Dames Don’t Care

CHAPTER 10

I DRtVB along pretty slow for two reasons. First of all the night ain't so bright as it could be an' the road I am on is not so hot neither. Second I am turnin' over in my mind the stuff that this Paulette dame has handed out, an' it is sure one helluva story.

Maybe it's true because believe me no dame with as much sense as Paulette has got is goin' to spin a lotta hooey about takin' two hundred grand off a guy like Granworth Aymes unless she was surely entitled to it.

An' I feel pretty sorry for the husband - Rudy Benito. I get a picture of him all right. I can just imagine him stringin' along with Paulette, playin' second fiddle to her all the time an' knowin' that he had got TB an' that it was goin' to get him in the long run. I can sorta see this guy suddenly findin' out that Granworth has taken him for plenty an' gettin' good an' excited about it an' knowin' that maybe the amount of time that he'd got to stick around before he was due for a casket depended on whether he could get the dough out of Granworth.

But there is something that I cannot get an' it is this: What the hell was Paulette doin' all that time while Ayrnes was swindlin' Rudy out of his dough? What was a fly dame like that doin' stickin' around an' not gettin' wise to it?

An' then I get another big idea. Supposin' that Paulette was wise to it. Supposin' that she was stuck on Aymes an' knew that he was takin' Rudy for the dough an' didn't do anything about it. Then, all of a sudden she hears that Rudy is goin' to die unless he can get away some place where the climate is right an' have a doctor stickin' around all the time. An' she feels that she ain't been so hot. She feels that she has gotta do something to try an' put it right. Just at this time Aymes makes a killn' on the stock market an' Paulette weighs in an' tells him that unless he cashes in she is goin' to blow what he has been doin' to the cops.

Ain't that just the sorta thing that a dame would do? Wouldn't it be like a dame to make a sucker out of her husband because she fancies a bum guy like Aymes, but when she finds out that the sucker is goin' to die she goes all goofy an' tries at the last minute to put the job right, an' wouldn't this business be a first-class motive for Henrietta to knock off Granworth?

An' then something else hits me like a rock. What about that letter that Henrietta told me about? Didn't she say that she got an unsigned letter from some guy tellin' her that Granworth was playin' around with his wife? Didn't she say that this guy had crossed out the words 'my wife' an' put in instead 'this woman'? Ain't you got it?

It was Rudy Benito who sent that letter to Henrietta.

Here's my new idea of the set-up: Benito gets a hunch that Aymes is playin' around with his wife, so he writes a letter to Henrietta and tells her so, but he don't sign it. OK. Then Paulette discovers that Benito is as sick as a rat an' she gets all washed up an' hates herself for what she has been doin', so she goes along to Granworth an' tells him he has got to kick in with the dough.

Granworth, who thinks a durn sight more of Paulette than he does of Henrietta, hands over the dough. Maybe he thinks that he can get it back again off Paulette when she has got over this sorta sentimental stuff that has got into her about Rudy.

OK. Then Henrietta comes along to New York an' tells Granworth that she hears he's kickin' around with a dame an' that if it don't stop she is goin' to divorce him. Granworth cracks back that if she does he will leave the country rather than pay her alimony. Henrietta says back that she don't give a durn if he pays her alimony or not because she has got the two hundred grand in Registered Bonds. Granworth gets inta one helluva rage an' tells her she ain't gotta dime because he has given the bonds to this other femme.

An' then the hey-hey starts. I reckon that this news just about finishes Henrietta. I reckon that when he tells her this Granworth is sittin' in his car just gettin' ready to driye off - maybe she is sittin' beside him. Well, she is so burned 'up that she just grabs something an' crowns Granworth. Then she finds she's killed him an' she works out that the best thing to do is to drive this guy down to the wharf an' put a good front up for the job bein' a suicide.

That's the way it looks.

By now the road I was on which was bad anyhow has got worse. It has got narrow an' is a sorta wide bridle path runnin' up between the foothills. It is plenty. dark an' I cannot see very well, an' I am drivin' slow an' concentratin' on the road.

Then I hit something. I hit a coupla rocks that are stuck in the middle of the road an' at the same time somebody jumps on the runnin' board an' hits me a smack across the dome with something that feels to me just like the Mexican for a blackjack. I see more stars than ever told a movie director where he got off an' I just go right out as graceful an' as quiet as a baby.

