I kept on grinning. I was holding out Virgie Beers. She counted big, but I didn’t feel that Dobe should know that. I wanted him to know enough to help me, and not enough to hurt me.
He turned around and faced me. He was frowning.
“You think all these killings are because a nightclub wop trims a sucker?” he asked.
“It’s the best I can think— just now,” I said. “Every once in a while the big guys preach a lesson. Boys and gals get taught to keep school. Sometimes the new kids get a worse dose than they rate. That’s up to the big boys.”
Phil grunted. “You’re using words, and you don’t know what’s what,” he sneered.
I nodded. “All right— I’ll admit I haven’t learned much. But we got the one that finished Dot Ellis.”
The city editor grunted again. “You stopped a guy from talking— a guy wh
