1954 - Safer Dead (28 page)

‘Now Frances had to be taken care of,’ I went on. ‘Royce took her to Welden. He was a reluctant killer. He didn’t want to wipe her out unless he had to. He wanted to make sure first that you were going to get away with it: that your nerve wouldn’t crack if police pressure was put on you. So he persuaded Frances to alter her appearance, take another name and get work at the Florian club. By then Frances must have known she had made herself an accessory to murder. She was probably so scared she did what she was told to do. Then Joan Nichols called on you. It must have been a shock to you and to her when she found you weren’t the girl she had worked on in Paris. She probably tried to put the bite on you. You told Royce what was happening, and he decided both Frances and Joan had to go. He gave Flemming the signal to go ahead, and Flemming went ahead.’

I paused and watched her set down her glass. She seemed suddenly relaxed now, and she rested her elbows on the bar, the gun held loosely in her hand.

‘And you can prove all this?’ she asked mockingly.

‘Yeah, I can prove it,’ I said. ‘You made it too complicated. The more complicated a case becomes the easier it is to unravel, providing you get the essential lead. I got it when I learned how alike you and Frances Bennett were. I could see then how you fixed your alibi. You had a big advantage: the police were on your side. If you had kept your head and done nothing after

Frances’s death you might have got away with it. When I started to stir up the past, you panicked. When Flemming called you and told you someone was making inquiries, and that Hesson had talked out of turn, you told Flemming to fix Hesson and me. When you heard I’d been to see Hartley you panicked again. In Hartley’s filing cabinet there were sketches he had made of Frances, sitting on your balcony. You thought I would see the likeness between you two, but you forgot I might get the information from Latimer. You went to Hartley and tried to get the sketches from him. Maybe he wouldn’t part. Maybe he realized that Frances had supplied your alibi. Anyway, he called me and asked me over. Were you hiding in the room when he called?’

She nodded. The fixed smile went away, leaving her face bony and old looking.

‘And you shot him,’ I went on. ‘His servant heard the shot and ran upstairs, trying to get away from you. You followed him and shot him too. You thought you’d get away with it as I was on my way over and you knew Lassiter was keeping tabs on me. You thought I was going to be your fall guy as Dillon was.’

‘And I have got away with it, Mr. Sladen,’ she said. ‘The police still think you killed Hartley; and they are still looking for you. This is where we came in, isn’t it? Have you quite finished?’

I had been talking solidly to gain time, and now I knew I had bought all the time I was going to get. In a second or so she would shoot. The range was about fifteen feet. Even with a .22 fifteen feet could be difficult shooting if the target was on the move.

While I had been talking I had also been frantically trying to find a way out of this jam. I was within ten feet of the light switch, and it looked an awful long way away. If I could get to the switch and turn off the light I had a chance.

‘Let’s talk about a deal,’ I said, bracing my muscles. A big cushion lay on the settee by my side. As casually as I could I let my hand drop on it while I stared at her, trying to hold her attention away from my hand.

‘No deals, Mr. Sladen.’ She lifted the gun, her knuckle turned white as she took up the slack of the trigger. ‘I think you’re bluffing. Anyway, you’ll be safer dead.’

III

T
ime stood still while we stared at each other. I could see by the glitter in her eyes and the loose movement of her mouth that she was about to shoot. I snatched up the cushion and threw it at her with one movement, and at the same time, my heart hammering, I rolled off the settee and scrambled frantically to get behind it.

She fired as the cushion whizzed through the air at her, but she dodged at the same time. I heard the vicious little bark of the .22, and a big glass ashtray that stood on the occasional table near me flew into splinters.

I was behind the settee by now.

She fired again. The slug ploughed through the back of the settee, missing me by less than six inches.

This couldn’t go on. I knew her next shot must get me. Sweat was pouring off my face. I saw her shadow, slim and long, moving very slowly across the carpet towards me. I got hold of the side of the settee and waited. She couldn’t see me, but she knew I was there. She was within six feet of me when I heaved the settee up and towards her. I saw her jump clear; the settee crashed down, only just missing her.

I had thrown away my only cover. I stood facing her, and she smiled at me. She was out of my reach. I was still ten feet from the light switch; fifteen feet from Juan’s gun, lying by the window. It seemed to me that I was within a heartbeat of death when a voice barked from the window: ‘Drop that gun!’

I saw Cornelia’s eyes dilate. She looked quickly towards the window, her gun swinging around.

The roar of a .45 swamped the bang of the .22. I only knew she had fired because I saw the gun flash.

The shock of the .45 slug as it hit her threw her backwards.

The .22 fell from her hand as she cannoned against the bar. She was dead before she reached the lush pile of the carpet.

‘Don’t move!’ Lassiter said from the window. He thrust one long thick leg over the window sill, the smoking .45 pointing at me. He slid into the room, covering me with the gun. His coarse, brutal face creased into a jeering smile as he looked at me.

‘Hello, peeper,’ he said. ‘You seem to be having yourself a good time.’

I didn’t say anything. My tongue was as dry as scorched leather, and my knees were buckling. I watched him walk over to Cornelia, turn her over with his foot and look down at her.

‘Well, she won’t cash any cheques where she’s gone,’ he said, and to my relief, he shoved the .45 back into his shoulder holster. ‘Take a drink, peeper; you look like you could use one.’

