Heaven Ran Last

Chapter XVI

They took me to a dirty room on the fifth floor of Central Station at Eleventh and State. There was a desk with cigarette burns all over the top and five or six wooden chairs with broken rungs. The smell of stale smoke and dirty clothes hung in the air.

Harrigan told me to take a chair beside the desk. One of the guys who’d brought me in went out, and the other copper, a big pale guy named Slade, sat down in a chair against the wall.

The door opened and Morowitz, the assistant State’s Attorney came in, looking like he’d just got out of bed. His dark hair was still rumpled and he needed a shave, but his eyes weren’t sleepy.

He bent over and whispered something to Harrigan. Harrigan nodded slowly and they looked over at me and I knew this wasn’t any funny business. His face was hard and grave.

He said, “Better make up your mind to level with us, Johnny. We know you’ve been living with Olsen’s wife while he was overseas. Was that why you wanted him out of the way?”

They knew about us. I didn’t know how much else they knew, but they had a good start. They had the one thing I was afraid all along they might get.

Harrigan was staring at me. “Don’t feel very talkative huh? All right. I’ll do the talking. First, about that time gag of yours the night Lesser got killed. You said you were in your room at eight-thirty. Your little blonde friend who was killed tonight said the same thing. That’s right, isn’t it.”

“You’re doing the talking,” I said.

“Sure I am. We checked with the telephone operator at your hotel about that. She remembered the call. You asked her what time a play at the Selwyn started. You asked her to find out and call you back. She did and she said eight-thirty. That’s what your girl friend heard. Actually the operator called you back after nine o’clock. Where were you at eight-thirty, Johnny?”

I just looked at him. There wasn’t anything to say. I didn’t know how much he had. I didn’t know where Alice was. They might be questioning her right now, trying to break her down the same way. All I could do was keep my mouth shut tight.

“I’ll tell you where you were,” Harrigan said. “You were in her apartment at eight-thirty. You shot Lesser at eight-thirty, Johnny, and we know you did.”

The tightness inside me was getting worse. He had me on a bad spot, but I knew enough to keep quiet. Guys hang themselves by talking. The cops catch them in a few lies, and they start talking, trying to cover up, and they tell more lies and pretty soon they’re in so deep that the cops just sit back and listen to the guy spill his guts.

Harrigan said, “Nothing to say to that, Johnny?”

“I’ll talk to a lawyer.”

“No lawyer in the world will help you now,” he said. He lit a cigarette. “But here’s another thing you can tell your lawyer. You claimed you talked to Lesser Friday afternoon and that he told you he was going up to her apartment Sunday night. We’ve got your statement on that with three witnesses. That’s where you made an accidental little slip, Johnny. You see, we checked and we found out that Lesser wasn’t in town Friday. He went out to Gary on a business trip.”

“It could have been Thursday,” I said.

“Maybe you just lied. You didn’t talk to Lesser at all,” he said.

“I could have been mistaken about the day,” I said.

“Sure you could. But you weren’t. Here’s what happened and when I get through you can tell me if it looks like a mistake. You were living with Frank Olsen’s wife. When he came back from the army you decided to get rid of him. You were either too smart or too gutless to do the job yourself, so you fixed it so he’d put himself out of the way. You steamed him up about his wife’s unfaithfulness, and then you arranged to have Lesser go up to her apartment Sunday night. When you got that set you told him about it, knowing that he’d go crazy and run back there and blow hell out of Lesser. That’s the way you figured it. That would take care of everything. He’d get sent up on a murder rap and you’d have his wife. But it didn’t work. He walked in, slugged Lesser and his wife and then walked out. You were watching from across the street. When you saw him come up you went up to see what happened. That’s when you got the bright idea of shooting Lesser yourself, knowing Frank Olsen would get the blame. And that’s what you did. You shot Lesser with Olsen’s souvenir gun and then got back to your hotel room and fixed an alibi for eight-thirty.” He leaned forward and said, “Got anything to say now?”

