No Business Of Mine
Page 12
around together just to see how strong we were. It turned out he
wasn’t strong at all.”
Frankie’s lips twitched. He said three words; one of them
obscene. His voice was not loud, but it was bitter.
Bradley took a step forward, snapped, “Get the hell out of here,”
to Frankie, who went.
I lit my cigarette, hooked a chair towards me with my foot, sat
down.
“You’d better watch that boy,” I said. “He’s in need of a mother’s
care.”
“Never mind him,” Bradley said, frost in his eyes. “It’s you I want
to talk about.”
“That’s fine,” I said. “I like talking about myself. Where shall we
begin? Would you like to hear how I snitched the scripture prize when
I was a little lad?”
Bradley leaned forward. “Frankie may not be tough,” he said, “but
I am. You’d better not forget it.”
“That’s scared me right through to my jaegers,” I said. “May I go in
a corner and cry?”
“I’ve warned you,” Bradley said, sitting at his desk. “You’re getting
too inquisitive, my friend. I sent for you because I thought a little chat
off the record might clear the air, I advise you not to pass this on to
your friend Corridan. It wouldn’t be healthy.”
“You needn’t worry about Corridan,” I said. “He and I aren’t pals
any more. What’s biting you?”
He took a cigar from a silver box on his desk, pierced it, lit it,
threw the match away, puffed it once or twice before he spoke again.
He took his time. He didn’t rattle me. I was in no hurry myself.
I don’t like American newspaper men who are inquisitive,” he
said. “They annoy me.”
“Are you suggesting I should relay that item of news to the U.S.
Press Association?” I kidded him. “I doubt if they’d lose much sleep,
but, of course, they might. You never know.”
“You’re sticking your nose into something that has nothing to do
with you,” Bradley went on smoothly. “I suggest you stop it.”
“No harm in making suggestions,” I returned lightly. “What exactly
do you mean by that sinister ‘something’?”
“We needn’t go into that,” Bradley said, a cold, angry gleam in his
eyes. “You know what I mean. I’m serious about this. I’d advise you to
return to your own country. There’s a plane leaving to-morrow. It
wouldn’t be a bad idea if you were on it.”
I shook my head. “I have a lot of work to do in this country,” I said.
“I’m sorry I can’t oblige you. Is that all you wanted to see me about?”
He studied his cigar for a moment, said, “I’m warning you,
Harmas. If you don’t keep your nose out of this, you’re going to be
taught a sharp lesson. I know what you newspaper men are like. You
get keen on a story and you need a lot of persuasion to give it up. I
have all the necessary persuasion but I’m not anxious to use it. I
thought if I gave you the hint, you’d be a smart fellow and mind your
own business in the future.”
I stubbed out my cigarette in the copper ash-tray on his desk,
stood up.
“Look, Bradley,” I said, leaning across the desk, “I’ve listened to
your hot air because I wanted to hear how far you’d go. You and
hundreds of other fat, sleek rats who’ve made money out of this war,
sold stinking bad liquor to the Service men, and gorged yourselves
with black market food are a gross a nickel in my country. I’ve
knocked around and met real tough eggs, not jerks like you who
merely smell strong. I’ve been threatened before, and the guys
who’ve shaken their fists at me have ended up in a nice cool cell or
are now fertilizing the soil. I’m not scared of you, or of your panty-
waisted Frankie. I’m coming after you, and I’m keeping after you until
I’ve had the satisfaction of knowing the hangman’s taken your weight
and height and selected a nice strong rope for you. Show me how
tough you are, and I’ll show you how tough I am. Keep Frankie out of
my hair. He’s too young for this kind of shindig. But if he does try
anything with me, I’ll paper a wall with him, and I’ll paper another
wall with you.”
Bradley let me say my piece to the end. There was a faint flush on
his heavy face and his fingers drummed on the desk, otherwise he
was calm enough.
“All right, Harmas,” he said, shrugging, “if that’s the way you feel.
Don’t forget I’ve warned you.
I grinned at him. “I won’t forget,” I said, “but you’ll find me a little
harder proposition to take on than Madge Kennitt.”
His face tightened. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he
said. “I’ve never heard of Madge Kennitt. You can get out and stay
out. This club’s closed to you from now on. And take my tip — mind
your own business, otherwise you’ll be a sick PUP.”
“Phooey!” I said, and left him.
Chapter XIII
ON my way back from the Ministry of Reconstruction and
Planning where I had been obtaining material for my third article, I
ran into Corridan.
I spotted him hurrying along the crowded pavement, a dour,
forbidding look in his eyes, his mouth set in a grim line.
“Hello, sour puss,” I said, falling into step beside him. “You look as
cheerful as the National Debt.”
He scowled round, continued on his way.
