The Bamboo Blonde

by Dorothy B. Hughes

  Kew drank. "Yes, Pembrooke stood O.K; I had met him in Washington. No one was suspicious of him. I traded some dope with him. It didn't seem strange to me that he could get information on the new network which I couldn't; if he were a part of Britain's high command, that was logical enough. I didn't trust him but I didn't doubt his connections. Until some of the foreign correspondents began throwing hints, and he was missing. I wanted the yarn more than ever then and decided to tackle Mannie. I didn't run into the major out here until the night I went to the Bamboo Bar to meet Shelley. When I returned to my hotel after leaving Saam's, he was waiting for me. He didn't try to hide his real purposes then; he cracked the whip. Things were so tight he needed me. Incriminating documents had been stolen from him by Mannie Martin. He wanted them back. Either Mannie still had them or he'd passed them on to Walker Travis. Pembrooke knew they hadn't been turned over to Garth or Garth wouldn't have gone off fishing, leaving the major to carry on with his work. Pembrooke thought Mannie was hiding out but that I could get in touch with him.

  "Pembrooke told me flat, either I'd help him out or he'd inform on me furnishing secret information to an enemy agent. I knew what that meant. Even if I could clear myself, there would always be suspicion of me. I wouldn't be of any value in Washington again; no one would trust me." His mouth was dry. "I gave him the impression that I'd play ball." He begged Con to see it.

  "I was almost crazy. But I'd made up my mind. You were in town. You could arrange for me to see Garth. I'd tell him the whole yarn whatever it did to me. At least I'd be clear; I could hold up my head again."

  Con said, "Take it easy."

  "You can imagine what a slap it was when you said Garth had left town, inaccessible for two weeks. I didn't know that you were working with him again. Even if I had, I doubt if I'd have told you." His face was shadowed. "There's some things you can tell to an outsider that you can't to your friends. And too, I wanted to clear with the top." He drank again. "The safest way I could figure it was to keep Albert George believing I was standing with him. He wanted to meet Kathie Travis, to work through her on Walker. That was easy enough. She'd been playing up to me after Mannie's disappearance. And I wasn't averseI wanted to reach Walker myself through her. Pembrooke ordered me to bring her to Catalina that week end. I knew I could show him he'd better let me act as the go-between. Her feelings by then were obvious to anyone. That way I could protect her too until Garth returned."

  "What about Sergei?" Con inquired.

  Kew said, "He was looking for you, Con. Not because you were Garth's man but because he thought you'd killed Shelley."

  "He couldn't have!" Griselda was indignant.

  "He did. That's what the papers were insinuating. He asked if I knew Con Satterlee. I said I'd put him in touch with you when I returned from Catalina, hoping to avoid him. I was leaving then. He must have had a hunch you were there too. Maybe Thusby hinted. Vironova was closeted with the police Friday evening."

  Griselda said, "And he checked on it through me. Thusby saw me packing. And he knew I couldn't get away until next morning." She asked then, "Maybe you can tell me now, Con, why Chang was at Catalina."

  "He gets worried about me," he admitted sheepishly. "But he came in handy. When I decided to break away where I could do my work uncluttered—"

  "By a honeymoon," she said quickly.

  "By too many parties and too many people, angel. Plus a damn suspicious major. I wasn't going fast enough. Sergei's rumors made it obvious that we couldn't suppress the finding of Mannie much longer. I had Chang call Vinnie to come over, gave him a faked message from Garth to the captain. Too much danger in using the phone. Vinnie flew the message back to old Thusby just in time for him to meet us at the dock."

  "Thusby was in on it?"

  "Not until after Sergei was murdered. He was so determined to release me then that I had to tell him. He hadn't liked taking me in the first place, Garth or no. I had to think fast all along to keep him amused so he wouldn't kick me out."

  "Like having Chang steal the shells?" she suggested.

  "Sure. I sent him to pack so he could get rid of them before Thusby could find them." He said, "Let's freshen these, Kew."

  Griselda's voice was tight. "Why did Kathie kill Sergei?"

  "She thought he suspected her," Dare said quietly. "She told me he kept asking questions and asking questions every time he saw her at the hotel. It made her nervous."

  Kew said, "He didn't dream she had anything to do with it. He was just trying to find out all he could to pin it on Con."

  "I'd like to know how she lured him into the Village where the shot wouldn't be heard," Con said. "If I suspected someone of murderous intent, that's the last place in the world I'd go willingly with them."