When I come to I am as stiff as an iron girder. The guys who have brought me along to this place ain't been at all gentle with me. I am covered with dust an' there is a trickle of blood down my coat where I have been bleedin' from the crack in the dome.

My feet are tied up with cord an' my hands are tied across my chest with enough manilla rope to have started a marine store.

I am in some dump that looks like the basement cellar of a small house. There is a candle burnin' on a shelf on the other side of the room an' I can just see the watch on my wrist. It is nearly eleven-thirty o'clock, so I reckon I have been out for about an hour. I have been just chucked up against the wall an' left there.

I don't feel so good. My head is buzzin' plenty an' I reckon that whoever took a flop at me with that club was pullin' his weight all right. Altogether it looks like I am in a jam. Just who has taken a fancy to me like this so that they have to corral me an' chuck me in this dump I don't know, although I have gotta' pretty good idea. I reckon I had better get some action pronto.

I work myself up against the wall an' get as easy as I can after which I start singin' Cactus Lizzie good an' loud. This sorta works because after five-ten minutes I hear somebody comm' down some steps an' then the door in the corner opens an' some Mexican dame busts in.

She is carryin' a lantern, an' she looks like a coupla tarantulas who don't like each other, an' she weighs about three hundred pounds. I reckon that this dame is about the biggest ever. She waddles over to me an' she lifts up her foot an' she kicks me in the face like I was a baseball. I'm tellin' you that this daughter of a hellion cops me right on the top of the nose with a boot that a new York flatfoot woulda been proud to wear an' I just see a lot more stars an' I go as sick as hell an' go out again.

I come round pretty soon. I am drenched with dirty water that she has thrown over me an' my face is bleedin' like smoke an' she stands there lookin' at me an' havin' one helluva time.

Then she starts in. She starts bawlin' me out in a sorta bastard Spanish that I can just understand by keepin' my ears flappin' wide open. She tells me all about me. She tells me what I am an' what she hopes is goin' to happen to me an' what my father an' mother was an' the amazin' an' extraordinary way that I was born. After which she spills some stuff an' I begin to get the idea.

She tells me that she is durn glad that I have come around here doin' my stuff all over the place. She tells me that directy I got my foot inside the Casa de Oro some guy recognised me as the dick who pulled in Caldesa Martinguez - the guy who I took back with stingin' nettles in his pants. She tells me that this Caldesa was her son an' that by the time they are through with me, bein' boiled in prohibition whisky would just be sweet dreamin' to what I am goin' to go through. She tells me to stick around an' that in a coupla minutes, after he has got through thinkin' up just what he is goin' to do to me, her other son is comin' down to start operations.

By this time I reckon I am feelin' pretty annoyed with this lousy old eagle an' I tell her the equivalent of nuts in Spanish. Just at this minute the candle lantern she is holdin' decides to go out. She says a nasty word an' just chucks it at me, an' sure as a gun it hits me on the side of the head an' knocks me back in the corner.

Me - I am beginnin' to get good an' tired of hem' treated this way. I am beginnin' to wonder just who my pan really does belong to, because the way it is feelin' I must look as ugly as a gargoyle, an' I am beginnin' to realise that this old dame don't like me at all, an' that if she is just playin' around with me I wonder what her big boy son is goin' to do to me when he gets around to it sorta serious.

She calls me a dirty so-an ' -so an' she scrams.

I wait for a bit an' then I look around an' start workin'. The floor of this dump is earth except in the corner where I am where there is a sorta cement patch. There are plenty of cracks in this patch an' I reckon that if I get enough time maybe I can get rid of the rope.

I start workin' myself around until I have got the lantern between me and the wall an' then I start pushin' it against the wall with my legs an' when I have got it there I put my feet against it an' press hard. It busts an' the broken glass falls out.

I roll over on my stomach an' work towards the biggest bit of glass. You gotta realise that I am lyin' on my hands which are tied across my chest an' I am hurtin' myself plenty. After a bit I get to where the biggest bit of glass is an' I start lickin' this with my tongue, lickin' it along the floor to where there is a little crack, an' I'm tellin' you that the taste of that floor wasn't like no raspberry soda neither. Every time I get this bit of glass moved an inch or so I have to start rollin' again so as to get in position for another lick, but after about twenty minutes I do it. I lick it so's it falls into the crack an' the crack bein' shallow I have fixed that a spike of glass is stickin' up outa the floor.

