The Referral Game (A Frank Randall Mystery)

by Steven Ehrman

  “Of course not. That’s why you’re here. A drunken, third-rate private dick makes you the perfect patsy. I needed someone who would wander around town repeating that ridiculous story I told you. I’m sure there must be a dozen people who will swear that Paula came here to meet Edgar. So you see, Mr. Randall, you’ll testify for me even in death.”

  “I told he was the real devil in that house,” hissed Paula.

  “Now, Paula, remember you’re a lady,” said Silas.

  “But, Pomeroy, why all the deception? What’s the reason for all this?”

  “Money, of course, more money than you could imagine, Randall. You see, I wasn’t completely honest about Mother’s will. She didn’t split the estate quite evenly. Edgar received seventy percent of the family fortune. He was always her favorite. The only thing that was split down the middle was the house. And he wanted to sell it and divide the money. He said if I wanted to stay, I would have to buy him out. Can you imagine that? Me buying my own home.”

  “What about Edgar?” I asked.

  “I’m sorry to report that my poor brother has had an unfortunate accident. I killed him earlier today.”

  Paula burst into tears.

  “Please, my dear,” he said. “You and I know that those tears are for the money, and not Edgar. If it makes you feel any better Edgar didn’t have any intention of sharing his newfound wealth with you. I made that up so as to ensure your presence here today. I knew that you couldn’t resist the lure of a quick score. But don’t worry, money will be of little use where you are going. You see, I’m afraid that you, and our intrepid Mr. Randall, have played your parts in this small farce. Since your usefulness is at an end, you’ll have to be eliminated, just as Edgar was.”

  “Silas, this is crazy,” I said, trying to play for time. “What can you hope to gain? You won’t get away with this.”

  “Oh, but I will, Mr. Randall. Here’s how it will look. You brought Paula here to meet Edgar. Things went badly, because Edgar didn’t want to give Paula a small share of his inheritance, he wanted to reconcile with her. I’ll testify to that. I’ll tell the police that he was wild to marry her again. When she spurned him he became enraged, and shot both of you. I’ll also tell the police that Edgar came home tonight and told me that he had done something awful, something he couldn’t live with, and he left the house distraught. When your bodies are found here and Edgar’s car is found at the beach, I’ll take it there later, and the police take my statement, they will simply put two and two together and conclude that this was just another case of a man killing his ex-wife and then committing suicide. You, unfortunately, just got caught in the crossfire. And since I happen to know that Edgar has no will, all his money will come to me. Very sad, but I will manage to go on somehow. After all, I’m sure that is how he would want it.”

  He might pull it off, I thought. It sounded pretty seamless. I needed to keep him talking, to try and catch him with his guard down. “The police aren’t stupid, Silas. They look for things like who benefits from a crime, even if it looks dead bang.”

  “There may be some suspicion in some quarters, but I also know the police like to close cases. And this will be a nice neat double homicide with a suicide chaser. I’m even going to leave Edgar’s precious hairpiece here. That should be a nice touch. I’ve got everything in hand, Randall. Besides, you’re the last person I would ask for advice on how to plan anything smart. Do you want me to tell you how many times I fooled you today?”

  “Sure, I’ve got nowhere to be tonight,” I said. “Lay it all out. It’s the only way I’ll ever learn.”

  “Well, right off the bat you didn’t even ask for identification. I was ready for that, but you didn’t ask. And my serious illness was just some red ink on an old handkerchief of Edgar’s. I don’t think that is considered terminal. Then, when I insisted on your being present at the meeting with Paula and even holding it here in your office, rather than my home, you thought you were railroading me. In truth I wouldn’t have left without that condition. I was prepared to argue that it was better here, away from prying eyes, but once again you were all too compliant.

  “I’ll bet you even thought that you were brilliant in finding Paula. I knew that she worked at the club and that Susan Maxwell’s name would lead you to her. As a last resort I was ready to tell you that I had heard a rumor that she was there, but you managed to find her without tripping over your shoelaces too many times.

