1957 - The Guilty Are Afraid

by James Hadley Chase

  The girl I had spoken to came over to me.

  “Miss Maddox will look after you,” she said, and indicated the hard-faced blonde.

  As I moved over to her, she stood up. She had one of those hippy, bosomy figures you see in the nylon ads, but rarely in real life.

  “Was there something?” she asked in a bored voice, her eyes running over me and not thinking much of what they saw.

  “I’m looking for a wedding present,” I said. “You don’t call this muck a treasure house of original design, do you?”

  She lifted her plucked eyebrows.

  “We have other designs, but they come a little pricey.”

  “They do? Well, you only get married once in a while. Let me see them.”

  She drew aside the curtain.

  “Please go in.”

  I moved past her, through the doorway into a slightly smaller room. There were only about sixty specimens of Mr. Hahn’s art on show there; each had its own stand and was shown off to its best advantage. A quick look told me that this must be the stuff Margot had raved about. It was unlike the junk in the other room as crystal is unlike a diamond.

  Miss Maddox flicked long fingers at the exhibits.

  “Perhaps something like these?”

  “Better,” I said, looking around. There was another curtain covering another doorway at the far end of the room with a redhead guarding it. “Can I wander around?”

  Miss Maddox took a few steps away from me and rested her elegant hips against one of the counters. Her bored eyes told me I wasn’t kidding her for one moment. The exhibits in this room were certainly good. A bronze statue of a naked girl about ten inches high, with her hands covering her breasts, held me entranced. I could feel life flowing out of her. It wouldn’t have surprised me if she had suddenly jumped off the pedestal on which she stood and had run out of the room.

  “That’s nice,” I said to Miss Maddox. “What’s it worth?”

  “Two thousand dollars,” she told me in that indifferent voice a car salesman will tell you the price of a Rolls.

  “As much as that? It’s a little high for me.”

  A small sneer came and went, and she moved a few more paces away from me.

  The curtain of the doorway through which I had come moved aside and a fat, white-faced man came sliding in. He was wearing white flannel trousers, a natty blazer with an elaborate crest on its pocket and a six-inch cigar between his fat, white fingers.

  I immediately recognized him.

  It was the man Cordez had called Donaghue: the man who had handed over a thousand dollars for two match-folders the previous night when I had been looking through Cordez’s window.

  Chapter 10

  I

  I moved across the room and came to rest before the model of a matador with his cape extended and his sword in his hand. I moved slowly around it while I watched Donaghue out of the corner of my eye as he came to an abrupt stop at the sight of me.

  He was as nervous as a flustered hen. He took two quick steps back towards the doorway through which he had come, changed his mind and came forward with a little rush, paused again to look at me, then took three steps sideways. I could see he couldn’t make up his mind whether to run or stay.

  I said to Miss Maddox, “Would this item be a little less expensive?”

  “That is three thousand, five hundred dollars,” she said, not even bothering to look at me.

  Donaghue started off across the room towards the redhead, who watched him come, her face expressionless. I moved on to a group of children that was even better than the matador.

  Donaghue paused beside the redhead, fumbled in his pocket, took something from it and showed it to her. I saw something small and red in his hand. I didn’t have to be a detective to guess it was a Musketeer Club match-folder.

  The redhead pulled aside the curtain and Donaghue disappeared through the doorway. I caught a glimpse of a passage before the curtain fell into place.

  I began to move around the room, looking for something that was small and modest, but there wasn’t anything. I felt the blonde and the redhead were watching me. I finally came to rest before a model of a poodle, again executed with the same brilliance of the other models. This put me near the curtained door where the redhead was sitting. I took my time while I examined the poodle.

  After five minutes or so, Miss Maddox said, with an edge to her voice, “That is seventeen hundred dollars.”

  “As cheap as that?” I said, smiling at her. “It’s almost alive, isn’t it? I must think about it. Seventeen hundred dollars: almost giving it away, isn’t it?”

