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sit with his back to a door -or a restaurant window. So I'm telling you now, all this monkey business has got
to stop. Because if it don't, I'll stop it."
"Like you stopped Dion O'Bannion?" said Hymie Weiss bitterly.
The Doctor knew that Weiss and the others had never forgiven Capone for the death of their much-loved
leader.
Capone's fist slammed down on the table. "If I have to, yes! Deany O'Bannion was a great guy, but he was a
madman too, a danger to himself and everyone else. So he had to go - but it don't haveta be like that. There's
plenty for everyone. Now lissen..."
Ace sat back in her armchair, glancing round the hotel lobby. It was crowded with hard-eyed tough-looking
men, gangster bodyguards excluded, like her, from the top-level discussion upstairs. They tended to bunch
together in little groups, each group keeping a wary eye on the others.
There was a coffee shop just off the lobby and people drifted in and out with mugs in their hands. Ace had a
feeling that not all the mugs held coffee.
She became aware that someone was moving from group to group, listening for a while then joining in. A tall
man, elegantly dressed, with a long, thin, aristocratic face. A rather unusual type to find in a place like this.
Ace noticed that after a minute or two the tall man seemed to be dominating each conversation, talking
urgently while the others listened, frowning. Then he would move away to another group, repeating the pattern
there.
Suddenly he was standing beside her.
"Do you mind if I sit down?" His voice was soft and attractive. Ace hadn't noticed the vacant chair, but there
seemed to be one beside her now.
"Why not?" she said.
The tall man dropped into the chair.
"Looks like a mobster's convention, doesn't it? The hotel manager is sweating blood, expecting a shoot-out
any minute."
He pointed to a bald-headed and bespectacled man by the desk. He was sweating profusely, mopping at his
bald head with a silk handkerchief.
"Are you here on business?" asked the tall man.
"Just waiting for a friend."
"Of course, you're Doc's girl Ace - the Lady in Black."
"I'm sorry?"
"That's what they're calling you. Didn't you know? They say you took out Morelli with one shot, that you'd
have got Pete Gusenberg at the Hawthorne if someone hadn't stopped you."
"Seems a lot of fuss about one hit and one miss. You'd think no one ever got shot in Chicago."
"I guess it's because you're an attractive young woman. All these cheap crooks have got romantic
imaginations." He paused. "Is your friend Doc going along with this peace talk of Al's?"
"He seems to be."
He leaned forward confidentially, lowering his voice. "I'd tell him to be careful if I were you. As soon as he's
ready, Al's going to gobble up the independents like Doc, put them all out of business. Al's greedy, wants it
all for himself."
Suddenly Ace became absolutely convinced that he was right, that she ought to warn Doc not to trust
Capone. She felt a surge of anger at Capone's treachery.
"Thanks, I'll tell him," she said. But the tall man was gone. Ace looked round the room. He was nowhere in
sight.
She got up and went over to Frank Rio who was talking to a group of Capone's men. He looked warily at her,
and she gave him her most dazzling smile.
"Hi, doll," he said, but he still looked cautious.
"You were talking to a tall man just a little while ago."
"I was? Yeah, that's right. He was saying Al oughtta be careful about these independents, they were planning
to gang up on him."
"Do you know who he was?"
"Just a guy you see around. Nice feller. I think he's with one of the other outfits."
"Would anyone else know?"
"I guess so." He called across to someone in a nearby group. "Hey Charlie, that tall guy you were shooting
the breeze with, know who he was?"
"I thought he was one of your boys."
"Can you remember what he was saying?" asked Ace.
Charlie frowned. "Something how about if Hymie Weiss got too friendly with Zuta and Kauffman they could
take over our territory . . ."
For some reason Ace felt it was important to find out more about the tall man. She tried asking some of the
other groups but she didn't get any further. Everyone seemed to know him but everyone seemed to think he
was part of some other outfit. Some people said he was a journalist on the Tribune, others that he worked for
the Mayor's office. But they all remembered him warning them about someone.
It was odd, thought Ace. Maybe she ought to tell the Doctor about it. Then again, maybe it wasn't worth
bothering with.
The memory of the tall man was already fading from her mind. But she remembered that she had to warn the
Doctor about Al Capone. She was quite clear about that.
13 DEATH TRAIL
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