“I never met such a chap,” he said, stretching his long legs as if
anxious to shake me off. “You’re like a vulture. When anything
happens or goes wrong, you’re sure to appear on the scene.”
My legs were as long as his, and I kept pace with him easily
enough.
“What’s wrong this time?” I asked brightly. “Anyone been
humped off?”
“Nobody’s been bumped off,” he returned coldly. “If you must
know that damned Julius Cole has skipped. He climbed out of his
bedroom window and hooked it last night while I was trying to get in.”
“I don t blame him,” I returned. “Not after what happened to
Madge Kennitt. I suppose he thought the same thing might happen to
him. Any idea where he’s got to?”
“No, but we shall find him. I want him for questioning, and a
general alarm has gone out all over the country to bring him in. It
won’t take long, but it’s a shocking waste of public money.”
“Don’t bother your head about that,” I said. “There are plenty of
other things to worry about. The great thing is to find him alive.”
“I wish you’d stop dramatizing this business,” Corridan snapped.
“You make it sound a damn sight worse than it is.”
“I wonder,” I shrugged. “By the way, how are you getting along
with the Jacobi case?”
He mis-stepped, glanced at me sharply. “What do you know about
that?” he demanded, slowing his pace.
“Oh, I’ve been following your remarkable rise to fame and
fortune,” I returned lightly. “A couple of months ago your face and
name were spread over every newspaper in connection with Jacobi.
Have you found the missing loot yet?”
He shook his head. “Plenty of time for it to appear,” he returned
curtly. “What makes you bring up Jacobi?”
“Oh, I’ve been consulting my Ouija board again. I thought it was a
little odd that part of Jacobi’s loot should be hidden in Netta’s jar of
cold cream. I wondered too, why you didn’t tell me that the ring was
connected with such a sensational case.”
Corridan smiled grimly. “I don’t tell you everything. You appear
capable of finding out most things for yourself.”
I nodded. “That’s so. You’d be surprised how much I do find out.”
“Such as what?”
“I don’t tell you everything either. One of these days I’ll take you
into my confidence and we’ll have a good cry together.”
He made an impatient gesture, looked around for a taxi.
“Have you wondered if the Jacobi affair has anything to do with
Netta Scott and Madge Kennitt’s murder?” I asked as the taxi, in
answer to Corridan’s hail, drew up.
“I’m always wondering about everything connected with all my
cases,” he returned dryly, climbed into the taxi. “I’ll be seeing you,
Harmas. You can leave all this safely in my hands. You may not think
so, but they are extremely capable.”
“Let’s keep that as something between you and me,” I said.
“Some people wouldn’t believe it.”
I watched him drive away, grinned, and continued on to the
Savoy. So Julius Cole had gone to ground. I wouldn’t be surprised, I
thought, if I heard he had been found in a ditch with his toes in the
air.
I entered the Savoy, asked if there were any messages, collected
one from Crystal who suggested we should drink some more gin
together that night, gave a telephone number and asked me to call
her.
When I reached my room, I put through a call.
She answered immediately.
“Hello, this is your U.S. romance speaking to you from the Savoy
Hotel,” I said. “I received your note and think your suggestion an
excellent one. Where do we meet and when?”
“Come and pick me up at my place,” she said, gave me an address
in Hertford Street.
“I thought you said you lived with your father-the guy who stuffs
birds.”
“Oh, I’m nearly as big a kidder as you are,” she giggled, hung up.
I arrived at her flat a few minutes after seven. It was over an
antique furniture shop, and after climbing red-carpeted stairs
I came on a small landing which served as a kitchen.
Crystal popped her corn-coloured head out of a door close by,
blew me a kiss.
“Go in there,” she said, pointing a bare arm at another door. “I’ll
join you in two twos.”
“Too long to wait,” I said promptly. “I’m coming in here.”
She hurriedly closed the door, said through the panels that she
had on only her vest, and she didn’t receive gentlemen dressed like
that.
“Who told you I was a gentleman?” I demanded, pounding on the
door. “It’s those sort of mistakes that gets a girl into trouble.”
She had turned the key, but I could hear her giggling.
“Go into the sitting-room and behave,” she commanded.
“Okay,” I said, went into the room, flopped down on the big
settee. I thought the room was nice. It was comfortable, bright, full of
flowers. The kind of room a man and a maid could get awfully matey
in.
By my elbow was a table on which stood a bottle of whisky, a
bottle of gin, a bottle of dry Vermouth, a soda syphon and a cocktail
shaker.
I mixed two martinis, lit a cigarette, waited patiently.
Crystal came in after a while, wearing a scarlet house-coat, white
mules and an expectant expression on her face.
“Here I am,” she said, sitting beside me. She patted my hand,
smiled.
