The Asphalt Jungle Read online

  The Asphalt Jungle

  W.R. Burnett

  Copyright

  The Asphalt Jungle

  Copyright © 1929, 1940, 1949, 1952 by W.R. Burnett

  Cover art to the electronic edition copyright © 2011 by RosettaBooks, LLC

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

  Electronic edition published 2011 by RosettaBooks LLC, New York.

  ISBN Mobipocket edition: 9780795325212

  MAN, biologically considered… is the most formidable of all beasts of prey, and, indeed, the only one that preys systematically on its own species.

  William James

  To

  Whitney

  My Wife

  whose help and encouragement made the writing of this book possible.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty One

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Chapter Twenty Four

  Chapter Twenty Five

  Chapter Twenty Six

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty One

  Chapter Thirty Two

  Chapter Thirty Three

  Chapter Thirty Four

  Chapter Thirty Five

  Chapter Thirty Six

  Chapter Thirty Seven

  Chapter Thirty Eight

  Chapter Thirty Nine

  Chapter Forty

  ONE

  Lou Farbstein, middle-aged but still referred to as the bright boy of the World (and bright boy he had actually been twenty years back), neither liked nor disliked Police Commissioner Theo. J. Hardy, the new power in the city. He regarded him as a rather weird phenomenon, wrote about him often with curious impartiality, and greatly influenced the opinion of the press generally by his sharp but fair pronouncements. Much of what he wrote stuck. For instance, when he referred to the Commissioner as a “Harold Ickes type character,” the other reporters realized at once the aptness of the phrase and began to make an exception of the sharp-featured, countrified ex-judge when they wrote their frequent excoriations of the corrupt gentry managing the now shaky City Administration. Owing to Farbstein’s clarifying phrase, they perceived that Hardy was honest, able, hard-working, and with plenty of guts; they also saw that he was extremely irritable, a little vindictive, and at times—ridiculous.

  For some weeks after Hardy had taken over, the reporters had considered him a mere front—a lay figure, humdrum and respectable, behind which the thieves and connivers of the City Hall intended to continue to carry on their denounced malfeasance. Now they knew better. Hardy was the City Administration’s one hope, and the politicians stood trembling in the background. If Hardy could not save them, they would all be voted out at the next city election, their enemies and ill-wishers would be in power, and they themselves would be in danger of indictment and conviction, or at least public disgrace.

  Bulley, the Mayor, had gradually faded into insignificance. Curtis, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, was on a highly publicized vacation in California, taking a “well-earned rest,” as Farbstein wrote in the World, bringing appreciative snickers from those who were in the know. And Dolph Franc, the formidable Chief of Police, was all smiles and sweetness, in contrast to his former cynical ill-humour, and in public kept referring to Commissioner Hardy as “my great little boss.”

  Nevertheless, the newspapers continued attacking the Administration with non-partisan unanimity—especially the Police Department—and Hardy, no longer able to ignore the blasts and now thoroughly aroused, had sent out invitations to a press conference, to be held at night in his battered and dingy office in the Old City Building.

  The reporters sat around smoking their own cigarettes and grumbling. What kind of a lousy conference was this? No free liquor.

  Not even common courtesy. The harness-bull secretary in the outer office had looked at them as if they were a group about to be shoved into the show-up line.

  Only Farbstein was unperturbed. Like Diogenes, he’d been looking for an honest man for a long time, and he had begun to feel that the flame in his lantern would sputter out before he found him. But, though the flame had shortened almost to nothing, here he was at last. Hardy! It wasn’t necessary to like him. In fact, it was impossible. But you could respect him, and to Farbstein—at this juncture in his life—that was everything.

  He sat listening calmly while the men about him yapped and raved. In spite of all their exterior toughness and cynicism, they were good solid guys, fathers and tax-payers. They’d see the light in all its unaccustomed brightness soon.

  A sudden silence fell when the Commissioner walked in. It was a cold night and he was wearing a heavy ulster, old-fashioned rubbers, and a battered, sweat-stained hat, pulled down almost to his eyes.

  He did not flash a politician smile on them, or shake hands all around, or get out the cigars and the whisky, or make some touching reference to his poor wife waiting at home or to his charming, and politically valuable, little grandson. He merely pulled off his hat, sat down at his desk still wearing his overcoat, and stared at them hard with his cold, inquisitorial grey eyes. They could see he was sore as hell and hated their guts. It was refreshing.

  After a moment, without preliminaries, he began to make a speech.

  “I’ve called you here,” he said, “not to soft-soap you and tell you what smart and wonderful guys you are—you hear enough of that, I think. Neither am I going to ask you to lay off. I’m just going to tell you the facts of life and then leave it up to you.

  “You say the Police Department is corrupt. You say the bunco squad works with the con men. You say the police are taking a fortune from syndicated prostitution—and rousting around and making their arrest records from the unsyndicated and lone-wolf prostitutes. You say the racket squad allows big-time racketmen to live here for a consideration, and then kicks around and persecutes the little local boys. You say in spite of the laws that bookies are operating all over the place and that a lot of police officers are getting rich on protection money…

  “Shall I go on?”