He had it all. He hadn’t missed a thing. He had me cold — if he had any proof. But it might be just a smart guess. The thing a cop needs before he goes to court on a murder case is a witness. And that was one thing he didn’t have. All the guess work in the world is no good unless there is proof to back it up, and a witness to put the finger on you.

“Ready to talk?” Harrigan said.

“Go to hell. You haven’t got anything but a fairy story. It’s clever, but take the damn thing into any court and a lawyer will tear you apart.”

“We got more,” he said.

“Fine,” I said. “So I’m a murderer because I made a mistake about what day I had lunch with some guy. And because some goddamn dumb telephone operator tells you a wild story about how I fixed up an alibi on the time. Is that your idea of proof?”

“You were living with Alice Olsen, weren’t you?”

“That’s wonderful. So I was living with some guy’s wife. Does that mean I shot a guy and pinned it on her husband?”

“It’s happened before,” he said. He was grinning.

I didn’t like that grin. He acted as though he was letting me talk for laughs.

“Well,” I said. “What’s the deal? Book me and lead me to a telephone, or let me get the hell out of here.”

“We’re going to book you, Johnny.”

“On what charge?”

“Murder.”

He said it so quietly that I knew he had a case. There was something he wasn’t telling me, and that wound me up so tight inside that I knew I was at the breaking point. I tried to light a cigarette, but my hands were trembling so badly that I burned my fingers. I gave it up and tossed the cigarette on the floor.

“Where’s your proof?” I said.

“You’ll get your proof. You’re going to get it right between the eyes. You’re going to fall apart and I’m going to enjoy watching the pieces hit the floor.”

He nodded to the copper sitting in the chair by the wall. The copper stood up and went out the door. Harrigan and Morowitz got to their feet.

I felt then like I was starting to come apart inside. Harrigan and Morowitz were watching the door and I watched it, too, waiting for what was going to happen.

The room was quiet and the only sound I could hear was the heavy pounding of my heart.

The door opened and the copper came back into the room. He was so big that I didn’t see her right away. When he stepped aside she was standing there, looking cool and hard, and when I saw her the tightness inside me seemed to break and everything in me just melted.

She looked straight at Harrigan. My mind was saying her name over and over but my lips were stiff and hard.

Harrigan said, “Mrs. Olsen, for the benefit of Johnny Ford, we want you to repeat what you told us earlier this morning. I think it will convince him we’ve got a case.”

“All right,” she said.

I never saw her look better. She had on a tailored white suit and her hair and make-up were done perfectly. There were blue shadows under her eyes but they made her skin look softer and whiter. Her hair was shining blackly, and her eyes were shining, too, and the cold, wild streak in her was so close to the surface that it made her look like a different woman.

She said, in a low, even voice; “My husband came home the night Lesser was in my apartment. He hit Lesser several times and than he slapped me hard enough to knock me unconscious. When I came to, Johnny Ford was in the room. I saw him go into the bedroom, and when he came out he had my husband’s gun in his hand. He shot Lesser, then left the apartment by the back door. Is that all you want?”

“That’s all I want,” Harrigan said.

“May I go now?”

“Of course.”

She hadn’t looked at me once. She told the story without a change in her voice and she kept her eyes on Harrigan.

When he said she could go, she smiled at him, and then she turned and went through the door. Harrigan closed it after her and came over and sat down behind the desk.

“Let’s have it all,” he said.

I heard the words but they were just noises. They didn’t mean anything. Nothing meant anything. She had turned me in to save her hide. The girl I’d killed for, stole for, wrecked everything for, had stood there, without a change of expression, and told a lie that would send me straight to the chair.

“You’ll get it all,” I said.

She had lied. She hadn’t seen me shoot Lesser. She had been unconscious. She knew I shot him because I had told her I did.

“I’m waiting,” he said.

I couldn’t fight anymore. There wasn’t anything in me that wanted to fight. I was trying to think, trying to see how her mind had worked. Maybe she hadn’t trusted me after I told her I’d killed Lesser and the blonde. Maybe she figured that some day I might kill her because she knew too much.