  Dare's lips curled. "Con, if I were Kathie Travis I could do it with a knife in my teeth." She mocked, " 'Oh, there's someone coming. I mustn't be seen. Let's slip in here a moment.' But he didn't suspect her. To him doubtless it was, as Albert George thought, an amorous rendezvous."

  Griselda asked, "Why was he so afraid of Pembrooke?"

  Kew said, "They'd crossed paths in Europe. I had to insist he go in to dinner with us that night. Just seeing the major had thrown him into a panic. Sergei must have done some governmental work on the continent at some time. Albert George was certain he'd come to muscle in on the deal. He warned him off that night we were all on The Falcon."

  It had been Sergei in the Major's stateroom, too frightened to be shrill. Griselda's voice was small. "Just what was the deal? Was the information in the fish?"

  "Yeah. A wad of paper inside had notation where the key was to Mannie's new strong box. The dope was in that. A complete report on all of our important radio stations, including monitory and field ones, with the names of the men to take care of sabotaging them. Even the names of men who would jam our Naval sending stations when orders came. The Pan-Pacific was a blind to get full information on our radio." He grinned. "Dare had the hunch about the fish tonight before you did. She filched it and passed it on to Garth."

  Dare took no credit. "It wasn't a hunch, Con. While I was doing the great friend act tonight, trying to see if I couldn't get Kathie to let something slip, she told me Walker had given it to her on his return from Hollywood that Sunday night. Add it to Mannie's statement that Walker had possession of the facts, add the postscript to your letter; I was sure it counted. I asked Walker about it later. Mannie handed him the fish that night, told him to give it to Kathie to square himself. She was mad as hell because he wouldn't let her go with him to meet Mannie. He never thought of the fish as being important. But Mannie was smart. He knew Kathie would never give up any possession no matter how trivial. And he must have been certain that if anything happened to him, eventually Walker would catch on."

  Kew's eyes were dark, his voice curiously shaken, "Dare, you knew she was the murderer? You knew it when you asked her to stay with you?"

  She laughed patiently. "But of course, darling. That's why I invited her. You didn't think I wanted her company, did you?" Her face was sober. "I wanted her where I could keep an eye on her."

  "She might have killed you."

  "I was careful not to have lethal weapons lying about. And I was going to bolt my doors and windows tonight."

  Con said, "My God, Dare, why didn't you tell me she was the one? I had everyone from Griselda to the Fuehrer on my list, particularly Kew."

  "I gave you plenty of hints."

  "You thought you did."

  "All right." She tossed her seal brown head. "I didn't want to worry you with a minor matter. I could handle Kathie. You had enough on your mind with Mannie and the major, and worrying that something might happen to Griselda."

  Griselda said to Con, "Kew was taking care of me. But you didn't like that."

  "I thought Kew was on the wrong side. He'd seen too much of Pembrooke in Washington. I was sure of it when he was throwing Kathie to the lion at Catalina."

  Kew said, "I pointed Kathie up
that night so you'd know she was in danger. I tried to tell Griselda all along what I was up to—without putting myself in a spot—but I don't know if I got it across." He admitted, "I didn't trust you at first, Con. You lied to me the first day about taking Shelley to Saam's. I'd have seen you if you had. I didn't even trust Dare."

  Dare said, "Nor I you. That's why I forced the issue after Sergei's death. If you had made a mistake, I wasn't going to let you continue in it." She tried to laugh. "I was going to save you in spite of yourself."

  His eyes were on her. "I never knew I had guts until that night I told you the whole mess. I thought it would mean curtains for me with you but there had been compulsion in me all along to tell you. The worst as well as the best."

  "For better or for worst," Con said.

  "Yes." But Dare was solemn.

  Con turned to Griselda. "Well. I was wrong, baby, usually am. But I thought Kew was hanging onto you to get dope on me."

  Kew broke in, "I was. I had to get to you before you started running around loose again. Albert George was going to kill you. He'd figured even if you didn't know it all, you knew too much. And I didn't know but what he might strike through Griselda. The safest bet was to stick with her. You'd come to her when you could. Dare didn't tell me she was in touch with you."

  She said, "I couldn't. I was pledged on that. And I actually wasn't. Con came to me but I didn't know where he was."

  "It wasn't safe for anyone to know, except Chang. He likes me. He'd cut folks up into little pieces for me. Anyone else might give it away by error, or compulsion."

