Killeano turned out to be quite a guy for getting things organized. “We’re going to be fair to Cabin,” he said, thumping his fist on the back of a chair. “I know it looks bad for him, but he’s my guest, and I’m going to see he gets a break.”
Flaggerty muttered under his breath, but Killeano was the boss.
“So what?” Flaggerty asked, shrugging. “Why waste time? I want this guy down at headquarters for questioning.”
“We don’t know he’s guilty,” Killeano barked, “and I won’t have him arrested until I am satisfied you’ve got a case against him. We’ll question him here.”
“My pal.” I said.
He didn’t even look in my direction. “Keep that weman quiet,” he went on, pointing at Miss Wonderly, who sat alone, weeping into the house dick’s handkerchief. “I don’t want her shooting of her mouth until we’ve heard the other witnesses.”
I smoked and looked out of the window while Killeano yelled down the telephone and got things organized. Finally he had everything the way he wanted and we started. The reception clerk, the house dick, the elevator boy, Speratza and the barman from the Casino had been collected and lined up in the corridor outside. They were told to wait.
Miss Wonderly was taken into the bedroom in charge of a stout woman in black who’d been rushed up from the local jail to keep an eye on her. They told her to get dressed.
There were two tough-looking cops who stood behind my chair and pretended they weren’t going to slug me if I showed any signs of walking out on the assembly. There was Flaggerty, two plain-clothes dicks, a photographer and a doctor. There was a stenographer, a pop-eyed little man, who sat in a corner and scribbled away as if his life, and not mine, depended on him getting it all down straight. Then there was me, and, of course, my pal, Killeano.
“All right,” Kilieano said. “Now we start.”
Flaggerty nearly fell over himself to get his claws into me. He stood in front of me with his jaw thrust out and an ugly look in his beady little eyes. “You’re Chester Cain?” he demanded, as if he didn’t know.
“Yeah,” I said, “and you’re Lieutenant Flaggerty, the boy who hadn’t any friends to tell him.”
Killeano jumped up. “Look, Cain, this is a serious matter for you. Maybe you’d care to cut out the gags?”
“I’m the fall guy,” I said, smiling at him. “Why should you worry how I handle this louse?”
“Well, it won’t do you any good,” Killeano muttered, but he sat down.
Flaggerty was moving about restlessly, and as soon as Killeano had settled, he started in again.
“All right,” he said. “You’re Chester Cain, and you’re a gambler by profession.”
“I don’t call gambling a profession,” I said.
His face went a dusty red. “But you admit you earn your living by gambling?”
“No. I haven’t started to earn a living,” I told him. “I’m just out of the Army.”
“You’ve been out four months, and during that time you’ve been gambling?”
I nodded.
“You’ve made a heap of dough?”
“Fair,” I said.
“You call twenty grand just fair?”
“It’s not bad.”
He hesitated, then decided to let it go. He’d established that I gambled.
“Is it true you murdered five men in four months?” he suddenly shot out.
Killeano jumped to his feet. “Keep that out of the record,” he exclaimed, his little eyes wide with indignation. “Cain killed those men in self-defence!”
“He killed them!” Flaggerty shouted back. “Think of it! Five men in four months! What a record! Self-defence or not, it’s appalling, and every decent citizen in this country is appalled!”
Killeano sat down, muttering. I guess he wanted to be thought a decent citizen too.
“Come on,” Flaggerty snarled, standing over me. “You killed those five men, didn’t you?”
“Five punks with the trigger itch tried to shoot me and I defended myself,” I said quietly. “If that’s what you mean, then I did kill them.”
Flaggerty swung around to the stenographer and threw out his arms.
“A self-confessed killer of five innocent men!” he bawled.
That got Killeano on his feet again, but I was getting sick of this.
“Skip it,” I said to Killeano. “The facts are on record and the New York D.A.’s given me a clean bill. Who do you think cares what a lousy small-town copper says? Save your breath.”
Flaggerty looked like he was going to have a hemorrhage.
“Get on with it,” Killcano snapped, sitting down and giving me a hard look.
