‘Did you touch it?’
‘No. Of—yes. Yes, I did.’
‘Why?’
‘I don’t know why, I just touched it, that’s all. Wouldn’t you touch it?’
‘I would. But then, that’s my job. It doesn’t matter, Mister Nichols. Don’t misunderstand, please. I’ve got to get everything as straight as I can. You see, your wife was rather, well—nervous? She tried not to be, but she was. A normal reaction.’
I nodded.
His voice was soft, like velvet. Honest, it purred like a little well-oiled motor. There was nothing sleepy about his eyes. He just seemed to be holding cards, that’s all. He hadn’t said anything to make me know that for sure, but I couldn’t help believing it. I was guilty of a lot of stuff that had to do with this crime, and it was stuff I didn’t want known. I had to catch hold of myself, and keep the grip.
There was something about Gant . . . I didn’t like him. So what could I do about that?
‘Was the body cold?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then what?’
‘How do you mean?’
‘What did you do then?’
I started to say something and he leaned back in the chair and held up his hand and cleared his throat. ‘Wait. I mean, let’s get back a little bit. Why did you come over here?’
‘Didn’t my wife tell you anything about—?’
‘Just answer the question.’
‘I don’t have to answer anything.’
He sighed and stared down into his lap. He lifted his hat and rapped it on his knee and looked out the window. Then he tipped his head a little to one side and said, ‘Would you really mind answering a few questions, Mister Nichols? You’ll have to sooner or later. Why not now?’
‘I didn’t say I wouldn’t. I just—’
‘Fine! That’s the way to talk.’
I could feel the shaking start in my stomach and spread. ‘No reason in the world why I wouldn’t answer some questions.’
‘Look,’ he said. ‘I have to go about this in my own way. This is a serious thing.’
‘I know it.’
‘This woman was murdered. Somebody choked her to death with a silk scarf. She took quite a beating, too.’
‘I know.’
‘Oh. You know.’
‘I saw the bruises.’
‘Mister Nichols, don’t you think you’d better put that cigarette out? It’s going to burn your fingers. It makes me nervous.’
Chapter 14
‘Let’s relax. All right?’
I jammed the cigarette into the dirt around the cactus plant on the table by the couch. I wanted to relax. I had to get hold of myself, but it wasn’t working right. Like if I tried to lean one way, I’d really be leaning in the opposite direction. I looked at my hands and they seemed steady, yet I could feel them tremble. The shaking was all through me. I couldn’t control it.
If I refused to answer his questions, it would only make things worse.
‘You have a nice place here.’
‘Thanks.’
‘Been here long?’
‘Oh, not too long.’
‘Must be expensive, the upkeep.’ He shook his head. ‘Especially now. Must be a headache, with the highway all torn up. Hasn’t that done something to your business?’
‘It’s knocked it off a little.’
He wasn’t looking at me. Then he did. ‘Mrs. Nichols said something about a man’s suitcase being in here.’
I didn’t say anything.
‘Did you see it?’
‘I didn’t really notice.’
‘Did Miss Latimer mention anything about a man?’
‘No.’
‘Nothing like her being married, anything like that?’
‘I didn’t talk with her much.’
It troubled me that he thought her name was Latimer. I didn’t know why. Then I began to realize just how snarled up things were. With me smack in the middle. And I was already off on the wrong track with Gant. There was nothing to do about that, either.
‘What about this man who was here last night?’ He had left it open. I didn’t know what to say. ‘You met him, didn’t you?’
‘Yeah—I met him.’
‘How did you happen to meet him?’
I told him how I’d thought he was a prowler and had gone to see if Miss Latimer was all right. Telling it to him that way, it came out easy. Then after it was out I sat there and felt the sweat. Every word I said, it got deeper. Why couldn’t I just tell him? Tell him everything?
I knew why, and it was hell. That money hidden in the garage. There was no reason why the law should ever find it, because they knew nothing about it. It didn’t concern them. The only thing they were after was the killer of Vivian. I couldn’t tell them that, either. Sooner or later they’d find out. And I hadn’t killed her, so I was all right.
‘Were they arguing, Mister Nichols?’
‘Who?’
‘This man and Miss Latimer. Did you notice whether or not they got along—seemed to?’
‘Oh, sure. There might have been some argument.’
‘Your wife said something about it. When she came in she said you—’
‘Oh, that. Well, the guy sort of resented my bursting in like that. You understand.’
‘I see.’
All I had to do was keep that brief case hidden the way it was and everything would be all right. Even if Gant was a snoop, and I was pretty sure he was. Then I remembered something.
I looked at him and it came to me and I almost fell off the couch. I had never had any thought hit me this hard.
‘What’s the matter, Mister Nichols?’
‘Nothing. Pain in my stomach.’
‘Oh?’
‘Cramp, like.’
I put my hand on my stomach and made a face. ‘Listen, would you excuse me a minute?’
He looked at me and frowned slightly.
All I could think was, The car. The Ford. With Georgia plates taken out in my name. It was beautiful.