  She pursed her lips and stared at me, her eyes now plainly hostile.

  The curtain pulled aside and Donaghue slipped out. He gave me a startled stare, his eyes bulging, then he scuttled across the floor and out through the other doorway.

  I decided I couldn’t continue to hang around like a heist man casing a joint. I told myself I’d better see what the match-folder I had found in Margot’s bag would buy me. I hoped it wouldn’t buy me trouble.

  I looked over at the redhead and caught her staring at me. I gave her a toothy smile and advanced on her. She watched me come suspiciously. I dipped my fingers into my trousers pocket and let her see the match-folder. Her mouth tightened, and she looked over at Miss Maddox with an exasperated expression on her face as she leaned forward and pulled the curtain aside.

  “Thanks,” I said. “I just wanted to be sure no one was watching me.”

  Her blank, frozen stare told me I had said the wrong thing, but as she still held the curtain aside I didn’t try to make matters worse or better. I stepped through the doorway and entered a long passage, lit by strip lighting and decorated in wine red and blue.

  I moved cautiously down the passage. The something inside me that works overtime when I am heading for trouble began to nudge me, starting an alarm bell going in my mind. I wished now I had brought a gun with me.

  At the end of the passage, facing me, was a door. It had a cutaway panel in it which was closed, a shelf and a bell push. On the shelf was one of Marcus Hahn’s lesser works: a large pink and green earthenware bowl.

  Moving soundlessly on my crepe soles I reached the door and peered into the bowl. Lying in the bottom of it were about a dozen red paper matches. They were the companions of the matches I had in my folder. Each one of them had a row of ciphers printed on them; each one had been torn from a match-folder and all the heads had been burned. The matches had been struck alight, and then immediately extinguished.

  I felt this was probably an important discovery if I knew what it meant. I looked over my shoulder. At the far end of the passage the curtain hung in place: neither the redhead nor Miss Maddox were peeping at me.

  I decided not to press my luck further. I was tempted to ring the bell on the door to see what happened, but as I wasn’t equipped for trouble at this moment, I decided against it. At least I had found out that there was a definite hookup between the Musketeer Club and Marcus Hahn’s so-called Treasure House. People paid out big money for a folder of matches to Cordez, then came here and parted with a match at a time: for what?

  I turned around and went very quietly back down the passage. I pulled aside the curtain and stepped out, trying to look as flustered and as guilty as Donaghue had done.

  The redhead was using a buffer on her nails. She didn’t bother to look up as I passed her. I walked into the outer room.

  The party of tourists were through spending their money now. They were being herded towards the exit, most of them carrying neatly packed parcels.

  I tagged along on their heels, and as soon as I had passed through the turnstile, I sidestepped them and walked over to where I had left the Buick.

  Leaving the School of Ceramics, I drove fast along the promenade to the Franklyn Arms. I took Margot’s bag from the glove compartment, put the match-folder in it, then, leaving the car, I entered the lobby of the apartment block.

  I asked the receptio
n clerk to send my name up to Margot, asking her to see me. After he had called her, he told me she would meet me in the bar in five minutes. He showed me where the bar was and I went in and sat down at a corner table.

  It was a good ten minutes before Margot appeared. By then the time was a quarter past twelve. The bar was fairly full, but there was no one sitting close to my table.

  She came towards me. She was wearing a short beach coat over a swimsuit and sandals. Her hair was tied back with red ribbon and she carried her big beach bag.

  Most of the men turned and stared at her. She was worth staring at: I stared myself.

  I got up as she reached the table and pulled out a chair for her.

  “I can’t stay more than ten minutes, Lew,” she said, smiling at me. “I have a lunch date the other side of the town.”

  I asked her what she would drink and she said a gin gimlet. I had one too.

  “I’d like to tell you, you look wonderful,” I said as soon as the waiter had gone away. “I expect you get tired of being told that.”

  She laughed.

  “It depends who says it. Did you bring my bag?”

