Dream Town

Chapter 71

Archer and Green were forced to sit side by side on a lovely couch, the beauty and costliness of which Archer ignored since twin guns were pointed at his head.

Bernadette Bonham was perched on the arm of an upholstered chair. She was wearing the same clothes Archer had seen her in the previous night. She looked haggard and scared, but also a bit triumphant as she gazed at Archer, as though he had never amounted to much of a challenge.

Paley sat across from them; Little Tony stood to the man’s left.

Archer said to Bonham, “So, is this where you tell me ‘c’est la vie’?”

In answer she took out a Gaulois Bleu cigarette and lit it with a chromium-plated lighter with the initial B on it. She followed this with a tiny smile. “Say what you want. What will it matter? I will tell you. Nothing. It matters nothing. And you will, I think, tell no one anything ever again.”

He noted the initial on the lighter and said, “You know, you’re not really Mrs. Bonham.”

“She’s his widow,” interjected Paley.

“No,” said Archer. “She’s not.”

“And why not?” demanded Bonham.

“Because he was already married and never got divorced. That makes him a bigamist and your marriage illegal and nonbinding. A sham. But hell, ‘c’est la vie.’ ”

“You have no idea of what you are talking about,” she retorted.

“I have every idea. Your husband’s real name was Nathaniel Sommers. He married Eleanor Lamb a long time ago.”

“Ellie! This is insane what you say!” exclaimed Bonham.

“You really didn’t know he had married your little school friend?”

“This is a lie.”

“No, this is all true. You knew he was married before, only he lied to you about his first wife dying. He courted and married Lamb. He worked for the State Department. He got transferred to South America. He went there to set up house for himself and the missus. Only he did a runner instead. They never divorced, so she’s the widow, not you, in case you were thinking of inheriting everything — which I wouldn’t advise.”

Bonham glanced nervously at Paley, who only had eyes for Archer. She spat, “Peter would never marry someone like her. She is ugly.”

“Well, he did. He married her in France, same as he did you. Maybe there are multiple other women out there he walked down the aisle with. Of course it didn’t last long with Lamb.”

“I do not believe any of this.”

“Lamb was blackmailing him with the fact of their marriage. That’s why they were arguing at your party. It had nothing to do with property lines, but you already knew that, because you told me you didn’t believe it, either.”

Bonham shot Paley another glance.

Archer continued. “But you had your old pal Paley waiting in the wings, so maybe you didn’t care what was going on with your ‘hubby’ and Lamb. Or maybe he’d been cheating on you with other ladies and this was payback time.” Archer turned to look at Green. “And here you are, partners with Bonham in the dope business. Drinking at Paley’s trough, to use his words. Gee, Bernadette, here Paley was trying to figure out who Peter was screwing him over for, and you couldn’t even find out that it was Mallory Green. It’s a wonder Paley didn’t slit your throat for gross negligence.”

Bonham shot Paley another, far more nervous glance.

“That wasn’t her job and dames don’t know business,” Paley said. “She introduced me to her husband, but business is strictly between the men. I never mentioned what was going on to Bernadette because my rule is simple: If you don’t have to know, then you won’t know. And I didn’t even know where, when, or how the stuff was coming in. Bonham was no dummy, he saw to that, and I knew he told Bernadette nothing, either. And Bernadette just likes the nice things the dope business can bring, right, honey?”

“This is true,” she said, but Archer noted the lady didn’t look nearly as confident now. “And I think Peter would slip sleeping pills into my drink on certain nights. I would wake up in the morning and there he would be next to me, smiling and so attentive. But it made me think: What is he doing during the night that he does not want me to know?”

“Well, now you do know,” said Archer.

“I know nothing about any dope business,” said Green.

Archer looked at her incredulously. “Then there’s a trunk here full of heroin that’ll knock your socks off, lady.”

Paley eyed Green. “Even this stupid PI’s got your number.”

“Yeah, Paley, so stupid I found Bonham’s body where you left it. The cops got an All Points out. It’s over.” He glanced at Tony. “You hitched your ride to the wrong pony, Little Tony. You should’ve stuck with the mob.”

“None of that matters, Archer,” said Paley, plucking a cigarette from his pocket and lighting it up with his free hand, while holding his gun on Archer. “So what if she’s not married to the guy? And cops will do what cops do. We won’t be around to catch.”

“All Points is tough to beat. Feds will be involved, too, because of the dope. And the slave operation,” added Archer. This wasn’t true, yet, but Paley didn’t have to know that.

He shook his head. “I don’t know nothing about no slaves.”

“Sure you do — half your staff at the Jade probably came that way. Profits go way up when you don’t have to pay your ‘employees.’ ”

“Again, it doesn’t matter. We’ll be out of here in a few hours.”

“How is that?” asked Archer. “The road’s being watched, though I know you have a boat. But boats are slow, and when the lake ends the boat has to stop.”

