All Grass Isn't Green

9

I did a lot of thinking on the road back.

Nanncie had left the Maple Leaf during the early morning hours. She had gone either north or south. She wasn’t apt to have gone either east or west. She had gone by taxicab or in a private car.

I had more legwork to do.

It didn’t take me long to cover the taxicabs in Calexico. I drew a blank.

If Nanncie had gone south, she could have gone to San Felipe. Someone must have taken her in a private car. If she went north, she probably would have returned to Los Angeles by bus. But that wouldn’t have been smart under the circumstances.

If Calhoun had been the one to call on her there at the motel, he couldn’t have taken her very far. He had driven down from Los Angeles. He was tired. He might have taken her to the north as far as El Centro or he might have taken her south-across the border.

I decided to check the really modern hotel in Mexicali as being the most logical place to look.

The Lucerna is an up-to-the-minute hotel with a patio, swimming pool, cocktail lounge and luxurious rooms.

I parked my car and walked out to stand by the pool, looking over the people who were basking in the Baja California sunlight.

I thought some of quizzing the hotel clerk as to whether some young woman had checked in early in the morning, but I thought better of that when I took stock of the situation.

The Mexican is an innate gentleman. If I had been able to get a Mexican police officer to go with me I could have secured the information; but to try to get it out of the clerk cold turkey was out of the question. The señorita’s business would have been her own business and money wouldn’t have changed the situation very much.

I was trying to think what Calhoun would have done — what he had done — what he had told Nanncie.

It had been some emergency which had caused her to check out and...

Suddenly I stiffened to attention. Nanncie in a two piece suit that showed a bare midriff, carrying a towel over her arm, came out and seated herself in one of the sunning chairs around the swimming pool.

I had a chance to take a good look at her. Then I went to where I had parked the car, unlocked the trunk, took out my baggage, and registered in the Lucerna Hotel.

Ten minutes later I was in my trunks and dunking in the pool. I came out, picked a chair which wasn’t exactly the right style to suit me, got up, moved around and finally dropped into a vacant chair next to Nanncie.

I debated whether to make a pickup and get acquainted the slow way or whether to hit her right between the eyes.

I decided to hit her right between the eyes. There wasn’t time for the slow way.

I looked straight ahead at the people in the swimming pool and said, “Nanncie, why did you check out of the Maple Leaf this morning?”

She jumped as though I had jabbed her with a needle, sucked in her breath as though to scream, then thought better of it and looked at me with wide, startled eyes.

I watched her out of the comer of my eyes but kept my face straight ahead.

“Who... who are you?”

“Donald Lam,” I said, as though that explained everything.

“No, no, I don’t mean your name. I mean who... how do you know who I am and what is it you want?”

I said, “I’m looking for Colburn Hale.”

“What makes you look here and why ask me?”

“Because I’d like to have your help.”

“Why do you want him?”

“I want to talk with him.”

“About what?”

“Dope smuggling.”

Again she caught her breath.

There was an interval of silence. “You’re a detective?” she asked.

“Private,” I said.

She thought for a few moments, then said, “I’m afraid I can’t help you, Mr. Lam.”

“I think you can. How did you get over here, Nanncie? You left the Maple Leaf Motel this morning, didn’t have any car and you didn’t come by taxi.”

“A friend drove me over.”

I made a shot in the dark. “You came here with a man who is driving a Cadillac automobile,” I said.

“Lots of men drive Cadillac automobiles. If you must know, I’m hiding out.”

“But you were waiting for Hale at the Monte Carlo Café last night.”

She said, “He was supposed to meet me there right around seven o’clock. He said if he didn’t show up within an hour I wasn’t to wait but was to start protecting myself.”

“Why did you check out of your apartment in Los Angeles, putting all your things in boxes and taking them to the storage company?”

“Because I’m in danger. We’re both in danger.”

“Meaning you and me?”

“No, meaning Colburn Hale and myself.”

“On account of that dope information you gave him? The information you got from the hairdresser?”

“I’m afraid Cole is in trouble. He was to have met me last night and would have unless something terribly urgent had prevented him.

