Dames Don’t Care (23 page)

When I get to it I climb through. I find myself in a little room that would be right above the passage that leads from the front entrance to the dance floor. There is a lantern burnin' on the floor an' by the light from it I can see in the corner of the room a flight of iron steps curvin' down towards some place underneath on the left.

I slip along down these steps an' at the bottom I find myself in a long stone passage. I do a bit of thinkin' an' I come to the conclusion that this passage runs underground from the main room of the Hacienda along underneath the adobe wall that is at the rear end of the garage. I reckon this passage was originally a sorta cellar in the house. Anyhow it makes a pretty swell hide-out.

I go along the passage until I come to a wooden door at the end. There is a light comin' from underneath it. I kick this door open, step into the room on the other side quick. I am in' a stone cellar There is a couple of electric lights fixed up, and in the opposite corner I can see Fernandez packin' up some papers in the suitcase stuck against the wall. On the left hand side of the cellar are two big printin' presses an' packed against the wall on the other side are a lotta boxes an' on shelves above 'em are bottles, brushes, an' stencil plates.

So I am dead right.

"Well, Fernandez," I say.

He spins around. I show him the gun.

"Take it easy, big boy," I tell him, "because gettin' excited certainly ain't goin' to get you nowhere now, an' you know so far as you are concerned it woulda been a lot easier for you an' Periera if you'd aimed a little bit better that night when you took a shot at me when I was drivin' back to Palm Springs. I knew it was you all along, but I thought at the time that you might like to think that I thought maybe it was Henrietta who was doin' the shootin'.

I walk over to him.

"Go an' get yourself against the wall on the other side an' reach for the ceilin'," I tell him, "an' I wouldn't move if I was you. If I see one twitch outa you I'm goin' to give it to you the same as you gave it to Sagers, you lousy heel."

He starts walkin' over but keeps his hands up.

"Say what the hell do you mean, Caution?" he says. "You can't get away with this stuff. You can't.

"You shut your head an' do what I tellya, Fernandez," I say, "otherwise I'm goin' to execute you here an' now, which is a thing which I would not like to do because I would hate to do the electric chair outa a good customer, an' the day they fry you I'm goin' to give myself a big highball just to celebrate. Turn your face to the wall, keep your hands up an' stay quiet, otherwise I'll blast your spine in."

He does what I tell him. I look inta the case he has been packin' up. You never saw such a lotta stuff in your life. It is fulla stock an' share certificates, United States dollar bonds, United States gold certificates, 1000 dollar bills, an' what will you. I take some of this stuff out, walk over to where the electric light is an' look at it carefully.

The whole durn lot is counterfeit.

"So that's the way it is, Fernandez," I tell him. "I thought I was guessin' right. I reckon that you an' Periera are bigger mugs than I thought you were. I knew when I told you that phoney stuff tonight about my takin' you to New York in the mornin' as material witnesses that you'd have to clean this stuff up so that nobody would find it while you was away. I reckoned if I came back here I'd find you at it. Well, I was right.

"I suppose now you're goin' to tell me that this ain't a counterfeitin' joint, an' even if it was, you wouldn't know anythin' about it. Well, it was a swell idea too. I reckon it was durn easy to work off some of this phoney stuff on clients up in the card room when they'd had too much liquor to tell the difference between a bad bill an' a good one. It was a swell idea, but it ain't goin' to be so swell for you. Come on, let's get goin'."

I take him up the stairs, push him through the hatch an' along the balcony. I unlock Periera's room an' I shove him inside. I go in after him an' close the door behind me.

Periera is sittin at the desk lookin' as scared as hell. I frisk Fernandez an' take a gun off him that he has got on his hip. Then I tell him to go an' sit down alongside Periera. He calls me a nasty name.

"I oughta had more sense," he says. "I oughta have known that all that stuff you said about us goin' to New York as witnesses was a lotta baloney."

"You're dead right, Fernandez," I tell him. "You oughta have had a lot more sense. You guys are the fall guys all right.

I put on a nice little act up here tonight in front of you arrestin' Henrietta for killin' Granworth Aymes an' counterfeitin', an' you fell for it. You thought that the big idea of framin' this poor dame for the jobs you've been doin' had come off. You musta thought I was a mug.

"You guys thought you'd get away with the whole works. Well you didn't. You made your mistake an' you're goin' to pay plenty for it."

