Just Another Sucker

I

They found Odette’s body a little after ten o’clock the following morning.

I had been in my office since nine o’clock, sweating it out and waiting for the telephone bell to ring.

I had had a pretty bad night. When Nina came out of her faint, she developed symptoms of shock, and I had had quite a time with her. I finally made her take two sleeping tablets. Once I was satisfied she was asleep, I had gone to the garage and collected Odette’s suitcase from the trunk. I had then examined every inch of the trunk to make certain there was no trace of her to be found if those two soldiers came back in the morning to search the car. I even went over the inside of the trunk with the electric cleaner.

Then I took the suitcase to the furnace room and lit the furnace. I opened the case. It contained the scarlet dress she had worn when she had gone to the Pirates’ Cabin, the white plastic mack, the red wig and the usual toilet things a girl carries on a journey. I burned the lot, and I cut up the suitcase and burned that too.

I scarcely had any sleep that night and I was feeling pretty bad when I left for the office the following morning. Nina looked ill. We didn’t say much to each other. Both of us had this sick feeling of dread, knowing before very long the body must be found.

I found it impossible to work. I sat at my desk with a file in front of me and smoked endless cigarettes, waiting for the telephone bell to ring.

When it did finally ring, my hand was shaking so badly I nearly dropped the receiver.

‘We’ve found her!’ Renick’s voice sounded excited. ‘They have her down at headquarters. Come on, I’m on my way now.’

I found him and Barty waiting at the elevators. Barty was pressing the call button impatiently.

‘She’s dead,’ Renick said to me as I came up ‘She’s been murdered. She was found in the trunk of a stolen car in Pacific Boulevard.’

Little was said on the quick trip to headquarters. We drove straight into the yard. The Mercury stood in the shade with four or five plain clothes men grouped around it, watching a photographer at work.

I felt cold and sick as I got out of the police car and walked with Renick and Barty to the Mercury. I kept my eyes averted as Renick looked into the trunk.

‘I want the Medical Examiner to have her as soon as the photographer has finished,’ he said to one of the plain clothes men. ‘I want you boys to go over every inch of this car. Don’t miss a thing.’ He squatted down to stare again into the trunk. ‘Hey, what’s this? Looks like the ransom briefcase.’ He took out his handkerchief, reached inside the trunk and covering the handle of the case with the handkerchief, he lifted it out. ‘Don’t tell me the money’s here. It’s heavy enough.’ He set the case down and opened it while the other detectives crowded around. ‘Full of newspapers!’ he looked at Barty. ‘What the hell does this mean?’

‘Look at the dress she’s wearing,’ Barty said. ‘The barman at the Pirates’ Cabin said she had on a red dress and a white plastic mack. She’s changed her clothes.’

I had known the risk I was taking with the cheap blue and white dress, but nothing would have induced me to have taken the dress off the body and put the red dress back on her. It was something I couldn’t have done.

‘Where did the dress come from?’ Renick asked, puzzled. He turned to me. ‘Look, Harry, take a car and go to Malroux’s place. Ask Mrs. Malroux if the girl owned such a dress and bring someone down here to identify her.’

I stared at him.

‘You mean you want me to see Mrs. Malroux?’

‘Sure, sure,’ Renick said impatiently, ‘and break the news to the old man. Get O’Reilly to come down and identify her. We don’t want Malroux to see her. If he wants to come, warn him she isn’t a pretty sight, but check on that dress, it’s important.’

‘Okay,’ I said, and glad to get away from the Mercury and its gruesome contents I got into the police car and drove out of the yard.

Now, at last, I had the opportunity to talk to Rhea. Renick could trace that blue and white dress. Rhea had bought it. She was in for the jolt of her life.

Ten minutes later, I pulled up outside the Malroux residence. I ran up the steps and punched the bell.

The butler opened the door.

‘I’m from police headquarters,’ I said. ‘Mr. Malroux, please.’

The butler stood aside and let me in.