“He was to have followed that dope shipment up, getting the license number of the automobile and all that, and then he was to look me up. The dope runner was to go to the Monte Carlo Café to see if the Coast was clear. He was to meet a confederate there, so Cole said I was to go there at seven and wait. While I was waiting I could look the situation over. After last night he’d have all the information he needed to file his story. He had some editor who was waiting for it.”

“Now, let’s get this straight,” I said. “You picked up the tip originally in a beauty shop?”

“Yes, my hairdresser is very friendly and she was going with a man whom she didn’t care too much about, but he was a good spender and she was playing along with him. Then suddenly she found out that he was smuggling dope across the border. She didn’t know exactly how, but she had enough proof so that she didn’t want any part of it. The guy was not only smuggling it across but he was pushing it, particularly with school kids.”

“All right,” I said, “she told Colburn Hale?”

“No, she told me. She didn’t intend to tell me all the details but she let the cat out of the bag enough so that I could put Colburn Hale on the track of a beautiful article.”

“What did he do?”

“He picked up the trail of the dope smuggle in Los Angeles.”

“Eddie Sutton?” I asked.

“Uh-huh. How did you know?”

“I’ve been working on the case for a while myself.”

“Well, he picked up Eddie’s trail and followed him around, getting some surreptitious pictures of him near some of the high schools, and I think he even got a picture of a delivery being made. You know, one of those deliveries where they slip a person an envelope while they’re brushing against each other casually and things like that.”

“Then all of a sudden Colburn cleared out of his apartment and you cleared out of yours?”

“We got in trouble,” she said.

“How come?”

“Hale was a little careless, a little — well, I guess you’d say a little unskillful. The man he was tailing followed him and found out where he lived.”

“Then what happened?”

“My beauty-shop operator hadn’t broken off with the guy. She was still playing along with him, and he told her that some guy — he thought it was a hijacker — had moved in on him; that he was going to take care of the fellow, and he asked the operator if she knew me. So my friend knew that... well, anyway, I knew we were both in danger.”

“So you told Hale?”

“I told Hale.”

“Who else did you tell?”

“No one. We just both got out without leaving any back trail.”

“But why come to the border?”

“Because Colburn Hale knew that this shipment was due to come across and he wanted to find out just how it came across. The smuggler was to pick up an accomplice — what they call a scout car — at the Monte Carlo Café. Cole Hale was to meet me there right after that had been done. I was to try to get a line on the accomplice and then Cole would join me.”

“After they’d already found out about him, didn’t he realize he was taking desperate chances?”

“He did, and he didn’t. It would be risky, of course. But he thought e could follow the shipment up and find out just how it was coming across.”

“That was a crazy thing to do,” I said. “You’re both a couple of rank amateurs and you’re playing this like rank amateurs.”

She said nothing.

“Now,” I said, “Hale will be in trouble. Did this shipment come across last night?”

“I don’t know, but I think it did.”

“Why did you check out this morning?”

“I... I thought it was dangerous staying where I was there in the Maple Leaf.”

“Who told you it was dangerous?”

“I... I just felt it.”

“Try again,” I told her.

“How’s that?”

I said, “Try again and this time try to make it a little more convincing.”

“She flared up and said, “I don’ have to account to you for everything.”

“You don’t have to,” I told her, “but you’d better. Now, suppose you tell me about Milton Carling Calhoun.”

“What about him?”

“Everything about him.”

She said, I’ll tell you about that because, I have nothing to conceal. Milt and I are good friends, and that’s it.”

“How good?”

“As friends, very good.”

“You knew he was married?”

“Of course I knew he was married. Now, you listen to me. I don’t like the tone of your voice and I don’t like the look on your face.

“You’ve heard a lot about married men who string a I along, telling her they’re going to get divorced and when they’re free they’ll marry her and all that stuff.

“Nine times out of ten even if they think they’re telling truth, they aren’t.

“The situation is different with Milton Calhoun. I met at a sort of bohemian party. He was getting a kick out of talking with the people on the — well, on the other side of the tracks. He’s very wealthy, you know.”

“Is he?”

“I’ll say he is.”

“All right, so you met him at this party, and then what happened?”

“He and I sort of struck it off. He asked me if I’d go out to dinner with him some night during the week and I him I would.