‘I won’t be long. Just wait right here, Lieutenant. I get these pains every once in a while. There’s some stuff over at the house.’
‘All right.’
We got up and stood there.
‘I’m not through talking with you, though,’ he said. ‘I’ll be out front in the car.’
‘Fine.’
I went on out quick and cut toward our place. He walked across the grass to the police car at the curb. When his back was turned, I started down between the apartments, toward the garage. I ran.
Sure as the devil, they’d trace those plates. If they found them in my name, how could I explain that? If I could just hang on long enough, I felt sure something would turn up. They’d find
Teece; they’d find who she was and they’d get him for it. If I could just hang on and keep them off my neck, so I wouldn’t have to spill about that money.
They’d never say anything about that money to the law. They wouldn’t dare, not a one of them.
I reached the garage for number six. Her car was there, all right, with the door closed and nobody’d been around yet. Her car hadn’t been mentioned. Maybe they thought she’d come down by train, or plane. Maybe they wouldn’t ever ask about her car.
Don’t be a complete idiot, I told myself. You know better than that. But they might play it out that way. Worse things have happened than the cops slipping up.
I worked as fast as I could. I was so excited I really did begin to get cramps.
I went along the front of the garages to our garage and got back in there by my work bench. Under the bench I knew I had a last-year New York plate. Some folks had left it here. There was week before the time expired in Florida, so it would still be okay down here.
I couldn’t find the plate. I got down under the bench and rummaged around in the junk box. It wasn’t there. Then I got up and saw it sitting on a side beam, like a decoration. I grabbed it and headed for number six garage.
&n
bsp; I had to come back for a pair of pliers and a screw driver. I was kind of sobbing to myself by then, soaked with sweat, running against time. He’d begin wondering where I was and I didn’t want him to wonder.
The Georgia plate came off easy. They had it snapped on with a kind of coil spring deal, so I didn’t need the screw driver and pliers, after all. I flung them across the alley into a field beside a house. I got the plates changed and stood there with the Georgia plate.
I started back for number six and Bess came around the corner of the garage, emptying the garbage. She had the little tin bucket from the house and she was just taking the lid off the big garbage can by the garage, when she heard me.
‘Roy.’
I had the plate jammed into my belt, in back, up under my shirt.
‘You through talking with the detective?’
‘No.’
‘What are you doing back here?’
‘I was just—oh, hell—I had a cramp.’
‘What?’
‘Stomach-ache. I don’t know.’
I started past her.
‘You want me to fix you something?’
‘I was just coming over to the house. I’ll have to get back there. I told him I’d be right back.’
She looked back down the line of garages, then at me. She didn’t say anything. I kind of grinned at her and patted her shoulder. I left her standing there and went for the house. As soon as I was around the comer of the garage. I ran again.
In the house, I had that damned plate. I didn’t know what to do with it. I had to hide it. There didn’t seem to be any place and Bess would be back in a minute. I heard her coming across the yard, then, the handle on the kitchen garbage bucket squeaking and her feet hushing on the grass.
I went into the office, still with that plate cutting into my back. I looked outside. He was leaning against the car, talking with them, watching the office.
The kitchen door opened.
I went over to the studio couch, lifted a cushion and jammed the plate down in back. I pushed it as far as it’d go and something ripped. I jammed it down in there and put the cushion back and sat on the couch to see if it was all right. It was, and I was plenty tired all at once.
‘Your stomach any better, Roy?’
‘It’ll be all right. I was just going.’
‘Be glad to fix you something. Bicarb, maybe?’
‘No. Never mind.’
She stood there watching me and I could see she wanted to help, only I couldn’t let her do anything. I didn’t half know what I was doing. I got up and went out and across to number six. Gant saw me and started back over the lawn, walking with a kind of head-down shuffle, holding his hat.
I waited for him, trying to ease my breathing.
‘Feel better, Mister Nichols?’
‘Lots better. Thanks.’
Then I saw the front of my T-shirt, and my hands. There was dust on my shirt and my hands were black with dirt and grease. He hadn’t noticed yet, but he would.
‘Wait a second. I’m going to turn on the sprinklers.’
He looked at me and frowned with that nice way he had. I paid no attention, went down by the main faucet and turned the sprinklers on. Then I turned on the spare faucet that I used for the hose, and washed my hands the best I could and splashed some up on my shirt. I saw old Hughes walking around the comer of the apartments, toward the shuffleboard court.
‘Can you talk now?’ Gant said.
‘Sure. Fire away.’
‘Let’s start from where we were.’
‘Shall we go back inside?’
‘Let’s just stand out here.’
I didn’t like the tone of his voice now. It had changed; there was something new in it. It was no longer so soft. ‘This man who was in the apartment with Miss Latimer. You didn’t happen to hear his name?’
‘Not that I know of.’ It came out like that and I wished I hadn’t lied about that. But I couldn’t correct myself, not without making it worse, so I’d have to let it ride.
‘What did he do? I mean, when you came in. Did he want to fight you?’
I laughed. ‘He couldn’t fight so well. He had one arm in a sling. His face was all bandaged up.’
