“Don’t you talk to me about set-ups, Preston. This is a big town with a clean department and I have a lot of years behind me on this job. So don’t talk to me about set-ups. When we take people in we take ‘em good, and we don’t need any phoney tricks to do it. You can be in a lotta trouble right here, and if you don’t talk polite I’ll make personally certain you get every last bit of it. Am I getting through to you?”
“Got it. But I still don’t know what it’s all about.”
I had this feeling that Randall wasn’t too sure of his ground. If he really knew what he was about, he’d have grabbed me the moment he saw me downstairs. And he wouldn’t have sat around drinking my beer, he’s not that kind of cop. Now he watched my face.
“You want it in pieces, I’ll give it you. You called on a Mrs. Prince this afternoon, I have the address here.”
He began digging in his pocket, but I waved him down.
“No need, I know the address. Sure, I was there. What about it?”
“You admit it, that’s good. That saves procedure. You told this woman you were a police officer and——”
“No,” I denied flatly.
“She says you did.”
“I don’t believe she said that either.”
He corrugated his brows in a rugged frown.
“You calling me a liar, Preston?”
“I’m saying there’s some confusion here. I called on this woman and talked with her. At no time did I say I was a police officer, and if she said anything of the kind to you I’d be very much surprised.”
Randall chewed carefully at the inside of his jaw and didn’t take his eyes off my face while he digested that one.
“You deny it, huh?”
“One hundred per cent. And if you’re going to pinch me on a defended charge like this, you have to have a witness for the prosecution. And I’m saying Mrs. Prince would never be that witness. There’s something mixed up here.”
“Don’t try to teach me the law,” he snapped, “I know a little odd piece of it here and there myself. A mix-up you say?”
“That’s what I say. And you know me better than to imagine I’d be such a fool. This is not my first day on the job, you know.”
“H’m.”
He got up and prowled around the room.
“Nice place. What did you talk about?”
I laughed and sat back in the chair.
“Come on, you know I’m not going to tell you that.”
“Suppose I ask her?”
“Help yourself.”
He stood to one side, looking at me carefully for a full minute. Then he walked to the door.
“I may do that. Maybe there is a mix-up. But if it sticks, don’t make any appointments for the next year or so.”
He went out quietly, and I gave a huge sigh of relief. Checking my watch I found I had fifteen minutes to keep my date with Flower. But first I had to call Eve Prince, otherwise I’d have a date with a small gray room. She answered on the second ring.
“Mrs. Prince? This is Preston.”
“Oh.”
She didn’t sound exactly overjoyed.
“Look, we seem to have had a little misunderstanding, so I thought I should phone and straighten it out.”
“I don’t think so,” she replied bitterly. “I don’t think there’s any misunderstanding whatever. You came here under false pretenses, wormed a rather sordid story out of me, and now we come to the part where I pay you instead of Brookman. Would that be correct?”
Her voice was faraway, almost sing-song. I realized that to her it might seem the nightmare had started over. As gently as I could I said,
“Now Mrs. Prince, please be calm and believe what I’m telling you. I’m a fully licensed private investigator. That is to say I am licensed by the State of California as well as by the local city authorities. Believe me, I am very well known in this city. Do you have a lawyer friend or do you happen to know a judge, or a senior police officer?”
“I have my own lawyer,” she said doubtfully.
“All right, fine. Now don’t take my word for this. As soon as we’ve talked, you call him, ask him about me. The chances are, he’ll know himself, but if so happens he doesn’t he can check me out in five minutes flat. Now, will you do that please?”
There was a pause at the other end while she worried at it.
“It certainly sounds all right,” she said dubiously.
“It is all right. And it’s essential you feel satisfied about me, because we could both be in trouble.”
“Both?” she didn’t like the sound of that.
“Yes. Now listen carefully. The police have been to see me. According to them, you have reported that I’ve been impersonating a police officer. Is that true?”
Another pause.
“No. Or rather, in a way, I suppose.”
“In what way, Mrs. Prince?”
“Look, you remember you gave me your telephone number?”
“Yes.”
“I was to call you if I thought of anything. Well something came to me, and I rang you. When I didn’t get any answer, I called police headquarters and asked for you there. They said they didn’t have a Detective Preston, and started asking all kinds of questions. I—I just hung up on them.”
So that was it. And of course they would have taken her name and address the moment they answered the phone. That was routine procedure.
“So you didn’t actually tell them anything?”
“No, I sort of panicked. All I could think was that the whole thing would come out in the open, and I lost my head. I simply put down the telephone.”
I thought rapidly.
“If that’s all that happened, I don’t think we need worry. Now listen very carefully. You may be called on, but don’t be afraid. You simply have to say you made a mistake. You can say you knew perfectly well I was a private detective. You can say I made that very clear to you.”
“Then why did I call them?” she wanted to know.
“Can you put on some kind of an act? Can you pretend you don’t know very much about these things and you thought private detectives were policemen who didn’t wear uniforms?”
“It doesn’t make me sound very intelligent,” she said without enthusiasm.