  I had it lying on a chair beside me, and I lifted it into sight and laid it on the table.

  “I’ll claim the reward for it later,” I said.

  Her eyes sparkled.

  “And I’ll willingly pay the reward. Thank you, Lew. I’m terribly careless with my things.” She picked up the bag and began to put it in her beach bag.

  “Wait a moment. You’d better check to see there’s nothing missing.”

  She looked inquiringly at me.

  “What could be missing?”

  Her mauve black eyes were entirely without guile and that pleased me.

  “Margot, there’s a folder of matches in that bag that interests me.”

  “Is there?” She looked surprised. “A folder of matches? Why does it interest you?” She opened the bag, pushed aside the handkerchief and took out the match-folder. “You mean this?”

  “Yes. Where did you get it from?”

  “I have no idea. I didn’t even know it was in here. Why, Lew? Why so much interest?”

  “I have reason to know that’s the folder I found in Sheppey’s luggage. Later someone ransacked my room, found it and substituted another folder for it. Now it turns up in your bag.”

  “Are you quite sure it’s the same folder? I’ve seen dozens like this in the club.”

  “Look at it. On the back of the matches you’ll find a row of numbers. They are the same numbers that were on the matches in Sheppey’s folder.”

  She opened the folder and bent back the matches and frowned at the numbers.

  “It’s odd, isn’t it? Perhaps all the matches in all the folders have these numbers on them.”

  “They haven’t. I checked that. Where did you get that folder from?”

  “I must have got it from the club last night. I was dining there.” She thought for a moment, frowning. “Yes, that’s right. I remember I had forgotten to bring my lighter with me. I never use matches unless I forget my lighter. I suppose I must have picked up the folder from the tray on the hatcheck counter.”

  I shook my head.

  “You didn’t do that. This is a special folder, Margot. Someone committed a murder for it. It wouldn’t be in any tray.”

  She was beginning to look worried.

  “I don’t know then. Unless I asked someone for a light and they gave me the folder.”

  “I can’t imagine anyone doing that. Who did you dine with?”

  “There was a party: there were five people and myself. Bridgette and Thrisby, a man called Donaghue, Harry Lucas, who I play tennis with sometimes, and Doris Little, a friend of mine.”

  “Any of these people could have put the match-folder absentmindedly on the table and you could have picked it up?”

  “I suppose so. I just can’t remember picking it up, but, of course, it’s the sort of thing one could do without thinking.”

  “I don’t like it a lot. This folder is worth money. I can’t imagine anyone laying it on the table for you to pick up.”

  “They might have been under the impression it was an ordinary match-folder. The waiters leave them on every table.”

  “Maybe. Well, okay. I want the folder, Margot. I’ll have to show it to Lieutenant Rankin.”

  Her eyes widened.

  “But, Lew, if you do that you’ll mix me up in this,” she said. “I mustn’t get mixed up with the police, darling. Daddy would be livid.”

  “I’ll have to tell Rankin. He’ll want to know where I got it from. You don’t have to worry. He’s far too scared of your father to involve you.”

  “But, darling, suppose he does? You mustn’t do it. Don’t you see that? He’ll want to know how you found the folder in my bag. You’re not going to tell him what happened last night for heaven’s sake!”

  I thought for a moment.

  “Okay, I’ll handle it myself. I’ll go and talk to Thrisby before I see Rankin. Maybe I can get a line on it from Thrisby.”

  She handed me the match-folder.

  “Please don’t involve me, Lew. If the newspapers thought I was mixed up in this . . .”

  I patted her hand.

  “Relax. I’ll keep you out of it. Between now and the next time I see you, will you think very hard and try to remember how you did get hold of the folder? If you do remember, will you call me, Margot? It’s important.”

  “Of course.” She looked at her watch. “I must fly. I’m late already.” She got to her feet. “Are you going to see Thrisby now?”

  “I think so. It might be a good time to catch him in.”

