The Way Some People Die
Page 23
“We won’t argue. Two hundred dollars isn’t enough. Even with twenty thousand, and the best defenders in southern California, she wouldn’t get off with less than second-degree murder. She’s going to spend years in prison anyway. Whether she spends the rest of her life there depends on just one thing: her defense in Superior Court.”
“I can raise some money on this house, I believe.”
“It’s mortgaged, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but I do have an equity—”
“I have some money here.” I took Dowser’s folded bill from my watch pocket and scaled it into her lap. “It’s money I have no use for.”
Her mouth opened and shut. “Why?”
“She needs a break. I’m going to have to testify against her.”
“You are kind. You can’t afford this.” Tears came into her eyes like water wrung from stone. “You must believe that Galatea is innocent, to do this.”
“No. I was police-trained and the harness left its marks on me. I know she’s guilty, and I can’t pretend I don’t. But I feel responsible in a way. For you, if not for her.”
She understood me. The tears made tracks on her cheeks. “If only you’d believe she’s innocent. If only someone would believe me.”
“She’ll need twelve and she won’t get them. Did you see the papers this morning?”
“Yes. I saw them.” She leaned forward, crumpling the bill in her lap. “Mr. Archer.”
“Is there something I can do?”
“No, nothing more. You are being so good, I really feel I can trust you. I must tell you—” She rose abruptly and went to the sewing machine beside the window. Raising the lid, she reached far inside and brought out an oblong packet wrapped in brown paper. “Galley gave me this to keep for her, Tuesday morning. She made me promise not to tell anyone, but things are different now, aren’t they? It may be evidence in her favor. I haven’t opened it.”
I broke the tape that sealed one end, and saw the hundred-dollar bills. It was Galley’s thirty thousand. Speed’s thirty thousand. Marjorie’s thirty thousand. Thirty thousand dollars that had lain hidden in an old lady’s sewing machine while men were dying for it.
I handed it back to her. “It’s evidence, all right: the money she killed her husband for.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Impossible things are happening all the time.”
She looked down at the money in her hand. “Galley really killed him?” she whispered. “What shall I do with this?”
“Burn it.”
“When we need the money so badly?”
“Either burn it, or take it to a lawyer and let him contact the police. You may be able to make a deal of some kind. It’s worth trying.”
“No,” she said. “I will not. My girl is innocent, and Providence is watching over her. I know that now. God has provided for her in her hour of greatest need.”
I stood up and moved to the door. “Do as you like. If the police discover the source of the money, it will wreck your daughter’s defense.”
She followed me down the hallway: “They shan’t know a thing about it. And you won’t tell them, Mr. Archer. You believe that my daughter is innocent, even though you won’t admit it.”
I knew that Galley Lawrence was guilty as hell.
The colored fanlight over the door washed her mother in sorrowful purple. She opened the door, and noon glared in on her face. The tear-tracks resembled the marks of sparse rain on a dusty road.
“You won’t tell them?” Her voice was broken.
“No.”
I looked back from the sidewalk. She was standing on the steps, using the brown paper package to shield her eyes from the cruel light. Her other hand rose in farewell, and dropped to her side.
ALSO BY ROSS MACDONALD
BLACK MONEY
When Lew Archer is hired to get the goods on the suspiciously suave Frenchman who’s run off with his client’s girlfriend, it looks like a simple case of alienated affections. Things look different when the mysterious foreigner turns out to be connected to a seven-year-old suicide and a mountain of gambling debts. Black Money is Ross Macdonald at his finest, baring the skull beneath the suntanned skin of Southern California’s high society.
Crime Fiction/978-0-679-76810-4
THE GOODBYE LOOK
In The Goodbye Look, Lew Archer is hired to investigate a burglary at the mission-style mansion of Irene and Larry Chalmers. The prime suspect, their son Nick, has a talent for disappearing, and the Chalmerses are a family with money and memories to burn. As Archer zeros in on Nick, he discovers a troubled blonde, a stash of wartime letters, and a mysterious hobo. In The Goodbye Look, Ross Macdonald delves into the world of the rich and the troubled and reveals that the past has a deadly way of catching up to the present.
Crime Fiction/978-0-375-70865-7
FIND A VICTIM
Las Cruces wasn’t a place most travelers would think to stop. But after Lew Archer plays the good samaritan and picks up a bloodied hitchhiker, he finds himself in town for a few days awaiting a murder inquest. A hijacked truck full of liquor and an evidence box full of marijuana, $20,000 from a big time bank heist by a small time crook, corruption, adultery, incest, prodigal daughters, and abused wives all make the little town seem a lot more interesting than any guide book ever could. And as the murder rate rises, Archer finds himself caught up in a mystery where everyone is a suspect and everyone’s a victim.
Crime Fiction/978-0-375-70867-1
THE CHILL
In The Chill a distraught young man hires Archer to track down his runaway bride. But no sooner has he found Dolly Kincaid than Archer finds himself entangled in two murders, one twenty years old, the other so recent that the blood is still wet. What ensues is a detective novel of nerve-racking suspense, desperately believable characters, and one of the most intricate plots ever spun by an American crime writer.
Crime Fiction/978-0-679-76807-4
THE FAR SIDE OF THE DOLLAR
Has Tom Hillman run away from his exclusive reform school, or has he been kidnapped? Are his wealthy parents protecting him or their own guilty secrets? And why does every clue lead Lew Archer to an abandoned Hollywood hotel, where starlets and sailors once rubbed shoulders with two-bit grifters—and where the present clientele includes a brand-new corpse? The result is Macdonald at his most exciting, delivering 1,000-volt shocks to the nervous system while uncovering the venality and depravity at the heart of the case.
Crime Fiction/978-0-679-76865-4
ALSO AVAILABLE:
The Ivory Grin, 978-0-307-27899-9
The Galton Case, 978-0-679-76864-7
The Moving Target, 978-0-375-70146-7
Sleeping Beauty, 978-0-375-70866-4
The Underground Man, 978-0-679-76808-1
Wycherly Woman, 978-0-375-70144-3
The Zebra-Striped Hearse, 978-0-375-70145-0
VINTAGE CRIME/BLACK LIZARD
Available at your local bookstore, or visit
www.randomhouse.com.