I stand there lookin' at 'em. Periera is holdin' his head between his hands. He looks as if he is finished, but Fernandez has got his hands in his pockets. He is tiltin' his chair back, grinnin'.

"If you ain't the finest pair of lousy heels in the world, I'm a Dutchman," I say. "But you know you guys can still learn somethin'. I never yet knew a crook who didn't get too clever an' catch himself out, an' that don't only go for you neither. Your pal Langdon Burdell, Marie Dubuinet-the maid at the apartment-an' that wharf watchman guy-James Fargal, are all as big saps as you are. They've blown the works good an' plenty. Maybe you'll like to know how. Well, I'll tell you.

"You remember when I had you two guys down at the police station at Palm Springs just before I went away, the day I pulled that big act about gruellin' Henrietta about the clothes she was wearin'? You remember, Fernandez, I showed you a list of the clothes an' I told you that I was goin' to send it through to New York an' that if Marie Dubuinet an' the watchman identified them clothes then that would show me that it was Henrietta who was in the car with Granworth? You remember that?

"Well, I just didn't tell you guys one thing. I just didn't tell you that I altered that list. It wasn't the list of clothes I got from Henrietta. She was wearin' a black Persian coat an' hat on that night, but in the list I showed you-the one I sent through to New York - I altered it. I made out she was wearin' a brown leather hat an' a fawn nius quash coat.

"An' the sap maid Marie Dubuinet an' the sap night watchman, both of 'em fell for the little trap I set for 'em. They both say they identify the list as being the clothes that Henrietta was wearin' that night. Well that told me all I wanted to know. It told me that she wasn't the dame in the car with Aymes, it showed me that the dame in the car was your little playmate Paulette Benito, an' it also showed me that the whole darn lot of you was in on this job, an' how do you like that?"

They don't say nothin'.

"I reckon I have met some lousy heels since I've been kickin' around in the Federal Service," I tell 'em, "an' I reckon I've met some thugs who wouldn't stop at anythin' at all, but I just think that you bunch of guys, with the big idea you've been tryin' to pull, are just about the top of the list. You make me sick."

Periera gives a moan. He starts cryin'. He is also sweatin' considerable. I reckon he is just ripe for me to fix him. I go over to the side table an' I pour out a shot of bourbon. I take it back an' I give it to him.

"Drink that up, big boy," I say, "while you've got the chance. I reckon they won't give you a drink on the day they fry you."

He looks up.

"Senor," he says, "they can't fry me. I done nothin'. I keel nobody."

"Yeah," I tell him.

I take a chair an' sit down, an' look at him.

"Listen, dago," I say, "I reckon you've got enough sense to know what sorta jam you're in. If you're wise you're goin' to make things as easy as you can for yourself. Now, right now I'm not interested in the counterfeitin'. I know that was done here, an' I reckon I know the whole story of it. The thing that's takin' my notice at the present moment is this:

"Somebody here - one of you two guys-shot Jeremy Sagers. Now I reckon I know who bumped him. I've got it all figured out, but I made up my mind about one thing. The guy who shot him is goin' to fry for it, an' maybe the other guy will be lucky. Maybe he'll get away with from five to twenty years for being accessory to counterfeitin'."

I stop an' light myself a cigarette. I'm givin' these two guys plenty of time to stew.

After a bit I go on.

"Now all you two guys have got to consider is which one is goin' to be tried for what. If one of you likes to squeal on the other, OK. Otherwise I'm goin' to hold you both on the murder charge, an' if the Court don't feel so good about you I reckon they'll fry the pair of you. But with luck one of you can get away with it. So my advice to you is to get busy an' start thinkin', otherwise maybe two bums are goin' to get fried for one killin'."

I sit there waitin'. Fernandez is still grinnin'. He has still got his chair tilted back. He just looks at me an' sneers.

But Periera ain't feelin' so good, not by a long way he ain't. He is sweatin' more than ever, an' his hands are tremblin'. I reckon in a minute he will start to squeal because he is that sorta guy. An' I am right. We stick around there for about half a minute an' then he starts talkin'.

"I don't shoot nobody, senor," he says. "Me - I nevaire keel any guy, nevaire in my life do I keel a guy. I nevaire had no gun. I tell the trut'. I nevaire keel Sagers."

