Three by Cain: Serenade/Love's Lovely Counterfeit/The Butterfly

by James M. Cain

  When Mr. Jansen came out of the school and entered his car, Ben was parked a few feet behind him, his lights out, his motor running. When Mr. Jansen started up, Ben started up, and seemed oddly expert at the job of following. On brightly lighted streets he cut his lights, and when he had to snap them on, fell back some distance, so the car ahead was not likely to notice him. Finally, when Mr. Jansen turned into the drive of a pretentious house in the swank Lakeside suburb, he parked nearby, and looked the place over, not missing the three Scandinavian birches growing in a cluster on the lawn. When another car drove up he watched Mr. Conley, the chairman; Mr. Bleeker, the candidate for city attorney; Mrs. Bleeker and Miss Lyons get out and enter the house, then got out his little red book, and under May 7 again, copied down the number of the car. He sat a long time, waiting for other cars to appear. When the four visitors came out, he followed their car again, noting the addresses as Mr. and Mrs. Bleeker dropped their passengers off. It was around two o’clock when he tucked his little red book away and drove to Ike’s Place, a small honky-tonk about four miles from town.

  The place was fairly full and fairly noisy, with the crash of pinball shattering the beat of juke music. In the murk at one end of the bar a couple was dancing. Waiters in gray jackets with brass buttons hurried about, serving drinks; they were addressed by name, mostly, and treated the customers as old friends. When Ben came in he waved at Caspar, who was sitting at a table with Lefty, Bugs Lenhardt, another guard named Goose Groner, and two girls. Then he sat down at the bar, ordered a drink, and scanned a paper devoting its front page to the Castleton robbery, which had gone even worse than Lefty had expected. The four wild kids had got $22,000 but killed a cashier doing it.

  Presently Groner was beside Ben, mumbling that Caspar wanted to see him. The girls moved over so Ben could sit down, but Caspar didn’t invite him. Instead he demanded savagely to know where he had been. Ben, evidently deciding that an offense was the only defense against a stupid inquiry, stuck out his chin and said: “Me? I been working. I been carrying out orders, some kind of hop dreams that were thought up by a jerk named Solly Caspar—no relation, I hope. I been tailing a Swede all over town, and copying down the car numbers of his friends, and making a sap out of myself—wasn’t that a way to spend a spring night! And for what? Because they been taking this lug, this fathead named Caspar, for a ride the whole town is laughing at.”

  “Ride? What ride?”

  “Come on, get wise to yourself. The ride Maddux is taking you for. Filling you up with that hooey about Delany—”

  “Oh, so you think it’s hooey?”

  “Listen, I’ve seen this Swede’s friends, and they wouldn’t know Delany if they met him on the street. It’s a gyp and you fell for it, that’s all.”

  Ben got this off with quite a show of truculence, and it left Caspar blinking, and would probably have settled the argument if he hadn’t slightly overplayed it. He took up the previous question, which was where he had been all night, reminding Caspar it had been clearly stipulated that he was not to report until tomorrow; and when Caspar weakly tapped his watch and said it was tomorrow, he said that as far as he was concerned it was not tomorrow until the sun came up. At this one of the girls, who had been eyeing Ben’s curls with more than casual interest, let out an appreciative laugh. Caspar’s eyes flickered. Lefty jumped up and began telling him a story, a meaningless thing about a couple of Irishmen that went into a hotel. Groner began whispering to him, patting his back and leaning close to his ear. The girl, frightened, poked him with her finger, and said hey, quit scaring her to death.

  This went on for five minutes, and the place froze like a cinematic stop-camera shot. Ike, the proprietor, caught the eye of the bartender, who stood with a shaker in his hand, checking the position of the waiters. These came to a stop in the aisles, and stood staring at Caspar. He began to pant, and when Groner touched his arm, shook it as though something had stung him. Then, his seizure passing, he screamed: “O.K., you took the car number! Why don’t you pass it over? What you waiting for?”