It made me feel good to tell the truth for a change.
Gant went over and leaned against the wrought iron railing on the small porch of number six. He looked like a man who had maybe worked hard at his studies, always treating everything very seriously, and now he was exactly where he wanted to be. He seemed certain of where he was going now, and what he was going to do. He was a thinker, keeping everything peacefully and quite seriously to himself.
‘Did he want to fight?’ Gant said.
‘Well, yeah. I guess he did. I took a little jab at him, just to warn him.’
‘Your wife said you almost warned him right through the door.’
‘Well, it might have been harder than a jab. I mean, he was off balance.’
‘Mister Nichols.’ He looked at me and took his hat off again, then put it on again, fooling with the crown until he was satisfied. ‘This is no way to go about things. Honest.’ He shook his head. ‘I know you don’t feel well, but you’ve got to get your thinking arranged better than this. You keep making me think things.’
I didn’t say anything.
‘The way you act, anybody would think you killed that Latimer girl.’
‘I didn’t.’
‘All right, then. Why don’t you make an attempt to help me? This is my job, and I like it. But you’re making things tough for me.’
‘I’m just answering your questions.’
‘No. You’re not. You’re thinking just as fast as you can, and you’re saying the first thing that comes into your head. Are you trying to cover up something? Because, if you are, it won’t do any good. We always find out, Mister Nichols. It’ll just save lots of time if you’ll play it straight with us.’
‘I’m not covering up anything. What right have you to say that?’
‘There you go again.’ He sighed and stared down at his shoes. ‘We deal with things like this all the time. I’m with Homicide, and sometimes we have to talk and talk. But I can’t recall ever having talked with a guy just like you, Mister Nichols. You say one thing and you must know your wife has told me different. Why do you do that?’
‘Well, I don’t know. I didn’t realize it.’
‘Are you trying to shield your wife from something?’
‘No. Listen, I’ve got a motel to run. There’s a million things—’
He held up his hand and stepped closer. ‘I don’t want to have to run you down to headquarters, Mister Nichols. But if this keeps up, we’ll have to. We question a little bit different down there. And you wouldn’t be able to take care of the motel by remote control.’ He looked around. ‘Anyway, there’s not really much to take care of. Your wife says business isn’t good at all. I don’t see many people around.’
He began to scare me now.
‘Now, try not to get excited,’ he said. ‘I never saw anybody get so excited and pretend they aren’t.’
I didn’t dare say anything. I wanted to either poke him or walk away. I didn’t do either, because I was beginning to see how I looked to him. From his side, I’d either done this thing, or I’d done nothing. I was just a motel owner, a guy who was a nearwitness to a murder, and he was trying to learn what he could from me. But with the amount of lying stuff I had inside me, it was difficult to act right. I was trying to think every minute—I was saying the first thing that popped into my head. And now I knew it couldn’t be any other way.
‘Your wife says Miss Latimer drove down here in what looked like a Ford sedan. That right?’
I nodded, and the world seemed to tilt a little. ‘That’s better. What say we have a look at the car?’
I motioned with my hand and we started walking toward the garage. Boy, it was that close. If only I wouldn’t make any slips now. He wasn’t fooling me now. He scared me some, but I
was still ahead of him. And I had to keep it that way. That brief case was Bess’s and mine, from now on straight down the line. It had to be.
Now, just take it easy . . . easy is the way.
Because the thought I kept on hanging to was that I hadn’t done anything. Not anything real bad. Of course not . . .
‘You’re sure lucky, Mister Nichols. Having a place like this. I’d give my eyeteeth for something like this.’
‘Thought you liked your job.’
‘Well, sometimes it catches up with me.’ He didn’t look at me when he said that. We came around by the garages and walked up to number six.
‘You always leave the garage doors open?’
‘I guess she must have left it open. I didn’t check.’
He nodded and we stood there and looked at the Ford. The New York plate on the back bumper would knock your eye right out, it was that bright. He looked at that and went up and flicked it with his fingers. It clanged. Then he stretched his neck to look into the back seat through the rear window.
‘Don’t touch the car. We’ll have to dust it for prints. No use messing it up any more than it probably is.’
‘Oh.’
‘Probably won’t find anything. Hardly ever do. We’ll have to check it, though, just the same.’
‘I understand.’ Sure, with my prints all over it. ‘I drove it around here and parked it in the garage for her.’
‘Oh, well, that won’t matter. Person would have to be in the car for a time, to really lay any prints worth while. Anyway . . .’ He didn’t finish that.
He looked the car over, looking in every window, hanging his head in the open windows. He kept looking at me, now and then. I just stood there and waited, thinking about things.
His attitude was lousy. He had no right acting the way he did, saying those things he’d said. He was getting me on the defensive and keeping me there. He didn’t have anything on me. There was something speculative in the way he’d look at me, kind of like he was trying me out on things.
I turned away and walked along the garages. He could come and get me when he wanted me. The hell with him, and the hell with everybody.
‘Nichols?’
He called from back there. I waited for him and he came up. ‘Didn’t you hear a thing last night?’
‘No.’
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