by Basil Copper
He spread his arms wide on the blanket which enveloped his legs. He held up his hand again as if to ward off any further interruption on my part.
‘Just let me say this, Mr Faraday. Do I look like a man who would liquidate his own lawyer in such a brutal manner? Or cut short the life of an innocent young girl in my own grounds? Let me suggest to you that you reorientate your line of reasoning. Precautions which may seem to you to be directed towards keeping people in, may equally well be designed to keep them out.’
He stopped again while his eyes travelled blindly round the great room. The rustle of the aide’s paper as he turned over a page sounded loud in the silence of the winter afternoon.
‘I had already got that far,’ I said. ‘That is, shortly after I met you.’
General Diaz turned his eyes directly at me now and he was smiling. ‘Diaz is not my real name, Mr Faraday,’ he said. ‘It would not take you long to find out the truth. A search through old newspaper files in any decent public library would do the trick. I choose to bury myself in this small place because it suits me. I was once Chief of Police under one of the former regimes in Cuba. I have always been a just man. But certain things were necessary at particular times. I am a man with many enemies. More I cannot say at the moment.’
He shrugged and reached out for the glass again.
‘I am an old man. I have no fear of death. But many people depend upon me for their livelihood. For that reason and that reason alone I would like to go on in peace and quietness for another few years.’
His eyes closed and he sank back in the chair. He held out his hand for me to shake.
‘And now, if you do not mind, Mr Faraday, I should like to rest. I usually have a short sleep in the afternoon. If you co-operate with Sheriff Clark I am sure that he will keep you fully informed.’
‘Surely,’ I said. I got up, finished off my drink and stood looking down at him as he sat in the chair.
‘It seems to me that you have as much right as anyone to know what this is all about, Mr Faraday,’ he said.
His voice sharpened and he caught at my arm. ‘And it is of vital importance that you take heed of the Sheriff’s advice. For your own protection as much as for the sake of anyone else.’
He pressed the switch of his wheelchair control; the motor whirred and the chair started moving slowly down the room. I kept pace beside it again. The Spanish servant reappeared at the stairhead and came down towards us. The aide got up and came over towards the chair. He stood with his hand on the butt of his gun.
General Diaz looked up at me. ‘Incidentally, sir, that was splendidly done, that business with the dog. I saw something of it through my night-glasses. You are a man of commendable nerve and initiative. But you forgot one thing. A wise General always leaves one unguarded gap in his defences, through which the enemy may be lured in.’
His eyes twinkled and he laughed again.
‘Think nothing of it, sir. No harm done. Though if you had been an enemy, things would have ended very differently.’ We shook hands again. ‘Goodbye, sir,’ I said. ‘I hope we meet again soon.’
His grip was still crushing my fingers as I went up the stairs. The General went to another staircase at the other side of the room. The aide clipped his wheel-chair to a girdered ramp at the side of the stairs. More motors whirred and the General kept pace with me as his own lift brought him up to my level.
The Spanish servant led me out along the balcony and down the way I had come in. I was surprised to see the time by my wristlet watch when I reached the main hall. I had only been half an hour with the old boy but it had seemed like a couple of decades at least.
‘Good afternoon, sir,’ said the guide politely as he let me out. I went down the steps to my car. The guard with the Dobermann was standing about a hundred yards off down the driveway. He waved to me in a friendly fashion. I got in the car, sat for a moment or two and lit a cigarette. I felt I needed a little time to get back into the world again.
Then I switched on the ignition, let in the clutch and glided back down the drive. I waited at the main lodge gate while the guard unlocked it; his companion had to phone up the house again to make sure it was all right.
I drove slowly out from The Palisades main entrance and turned left back to town. It wasn’t until then that I saw Clark’s police car parked almost opposite. He hooted. I stopped the Buick, switched off and went over towards him. He sat smoking and watched me come.
Chapter 9
Two-Handed Showdown
Clark held the door open for me. I got in and sat beside him. ‘Satisfied?’ he said quietly.