“So then he came out like a gentleman and told me he was married, that he was having trouble with his wife, that they had separated, that he was living in a separate apartment, that he had moved out of the big house and left that to her, that there were no children, and that was that.”

“And you’ve seen quite a bit of him since?”

“Quite a bit of him.”

“And you’re also friendly with Colburn Hale?”

“I am very friendly with Colburn Hale and I have half a dozen other men friends. I’m gregarious and I move around with a crowd that is gregarious. We like to live. We like to laugh — and I don’t see where all this is any of your business.”

I said, “We’ve got to do something about Colburn Hale. He was getting an article on this dope smuggling.”

“That’s right.”

“And he told you he was going down to San Felipe and follow the shipment up?”

“Well, not in so many words, but I gathered that was what he was going to do. He told me to meet him last night at the Monte Carlo Café. He said he was due there around seven o’clock; that if he didn’t show up right on time to wait for him for an hour.”

“So you waited two hours?”

“Not quite two hours, but pretty close to it.”

“Did it ever occur to you that he might be in danger?”

“Of course it occurred to me. Why do you suppose we checked out the way we did and didn’t leave any back trail? We’re dealing with people who are playing for keeps.”

“Hale had his own car?”

“Yes.”

“Anything distinctive about it?”

“No, it’s just an ordinary black... Now, wait a minute, there is too. The left front fender has been struck and pushed up. He’s been going to have it fixed but... Well, he’s been busy and he hasn’t had too much money.”

“You don’t have a car?”

“I don’t have a car.”

“All right, how did you get from the Maple Leaf Motel own here?”

“Milt drove me across.”

“You mean Milton Calhoun?”

“Yes.”

“And how did he find you?”

“I don’t know. He came to the window and called my name about... I don’t know, it was along in the night. He asked me to open the door so he could talk with me.”

“And you did?”

“I opened the door and I was a little bit annoyed. I told him that I didn’t appreciate being called in the middle of the night that way and that he didn’t have any claims on me and that I was annoyed.

“Then he told me to keep my voice down, to get my things packed up; that I was in danger and he was going to move me to some other hotel. He finally convinced me and I packed up and got in the car with him and he drove me across here, registered, and paid for the room three days in advance.”

“What are you going to do at the end of the three days?”

“I don’t know, but I presume that by that time they will have broken and there’ll be no further danger from those dope smugglers.”

“You sound to me like a bunch of amateurs trying to climb a perpendicular rock face,” I said. “You just don’t know what you’re getting into. You’re dealing with professionals.”

“What would you suggest doing?” she asked.

The first thing we’d better do is to try to find Colburn Hale. He’s evidently somewhere between here and San Felipe. Get your clothes on and we’ll take a ride.”

She said, “I think he can take care of himself all right. He... he had a gun.”

“What kind of a gun?”

“A thirty-eight-caliber revolver.”

“Where did he get the gun?”

“I gave it to him.”

“And where did you get it?”

“I got it from Milton.”

“Now, wait a minute,” I said. “Let’s get this straight. Milton Calhoun gave you a thirty-eight-caliber gun?”

“That’s right.”

“When?”

“A couple of days ago when he first learned that I was working with Cole on a deal involving some dope smuggling. He told me that I could get in a lot of trouble that way and that he wanted me to be protected.”

“So he gave you the gun?”

“Yes.”

“His gun?”

“Of course it was his gun, if he gave it to me.”

“And then you gave that gun to Colburn Hale?”

“That’s right.”

I did a lot of thinking. Then I said, “Come on, we’re going to drive down the road to San Felipe and keep our eyes open on the side roads.”

“Why?”

“Because,” I told her, “we may find a car with a front right fender that’s been bent up and a dead body in it.”

“A dead body!”

“Your friend, Colburn Hale.”

“But he... they... they wouldn’t...”

I said, “You’re dealing with a professional bunch of dope smugglers. Their deals run into the thousands of dollars. A murder now and then is more or less of an incident. Get your clothes on and meet me here in as close to five minutes as you can make it.”

She hesitated for a moment, then got to her feet and said, “Well, perhaps that’s the best way, after all.”