  “I’m sorry that I had to exaggerate Miss Wray’s virtues, but I wanted you to feel sorry for her. I knew that if the truth were known she would be considerably less sympathetic and I needed you to start tonight. Not that she doesn't have a charm all her own, as many others could tell you better than I. There’s more, Randall, if you’ve got the stomach for-”

  “Silas, don’t do this,” Paula screamed, interrupting him. “You’ll burn for it.”

  He looked at her with contempt. “Don’t moralize with me, Paula. I know all about you. You may have fooled Mr. Randall here, we both know that isn’t too difficult, but I know all about you. You’re little better than a hooker.”

  “I’m still better than you. You’re scum.”

  He answered her with that two-word phrase that I was getting sick of hearing. I saw red and rushed him. Seconds seemed like hours. I knocked a chair over in my rush to get to Pomeroy and stumbled forward. He grinned and leveled the gun at me. I instinctively ducked my head and reached towards the gun. Paula screamed, and the lights went out. A ball of fire burst in my face. I felt no pain. The room flashed with gunshots. It looked as though a lightening storm had broken out inside the office. Four shots, five shots, maybe more. I lost count. They sounded like they were coming from all around me. I was free falling without a parachute. The carpeted floor was rushing up to greet me. I hit with a thud.

  Paula screamed: “Frank!”

  And then I was out.

  I was in a courtroom sitting at the defendant’s table. The judge looked down at me over her glasses and shook her head. She hated me. I could tell without her saying a word. At the table to my left the prosecutor stood up and began to speak. The judge’s expression immediately changed to one of rapt attention, nodding in agreement to each point he made, only I couldn’t make out any of the words.

  Looking to my right, I saw a jury seated. They had their backs to me, or they had no faces at all, I couldn’t tell. I realized the judge was speaking, no she was screaming at me. Denouncing me for my crimes, but refusing to tell me what they were. I shouted my innocence, but no one listened. A bailiff yanked me out of my seat to face the jury. They were in a mist and I could see only shadowy figures. A single word came out of the twilight.

  “Condemned.”

  It rang and echoed off the walls, magnifying, as if many voices were being added. I covered my ears and screamed: “No!”

  I turned to the gallery for something; hope maybe, I don’t know. They all hated me too. It was written on their faces, hatred. Except for one old man. His face told of sadness and pity. He held out a hand for me and I reached for it instinctively. I touched it and was repelled. It was cold, unnaturally so.

  He looked into my eyes with that awful sadness and said: “That’s right, son, you’ll be joining me soon. It’s so cold here. I can do nothing to help you, you chose the path that you now walk.”

  I broke free from that arctic embrace, and ran for a door that appeared in front of me.

  “You can’t run from this, son,” called the old man.

  I raced through the door. I thought that I had broken free, when unseen hands began to pull back. Voices in the dark chanted my name.

  “Frank…Frank…Frank.”

  Chapter 8

  The Hospital

  I awoke to Bill Vinson staring down at me, holding my hand. I was in a bed and Bill was saying softly: “Frank, Frank you’re going to be alright. Just be still.”

  “Where am I?” I croaked. My throat was dry.

  “You’re in the hospital.
You’ve been shot.”

  “What happened? Where’s Paula?” I asked, my voice rising. “Bill, it wasn’t Edgar, it was Silas. Edgar’s dead-”

  I raised my head and felt an eruption of pain.

  “I know, Frank, stay calm. You’ve had a pretty close call, one inch to the left and you would have checked out permanently instead of just having a new part in your hair. Even so, you’ve been out almost twenty-four hours, so don’t let yourself get over excited.”

  “Bill, I have to tell you what went down.”

  “I know all about it, Frank. I was in the hall right behind Silas. I heard the whole thing.”

  “But…but how?” I stammered. “I don’t get it.”