“Maybe not. But it’s the kind of nutty thing the police are used to. They get this kind of thinking a dozen times a day from the public. If you act a little bit scatterbrained, you know, silly old me, the officer will not be remotely surprised. Half their time is spent on following up useless enquiries. Do you think you can do that?”
“Yes. Yes I can.”
She still didn’t sound too convinced, but I’d just have to leave her to do her best now.
“And Mrs. Prince, if the officer tries to ask you what it was I called to see you about, tell him nothing. You’re just an ordinary member of the public and you don’t have to answer any questions you don’t want to. Remember what’s likely to happen if they get the slightest suspicion of what’s been going on.”
“I’m not likely to forget.”
I thought she could do it. She hadn’t impressed me as the kind of woman who’d fly into a panic.
“What was the thing you remembered, by the way?”
“Oh, well it wasn’t much, but you said anything. He—that man—once said something about having a girl friend who was a dancer.”
A dancer. Well, that helped. Within twenty miles of Monkton, there probably weren’t more than two or three hundred of those. Unless you counted in Hollywood.
“He didn’t mention any name?”
“No. It isn’t much help, is it?”
“Any little thing may help. And thank you for letting me know. Now you call your lawyer as soon as we hang up.”
She promised to do it, and I cut the connection. There were now only seven minutes left before I was due at the Monteray Building, and Flower had said it was urgent. I checked the clip on the .38 before leaving the apartment.
It w
as nine thirty-five when I reached the Monteray, and this time I didn’t call on the manager. Nobody was around as I entered the elevator and pushed the button marked “8”. As I walked along to Apartment 824 I had the feeling I was going to learn something at last. The .38 felt hard and reassuring against my side as I pressed the buzzer. The door opened almost immediately and there was Flower. Her face was white and drawn and she could barely force the words from her lips.
“Come in, come in.”
I stepped inside. She backed away as though afraid I might strike her.
“What’s this all——?” I started to say.
I didn’t get any further. Somebody drove a steam-shovel against the side of my head. Great red explosions burst across my eyes as the floor boards leaped up to punch me in the face. My mind was slipping away. I thought a woman screamed, or maybe it was me, then somebody pulled down a thick black curtain and I crawled behind it.
CHAPTER SIX
I WAS CLIMBING A MOUNTAIN, but I didn’t have the right boots and my feet kept slipping. My fingers scrabbled at the rock, and each time they achieved some kind of hold those feet betrayed me again. Gradually, I forced open an eye. The rock was a dirty gray color, only it wasn’t rock. It was some kind of material. I closed the eye again and sighed. A man in my condition had no business climbing mountains in the dark. My fingers moved again. It was material. That seemed to justify another look with the eye, and this time I identified a chair two inches from my nose. The chair was the mountain. My mind was clearing now and I recalled where I was and how I got there. I was kneeling beside this chair, trying to pull myself upright. Flower. Flower had hit me on the head.
No, she hadn’t.
I’d been looking right at her when it happened. Somebody else had done it, and that was why she was so afraid when I went in. This brilliant piece of reasoning made me feel quite smug, and I figured a smart character like me ought to be able to stand on his own feet. After two more tries I made it, just. There was no Flower here now. The guy with the steam-shovel was gone too, and that was a pity. I’d have liked to discuss the matter with him.
I lumbered around the apartment, but it hadn’t any more to tell me than on my last visit. The window was wide open, and I went across to breathe some fresh air. The night was that special purple when the stars look like decorations on some royal robe. It was a night for many things, none of which was getting slugged on the head. Down in the street below, somebody shouted. I looked down idly. There was a small crowd of people down there, looking up at me and pointing. Then I saw flashlights playing on something on the sidewalk. My head cleared like lightning as I realized what it was. It was the crumpled, twisted body of a woman, and although I couldn’t see her face, I knew it had to be Flower. That was why all those people were pointing. Someone had probably seen her fall, and that meant I was the guy who pushed her. It was time to be going.
With a handkerchief I rubbed quickly at the door knob after I got outside, then the buzzer. There was nobody around, and according to my watch I’d been out of touch for about two minutes. That would hardly have given anyone time to identify the room and get up to it. The elevator light was on the move and was now at “4”. It was a time for stairways, eight floors or no.
I went down fast pulling up at each storey level in case anyone was around. By the time I hit bottom I was reminding myself to cut down on the cigarets. There was nobody in the dim-lit entrance and I made good time out to where I’d parked the heap. I got inside and sat watching for a moment. The window through which I’d seen Flower was at the rear of the building, so all the excitement would be back there. My head gave me a twinge, reminding me that I’d been luckier than the girl. Wondered too, why I hadn’t followed her through the window. I’d have been in no position to put up much of an argument about it. Still, here I was, and if I wanted to stay out of jail I’d better be moving. What I wanted was to go home and do something about my head, like maybe pour half a bottle of scotch inside it, but there was no time for such indulgences. Instead I drove out to the Beach End again.
