[Mike Hammer 03] - Vengeance Is Mine by Mickey Spillane

headlong into our code of ethics.”
    “Nuts. Pity the poor photographer. He does all the work and the potbellies have all the fun.” I dragged on my cigarette and squinted my eyes. “You know, Clyde has a pretty business for himself.”
    My casual reference to the guy brought her eyebrows up. “Do you know him?”
    “Sure, from way back. Ask him to tell you about me someday.”
    “I don’t know him that well, myself. But if I ever get the chance I will. He’s the perfect underworld type, don’t you think?”
    “Right out of the movies. When did he start running that place?”
    Juno tapped her cheek with a delicate forefinger. “Oh ... about six months ago, I think. I remember him stopping in the office to buy photographs in wholesale lots. He had the girls sign all the pictures and invited them to his opening. It was all very secret of course. I didn’t get to go myself until I heard the girls raving about the place. He did the same thing with most of the agencies in town.”
    “He’s got a brain, that boy,” I drawled. “It’s nice to have your picture on the wall. He played the girls for slobs and they never knew it. He knew damn well that a lot of them traveled with the moneybags and would pull them into his joint. When word got around that there was open gambling to boot, business got better and better. Now he gets the tourists too. They think it’s all very smart and exciting ... the kind who go around hoping for a raid so they can cut their pictures out of the papers and send them home to the folks for laughs.”
    She stared at me, frowning.
    “I wonder who he pays off?” I mused.
    “Who?”
    “Clyde. Somebody is taking the long green to keep the place going. Clyde’s shelling out plenty to somebody with a lot of influence, otherwise he would have had the cops down his throat on opening night.”
    Juno said impatiently. “Oh, Mike, those tactics went out with the Prohibition era ...” then her voice got curious. “Or didn’t they?”
    I looked across the table at this woman who wore her beauty so proudly and arrogantly. “You’ve only seen the best side of things so far, kid. Plenty goes on you wouldn’t want to look at.”
    She tossed her head. “It seems incredible that those things still happen, Mike.”
    I started to slap my fist against my palm gently. “Incredible, but it’s happening,” I said. “I wonder what would happen if I shafted my old buddy Dinky Williams?” My mouth twisted into a grin. “Maybe it’s an angle. Maybe....” I let my sentence trail off and stared at the wall.
    Juno signaled the waiter and he came back with another round of cocktails. I checked my watch and found myself in the middle of the afternoon. “We’ll make these our last, oke?”
    She leaned her chin on her hands, smiling. “I hate to have you leave me.”
    “It’s not a cinch for me, either.” She was still smiling and I said, “I asked another beautiful girl who could have had ten other guys why she picked me to hold hands with. She gave me a good answer. What’s yours, Juno?”
    Her eyes were a fathomless depth that tried to draw me down into them. Her mouth was still curved in a smile that went softer and softer until only a trace of it was left. Full, lovely lips that barely had to move to form the words. “I detest people who pamper me. I detest people who insist upon putting me on a pedestal. I think I like to be treated rough and you’re the only one who has tried it.”
    “I haven’t tried anything.”
    “No. But you’ve been thinking of it. Sometimes you don’t even speak politely.”
    She was a mind reader like all good goddesses should be and she was right. Quite right. I didn’t know what the hell was going on in my head, but sometimes when I looked at her I wanted to reach across the table and smack her right in the teeth. Even when I thought of it I could feel the tendons in the back of my hand start twitching. Maybe a goddess was just too damn much for me. Maybe