I get my legs over this spike an' after a bit I push the rope down over it an start workin' it about an' after workin' like hell I manage to saw through the rope that is tyin' my legs.

I stand up an' move around quietly, stretchin' my legs. I start workin' my hands about tryin' to move the rope that is tyin' me but I can't do it. I can just fix to wiggle two or three fingers of my right hand that is not tied by the rope, but I can't do anything else, so I reckon I have gotta think something else up.

I think about this an' then I go an' stand just behind the door, so's I'm goin' to be ready for whoever opens it. I stand there leanin' against the wall an' hopin' that I am goin' to get a break because, believe me, an' I know, there ain't nobody as cruel as Mexicans when it comes down to cases.

After about half an hour I hear somebody comm' down the steps outside, an' I reckon that by the sound of it it is a guy this time.

I get ready. I think I am goin' to surprise this guy, I am countin' on the fact that the old palooka who threw the lantern at me has told him that I am out for none in the corner.

As he opens the door I take a pace back, an' as he steps into the room I kick him straight in the guts an' I don't kick soft neither I'm tellin' you.

This guy who is a big bum with whiskers an' side burns, gives a funny sorta whine an' just flops down on the floor. He is hurt plenty for which I am very pleased.

I reckon that I have gotta work quick. I close the door quietly with my foot, an' then I get to work on this guy. I turn him over an' over with my feet, until I have got him away from the door. He is still makin' funny whinin' noises an he is crazy with pain. I reckon I have given him something to think about.

When I get him on his face I see that he has gotta knife in the usual place - stuck in his pants waistband at the back.

I get down on my knees an' work this knife out with the bits of fingers that I have got stickin' out of the rope that is tyin' me, an' when I have got it in between the tops of my fingers I get up an' turn this guy over on his back again.

I get up an' I go over to the door. I stick the point of the knife into the door an' I press my chest against the handle. This way I have got the knife fixed so that I can rub the edge of the blade against the ropes that are around my chest. In another few minutes I cut the rope. The guy on the floor is not so good. He has rolled over into the corner. I reckon I needn't worry about this guy. He is hurt plenty.

I go over to him an' search him because I wanta find the Luger that they have taken off me, but he ain't got it. I leave him, open the door an' start gumshoem' up the stone steps. These steps lead up to the ground floor an' at the top I find another door that opens out into what looks like a rough sorta kitchen. There ain't anybody there, but I am very glad to see that my Luger is lyin' on the table in the corner. I cannot see my shoulder holster which they have taken off me, so I don't worry about it. I just stick the gun in my right hand coat pocket, a business which I am goin' to be very pleased about a little later on.

I look around an' I listen, but I can't hear a thing. I think that maybe there was only one guy in this business - the guy downstairs - an' that he was the palooka who knocked me out an' drove me here. I got a hunch that the old dame has gone off to tell their pals that they have got me spread - eagled, an' I think I had better get outa this quick before somebody else starts something.

I also think that I had better get my business done around here in Mexico just as pronto as I can, otherwise some of these guys are goin' to start makin' one big mess of Mrs Caution's little boy an' I certainly am not partial to that.

I scram outa the house an' stuck around at the back behind a horse-shack I find the car, an' believe me I am plenty glad to find it. I get in an' start off back again an' get on the road to get to Zoni. I am feelin' pretty lousy, my nose is hurtin' considerable where the old Mexican dame kicked it, an' generally I could do with a shot of rye.

It is three o'clock when I get to Zoni. It is the usual sorta one-horse-near-village with a few ranchos an' shacks stuck around. I pull up an' sittin' in the car I clean myself up as well as I can. Then I start lookin' around. Away over on my left is a white painted house in front of some trees. It is a two story place shaped like an 'L' an' it looks to me that this is goin' to be the doctor's house, the place where Rudy Benito is hangin' out.

I drive over an' leave the car in front of this place. Then I bang on the door. A guy opens it. He is a young Mexican an' he is wearin' a white coat. He also looks as if he washed sometimes which is a good sign. An' he also looks very surprised to see me. I reckon he is right because I must have looked a funny sight.

I tell him that I want to see Senor Madrales, an' that the matter is very urgent even if it is in the middle of the night. He says all right an' tells me to go in. I go in. I am in a big hallway with doors leading off left an' right. In front of me is some stairs runnin' up to the first floor. The guy in the white coat tells me to sit down an' goes off.