I ploughed my way across to the bar, poured myself three fingers of Scotch and gulped it down. The liquor did something to unfreeze my panic.

‘You’re a lucky guy, peeper,’ Lassiter said, reaching for a glass. He poured himself a stiff whisky. ‘If I hadn’t showed up when I did, you’d have been playing a harp by now.’

‘That’s a fact,’ I said, wiping my face with my handkerchief. I kept my back turned to Cornelia’s body. ‘How did you happen to look in?’

He grinned at me, showing big white teeth.

‘I was keeping tabs on you like she said. I had an idea you were shacking up at Benn’s place. I figured it this way: you’ve been talking to Bradley. Benn and Bradley work together. Benn has a hideout; so that’s where you were.’

‘Pretty smart,’ I said. ‘Then why didn’t you grab me at Benn’s place if you knew I was there?’

‘What for? You don’t imagine I think you knocked off Hartley, do you? I’m not that dumb. Okay, it looked bad, but why should you knock him off? I figured if I kept near you, you’d crack the case and save me some trouble. I couldn’t crack it myself. She was in too close with Doonan for any Tampa City cop to handle her.’

‘Well, it’s fixed now. You won’t let Royce get away?’

‘He won’t get away.’ He reached out a huge hand for the telephone. ‘Give me police headquarters,’ he told the operator. While he waited he helped himself to another drink, then he said into the mouthpiece, ‘This is Lassiter. I want Royce picked up and fast. I’ll be right over to charge him. Just get him.’

He replaced the receiver, finished his drink, then taking out a pack of cigarettes, he offered me one.

‘You weren’t kidding when you told her you could prove she did the job?’ he asked, as we lit up.

‘I wasn’t kidding. The case is in the bag. Captain Creed is handling the witnesses.’

‘Creed, huh?’ Lassiter grinned. ‘Making sure of it? That’s swell. And you’re going to print the story in your rag?’

‘That’s the idea.’

‘Then it’s goodbye Doonan. I’ve been waiting for that punk to run into something he couldn’t talk himself out of, and this is it. Do you know how our system works? I’ll tell you. Doonan will take the buck: he can’t avoid it, and he’ll go. Mathis will move into his place; Carson will move into Mathis’s place, and I’ll move into Carson’s place. In six months’ time, Mathis will move out and I’ll be the boss.’

‘You’ve forgotten Carson,’ I said.

‘No, I haven’t.’ He showed his teeth in a wolfish grin. ‘I’ll take care of him. He won’t worry me.’ He reached out a hand that felt like a hunk of concrete and patted my shoulder. ‘Go away and write your story. Make it good. Don’t forget to tell them how I saved your life.’ He turned to look at Cornelia. ‘Baby, if you only knew the shakeup you’re going to cause; if you only knew.’

‘Then you don’t want me for the Hartley killing?’ I asked.

‘Don’t be a dope. You’re as free as the air.’ His huge hand reached out and took in the slack of my coat front. ‘I’ve been looking at that rag of yours, pally. It’s a nice layout. How’s about a photograph of me on the cover when you break the story?’

‘Do you think that’s a good idea?’ I asked, examining his pig face. At close quarters it was horrible. ‘We don’t want to get pinched for scaring the kiddies.’

He gave me a little shake that nearly made my disc slip.

‘What’s that again?’ he growled, scowling.

‘I said it was a good idea. Would you mind giving me back my suit?’

He shoved me away from him.

‘Okay, you fix it. I’ve got you out of a jam, and I expect something from you in return: understand?’

‘You’ll get it,’ I said, smiling at him. ‘You’ll get it all right.’

‘Sit down and keep out of my way.’ He reached for the telephone again. ‘I’ve got to get the Captain down here.’

While he was telephoning I sat down and helped myself to another drink. I hadn’t forgotten how he had booted me when we had first met. I didn’t think it would be difficult to prove he had been collecting money from Cornelia. Maybe he had shot her, but I wasn’t kidding myself he had shot her to save my life. She had said I’d be safer dead, and he knew she would also be safer dead. He knew she’d talk if he was ever brought to trial. He had seen his way out and had taken the opportunity. All I would have to do was to drop a hint in Captain Mathis’s ear. An investigation of Lassiter’s bank account would fix him. No one kicks a Sladen in the pants without paying for it.

Lassiter got through telephoning. He went over to where Dillon’s body was hidden and began getting up the floor boards.

‘I’ll take the credit for finding the stiff, pally,’ he said. ‘Your job is to collaborate with me. I’ll tell the story. You sit still and keep quiet. Just say amen when I tell you to.’

‘Sure,’ I said. ‘Anything you say, sergeant.’

His pig eyes went over me.

‘Don’t try anything funny or I’ll make you sorry.’

‘That’s okay, sergeant.’

I lit a cigarette. Maybe it would be safer to tip Mathis off after I was back in New York. I decided I would do that.

While I waited for Mathis to arrive I began to straighten out in my mind the story as I would dictate it to Bernie. If anyone were going to have his face on the front cover of Crime Facts in the issue that carried my story I saw no reason why it shouldn’t be mine.

But I was kidding myself. If there was one thing Fayette hated more than another, it was giving any of his staff writers publicity.