“No.”
“But you have had at least one Chinese boy working for you?”
“No.” He scratched on a board, ignoring Andy. Perspiration beaded the top of his bald head and collected in droplets on the strands of gray hair. Andy didn’t enjoy putting on pressure, but he could do it when he had to.
“We have laws in this state, Burgger,” he said in a low, toneless voice. “I can drag you out of here right now and take you over to the station and throw you into the can for thirty days for interfering with an officer. Do you want me to do that?”
“I haven’t done anything!”
“Yes, you have. You’ve lied to me. You said you never had a Chinese kid working here.”
Burgger squirmed in his seat, pulled two ways by the conflict between his fear and his desire to remain uncommitted. Fear won.
“There was a Chinese kid, worked just one day, never came back.”
“What day was that?”
The answer came reluctantly. “Monday of this week.”
“Did he deliver any telegrams?”
“How the hell should I know?”
“Because that’s your job,” Andy said, putting a snap into his words again. “What telegrams did he deliver?”
“He sat around all day, I didn’t need him. It was his first day, I never send a new kid out the first day, let them get used to the bench first so they don’t get ideas. But we had a rush that night. I had to use him. Just once.”
“Where to?”
“Look, mister, I can’t remember every telegram I send out. This is a busy office and besides, we don’t keep records. A telegram is received, delivered, accepted, that’s the end of it.”
“I know all that, but this telegram is important. I want you to try and remember where it went. Was it to Seventh Avenue? Or Twenty-third Street? Chelsea Park …?”
“Wait, I think that was it. I remember I didn’t want the kid to go to Chelsea Park, they don’t like new kids there, just the regulars, but there was no one else in, so I had to use him.”
“Now we’re getting someplace,” Andy said, taking out his notepad. “What’s the kid’s name?”
“Some Chink name, I forget now. He was only here that one day and never came back.”
“What did he look like, then?”
“Like a Chink kid. It’s not my job remembering what kids look like.” He was sinking back into his sullen hatred.
“Where did he liver?”
“Who knows? Kid comes in and puts up his board money, that’s all I know. Not my job—”
“Nothing seems to be your job, Burgger. I’ll be seeing you again. Meanwhile try to remember what the kid looked like, I’ll want some more answers from you.”
The boys stirred on the bench when Andy went out and Burgger flashed them a look of pure hatred.
It was a thin lead, but Andy was cheerful; at least he had something to talk to Grassy about. Steve Kulozik was also in the lieutenant’s office when he went in, and they nodded to each other.
“How’s the case?” Steve asked.
“You can do your gossiping on your own time,” Grassioli broke in; the tic in his eye was going fine today. “You better have come up with something by now, Rusch; this is a case, not a holiday and a lot of brass up and down the line are getting peed off.”
Andy explained about the disconnected burglar alarm and the timing necessary for anyone to have visited the apartment. He quickly ran through the unproductive interviews he had had until he came to the Western union boy: this he told in detail.
“So what does it add up to?”the lieutenant asked, both hands clasped on his stomach, over the spot where the ulcer was.
“The kid might have been working for someone. Messenger boys have to put up ten D’s board money—and how many kids have that kind of loot? The kid could have been brought in, maybe from Chinatown, and paid to snoop the apartments he brought telegrams to. He hit the jackpot first time out when he saw the disconnected alarm on Big Mike’s door. Then, whoever hired him pulled the job and the killing, after which they both faded.”
“Sounds pretty slim, but it’s about the only lead you’ve managed to come up with. What’s the kid’s name?”
“No one knows.”
“Well, what the hell!” Grassioli shouted. “You come up with this fancy damned complicated theory and where does it go if you can’t find the kid? There are millions of kids in this city—so how do we find the right one?”
Andy knew when to be silent. Steve Kulozik had been leaning his bulk against the wall, listening while Andy explained. “Could I say something, lieutenant?” he asked.