I thought she looked a cute trick, gave her a martini, raised my
own.
“May the bends in your figure never straighten,” I said, drank half
the martini, found it good. “So that stuff about your father was just a
gag?”
“Not really. I have a father and he does stuff things, but I’ve given
up living with him. I just couldn’t stand it, and he couldn’t stand me. I
always tell my boy friends I live with him; it saves a lot of trouble
when they want to see me home.”
“How come I’m invited to your nest?” I asked, smiling. She
fluttered her eyelids at me. “Well, if you must know, I have designs on
you.”
“My mother says no nice girls have designs on men.”
“But who says I’m nice?” she returned, put down her glass,
twined her arms around my neck.
We became intimate for the next five minutes, then I levered off
her arm, pushed her away.
“Remember the News of the World,” I said.
“I’ve got beyond the News of the World. Let’s have some real
ruinous fun.” She put her head on my shoulder, draped my arm
around her.
“In a little while,” I promised, “but don’t let’s rush it. I meant to
tell you: I saw Bradley this morning. For some reason or other he’s
taken a dislike to me. He won’t let me into the Club any more.”
She sat up, her eyes indignant. “Why?”
I pulled her down, pushed her head back on my shoulder. “He
thinks I’m too inquisitive,” I said. “I don’t care, so why should you?”
“I don’t know if I want to go to the club again, if he’s going to
treat you like that,” she said crossly. “Only I don’t know what else I
could do. You wouldn’t think of keeping me, would you? I’ve always
wanted to be a kept woman.”
“I don’t believe in keeping women. I think they should keep me.”
“Oh, you’re kidding again,” she said, thumped my knee. “But
seriously, wouldn’t you like to keep me? “
“I’d hate it,” I said gravely. “It’s as much as I can do to keep
myself.”
She sighed. “Well, all right. I never seem to have any luck. I don’t
think I’ll go to the club to-night. I have a chicken in the refrigerator.
Let’s have that and spend the evening together.”
“That sounds swell.”
She got up. “You sit there and look decorative. I’ll fix supper.”
That suited me. I was good at looking decorative. I filled my glass,
lit a cigarette, relaxed. It was nice to watch her moving about the
room. I decided suddenly that it mightn’t be a bad idea to keep her at
that.
“Tell me, sugar,” I said, “have you been keeping your eyes and
ears open at the club?”
“Oh, yes. The trouble is I don’t know what to listen for. I’ll tell you
something though.” She paused in laying the table, turned to look at
me. “I was at the club this afternoon and an odd sort of man came in
asking for Bradley. He reminded me a little of the man I saw with
Netta — the one I was telling you about with the Bentley.”
“Go on,” I said, interested.
“I don’t know if it was the same man, but he was t
he same build,
and there was something familiar about him that rang a bell. He was
big and fat and fair. I thought he looked a bit of a pansy.”
“Had he a habit of wagging his head? Did you notice that? And
was his hair cut very short?”
She nodded. “Do you know him?”
“It sounds like my old pal Julius Cole,” I said. “What happened?”
“Well, Bradley came out of his office, glared at him, said, ‘What
the hell do you want?’ This man said, ‘I’ve got to see you, Jack, it’s
important’. Bradley looked sort of put out, then he took Cole into his
office. I didn’t hear what happened, of course.”
I stubbed out my cigarette, lit another. “Think carefully. Did
anything happen at all after that?”
“I saw Frankie go into Bradley’s office, and later he came out and
went to the garage. He spoke to Sam and said something about going
down to the country right away. I could see he was wild with rage, but
I can’t remember anything else happening.”
“You’ve remembered enough,” I said, crossed over to the
telephone, turned up Merryweather in the book. I found his private
address, put through a call.
He answered himself.
“This is Harmas here,” I said. “Can you get in touch with
Littlejohns at once and warn him to look out for a man who’s on his
way to Lakeham?”
Merryweather said he could. There was surprise in his voice. He
asked for a description, and I gave him an accurate picture of Julius
Cole. “He’ll probably arrive in a Standard Fourteen,” I said, gave the
licence number. “Tell Littlejohns not to lose sight of him, even if it
means taking his eyes off Mrs. Brambee. Cole is important. I guess
he’ll be staying with Mrs. Brambee anyway. Will you get on to that
right away?”
Merryweather promised to call Littlejohns immediately, hung up.
Crystal was listening to all this, her eyes wide with interest.
“You know I get a thrill out of hearing your voice when you get
business-like,” she said. “It’s like being in a movie with Humphrey
Bogart.”
“You remember what Bogart did to Bacall?” I asked, advancing
and making faces at her.
“I seem to remember it wasn’t very polite,” she said, backing
hurriedly away.
I grabbed her, did what Bogart had done to Bacall, asked her how