  “Just lay back and listen,” he said. “After my shift was over last night, I stopped by your place to see how your meeting with Edgar went. When you weren’t there, I got a little worried, what with all your talk about domestic cases being so dangerous. Anyway, I figured I might catch you at the office with your nose to the grindstone. You weren’t there either, but as I was getting back into my car I noticed Silas pull up and go into your building. It didn’t seem right, so I decided to wait around awhile and see what developed.

  “About fifteen minutes later, you and the girl arrived in a cab and headed inside too. You’re my old partner, so I figured that you had one more back-up coming on account, so I went up the backstairs and crept down the hall to listen to what was going on. I was trying to figure out how to take Silas down when you forced the issue by pulling that hero move. I slid in and hit the lights, trying to disorient Silas enough to give you a chance. You were at pretty close range. That wasn’t a high percentage move, Frank.”

  “I was just tired of taking it, that’s all.”

  “You’re lucky he didn’t kill you. I’d hate to have to go to your funeral and lie about what a great guy you were. Anyway, once you started things I had no choice but to blow Silas down. He’s dead, Frank.”

  “The girl?” I asked. I was afraid to hear the answer.

  “She’s fine, came through it all without a scratch. I sent her home a few hours ago to get some sleep and told her not to come back before tomorrow. She’s been here almost the whole time. She’s got guts.”

  “Yeah, she’s got that.” I paused to catch my breath, my heart was racing. “Did you find Edgar’s body?”

  “It was wrapped in a shower curtain in the trunk of his own car.”

  I was near tears. In the space of one evening there were two dead men killed in a struggle over money and I had put Paula right in the middle of it.

  “I guess I didn’t do a very good job, did I, Bill?”

  “Put a cork in it. Edgar was dead before Silas ever got to your office. There was nothing you could have done to prevent that. Don’t forget, Silas fooled me over the phone and that was what got you caught up in the whole mess. You had no reason to be suspicious of Pomeroy. If it hadn’t been you, it would have been another detective. If it’s the girl that’s on your mind, in my opinion you saved her life. I might not have gotten a clear shot at Pomeroy if you hadn’t kept his attention directed towards you. You took a bullet to try and save her. Think about that before you beat yourself up. You want to everything to work out like a fairy tale, Frank. It doesn’t work that way, sometimes nice people, and not so nice people, get hurt and there’s nothing that anyone can do about it. You think too much, I always said so.”

  Maybe he was right. Maybe I blamed myself too much. I had been drifting for a long time, mad at the world because it didn’t fit my vision of what it should be, numbing the pain with alcohol and hiding out. I had felt good with Paula.

  “When you get out of here, why don’t we go to dinner?” Bill asked. “We haven’t done that in a long time. Or maybe you’d like to ask Paula. That wasn’t motherly concern I saw in her eyes when she was watching over you.”

  It was like he was reading my mind. I found myself grinning.

  “Listen,” Bill continued, “I’m going to get out of here. I’ve got paperwork piling up back at the station. Sometimes, I wish I was still in a prowl car.”

  “Thanks for being there for me, Bill, I owe you.”

  He waved that off and headed for the door.

  “Hey,” I said, “any news on the Hanson case?”

  His face went completely blank. “Let’s talk about it tomorrow, Frank. I’m in a rush, and you need your rest.”

  “Tell me, Bill.”

  He looked at his shoes and said: “She’s dead, Frank. It was the guy around the corner from their house. We had him in for questioning within twelve hours of the kidnapping, but he had already killed her. He broke down this morning, and led Capt. Woodward and the boys to her body.”

  I swallowed hard, and counted to ten.

  “Where?” I could feel my control slipping.

  “It was in a dumpster down by the rail yards.”

  “Yesterday’s trash, huh?”

  “Frank,” he admonished, “you’re gonna make yourself worse. Stop it right now.”

  “I’m all right,” I heard myself say. “Just give a minute to get used to it.”

  “I’ll stay.”

  “I want to be alone. Let me think.”

  “I’m staying until you feel better,” he said flatly.

  “That might be awhile.”

  “I’ll wait. I let you go off by yourself once; I won’t do it again. You’ll see, you’ll feel better with a friend here.”