“We’ll see who cares or not,” Flaggerty said, clenching his fists. “Now I’ll tell you something.
You came to Paradise Palms because you knew it was a gold mine, and you planned to clean up at the gambling tables.”
“Aw nuts!” I said. “I came here for a vacation.”
“And yet you ain’t been in town a few hours when you rush around to the Casino,” Flaggerty sneered.
“I was invited by Speratza,” I said, “and not having anything better to do, I went.”
“How long have you known Speratza?”
“I don’t know him.”
Flaggerty raised his eyebrows. “So you don’t know him? Ain’t it odd Speratza should invite you over to the Casino when he didn’t know you?”
“Most odd,” I said, grinning at him.
“Yeah,” Flaggerty said. He took a step forward. “Maybe he didn’t invite you. Maybe you invited yourself because you wanted to horn in and clean up fast.” He was wagging his finger in my face and yelling at the top of his voice.
“Don’t do that,” I said gently, “unless you want a poke in your pan.”
He turned round, crossed the room, opened the door and hauled in Speratza.
Speratza was wearing light blue trousers, very neat, with pleats at the waist; and his coat was a kind of mustard colour and flared out so wide at the shoulders that he looked bigger than a house. The lapels of his coat came out in a peak about eight inches long on each side and in the left one there was a white rosebud. I bet there were some women who’d swoon at the sight of him.
He smiled around, took a look at Herrick’s body under the blanket, and switched off the smile. He looked at me, then looked away fast.
I lit another cigarette. In a moment or so, I’d know where I was heading.
I found out quick enough. Speratza said that he hadn’t called me. He claimed he didn’t even know I was in town until he saw me in the Casino. He went on to say that he’d heard of my reputation, and he was sorry to see me in this place.
Then I knew for sure that I was being taken for a ride. I called Speratza a liar, and he looked hurt. But he had nothing to worry about. It was his word against mine, and mine was a drug on the market.
Flaggerty got rid ot Speratza and came back looking like the cat that’d swallowed the canary.
“Lying won’t get you anywhere, Cain,” he said. “You’d better watch your step.”
“Go take a nap under a falling axe,” I said, and blew smoke in his face.
“You wait ’til I get you to the station,” he snarled
“You haven’t got me there yet,” I reminded him.
Killeano told Flaggerty to get on with it.
“You met Herrick at the Casino?” Flaggerty demanded, after he’d choked down his rage.
“That’s right.”
“He told you to get out of town?”
“He advised me to get out of town,” I corrected him.
“Then what did you say?”
“I said I’d stick around.”
“You told him to go to hell, and you said if he didn’t keep his snout out of your business you’d fix him.”
“Moonshine,” I said.
Flaggerty called in the Casino barman who said I had threatened Herrick. “He said ‘You keep your snout out of my business or I’ll push it through the back of your head’,” the barman told Flaggerty. He looked shocked and sad.
“How much did they pay you to recite that little piece?” I asked.
“Never mind, Cain,” Flaggerty snapped. He turned to the barman. “Okay, that’s all. You’ll be wanted at the trial.”
The barman walked out, still shaking his head.
“Then you returned to the hotel with this woman,” Flaggerty went on, pointing to Miss Wonderly, who’d been brought in. She looked out of place in her blue crepe in the sunshine. She looked unhappy too. I winked at her, but she wouldn’t catch my eye. “You two got drunk. She passed out, and you got brooding about Herrick. You figured he might be dangerous, and might upset your plans, and that made you mad. So you called him and asked him to come over, because you thought you could scare him to lay off you.”
“Don’t be a dope,” I said. “I was the sucker who passed out. Ask baby-face over there. She’ll tell you. Better still, get that bottle of brandy in the next room; it’s full of shut-eye medicine.”
“What brandy?” Flaggerty demanded.
One of the cops went into the bedroom. He came back after a moment or so.
“No brandy,” he said.
There wouldn’t be,” I said, shrugging. “Well, ask her. She’ll tell you.”