Waves lapped softly against the silent sands as I passed along the now deserted beach road. Even the waves had to show a little respect down there. Other coarser sections of the coast might get breakers and such, but here everything was orderly, straight out of your travel magazine. The driveway to the Somerset house was brilliantly lit, but the house itself was in darkness. But that didn’t have to mean it was empty. There could be some action around back. I walked quietly around to where Flower had made such a spectacular entrance that afternoon. The wide glass doors stood open and although there was no light, music flowed softly out into the night.
I peered into the gloom but couldn’t seen anything. On an impulse I stepped inside and the darkness was total.
“You’re late.”
It was Somerset’s voice and it seemed to come from where I judged that long couch of his to be.
“Sorry,” I replied. “I didn’t realize I was expected.”
“What the devil——”
A light snapped on and there he was again, still flat on his back. Only this time he wore a glaring purple shirt and bermuda shorts. And that wasn’t all. In his hand was a very large black .44 revolver, pointed unwinkingly at me.
“What is the meaning of this intrusion?” he demanded.
The words were more threatening than the voice. Instead he sounded somehow worried.
“Got some news for you,” I told him. “Would you mind putting that thing down?”
“Not until I know what you’re doing here. You come sneaking into my house in the middle of the night——”
“It’s only just after ten o’clock,” I corrected. “Will you put it down? Those things go off, you know.”
He gave a short barking laugh.
“That is precisely what it is intended for,” he assured me. “We get a lot of you burglars around this area.”
“Oh don’t be ridiculous.”
I sat down, acting a lot calmer than I felt. He said uncertainly,
“You said you had something to tell me.”
“You and Flower. Where is she, by the way?”
“How do I know, I’m not her keeper.”
I looked at him and grinned.
“You could have fooled me.”
He waggled the gun, then snorted and laid it on the floor beside him.
“Not that I can’t reach it if I have to,” he warned.
“You won’t need it. Who are we expecting, anyway?”
“That’s none of your business. Say what you have to say and please go away.”
“O.K. Get Flower in here.”
His face grew dark with bottled impatience.
“She isn’t here. I don’t own the girl, she comes and goes as she pleases. Tonight she pleases to be elsewhere. Do you understand?”
“And you don’t know where?”
“I haven’t the remotest idea. And if I had, I doubt whether I’d tell you.”
We stared at each other with quiet hostility.
“Before I give you this fascinating news of mine, tell me one thing. Flower, is she some kind of dancer?”
“I don’t see why I should tell you anything at all. But, if you must know, yes.”
“Ah. And where were you an hour ago, Mr. Somerset? I telephoned here and got no answer.”
“Then you must have dialled the wrong number. There’s only been one telephone call here the whole evening, and I answered that.”
“Haven’t been out, huh? Can you prove it?”
He frowned.
“Prove it?” he repeated. “No, I shouldn’t think so. And I don’t have to prove things to you. You can believe them or not believe them. It’s a matter of supreme indifference to me.”
“Yup, that’s right. You don’t have to prove a thing to me. Cops might take a different view though. They can be awful nasty.”
He sighed and rubbed absently at the fleshy chest.
“And why should the
police be interested?”
“Because of Flower. Somebody just killed her downtown.”
He sat upright and the heavy eyes bored into me.
“You’re lying,” he said thickly.
“If you say so.”
He sat quite still, then very slowly the bearded head wagged from side to side.
“It can’t be true. Who told you this?”
“Nobody. I saw it.”
“And there’s no mistake.”
It wasn’t a question. The words were flat and monotonous.
“I think I’m going to need a drink.”
For such a huge man he was very light on his feet as he moved across the room to the bar. He poured himself a great deal of vodka and drank it straight. Then he turned back to me, glass in hand.
“Tell me exactly what happened.”
“It was outside Brookman’s apartment. Did you know where he lived?”
He shook his head.
“Place called the Monteray Building. It isn’t the Beach End, but it’s a little better than Conquest Street. Brook-man lived on the eighth floor. Flower knew where he lived all right. Because somebody opened a window on that eighth floor and pushed her through.”
He shuddered and emptied the glass. Immediately he turned away and got the bottle to work again.
“And you actually saw it?”
“Not quite. I was just one of a crowd down at ground level. But I couldn’t have missed it by more than a minute.”
He came back and sat down heavily.
“Poor little Flower. And there was no harm in her at all. Not real harm, nothing to call for this dreadful thing.”
He seemed more upset than I would have expected. But then I can never be sure what to expect from anybody any more.
“Did she live here?”
“No. I’ve no idea where she lived. She would come when she wanted, and leave when she was ready. I don’t ask people where they live.”
“Then you don’t really know much about her?”
I must have sounded sceptical, because Somerset grinned at me wryly.
“You don’t understand, do you Preston? You, and people like you don’t understand. Where you come from, everyone has to have a full name, address, occupation, social security. They have to have a certain credit standing, high or low, but they must have it. Not everyone in the world wants to be classified like that. Half the people who come to this house, they exist only within these four walls. Where they come from, who they are, I don’t know half the time. Flower was one of those.”
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