  Ben, who had turned green, stared at him. He stared a long time, his eyes becoming small, cold, and hard. Then he took out his little red book, copied a number on the back of a beer mat, and rolled it to Caspar. Before returning the book to his pocket he creased the page with his thumbnail. But this page was not captioned May 7.

  It was captioned April 29.

  C H A P T E R

  2

  Next afternoon, when Ben reported to work, Sol was in high good humor. He indulged in a little heavy-handed kidding, played a new swing record, and in other small ways tried to atone for his behavior of the previous night. Presently he said: “And was you fooled!”

  “Yeah? How?”

  “Them guys. That you seen with Jansen.”

  “Oh? You know who they were?”

  “I had that license checked. The one you give me last night. I sent a special wire to Chicago, and I just now got a reply. You know who that car belonged to?”

  “I got no idea.”

  “Frankie Horizon.”

  “Well, say—and he looked like another Swede.”

  “How many times I got to tell you, you can’t go by their looks. Frankie Horizon—and him and Delany are just like that.”

  Sol held up two fingers to indicate a close degree of intimacy, as Ben stared incredulously. Compassionately, then, Sol shook his head. “I don’t know what I’m going to do about you, Ben.”

  “How you mean, Sol?”

  “Them Illinois plates. Didn’t they mean nothing to you?”

  “Well—plenty people live in Illinois.”

  “Wise money has generally got Illinois plates.”

  “I’ll try to remember.”

  “It’s O.K.—if you could remember something you wouldn’t be driving a car, for me or anybody. And, you found out what I wanted, so take tomorrow off.”

  “Well, gee, thanks, Sol.”

  “That’s a promise. Go on, make a date.”

  In the big room, however, Lefty seemed even more dejected, if that were possible, than he had been yesterday. He sat tipping one key of the piano, and when Ben presently asked him to cut it out, he announced: “He’s going to die.”

  “Who’s going to die?”

  “That kid. That got it at Castleton yesterday.”

  “How you know he’s going to die?”

  “That doc, the look on his face.”

  “Where’s the kid shot?”

  “In the hip.”

  “Did the doc get the bullet out?”

  “It came in and went out. The guard, before they got out of the bank, had time to grab his rifle, and it was with that that the kid got it, just a little hole that went right through. He’s not in any pain. He thinks he’s going to be moving soon. But the other three, they can see him behind, where he’s turning black. They’re getting jittery. They’re getting worse than I am.”

  The shrug that Ben gave was perhaps more indifferent than one would expect, on a warm afternoon, at a piece of news of at least average quality, with nothing else to talk about. It was matched by the yawn he gave next morning, when Lefty arrived at the Lucas before he was up, and sat on the edge of the bed, and furnished a few more details. “His temperature’s up, Ben. He’s beginning to rave. And the other three, I don’t know what they’ll pull. They’re liable to conk him to make him shut up or something. They’re not old-timers. They’re just kids. They don’t know what to do when a guy gets it. And the hotel, they’re turning on the heat.”

  “Can’t you get him out of there?”

  “Where to?”

  It was at this point that Ben yawned, and Lefty went on: “What am I going to do, Ben? He’s going to die, and what am I going to do with him? I can’t serve no more time. I can’t take it. I was already stir crazy, a little bit …”

  “Dogged if I know what to tell you.”

  When Lefty went, Ben got up, held the door on a crack, and peeped down the hall, to make s
ure he was really gone. Then, on his outside phone, he dialed a number and asked for Miss Lyons—Miss June Lyons.

  A girl slowing down as a man held up a newspaper, the man climbing into the car she was driving, the two of them going on at the change of the light—it looked casual enough, yet it had been planned by Ben, and carried out by her, in such fashion as to make it impossible that they should be followed. She was driving Mr. Jansen’s big green sedan, and for a few moments they studied each other. Then he laughed. “Hey, cut that out. Smile. Relax.”

  “You mean the frown?”

  “It’s just terrible.”

  “That’s what my mother always says.”

  “You must have had it a long time if she’s always saying.”

  “It comes from taking things seriously.”

  “What things?”

  “Oh—this and that.”