‘Mr. Malroux is far from well this morning. He is still in bed. I don’t like to disturb him.’

‘Mrs. Malroux will do… it’s important.’

‘If you will wait, sir…’

He started off down the long passage. I gave him a start, then moving silently, I went after him. He pushed open a glass swing door and stepped out onto the patio where Rhea lay in a lounging chair. She had on a pale blue shirt and white slacks. She looked extremely cool and beautiful, lying there in the sun.

She was reading the newspaper and she glanced up as the butler approached her.

I wasn’t giving him a chance to warn her. I stepped out onto the patio.

Rhea saw me. She stiffened. Her eyelids narrowed for a moment, then her expression became completely poker faced.

‘Who is this?’ she said to the butler.

As he turned, I walked up to her.

‘I’m from police headquarters,’ I said. ‘I’m sorry to disturb you, but it is important.’

Rhea dismissed the butler with a wave of her hand. Neither of us spoke until the glass door had swung behind him, then I pulled up a chair and sat down.

‘Hello,’ I said. ‘Remember me?’

She leaned back, reached for a cigarette and lit it. Her hands were very steady.

‘Should I remember you?’ she said, lifting her eyebrows. ‘What do you want?’

‘They have found her,’ I said, ‘but not in the cabin where you intended them to find her. They found her in a trunk of a stolen car.’

She flicked ash onto the crazy paving.

‘Oh? Is she dead?’

‘You know damn well she’s dead!’

‘Did you two quarrel over the money? You needn’t have murdered her, Mr. Barber.’

Her brazen attitude rattled me.

‘You’re not getting away with that,’ I said. ‘You’re responsible for her death and you know it!’

‘Am I?’ Again she lifted her eyebrows. ‘I can’t imagine anyone but you believing that.’

‘Don’t kid yourself. You have the motive. When your husband dies, half his fortune was to have gone to Odette. It’s much more convenient for all the fortune to come to you, isn’t it?’

‘Of course.’ She smiled. ‘But you happen to be the one who planned the kidnapping. You happen to be the one who was to meet her at the cabin. I was in bed when she died and I can prove it. Where were you?’

‘If they catch me, they’ll also catch you,’ I said.

‘Will they? I should have thought it would be your word against mine. I can’t imagine the police believing an ex-jailbird.’

‘That’s right, only I happen to have realised that from the start. I took precautions. I planted a tape recorder in the cabin. I have the whole kidnap plot on tape. Don’t kid yourself you can’t be pulled into this mess, because you can.’

She became very still. Her glittering eyes stared at me.

‘A tape recorder?’

‘That’s right. Everything we planned is on tape. You have the motive. They may send me to the gas chamber, but at least you’ll get twenty years.’

That really jolted her. For a moment her poker face mask slipped. Her hands turned into fists, the colour drained out of her face. She looked suddenly older and very vicious.

‘You’re lying!’

‘Think so? If I get caught you’ll get caught too. You just didn’t play it smart enough. Now you’d better start praying I don’t get caught.’

She recovered her self control. The expressionless mask slipped into place.

‘So you’re not quite the fool I imagined you to be, Mr. Barber. Well, we’ll see how it works out.’

‘Yeah: we’ll see.’

The glass door swung open and I looked around. A tall, heavily built man, wearing a smart chauffeur’s uniform, stood in the doorway. This would be the ex-cop, O’Reilly. I was aware he was looking curiously at me. I was surprised to see he was about my age. His sand coloured hair was close cropped. His heavy, flashy face was coarsely handsome, and his steady grey eyes had that quizzing penetrating stare that most cops have.

‘The car’s ready, Madam,’ he said.

‘I won’t be going out this morning,’ Rhea said and she got up ‘Mr. Malroux isn’t at all well.’

She started across the patio.

‘Mrs. Malroux…’ I said.

She paused and looked at me.

‘When Miss Malroux’s body was found, she was wearing a blue and white cotton dress. It was quite a cheap thing. Lieutenant Renick is wondering where it came from. You will remember she wore a red dress when she left here. Lieutenant Renick wants to know if you know anything about the dress.’