"So you didn't," I tell him. "All right, Periera," I say. "Now you listen to me. I will do the talkin', all you gotta say is yes if I'm right, an' all you've got to do is to sign a statement to that effect when I get you back to Palm Springs Police Station."

I throw my cigarette stub away, an' I go over to the side table an' give myself a drink. I'm pretty pleased with the way things are goin', an' I reckon that maybe in a coupla hours I'm goin' to get this job all over bar the shoutin'. I go back an' sit down. I light myself a fresh cigarette.

"Now here's the way it goes, Periera," I say. "When I got put on this counterfeitin' case first of all an' went along an' saw Langdon Burdell in New York, I reckon that he wised you guys up that the Federal authorities was gettin' busy on this job. But he didn't only wise you up, he found a picture of me, he cut it out of some newspaper - this is the picture I found down in a garbage can in the storeroom behind the bar, the place where Sagers' body was parked in the ice safe - an' when he's got this picture out of the newspaper he writes on the side of it 'This is the guy' an' sends it along to Fernandez here so that when I get down here you'll know who I am.

"OK. Well I get here. I blow in this dump thinkin' that nobody don't know me. I put on a big act with Sagers, so's to give him the chance to slip me any information he's got, an' you guys know all about it. You know who I am an' you see through the act I put on, so you guess that Sagers is workin' with me.

"All right. That night after the place is closed down-an' you get it closed down good an' early-Sagers comes up here an' tells you the stuff that I've told him to tell you. He says that some guy in Mexico has left him some dough an' he's goin' to fire himself an' scram for Arispe. He says goodbye to you fellers. He goes outa this room. He walks along the balcony an' starts goin' down the steps on the other side, an' I reckon that Fernandez here thinks that there is just a chance that this guy knows a bit too much - for all I know Sagers may have found somethin' out between the time that I left this dump an' the time that I found his body. Maybe he saw that hatch or somethin'.

"Anyhow, Fernandez goes to the door an' pulls a gun on Sagers. He fires over the dance floor. He hits Sagers in the leg. Sagers falls down the stairs an' Fernandez has another coupla shots, but he still ain't killed Sagers - the guy's too tough. So Fernandez goes along the balcony, down the steps an' puts another coupla shots into that poor guy at close range, so durn close that there was powder marks on his clothes an' his skin was burned.

"OK. Well by this time the guy decides to die, an' then Fernandez leans over him an' starts to pull him up. He pulls him up by his silver shirt cord an' the tassel falls off on the stair where I found it afterwards. Then this big guy Fernandez yanks him over his shoulder, takes him along an' parks him in the ice safe in a sack."

I stop. I look at Periera. He is cryin' like hell, the tears are runnin' down his face.

"Well, wop," I say, "is that right or is it right?"

He can't talk, he just nods his head. Fernandez looks at him.

"Aw shut up," he says. "You don't know what you're talkin' about. I suppose you're goin' to let this lousy dick frame you into sayin' anything he wants you to say."

"Look, Fernandez," I tell him. "I'd hate to get tough with you. I bust you up once before, but I promise you one thing, if I get my hooks on you again, I'll hurt you plenty. Just keep that trap of yours shut. You stay dead in this act.

"OK, Periera," I say, "so Fernandez shot Sagers. All right, that's that. Now you tell me somethin', Fernandez, since you're so keen on talkin', where did you bury the guy, huh?"

"Aw nuts," says Fernandez, "I ain't sayin' a word. I don't know what you're talkin' about. I ain't sayin' anythin' until I got a lawyer."

I laugh.

"The way you guys get stuck on lawyers drives me crazy," I say.

By this time Periera can talk. He cuts in:

"I tell you, senor, I tell you the trut'. What you say ees right. Fernandez here he keel Sagers. 'E theenk 'e know too much. 'E bury him at the end of the wall behind the garage. I see eet myself."

I look at Fernandez. He is still grinnin'. He is tiltin' his chair back an' forwards. He is tiltin' it so far back that I think that maybe in a minute he will fall over, an' then so quick that he has me guessin' he pulls a fast one. As he tilts the chair back he grabs at the desk drawer in front of him. It opens. He pulls out an automatic that is inside an' he puts four shots into Periera. Periera lets go a howl an' then starts whimperin'. He is shot in the body at close range an' he don't feel so good.