Pretty soon he comes back an' with him is another guy who says that he is Doctor Madrales an' what do I want. He speaks swell Spanish. He is a tall thin guy; he has got a little pointed beard an' he wears eyeglasses. He is a clever lookin' cuss with long thin taperin' fingers which he rubs together while he is talkin' to me.

I tell him what I want. I tell him I am an insurance investigator an' that I am makin' some inquiries into the suicide of Granworth Aymes. I tell him I have had a conversation with Mrs Benito an' that she has said that I oughta have a few words with her husband Rudy. I say what about it an' I hope that this Rudy ain't too ill to be woke up as I have not got a lotta time to waste.

He shrugs his shoulders.

"I don't think it matters whether my patient is awake or not, senor," he says. "As Mrs Benito has probably told you he is a very sick man. I am afraid that he will not be long with us."

He shrugs his shoulders again.

"It is, I think, merely a matter of a month or so. However, he is very weak and I suggest that you talk to him as quietly as possible. If you will wait here for a moment I will go and prepare him. I think I had better give him an injection before you see him."

He goes off.

While I am waiting I am doing some quiet thinkin'. I am thinkin' about this bezusus about bein' smacked over the dome while I was comm' out here an' I am thinkin' that it is darn funny that somebody should have recognised me in the Casa de Oro as being the guy who pinched Caldesa Martinguez. I have got a coupla ideas about this as you will see later on.

After a bit this Madrales comes to the top of the stairs. He says I am to go up. At the top of the stairs is another passage an' we go into a room on the left. One side of the room is practically all windows which are open, an' in one corner there is a screen. On the other side of the room pushed up against the wall is a low bed.

I look at the guy in the bed. He is lyin' there lookin' straight up at the ceilin'. He has got a thin funny sorta face an' there is a funny strained sorta look about it.

Tere is very little furniture in the room. Beside the bed there is a low table with a polished top an' there are some bottles on it an' a lamp. Madrales goes over an' stands by the side of the bed.

"Benito," he says, "this is Mr Caution. He wants to ask you some questions. Just keep very quiet and don't worry about anything."

The man in the bed don't say anythin'. Madrales walks over to the other side of the room an' brings a chair. He sticks it by the side of the bed for me. Then he says:

"Senor Caution, I will leave you now. I know that you will treat my patient with as much consideration as is possible;'

He goes off still rubbin' his hands together.

I go an' stand over by the bed. The sick guy turns his eyes so that they are lookin' at me an' his lips break into a little sorta smile.

I am feelin' plenty sorry for this guy. It looks to me like he has had a pretty low deal all round. I talk to him nice an' quiet.

"Listen, Rudy," I tell him. "Take it easy. I am sorry I gotta come over here askin' you things, but that's just the way it goes. I'm goin' to make it as short as possible. I just wanta check up on what that swell wife of yours Paulette has been tellin' me tonight, an' while I think of it I gotta tell you that she sent you her love. I reckon maybe she'll be along in the mornin' to see you. Well, here's the way it goes.

"It's about this Granworth Aymes business. Your wife tells me that Granwortb was takin' you for plenty since you was doin' business with him as a stockbroker. She says that you found it out, that she went an' saw Aymes an' gave him the choice of cashin' in or else she was goin' to the cops.

"She says that Granworth turned over two hundred grand in Registered Dollar Bonds to her an' that's the money you got now, the money that paid for you to be brought down here. Is that OK, Rudy?"

He speaks very quiet. His voice sounds as if it was comin' from a long way away.

"Sure," he says slowly, "that's how it was, an' I am durned glad Aymes bumped himself off. If I hadn't been sick I would have liked to have shot that lousy guy."

"OK, Rudy," I tell him, "that's that. An' there's just one little thing I wanta ask you an' maybe I'm sorry I've got to ask you it because I don't wanta make things tough for you right now. It's this way. Henrietta Aymes, Granworth's wife, got an unsigned letter from some guy. This letter tells her that Granworth is playin' around with this guy's wife."

I speak to him nice an' soft.

"Listen, Rudy," I say, "did you send her that letter? It musta been you. What about it?"

There is a long pause. Then he turns his eyes over towards me again.

"That's right," he says. "I sent it. I just had to do something."

I nod my head.