I thought I would have jolted her with this, but her expression didn’t change.

‘I know all about the dress,’ she said. ‘I bought it for her. It is a beach dress. She kept it in her car.

When she went to the beach, she changed into it. Perhaps you will tell the Lieutenant that.’

She turned and walked to the glass door which O’Reilly held open for her.

I felt a sudden sinking feeling of uneasiness. If she could be so calm and quick witted on a question like that, could she talk herself out of the tape recording? She could admit the kidnap plot, but that still didn’t implicate her in Odette’s murder.

‘You’re Barber, aren’t you?’ O’Reilly said, and his voice jerked me alert ‘The Lieutenant told me about you. Have they found her?’

Watch it, I thought. This guy is an ex-cop. He has been trained to spot anything suspicious, and what he spots will go straight back to Renick.

‘They found her. Renick wants you to come down and identify her.’

O’Reilly grimaced.

‘Maybe the old man should do it.’

‘She’s been dead two days and shut in the trunk of a car. Renick thinks Malroux shouldn’t see her.’

‘Well, okay.’ His grey eyes shifted over my face. ‘Have they found the ransom yet?’

‘No.’

‘I told the Lieutenant: find the ransom and you’ll find the killer: it’s that simple.’

‘They’re waiting. Let’s go.’

‘I’d better tell the old man where I’m going,’ he said. ‘I won’t be a minute.’ He started across the patio, then abruptly paused to look at me. ‘They’ve got no clue to the guy who strangled her? That photograph in the paper last night didn’t pay off?’

That jolted me. I had forgotten the photograph.

‘No.’

‘The Lieutenant is smart. He’ll bust this case. I’ve worked with him in the past. He knows his business.’

I watched him go, then I took out my cigarettes. I was about to light one when I had a sudden cold, spooky feeling.

They’ve got no clue to the guy who strangled her?

I had said nothing about how Odette had been murdered neither to Rhea nor to O’Reilly. Her body had only just been discovered. Not even the newspaper men were in on it yet — then how did O’Reilly know she had been strangled?

The cigarette slipped out of my fingers.

Here was my man! The lover! The ex-cop who had Renick’s confidence, who had the opportunity of knowing all what was going oh and of living in this house within a few yards of Rhea’s bedroom.

O’Reilly!

How else could he know Odette had been strangled unless he had strangled her himself?

II

Five or six minutes later, O’Reilly came through the swing doors and joined me on the patio.

During those minutes I had got over the shock of my discovery. I had had time to consider more fully the likelihood that he was Odette’s killer. He seemed fitted for the job. I told myself I would have to be careful not to give him any idea that I had spotted his slip and was suspicious of him. By now, Rhea would have warned him that I had the tapes. This should jolt him as much as it had jolted her, but it didn’t incriminate him. Somehow I had to pin Odette’s murder on him before the police pinned it on me.

As he came towards me, silently and smoothly, the way a boxer moves, I had to make an effort to keep my face expressionless.

‘All set?’

‘Yeah.’

He gave no sign that he knew I had the tapes. His hard fleshy face was a little thoughtful, but that was all.

We went together out of the house and down to the police car.

‘Has Mr. Malroux been told?’ I asked as I slid under the driving wheel.

‘Yeah.’ He settled himself in beside me. ‘Tough on him — his only daughter.’

‘Mrs. Malroux took it in her stride,’ I said as I drove down the carriageway, ‘Did she and the girl get along together?’

‘They got along fine,’ O’Reilly said, his voice sharpening a little. ‘She’s not the demonstrative type.’

I decided to stick the knife in hard and turn it.

‘The Lieutenant was saying Mrs. Malroux now comes into all her husband’s money. The girl’s death is pretty convenient for her. The girl would have collected half Malroux’s fortune if she had lived: now the wife grabs the lot.’