  Hardy glanced about him sharply, his thin lips set in a harsh line. Nobody said anything.

  “All right. I guess that’s enough for a starter. Now first I want to say this. I’m not denying that corruption exists in the Police Department. In fact, there is quite a lot of it—more than I can run down and punish in a few months. But there are also many honest men on the force, high and low, and you’re making it mighty tough for them to hold their heads up. According to you, every man in a city police uniform is a louse and a stench in the nostrils of you high-minded, blameless, extremely honest gentlemen of the press.”

  There was considerable squirming in the Commissioner’s office, and Farbstein smiled to himself.

  “What is your basis for comparison?” Hardy demanded. “Name something
that has no corruption in it.”

  “Mother’s love,” said Hillis of the Sun, and there was a brief titter.

  “I deny that emphatically,” said Farbstein. “Ever hear of a character called Freud?”

  “I’m not going to labor the point,” said Hardy. “But you men are criticizing the Police Department as if it alone, in a pure world, suffered from corruption. All human institutions are fallible—even the newspaper business, I’m afraid, hard as that may be for you crusading gentlemen to believe. All attacks and crusades of this kind are alike in the way I’m speaking about—the basis for comparison. The prize-fighting game is lousy and crooked—one of your favourite crusades. But in comparison with what?”

  “Commissioner Hardy,” said Kelso of the Examiner, “this sounds to me like sophistry, and I didn’t expect it from you.”

  Hardy laughed shortly.

  “Poaching on your preserves, eh? Well, be patient with me. I’ve got a point to make.”

  Hardy took out a stogie-type cigar, lit it, and puffed thoughtfully on it. An acrid odour of burning weeds made the newspapermen grimace and draw back from the Commissioner.

  There was a long silence, then without another word the Commissioner leaned forward and switched on the special radio on his desk. In a moment, police calls began to pour into the little office without cessation—police calls from all corners of the huge, sprawling metropolitan area.

  The reporters listened in silence, shifting about uneasily as the calls continued to come in, one after another, overlapping—from Camden Square, from Leamington, Italian Hill, Polishtown, South River, even from the great suburban areas where the tame and respectable people lived—hundreds of calls of all descriptions, a sordid, appalling, relentless stream.

  “I assume, gentlemen,” said Hardy, “that, being newspapermen, you know the codes. But in case some of you don’t… I’ll translate for a moment.” Then he picked up the calls as they came in: A drunk lying in the gutter. Another drunk—disorderly. An attempted attack—foiled. A market robbery. Another drunk. A three-car accident, calling for a police ambulance. Drunk. A domestic quarrel—man cut with a butcher knife. A stolen car. An attempted attack—girl injured, ambulance needed. Store robbery—one suspect caught. A drunken brawl at a dance hall. Two drunks. A hit-and-run victim—little boy. Two-car accident—one car over an embankment. A traffic jam on the Parkway—big fight, riot call. A drunk. Another drunk—trying to enter house. Attack reported by girl thrown out of car. Drunk… Another drunk. Suspicious character—probably peeping Tom. Drunk… drunk…

  Hardy’s voice trailed off, but the calls went on and on and on until some of the reporters were standing, leaning on the Commissioner’s desk, so they could hear better. Farbstein smoked in peace, smiling to himself, scarcely listening.

  The Commissioner left the radio on for so long that finally Hillis, wincing a little, asked him to turn it off, which he did with a shrug a short while later.

  “And all this proves?” asked Hillis, who knew damned well what it proved.

  “It seems obvious,” said Hardy. “The Police Department has many problems. Its activity, as I think even you gentlemen will admit, is not confined to shaking down prostitutes or taking graft from gambling. It is performing a public service, and doing damned well at it. You listened to the calls for maybe twenty minutes, say half an hour. They go round the clock, day after day after day, including Sundays and holidays.”

  Hillis, argumentative by nature, could think of nothing to say, but merely compressed his lips and pulled out a cigarette.

  “I’m all through now, gentlemen—except for this,” Hardy went on. “You heard the calls and are able to make your own deductions. But I don’t think they will be as radical as mine. The worst police force in the world is better than no police force. And ours is far from the worst—no matter what you may believe. Take the police off the streets for forty-eight hours, and nobody would be safe, neither on the street, nor in his place of business, nor in his home. There wouldn’t be an easy moment for women or children. We’d be back in the jungle…

  “All I ask is, give these facts a little thought before you write your next article damning and undermining the Police Department.”

  The reporters were dismissed, and filed out thoughtfully to the nearest bar—that is, all but Farbstein. He hurried home to his flat in an apartment building halfway up a steep slope in Leamington, and in spite of the protests of his harried wife, he locked himself in his room to write what turned out to be a much-praised and widely quoted article, which was featured on the editorial page of the World, dealing with the intricate workings of, and the dangers faced by, the Police Department, with a bow here and there to Commissioner Hardy, who had succeeded in giving Farbstein a new perspective on the city where he’d spent most of his forty-five years.