I turned to face him in the narrow confines of the front passenger seat.
‘That General Diaz had nothing to do with the two kills, yes,’ I said.
‘I asked you to leave the General alone,’ he said mildly. ‘He saw me anyway,’ I answered.
‘Only on my O.K.,’ said Clark. ‘Who did you think the lodge-keeper was ringing before he let you in? Woodrow Wilson? If I hadn’t given the word you’d still be dusting the seat of your pants outside the gates right now.’
‘So the two of you work together,’ I said. ‘But let’s get one thing straight. We’re both on the same side?’
Clark didn’t reply at once. Then he got out his old briar, started filling it. He grinned suddenly.
‘It’s time we levelled,’ he said. ‘Shall I begin or will you?’
‘I think we got two different things here,’ I said. ‘Leaving aside Holgren for the moment, the Benson girl’s death was an accident. For some reason or other she was on top of Diaz’ wall and stopped a bullet meant for the General. There’s a guest house opposite; from the front windows there’s a direct line-up with the big room on the top floor of The Palisades. Anyone with a high-powered rifle could have picked off the old boy; anyone with a grudge, that is. But the top of the wall’s in the line of fire. If the girl had been on the wall, she could have got between at the critical moment. Sounds crazy, I know …’
Clark sat with his eyes closed, puffing at his pipe. ‘Go on,’ he said. ‘Doc says the girl’s got bruising, like she fell from a height. It adds up.’
‘I went out here to the guest house this morning,’ I said. ‘In Room fifty-nine I found the dressing table had been moved from the window, maybe to give a better sight for the trigger boy. There were traces of powder burns on the window frame.’
Clark sat up straight with his eyes wide open.
‘You were going to report this, of course?’
‘It was only a hunch,’ I said. ‘But there was so much holding-out going on from your side that I figured you probably knew already.’
Clark grinned again. ‘Go on,’ he said. ‘Any more conclusions?’
I shook my head. ‘I didn’t pump the old lady at the guest house but she could probably describe the guests, even at this distance in time. She struck me as being that type. It might give you something to go on.’
Clark rubbed his hands. ‘You done well, Mr Faraday. Real well. And we’ll overlook some of the little peculiarities of your methods. Like getting over people’s walls. Or forgetting to report things. A RI. can stick his neck out where we run up against red tape. I think you got something important here. And I won’t forget it. Now I’m goin’ to be equally frank.’
He tapped his pipe into the car ash tray and looked across at the lodge gates of The Palisades.
‘You were all wrong about the General, son, though I don’t blame you for having suspicions. He’s just about the best friend this town ever had. A school, health clinic hospital annexe — you name it, the General’s had a hand in it. He’s always got his fist in his pocket, especially when it comes to the young people. That’s why your suspicions were so durn’d ridiculous. Only I couldn’t come right out in the open, partly because I promised him and partly because the whole thing sounds so fantastic.’
‘I’m listening,’ I said.
He drummed with one hand on the wheel of the car.
‘The General was a very big man in the country he came from,’ he said. ‘Where’d he tell you?’
‘Cuba,’ I said.
‘Well, it wasn’t really Cuba,’ said Clark, ‘but it’ll do. It was one of those places where they have a firing squad one minute and a brand new government the next. The General always makes out he was Chief of Police in Havana. In fact he was Minister of Justice — the biggest man in the Government, next to the President. Quite a few years ago now there was an attempted coup. The man behind it was the President’s biggest rival. The coup failed. Diaz conducted the prosecutions in person and the leader was executed. The others in the conspiracy, including the executed leader’s brother, got prison sentences ranging from fifteen to twenty-five years.’
Clark paused again and started to re-light his pipe. I wound down the window on my side to get some fresh air in.
‘This is where it starts to get tricky,’ said Clark. ‘In the course of time the General retired and came to the States to live. He brought with him some of his supporters, ex-officers and the like, all of whom were personal friends. These, together with his body servants, made up the household at The Palisades.