  “Not Jansen?”

  “Well, why not Jansen?”

  “I wouldn’t think he’d appeal to you. Fact of the matter, ever since I heard you make that speech the other night, I’ve been wondering why you’re hooked up with him. You look serious enough, but you don’t look dumb enough.”

  “Well, Jansen isn’t really what I meant.”

  “And what did you mean?”

  “Something personal.”

  “Romance?”

  “I’d hardly take that seriously.”

  She was smiling now, and her face lighted up quite pleasantly, though there was still something solemn about it, as though back of any light idea that entered her mind there would always be some sobering consideration. He smiled a little too, and said: “If it’s not love it’s got to be money.”

  “It might be a little of both, but not the way you mean. Since my frown seems to interest you, and my connection with Mr. Jansen seems to interest you, they both have to do with my family, and it’s a long story, and not at all exciting, and I’d rather not talk about it, if you don’t mind.”

  “Your family live here?”

  “Do you live here?”

  “Looks like we got a little dead-end there.”

  “If, as you said over the phone, I’m not to ask questions about who you are, or anything about you, then don’t ask questions about me, or my family, or where they live. What is this business you and I have, anyway? After that call, the very least I expected was a blue chin and a broken nose.”

  “You disappointed?”

  “A little.”

  “I called about Jansen.”

  “Oh, the dumb candidate.”

  “He’s dumb, but outside of Maddux he’s the only candidate we’ve got, anyway, that’s got his papers filed. So I’ve been looking him over. So I’ve been thinking it might be a good idea if he was elected, or perhaps I should say, if Maddux was defeated.”

  “And?”

  “I’m kicking in with a little dirt.”

  “I’d rather have money, but—”

  “You’ll settle for dirt. You know the Castleton robbery?”

  “The bank?”

  “That’s it. Suppose friend Jansen found out where that mob was hiding. Suppose he found out they were here, in Lake City, under protection of Caspar and the police department. Suppose he found out the exact hotel. Could he use it?”

  Not waiting for a reply, Ben took out an envelope, tore off the back, and wrote down four names. “There they are. They’re at the Globe Hotel, Room 38, a double room with two extra cots moved in. That last guy, Rossi, the one I checked, is shot. He’s going to die, so if Jansen is going to use this he better do it quick. When he does die, the other three will certainly skip.”

  Ben was obviously surprised at the hostile stare she turned on him. With an ironical laugh she said: “You must have gone to college, didn’t you? To think up one like that?”

  “Like what, for instance?”

  “It’s criminal libel, that’s all—if Mr. Jansen mentions the name of the hotel, and not worth a plugged dime if he doesn’t. And coming now, just a week before election, it’s a trick, I would say, to send Mr. Jansen to the polls under indictment, and perhaps even under arrest. To say nothing of what could be done to his business and property in the civil action, later.”

  “You’re a smart girl, aren’t you?”

  “Oh, I went to college too. And law school.”

  “You’re about as dumb a girl as any candidate ever had back of him. Here I offer you dirt, and the first thing you tell me is that you’d rather have money. Well June, there comes a time when money’s not enough. You’ve got to have dirt—not nice clean dirt, like calling names and all this stuff Jansen has been handing out. Dirty dirt. Dirt that stinks so bad something has to be done about it. And here I offer you some, with more to come, much as you want, enough to break Caspar and all the rest of them, and all you see in it is criminal libel. I guess you belong with Jansen, come to think of it. And now suppose we go back. Sitting this close to you makes me feel a little sick to my stomach.”

  She drove a little further, her face getting redder and redder. Then she turned around, and when they came to a car track he motioned her to stop. When he got out he didn’t say goodbye.

  After dinner, he walked slowly down Hobart Street, looking at movie notices, but none of them seemed to suit him. He went back to his hotel, entered his room, and lay down, first removing his coat and hanging it in the closet. In a moment or two his fingers found the radio, which was tucked on the second deck of the night table, and turned it on. For the better part of an hour he lay there, the light off, listening to dinner music from the Columbus. Then the Jansen meeting came in, and he scowled, starting to turn it off. Then he changed his mind and lay there listening, his face a sombre shadow in the half dark, while the same old speeches came in that he had listened to at the high school. When June was introduced he made a second motion to cut the radio off, and again changed his mind. Then suddenly he sat up in bed, and snapped on the light, and listened with rapt attention.