When we had been in each other’s arms a few hours before, I’d said to her, “I’m not leaving anybody around that can send me to the chair. If it’s me or somebody else... well, Johnny comes first.”

She must have made up her mind then while we were there on the couch. Maybe that was why she’d said goodbye to me when I left, and maybe that was why she was crying. Because she knew that when I went down the steps I was going out of her life forever.

“Talk,” Harrigan said.

“When did she call you?”

“About a quarter of four.”

“What did she tell you?”

“Just what you heard. She said she’d kept quiet because she was afraid of what you might do. She claims she had nothing to do with the frame-up on her husband.”

“She said that?”

“That’s her story, but she’s lying. She was in this thing with you right up to her dirty neck. I’ll get her, too. I listened to her story because I knew when I got you I’d get the rest of it. You can fix her now.”

There was a knock on the door and a copper came in and said something to Harrigan.

Harrigan grinned at me, but it was the way he’d grin at something crawling out from under a damp log. Just before he would step on it.

“Olsen’s outside. We brought him over here when she got through singing. He wants to see you alone. The poor guy deserves that much.”

He and Morowitz and Slade went out and I was left alone in the dirty room with the stale smell of cigarette smoke.

A few seconds went by and then her husband came in, looking terrible. His eyes were red and wild and he came over to me, his hands working nervously. He looked big and he looked mad.

“They told me everything, Johnny,” he said. He stood there, just looking at me and working his hands. He said in a ragged voice, “Johnny, was she in on it? Tell me that, Johnny, or I’ll kill you right now.”

I didn’t care if he killed me because I knew nothing could ever hurt me again. Alice had done that to me and left herself in the clear. I could drag her in with me and that was what Harrigan expected me to do. I could tell the whole story and she’d be done for.

I wanted to fix her, I wanted to hurt her like she’d hurt me. But this wasn’t the way to do it.

There was another way, a horrible way — for her. If I turned on her now she could stand it. The mean tough streak in her would fight back hard. That would make her hate me, and she’d be happy the night I went to the chair.

Harrigan might send her up but she could stand that, because she was tough and hard. And she’d spend those years hating her husband, hating me, and that would keep her alive.

I didn’t want her to live. I wanted her to take the same trip I was going to take.

There was a way.

“Frank, she’s clean,” I said. “I made her do what she did. She was clean all the time and she loved you, but she was afraid of me. Don’t believe anything else, Frank.”

He blinked his eyes and then he started to blubber. His big thick face was working to keep the tears back.

“I knew she wasn’t in it! I knew it! I got to get to her.”

He looked wildly around the room, as if he didn’t know where to go. Then he saw the door and went out, walking fast and brushing the tears from his face with the back of his hand.

That was the way.

He’d take her back now. When she went to bed with him she’d be thinking of what she’d done, and she’d be thinking about where I was and that she had put me there. She’d think I had lied to keep her out of jail. When those things started to work on her she’d tear wide open and this time she’d be alone. There wouldn’t be anybody else to rip. She’d be all alone. I wondered how long she’d last.

When Harrigan came back in I said, “Get a stenographer. This is the works and you’re only getting it once.”

That took a little time but finally they got one and Morowitz and Slade and a few other coppers were there as witnesses.

I had to keep Alice in the clear. The cops weren’t going to get her. Frank was going to get her. But he wouldn’t have her very long.

I started talking and it wasn’t easy keeping her in the clear. Harrigan knew I was lying and he swore at me and threatened to beat me silly, but I told him he was going to take it my way or there wouldn’t be any confession at all, and finally he shut up and let me get it down the way I wanted.

I got through about ten o’clock and the way if read I’d done everything. Alice was in the clear.

There wasn’t anything in it about the blonde. She was just a dumb kid that nobody remembered, and she was dead because she had loved something rotten.

Maybe that was why I was going to die, too.