Because, like you’ve guessed, Esteban’s brother — that was the dead leader’s name — had sworn to get Diaz, and they’ve got long memories in those parts. Last year there was an amnesty and all the survivors of the coup were released from prison. They included Hernando and several fanatical supporters. A few months ago we got word that four of them had landed in the States.’
Clark puffed on the pipe, causing it to belch smoke and sparks. His face looked angry in the glow.
‘We got the Government to keep tabs on’em, of course, as far as possible, but it’s a difficult job in a big country like ours. They didn’t know where the General was, but then neither did we know where they were after a bit, because all four disappeared after they’d been traced to New York. In the meantime I advised the General to step up his security arrangements. This is about where we were until Holgren got it.’
He paused and then went on, ‘Now does anything strike you in particular about Holgren’s death? The reason, I mean?’
‘A finger man?’ I said. ‘Supposing someone in town had located Diaz. Or the Cubans had turned up somewhere? And Holgren had spotted them. And come up to Mudville to warn the General?’
Clark assented gloomily.
‘It doesn’t fit very well,’ I said. ‘Why wouldn’t he have phoned him instead of driving all the way up here on a wet, cold night?’
Clark smiled slowly. ‘We know the reason for that. The General was way on the other side of the County. And maybe it was something Holgren couldn’t talk about on the phone. It’s a small exchange here too, remember.’
‘It all figures,’ I said, ‘except for the girl and that sounds pretty way-out.’
‘That one is tough,’ said Clark, ‘but it’ll fall into place. So she was running along the wall and got hit in the side. You’d better get with Cheney quick before I haul him in.’
‘He’s next on my list,’ I said. I sat and finished my cigarette. ‘Several Cubans,’ I said. ‘Wouldn’t they be kinda conspicuous in a small place like this?’
Clark shook his head. ‘Not particularly. You know as well as I do, California’s full of Spanish-speaking nationals. The Mudville finger-man is what I’m concentrating on.’
Another thought had occurred to me as we had been speaking.
‘Then it was you who hit me over the head out at the Diaz place,’ I said, fingering the bump. Clark turned red and coughed heavily. Then he joined me busting out laughing.
‘Afraid you asked for it, Faraday. But I didn’t know who the hell it was when you came out of there. You were lucky I didn’t plug you.’
‘It would have been difficult lying flat on your back,’ I said mildly. ‘I didn’t have time for niceties.’
‘To be honest,’ said Clark, ‘I was winded and when I got up I started running in the opposite direction to where you must have been lying. I’d been called out to the General’s that night for our usual weekly chat. We mull over the security arrangements and so forth. Then things started popping.’
‘O.K. Sheriff,’ I said. ‘I shouldn’t have been there, as you said. But it only increased my suspicions when you didn’t speak up after I told you about it.’
I got out of the car and stood by the window. Clark got out the other side.
‘What’s the next move?’ I said.
‘I’ll go check the country club,’ he said. ‘I might get a decent description. If you can fit in Cheney and the Bensons later today, I can release the news of the girl’s death tonight. The Cheney lad may not be directly involved but ten to one he was with her when she got it. Give me a ring. You and me and the General ought to have a long talk in the next twenty-four hours.’
‘Right,’ I said. I started walking towards the Buick.
‘And Faraday …’ Clark called. I turned round.
‘Many thanks again,’ he said with a smile. He went on towards the country club. I got in my car and drove back to town.
I pulled up at the side of Redbarn Autos and parked the car. I walked back down to the Post Office and called Stella.
‘Well, well,’ she said. ‘Another country heard from.’
‘Never mind the comedy,’ I said. ‘Listen good, honey. I haven’t got too many nickels.’
‘That’s more like you, Mike,’ she said. ‘Always counting the pennies.’
I ignored that too. I put her in the picture. I could hear her pen scratching over the paper as I spoke. I had to put some more money in the coin-slot after that.