“I don’t need to ask her!” Flaggerty roared. “The hotel telephone operator has a record of a call made by you at two o clock this morning. We’ve traced that call to Herrick’s residence. Ten minutes after the call Herrick arrived here. He asked the reception clerk for your room number, and the bell-hop brought him up to this room. How do you like that?”
“Very cosy.” I said.
“You and Herrick talked. You were drunk and vicious. You’re a killer, Cain. You don’t think twice about killing. You’re as mad as a mad dog! Herrick wouldn’t scare, so you hit him with your gun. You were so goddamned drunk you forgot all about him the moment you’d done it. And I’ll tell you why. You wanted that floozie. She was in bed waiting for you, wasn’t she?”
I laughed at him. “Ask her. She’s my witness.” I look at Miss Wonderly. “Listen, baby, last night you said you were for me. Well, here’s your chance. You’re the only one who can bust this frame wide open. I’m relying on you. They’ve got me in a sweet jam. There’s nothing I can do about it. But if you have the guts, you can tell the truth, and that’ll put me in the clear. We had a swell time together. We can still have a swell time together. Only you’ve got to be on my side. Now tell them.”
“Wait,” Killeano said, starting to his feet. His expression was a nice blend of suspicion and doubtful friendliness. He gave the idea that in spite of wanting to help me, he was gradually being persuaded that I was as guilty as hell. It was a nice act. He crossed the room and stood over Miss Wonderly. “Your word in a court of law hasn’t much value. You’re in a jam yourself. If Cain didn’t kill Herrick, then you must have killed him. I’ll tell you why. The door was lo cked on the inside! So don’t lie. Maybe Cain was nice to you, but you’ve got to tell the truth because you just can’t afford to lie.”
I saw then that they had taken care of everything. If Miss Wonderly said I had passed out, then they’d hang the murder on her. They wouldn’t care so long as they hung it on someone.
“Okay, baby,” I said. “Lie if you want to. He’s right. They’ve been a little too smart for us.”
“I’m not talking,” she said, and began to cry.
That was right up Flaggerty’s street. He grabbed hold of her arm and yanked her out of her chair. “You’ll talk, you floozie!” he bawled, and shook her so her head snapped back.
I’d left my chair and reached him before the two cops could move.
I spun him around and hit him in the mouth. It was a sweet punch, and I felt my knuckles grate on his teeth. He went over backwards, spitting blood. It did me a power of good.
Then the cops jumped me, and one of them bounced a nightstick across my head.
I came round as Flaggerty was sitting up. I had a bump on my head, but he had lost a couple of teeth.
Killeano sorted us out.
After a while the atmosphere quietened down, but Flaggerty was still too groggy to continue questioning. Killeano took over. He stood in front of Miss Wonderly, his short fat legs astride.
“Unless you tell us what happened you’ll be arrested,” he said to her.
“What does it matter?” I said, rubbing my head. “Why do it the hard way? Tell ’em you passed out, and know nothing about it. They’ve got all the witnesses they want.”
One of the coppers slapped me across the mouth.
“Shaddap,” he said.
“That’s going to be too bad for you,” I said, and the look in my eyes made him edge away.
Miss Wonderly looked at Killeano and then at me. She was pale, but there was a light in her eyes that gave me hope.
“He didn’t do it,” she said. “It was a frame-up. I don’t care what you do to me. He didn’t do it! Do you hear? He didn ’t do it!"
Killeano looked at her as if he couldn’t believe his ears. His fat face went yellow with rage.
“You bitch!” he said, and slapped her hard across her face.
One of the cops wound his night-stick across my throat and held on. I couldn’t move: I couldn’t breathe.
Flaggerty and Killeano just stood looking at Miss Wonderly. She held her burning cheek and looked back at them.
“He didn’t do it!” she repeated, wildly. “You can keep your rotten money. You can kill me. But I won’t go through with it!”
I gave a croaking cheer.
Killeano turned to Flaggerty. “Arrest them,” he said, in a thin reedy voice. “We’ll get her on an accessory rap. And soften both of them.” He looked at Miss Wonderly. “You’ll be sorry for this,” he said, and crossed the room, opened the door and went out. He closed the door gently behind him.