"Look," I say, "I reckon we're cleanin' this job up pretty swell. I don't wanta make you talk too much. You tell me if I'm right in my ideas. The way I look at it is this. Maybe your wife Paulette thought she was a bit stuck on Aymes. Maybe because you was sick you couldn't give her the sorta attention that a dame like she likes to have, so she falls for Aymes. OK. Aymes thinks he's on a durn good thing. He starts doin' you left an' right for your dough an' maybe the reason that you don't find it out is that your wife Paulette is lookin' after your business, an' because she an' Aymes are gettin' around together it's easy for him to pull the wool over her eyes. She don't see he's takin' you for your dough because she don't wanta see it. Got me?

"An' then the works bust. All of a sudden at the end of last year she finds you're not so well. She hears that you're a durn sick man an' that there's got to be dough to get you down here to get you looked after. Maybe she finds out that you've got an idea about what's goin' on. Maybe you even tell her that you've sent that unsigned letter to Henrietta Aymes.

"She sees she's been pullin' a lousy one an' she tells you that she is goin' back to get that dough out of Aymes if it's the last thing she does. Am I right?"

He turns his eyes my way again.

"You're dead right, Caution," he says. "We had a big scene. I told her what I thought about her. I said it was pretty tough for me being sick to think that she was running around with a guy who had swindled me. Well, that broke her up. I reckon she was sorry, and you know "- I see a little smile come around his lips - "I haven't very long to be around, and I don't want to feel that I'm making things tough for anybody. She told me she'd put the job right. She told me she'd get the money from Aymes and that she was through with him once and for all, and she made good. She got it."

He starts coughin'. I give him a drink of the water that is by the side of the bed. He smiles at me to say thank you.

"I'm a dying man, Caution," he says, "and I know you've got to do your job, but there's one thing you can do for me." His voice gets weaker. "Just you try to keep the fact that Paulette was getting around with Aymes out of this," he says. "I'd like you to do that for me. I wouldn't like people to know that she preferred a dirty doublecrosser like Aymes to me."

He smiles at me again. He is a piteous sorta guy.

"OK, Rudy," I say, "that's a bet. I'll play it that way. It won't hurt anybody. Well, I'll be gettin' along. So long an' good luck to you."

I turn an' I start walkin' towards the door. When I am half way I see something, somethin' that is just stickin' out behind the edge of the screen that is on the other side of the room. It is a waste-paper basket and when I see it an' what is in it, I get a sorta funny idea, such a funny idea that I have to take a big pull at myself. When I get to the door I turn around and I look at Rudy. His eyes are still lookin' straight up at the ceilin' an' he looks half dead right now.

"So long, Rudy," I say again. "Don't you worry about Paulette. I'll fix that OK."

Downstairs in the hall I meet Madrales.

"Listen, Doctor," I say, "everythin' has been swell, but there is just one little thing I am goin' to ask you to do for me. I have got all the information I want from Benito. I got my case complete but I have got to have a signed statement from him, because he is the guy who was swindled. Can you lend me a typewriter and some paper an' if you'll just get him to sign it I needn't worry him no more."

"But surely, Senor Caution," he says, "come with me."

He takes me into some room off the hall which is like a doctor's office. In the corner on a table is a typewriter. I sit down at this machine an' I type out a statement incorporatin' everything that Benito has said. When I have finished I go out to Madrales an' we go upsrairs. It is a tough job gettin' this guy Benito to sign it. The doctor has to hold his hand because it is shakin' so much that he can hardly hold the pen, but he does it. I stick the satement in my pocket and say so long to these guys an' I scram.

As I start up the car I look at my watch. It is twenty minutes past four.

I have got one helluva hunch. I have got an idea in my head that is considerably funny, an' I am goin' to play this idea. Even if I'm wrong I'm still goin' to play it.

When I have got well away from the Madrales dump I pull up the car an' do some very heavy thinkin'. I am checkin' up on the idea that is in my head. I have got a very funny hunch an' I am goin' to play it in a very funny sorta way.

I reckon that I am goin' to take a look around at Paulette's hacienda, an' I reckon I ain't goin' to tell her either. I am just goin' to do a little quiet house-bustin' just to see if I can get my claws on somethin' that I would like very much to find.

I pull the gun outa my pocket an' lay it right by me. I reckon that if anybody else tries anything on me tonight they are goin' to get it where they won't like it.

The moon has come out again. It is a swell night. Drivin' along back on the Sonoyta road I get thinkin' about dames an' what they do when they are in a jam.

Did I tell you that dames get ideas to do things that a guy would never even think of?

You're tellin' me!