Paley looked at Green. “We’re leaving in the lady’s plane. It’s parked at a private airstrip near here.”

“The pilot’s dead,” Archer pointed out.

Paley said, “I was in the Army Air Forces. Got my private pilot’s license. I can fly anything.”

Archer sucked in a breath because he did know that. Jake Nichols had told him.

Paley turned to Green again. “And you’ll be going with us.”

“Why?” she said with an alarmed expression.

“Because I want to drop your body over the ocean in the middle of the night on the way to South America.”

Green stiffened and looked like she might be sick.

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m going to shoot you first. You’ll never know it when you hit the water. I got some compassion.”

“I think we might be able to work something out,” she said hoarsely.

“You horned in on my business to pay your prick husband’s gambling markers. And now you have to pay for that. And I never forgive a debt. Archer here knows that, right?”

Archer said, “You hired Bender to find out about who was horning in?”

“Paid him damn good money and he came through in the end.” He glanced at Green. “He had pictures of this bitch and Peter Bonham with the truck and on the beach where the dope came in. Then he ran down who she was. Never would have figured a dame for being in this business. I admit that one threw me, all right. And Bart Green’s lady on top of it.” He eyed Green again. “If I had any inkling your hubby was involved in this, I’d kill him, too. But in his report Bender said it was all you. Don’t matter. Without the dope money to pay his gambling losses, Bart’s history. The boys in Vegas will see to that.”

Archer said, “But when I saw you in Vegas you had no clue who was taking some of your dope.”

“That’s ’cause I just got Bender’s report. He must’ve mailed it before he got whacked. It told me everything. That’s why I’m here. To take care of this lady. I just got you as a nice, little bonus.”

“So who killed Bender, then? My take is Peter Bonham.”

“I’m thinking the same. He must’ve found out Bender was on to him. He kills him and dumps the problem in another house.”

“Yeah, but not a random house. You didn’t know about Eleanor Lamb’s involvement in blackmailing Peter Bonham over his bigamy?”

Paley shook his head and eyed Green. “All I know is this bitch screwed me.”

“And she wouldn’t have killed Bender and dumped his body at Lamb’s house because that could have messed up her dope business.” Archer glanced at Bonham. “And that’s probably why your bigamist hubby came back early from France. He got wind of Bender and decided to take care of him. I wonder how that happened.”

She shrugged. “I say nothing.”

Archer was about to say something but then stopped. A thought had just occurred to him and he wondered why it hadn’t before. It had been staring him right in the face all this time. He just hadn’t put the pieces together. He hoped he had a chance to see it all through. From the looks of things, he was going to carry this latest deduction to the grave.

Then another thought hit him. They had taken his gun, but not something else. While everyone was looking at Bonham, he lowered one hand next to his side and felt the object in the side pocket of his coat. He moved his finger around slowly until he felt it. Then he pushed against it and held down the talk button on the walkie-talkie.

Archer next looked at Green and said loudly, “Only you pretended you were the one to hire Bender. You’re a much better actress than you give yourself credit for. You had me fooled with your little seizure act when I told you Bender was dead. Then you hired some goon to break into Bender’s office in case I went down there to check. That way I would think someone had taken his case files on you and whatever else he had showing you had hired him. Of course there never were any files. But your goon missed an invoice for plane fuel that led me right to you and Bart, only I didn’t know all the curves it would throw me along the way. And I don’t know if Bender had made copies of his report and photos for Paley. Probably not, because he knew the guy was scum and Bender didn’t want a reminder of what he’d done for the money.”

Green said wearily, “I suppose I should have hired a better goon.”

“But I had figured it was screwy as soon as I went down there to look at his office. The reports you gave me, supposedly from Bender? They were all typed.”

“So?”

“First, your husband wasn’t having affairs. Your pilot mentioned beautiful ladies flying around with Bart, but those were his nieces. And what I found out in Vegas showed he was no ladies’ man. So the reports you gave me were wrong. And Bender didn’t have a typewriter or a secretary. All his other reports were handwritten. That’s because you typed those reports, which was one reason they were so vague. You were just making it up.”

“I think you chose the right career, Archer,” she said bitterly.

“Short though it might be,” interjected Paley with a malicious look.

She looked at him and said, “Mr. Paley, you can have it all. Every shipment. I’m done.”

“I know you’re done because I say you’re done. And I have other plans, in another country. I got my stash. I can live like a king.” He looked at Little Tony. “Chitchat’s over.”

Paley rose and pointed his gun at Archer. “You first.”

Archer thought back to what Samantha Lourdes had told him about Paley: He wouldn’t miss the second time.

Goodbye, Willie and Connie. Goodbye, Liberty. I’m sorry, real sorry.

The ensuing gunshot flung him right back into the grit of reality.