  She was talking about the hook-up, the alliance between crime, the Mayor, and the police, and even the crowd sensed that she was leading up to something. Then with breath-taking suddenness it came: “You think there’s no hook-up, do you? You think that’s something we invented, to get Mr. Jansen elected? Then why are those four bandits, the ones that robbed the Security Bank at Castleton day before yesterday, the ones that took $22,000 from that bank and murdered Guy Horner, the cashier—why are they hiding in Lake City? Why are Buck Harper, Mort Dubois, Boogie-Woogie Lipsky, and Arch Rossi in the Globe Hotel right now, with nothing being done about them? You think Chief Dietz doesn’t know about them? He does, because he told me so. I called him at four o’clock this afternoon, and told him I was the operator at the Globe Hotel, and asked him if there were any further instructions on the party of four in Room 38. He said: ‘Not till Arch Rossi gets so he can travel, anyhow. But I’m not really handling it. You better talk to Solly Caspar.’ ”

  The snarl from the crowd had an echo of the wolf pack in it, but June shouted over it: “Will somebody stop that officer? The one that’s trying to get out, to telephone?”

  Evidently the officer stopped, for there was a big laugh, and June said: “There’s no use warning those boys, officer. You see, after I talked to Chief Dietz I called Castleton, and the Castleton detectives are at the hotel right now, and I think they’ll move a little too fast for you to stop them—a little official kidnapping, so to speak. It’s the only way, apparently, to bring murderers to trial under the conditions we have in Lake City.”

  An exultant light in his eye, Ben snapped off the radio. Then, moving with catlike silence, he went to the door, jerked it open. The hall was empty. Then he put on his coat, picked up his hat, and went out to the Tracy picture at the Rialto.

  When he came in, Mr. Nerny, the elderly night clerk, was signaling with one hand. “Call for you, Mr. Grace. Party was just about to hang up when I told them I was quite sure I recognized your step. Take it down here if you like.”

&nb
sp; Into the house phone, Ben said: “Hello?”

  “Mr. Grace?”

  “Speaking.”

  “This is your friend that takes things seriously.”

  “Who?”

  “The one you went riding with, today.”

  “Oh yes. I’ll call you later. Goodbye.”

  Hanging up, he shot a glance at Mr. Nerny, but Mr. Nerny had put aside his earphones, and apparently had heard nothing. Upstairs, he paced about, and started to take off his clothes. But the knowledge that this girl knew who he was evidently threw him badly off step, and presently he clapped on his hat and went out.

  “What was the idea, calling me?”

  “Well, it was pretty successful, what I did. What you did. What—we did. I thought, after the way I acted today, the least I could do was call you and thank you.”

  “Over that hotel phone?”

  “Oh, I was going to be careful.”

  “On a night like this, when we set off five tons of dynamite in this town, you were going to let a night clerk hear you being careful?”

  “Is it as melodramatic as that?”

  “Yeah.”

  He turned away from her, and became aware of the apartment she lived in. It was a bare little place, almost shabby, on the second floor of a small apartment house. To one side was a dining alcove, and a double door looked as though a bed might lurk behind it. He had not got up here without an argument through the door phone, for it was at least one o’clock in the morning, and when she finally let him up, she made him wait five minutes while she put on these lounging pajamas that she now wore. They were dark red, and certainly becoming, but he paid no attention to them. As she continued to smile, he seized her roughly by the arm and asked: “What’s so funny about this melodrama thing?… O.K., they shoot off blanks, and I guess that’s funny. But Caspar, he don’t shoot off blanks. When he shoots, he throws lead. Is that funny? Go on, let’s see you laugh.”

  She tried to pull her arm away, but he gave it another shake. “And how’d you find out who I am, by the way?”