  Griselda wanted all the loose ends tied. Then the others could go and leave her with Con again. She asked Dare, "How did you happen to find Walker Travis?"

  Dare said, "I want a drink first." Con gathered the glasses.

  Kew employed the interlude. "You'll marry me now, won't you? Don't you think I've waited long enough?"

  Dare began to tally years on her fingers. She spoke flippantly, "You need someone to take care of you, keep you on the right side of things."

  "You'll have to give up your career."

  "Good Lord, you don't think I'd make a career of matching thread, do you, darling? That was Garth's bright idea when Con sent me to him this spring, a way to put me in with the Navy where the secret agents were boring. You see I was already on the ground before Albert George met the Admiral."

  He kept his voice steady, "I don't exactly like that career. You might get hurt. Maybe you could train me to take your place with Garth."

  Griselda whispered, "Don't let him do it, Dare." He was too brave, recklessly brave as Con was. Women couldn't rest and their men in danger.

  Con handed the glasses around. "Let's get back to Walker Travis. I suppose the omniscient Mrs. Crandall guessed right off that Kathie had struck again. He couldn't have left Huntington Beach with her that night. Someone would have seen him return to the hotel. The car had sped away before the guards were aware. In the heavy mist they couldn't know if two persons were in it. Whatever had happened to him, it happened before Kathie raced back to the hotel. No wonder she was hysterical the next day. She didn't know where he was or what he would say."

  "Walker told me the whole story when I found him," said Dare.

  "Where did you find him?"

  "Walking back from his ride. Skulking along the beach, afraid she might be cruising the highway looking for him. He'd hidden out all day. Didn't have the nerve to ask to phone anywhere looking as he did. And he didn't dare go back to their cottage; he didn't know but she might be there waiting for him. He was plenty scared of her; he saw it clear then. He'd missed a gun from his collection—all Service men collect guns. He remembered he'd been asking her about that, if she'd seen it. She probably thought he suspected her too. Although he didn't until he nipped out the window and ran for it."

  Con asked, "How did you know where to look for him?"

  "I did have a hunch there. After I'd examined their cottage and the near ones, I found where he'd hidden under a porch until she left. I drove back and started walking from this end. I found him, and believe me, he was glad to see me. He was about done in." She shook her head. "Con, she'll deny everything and there's no proof. Can they hold her?"

  "She'll break." Con's mouth was grim. "If she doesn't, the wheel of Mannie's launch is going to show up in court with her fingerprints all over it."

  He looked at Griselda and then at the others. "Why don't you two run along to Yuma and get married tonight? No, Griselda and I are going to bed, but they keep witnesses on order. You'd better do it before you remember to start fighting again."

  Dare stood up. "We'll get out of here anyway. See you tomorrow."

  Con walked up to her. They looked at each other in silence. He ordered. "Don't come back without a ring on your finger." And then he bent suddenly and kissed her. "Thanks for everything, angel."

  He stood at the door watching until they were gone. Griselda wondered if there were regret in him mingling with satisfaction of a good deed done.

  He was yawning when he returned to the couch. "Well, I'm home, baby. With the home fires burning."

  "What next?" she asked lightly. "Now we'll have a honeymoon." He traced the shape of her face with his forefinger. "I wish I'd been here when the major barged in tonight. I'd have killed him."

  "No." She moved close to him. "No. I'm glad you didn't come. You wouldn't have had a chance." She wouldn't think of that again. "Con, were you looking for Shelley that first night at the Bamboo?"

  "I wasn't. I knew she was in town. Dare had told me that. But I hadn't ever laid eyes on her. I didn't see Pembrooke there and I didn't connect Kew with her. I'd heard of Kew and Kathie—she was searching for him that same night, of course, not for her husband—but not Kew and Shelley. I knew he was playing a dangerous game. I didn't trust him; that's why I didn't want him around where he might find out my business. And my poor Dare trying to whitewash him and keep him out of it until he could clear up his mistake."

  He yawned again. "Think I'll have another little drink before we turn in."

  She spoke out of habit. "You don't need it." He could have anything he wanted, tonight or any night. She'd never again question anything he did.

  He began to pour it but wheeled suddenly. "Baby, I got a wonderful idea!"

  She waited.

  "Soon as this thing is in the bag, we'll go lo Niagara Falls and have a real honeymoon." At her lack of response, his enthusiasm faltered. "What do you say?"

  She smiled. "I looove honeymoons." And then she laughed. "What does Barjon Garth want us to do there?"

  THE END

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