowsy women who didn’t see me at all. I went to the third floor and knocked on Mrs. Haven’s door. Nobody answered. I knocked again. People who know a bill collector is coming sometimes freeze into silence when he knocks. I was used to it, but even people in debt can’t stand listening to someone bang on the door for half an hour. So I continued to use my fist on the panels and when my fist got sore, I used my foot. KNEW she was in there, because light came from beneath the door and she wasn’t the type who’d unnecessarily run up an electric light bill. I ham- mered with both fists in a crescendo much like that used for the final effects in a fireworks display on the Fourth of July when they let everything go in one MICLOOKS (C(O)