  “You know how to get there? Take Franklyn Boulevard, go right to the top and turn right on to the mountain road. It’s about five miles up. You’ll see a signpost saying The Crest.” She gave me her small smile. “I’ll be seeing you soon, Lew.”

  “You bet.”

  I watched her hurry across the bar lounge, and mine weren’t the only eyes that stared after her. Her long brown legs were the focal point of every male eye in the bar. I snapped my fingers at the waiter and, after the inevitable wait, he came over and gave me the check. I paid, waited for my change, then got up and went out into the sunshine where the Buick stood.

  I drove up Franklyn Boulevard, not hurrying and enjoying the hot sunshine while my mind turned over the bits and pieces of information I had collected. At the moment the problem was in a state of flux. It was like when you begin to work out the bits and pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. At the moment there was no picture, but I did have a number of pieces that I felt pretty sure would make up into a picture reasonably soon.

  At the top of the wide boulevard I turned right and came immediately to a very steep mountain road. A mile further on I came to a signpost which pointed encouragingly upwards and said, “The Crest.”

  Halfway up the road which had climbed steeply all the way, I pulled into a lay-by to look at the view. Far below me I could see St. Raphael City. To my right was the big Casino, the miles of glittering sands, the palm trees, the luxury hotels and the swarms of people on the beach. I could see Creedy’s estate with the blur of red, yellow and white of the massed rose beds, and along the drive I could see a Rolls moving swiftly towards the barrier where two ant-like figures stood guard.

  My eyes shifted to the snakeback road below me: the road on which I had come up, leading from Franklyn Boulevard.

  In the mid-morning heat of the sun the white road was deserted of traffic. I seemed to be the only one using the road, and it gave me a feeling of isolation to be up here, looking down at this rich, gangster-ridden town.

  I hunched my shoulders, then started the engine, shifted into drive and continued on my way up the twisting road.

  II

  The White Chateau was at the end of a side road that cut sharply away from the mountain road and went down three hundred yards to an open tarmac just wide enough for a car to turn. There was a freshly pain
ted sign at the head of the road announcing this was a private road and parking was forbidden.

  There was a convertible Cadillac standing on the tarmac; a glossy thing of pale blue with dark blue nylon upholstery and glittering chromium. I parked the Buick beside it, got out and looked towards the house. It was screened by flowering shrubs and palm trees. I could just see the overhanging roof of green tiles but no more.

  I walked to the wooden gate on which was written the name of the house. I pushed open the gate and walked up a path bordered on either side by a neatly clipped hedge, then I came to a stretch of lawn and to the house. It was a small, chalet type of building with green shutters, white walls, a wide verandah, window boxes with begonias in them under each window and a bright creeper climbing over the front entrance with a red and white, bell-shaped flower I had never seen before.

  French doors stood open on to the verandah. A Siamese cat lay in the sun on the balustrade of the terrace. It lifted its head and its blue eyes stared without interest in my direction, then it laid its head once more on the hot stone and went off into its Valhalla of dreams. I walked across the lawn and up on to the verandah. The front door was to my left: a green, neat affair with chromium fitments and a pull-down bell.

  As I moved towards it, a man’s voice, coming from the open french doors said, “Well, if you don’t want a drink, I do.”

  I paused.

  “For heaven’s sake, don’t start drinking now, Jacques,” a woman said. “I want to talk to you.”

  “And that, darling, is exactly why I must have a drink. Do you imagine I can sit here listening to you unless I do have a drink? Be reasonable, please.”

  “You’re a bit of a swine, Jacques.”

  The note in the woman’s voice was ugly to hear. I moved quietly along the hot verandah and paused just outside the french doors.

  “I suppose I could be called that, but it shouldn’t bother you, my pet,” the man said lightly. “You should be used to swine by now, surely.”

  The sound of a siphon hissing told me he was mixing a drink. I moved another few inches closer and that allowed me to get a sight of the room.