  I closed my eyes and thought about things. Turned them over in my mind. He was right.

  “Thanks, Bill,” I said, without opening my eyes.

  “Don’t mention it. You’re still my partner.”

  I don’t know how long it took, but I drifted off to sleep.

  I awoke the next morning with one overriding urge. I was hungry. Even though my head still ached, at least I was able to fill my belly. A drink would have hit the spot, but I couldn’t find one on the menu. Bill came by later, said he wouldn’t get me one and wanted to know if I was insane or just stupid. How’s a guy supposed to get along with a friend like that?

  The papers were full of the Pomeroy affair. Bill was quoted in every edition. He exaggerated my role all out of proportion. He made it sound like I solved the case over a ham sandwich and he had came in at the end for clean up duty. I appreciated him not making me sound like a bumbler, which I knew I had been, but I thought he over sold it a little and I told him so when he visited that morning.

  He wasn’t exactly contrite.

  “I told them how I saw it,” he said. “Boy, you’re a pain, sometimes.”

  “But, Bill,” I began.

  “I don’t want to hear it,” he continued. “You’re a hero, and that’s that.”

  “That’s how I feel, Frank,” said a female voice.

  I looked at the door and saw Paula standing there. She looked tired and worn. Her eyes were red and she had on no make-up. She looked more beautiful than ever.

  “Why is it the strong silent types are always so soft in the head about compliments?” she said with a sigh.

  She walked over and sat on the bed next to me.

  “He’s this way all the time, Miss Wray. Get used to it if you intend to hang around,” said Bill.

  “I intend to do exactly that, Detective Vinson,” she said. Her tone left no doubt about her commitment.

  “I take it you two made your introductions yesterday,” I said.

  Bill nodded. “We had plenty of time to fill. You weren’t in any condition to join in.”

  “I learned all your secrets in one day,” teased Paula.

  I gave an angry glance to Bill. “I thought you were my best friend.”

  “What are friends for?” he asked, and winked at Paula.

  “So it’s a conspiracy, is it?” I said. “Fine, I’ll remember that.”

  Paula touched my hand. “Don’t get all upset. I just wanted to know more about you, that’s all.”

  “You know what they say about curiosi
ty and the cat,” said Bill cryptically.

  I shot a look at him. I wasn’t really mad, but I was irritated. I had wanted to tell Paula my life story myself. She ended up with an unauthorized biography, instead of the autobiography I had in mind. My memoirs were old news now.

  I decided to change the subject.

  “Have you been able to unravel how old Silas got to where he ended up?” I asked Bill. “Any clues as to what was driving him?”

  “Not a lot in concrete.”

  “I’m open to raw speculation.”

  He pulled his notebook out of his jacket and flipped it open. “We’ll have to take him at his word on the motive, pure greed. Maybe there were other things that went down inside the family that we don’t know about, but with all the Pomeroys gone…” He left it in the air. “There are other avenues of further interest however, for one thing it appears that this wasn’t done on the spur of the moment. It looks like he planned this well in advance, even before the old lady’s death-”

  I held up a hand to stop him. “Do you want go for a walk or something, Paula?”

  “Why?”

  “Because it just occurred to me that you might not want to hear all the details that led up to Edgar’s death so soon.”

  She looked at the floor and then straight into my eyes. “The way it appears, Edgar never gave me a second thought. Silas just said that as part of his warped plot to draw me in and create the jealous ex husband scenario. I’m sorry that Edgar’s gone, of course, but I’m not going to go to pieces or anything like that. So, let’s hear it all, it’s not going to get any easier anytime soon.”

  She didn’t look sad; she even looked a little defiant. I was pleased. The last thing she needed was to feel any guilt about the way things had gone down. She was a survivor. I could tell and I was glad. I waved for Bill to continue.

  “Like I said, he must have planned this well in advance. He had been liquidating his assets and taking loans out for almost a year.”

  “So what?” I asked. “What’s mysterious about that?”