‘This is confidential,’ I told Stella. ‘Nothing’s to leak out, least of all to Dame Dora, until you get my sayso. Clark can’t sit on it later than tonight so it should be in the L.A. papers come tomorrow morning.’
I arranged with her that she would ring Dame Dora at her home that evening; we made it around nine. That way the call would beat the regular ten p.m. radio and TV news bulletins. I didn’t think Clark would make any announcement before nine.
‘How did you make out with Patti Morgan?’ I asked Stella.
‘I’ve been doing my homework,’ she said. ‘She’s in the clear so far as I can make out. Impeccable background, as they say. Before you ring off, I got some more dope on Holgren.’
‘Hold it,’ I told her. I went out the booth and over to the main counter; the woman behind it gave me change for a dollar. I got back to the phone as the time signal started buzzing again. I fed the coin-box.
‘You were saying?’ I said.
‘Holgren,’ said Stella. ‘He was in practice in Latin America years ago. That’s where he met the General. Only Diaz wasn’t his real name.’
‘I know,’ I told her. ‘Where did you get all this stuff?’
‘Down at the Library,’ she said. ‘I had to go a long way back in the files.’
‘Good girl,’ I said and meant it.
‘Thanks, boss,’ she said. ‘You likely to be making it back before Christmas?’
‘I might just get lucky,’ I said.
‘Take care, Mike,’ she said. ‘Miss you.’
She rang off without waiting for me to say goodbye and left me looking at something rude someone had carved with a penknife on the wall of the booth. I came out so pensive I almost left my change on the top of the phone-book cabinet. But not quite. A horn hooted as I got outside. A white roadster drifted down the street; a golden dazzle of hair showed behind the wheel. Patti Morgan waved and smiled as she cruised by.
An old guy with buck teeth and gold-rimmed pince-nez looked after her like the wave had been for him, then shot me an envious glance.
‘She’s got something,’ he said to me admiringly.
‘And she’s hanging on to it, too,’ I told him and went on down the street.
I walked round the side of Redbarn Autos. A tall attendant with a fat belly and blond hair was tapping one of the gasoline pumps and frownin
g at the dial.
‘Mr Cheney about?’ I said.
He jerked his thumb towards the main building. ‘He’s not in the showroom,’ he said. ‘Try the apartment. I thought I saw him go up a while ago.’
This suited me. Besides, it would avoid the joker with the dead ferret under his nose. I walked along past the showroom and up a flight of steps flanked by a blue-painted iron railing. I pushed the buzzer on a door set back behind potted shrubs; that was painted blue too. I heard the faraway noise of the buzzer but no-one came to the door. As I pushed it again I found it was ajar. I walked on through into a kitchen. It was a big apartment with a large ice-chest on one side and pressed steel sink units.
A man was slumped at a table with his head resting on his hands. A bottle and an empty glass sat on the table in front of him. He didn’t stir so I put a hand on his shoulder. He still didn’t move so I shook him. He turned a bleared face towards me.
‘It’s Faraday,’ I said. ‘You know why I’ve come?’
He passed shaking fingers over his face.
The film over his eyes cleared.
‘We found her,’ I told him. ‘Buried under the tree. You ready to talk now?’
His face turned yellow as the sense of my words began to penetrate. He went over unsteadily towards the sink and began to vomit. He turned on the tap and sluiced his face in the running water. I went and took a towel off a hook on the kitchen door and threw it to him. He caught it and started to mop his face.
‘Thanks,’ he said. He looked better now though his eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot. He went and sat back at the table. I got another chair and sat opposite him. He took the cigarette I offered him from my pack. I held the flame of a match to the tip of his cigarette. It took him three attempts to get it lit.
‘You were there?’ I said.
He drew in the smoke. ‘Yes,’ he said slowly. He feathered out the smoke in a long, shuddering sigh.
‘You’ll have to talk about it,’ I said. ‘But if you go see Clark voluntarily things will be a lot easier for you.’