  He even feared it a little now and felt it to be somewhat sinister as he stood looking down on it from a view window in his clothes closet of a workroom.

  TWO

  A dark, blustery night had settled down like a cowl over the huge, sprawling Midwestern city by the river. A mistlike rain blew between the tall buildings at intervals, wetting the streets and pavements and turning them into black, fun-house mirrors that reflected in grotesque distortions the street lights and neon signs.

  The big downtown bridges arched off across the wide, black river into the void, the far shore blotted out by the misty rain; and gusts of wind, carrying stray newspapers, blew up the almost deserted boulevards, whistling faintly along the building fronts and moaning at the intersections. Empty surface cars, and buses with misted windows, trundled slowly through the downtown section. Except for taxis and prowl cars, there was no traffic.

  River Boulevard, wide as a plaza and with its parkways and arched, orange street lights stretching off into the misty horizon in diminishing perspective, was as deserted as if a plague had swept the streets clean. The traffic lights changed with automatic precision, but there were no cars to heed or disobey them. Far down the boulevard, in the supper-club section of the city, elaborately glittering neon signs flashed off and on to emptiness. The night city, like a wound-up toy, went about its business with mechanical efficiency, regardless of man.

  Finally the wind died down and the rain began to fall steadily all over the huge city: on the stacks of the steel plants in Polishtown; on the millionaires’ mansions in Riverdale; on the hilly regions of Tecumseh Slope, with its little Italian groceries and restaurants; on the massed tenement apartments along the upper river, where all the windows had been dark for hours and men would start awake cursing as the alarm clocks blasted at five a.m.; on the fanned-out suburban areas to the north and east, where all the little houses and the little lawns looked alike; and finally on the dark and unsavory reaches of Camden Square and its environs, the immense downtown slum beyond the river, where there was at least one bar at every intersection, prowl cars by the dozens, and harness bulls working in pairs.

  A taxi pulled up at a dark store front near Camden Square, and the driver turned to speak to his fare.

  “You sure you know where you’re going, buddy?”

  His fare nodded, then got out and paid him, giving him a good-sized tip, which made the driver feel kindly disposed toward the dumpy, middle-aged little man who had sat in dead silence all during the long ride up from the bus terminal.

  “It’s none of my business, partner,” the driver persisted, “but this is a rough neighbourhood.” The fare merely cleared his throat. “There’s the number you’re looking for. But it’s dark. Want me to wait?”

  The fare shook his head.

  “Okay,” said the driver, not too anxious to be sitting all alone on Camden Boulevard West at two a.m. “But take a tip. Don’t go parading around here with a suitcase. Some of these young punks would clip you for it—just to get a clean shirt.”

  The fare had moved away by now and was looking for a buzzer near the door of the dark store front. The taxi drove off slowly, the driver loo
king back.

  After a while the fare heard a movement inside the dark store, then the door, which was on a chain, was opened a few inches.

  “Yeah?” came a cautious, gruff voice.

  “Joe Cool told me to come here,” said the fare. “I want to see Cobby.”

  “Joe Cool’s in clink.”

  “That’s right. I just came from there. Got out this afternoon.”

  The fare had a slight, foreign accent of some kind, and the man at the door tried to get a look at him in the dim glow from the street light at the corner.

  “Cobby’s getting tired of you guys that fell putting the bite on him. He ain’t no national bank.”

  “I’m not looking for any stake. I got a proposition for him—a big one.”

  “How do I know that?”

  “Go tell Cobby.”

  There was a long hesitation; then the fare heard the faint clank of a chain, and the door was opened enough for him to squeeze through.

  “You wait here,” said the doorman, bolting the door and putting the chain back in place; then he turned and started for a door at the back, where a crack of light showed. On the way he called over his shoulder: “You better be legit, pal. Cobby’s been having trouble lately and he ain’t so easy to get along with.” There was a pause, then he added as he opened the back door: “Not that he ever was!”

  The fare put down his suitcase and lighted a fat cigar as he waited. He sighed quietly to himself and did not seem at all perturbed by his reception.

  In a few minutes the door in the back opened, throwing a canted triangle of light out into the dark storeroom, and the doorman’s arm motioned for the fare to follow.

  The fare found himself in a narrow, lighted corridor filled with the smell of stale tobacco smoke. Beyond him was the wide, receding back of the doorman. There were several doors in the corridor, and behind them the fare could hear the rumble of voices and the clink of poker chips.

  The doorman halted at the last door, then turned to take a look at the fare, who had stopped just beyond him. The doorman was an ex-wrestler with a broken nose and a pair of cauliflower ears. His eyes were small and piggish, and his thick, everted lips seemed swollen. His blond hair had been clipped and looked like gold wire under the garish light of the unshaded bulb. He stared at the fare in moody silence, not able to place him.