He shifted his solid, muscular body. I didn’t risk looking at him.

‘There was enough for the two of them, I guess,’ he said. I couldn’t be sure but I had an idea there was a sudden uneasy note in his voice.

‘Some women are never content with the half of anything. Mrs. Malroux strikes me as the type who wouldn’t share a breath of air with anyone.’

I felt him stare at me. I didn’t look his way.

‘The Lieutenant thinks that?’

‘I haven’t asked him.’

There was a pause, then he said, ‘That was a smart idea of his to print that photograph. The guy in the photograph looked a lot like you.’

That counter-attack didn’t faz me.

‘It was me,’ I said. ‘We had a description of a man who was seen with the girl at the Pirates’ Cabin.

His build matched mine. I volunteered to act as a model.’

That held him.

‘Come to think of it,’ I went on, ‘you’re the same build too.’

He didn’t say anything to that one.

We drove two blocks in silence, then I said, ‘They found the briefcase. It was in the stolen car with the body.’

His big, powerful hand was lying on his knee. I saw it give a little jump.

‘You mean they recovered the ransom?’

‘I didn’t say that: they have found the briefcase: it was full of old newspapers. Did you know there were two briefcases — exactly alike?’

Again I felt him look at me.

‘Yeah.’

‘Know what I think? I think someone switched the cases before Malroux left to deliver the ransom. It could easily have been done.’

That really hit him. He dropped his cigarette.

‘What are you getting at? Who would switch the cases?’

There was a sudden harsh note in his voice. He bent and recovered the cigarette, then tossed it out of the window.

‘It’s just a theory of mine. The way I figure it is this: the girl gets kidnapped. The old man gets the ransom money ready. His wife suddenly gets a bright idea. If the kidnappers are double-crossed, the girl will be murdered. With the girl out of the way, Mrs. Malroux collects the whole of the estate — not just half of it. So she puts a bundle of newspapers in the other briefcase and switches the cases just before Malroux leaves to deliver the ransom. She then has five hundred grand spending money, she has got rid of her stepdaughter, and when the old man dies, she collects all the millions.’

He sat absolutely motionless for some moments before saying in a hard, tight voice, ‘Did the Lieutenant think anything of that?’

‘I haven’t told him yet. It’s just a theory of mine.’

‘Yeah?’ He shifted around in his seat to glare at me. ‘Look, take my tip and don’t let your imagination run away with you. These folks have plenty of influence. You start a rumour like that without proof and you’ll land yourself in plenty of trouble.’

‘I know that,’ I said. ‘I was just coasting. How do you like the idea yourself?’

‘It stinks,’ he said, a savage note in his voice. ‘Mrs. Malroux would never do such a thing.’

‘Is that right? Well, I’ll take your word for it. You know her better than I do.’

I swung the car into the police yard before he could come back on that. I pulled up and got out.

We walked together to the morgue. I stood aside to let him go in first.

Renick and Barty were sitting on one of the tables, talking together. Away in a corner on another table was a sheet-covered body.

O’Reilly shook hands with Renick and nodded to Barty.

‘So you found her,’ he said.

I was watching him. He was as unmoved and as tough-looking as any cop could be.

I watched him cross the room with Renick, then I turned away as Renick flicked back the sheet. I was sweating again.

I heard Renick say, ‘Is that her?’

‘Sure is — poor kid. So she was strangled. Any angles yet, Lieutenant?’

‘Not yet. How did the old man take the news?’

‘He’s pretty bad.’ O’Reilly shook his head. ‘The doctor’s with him now.’

‘Tough.’

They came back to where Barty and I were standing.

‘Okay, O’Reilly,’ Renick said. ‘Thanks for coming. I don’t need to keep you. I’ve got to get on.’

‘Anything to oblige, Lieutenant,’ O’Reilly said. He shook hands, nodded to Barty, gave me a hard stare and went out.

Renick said to a plain clothes man who was lounging against the wall:

‘Tell the doc he can have her now.’

Jerking his head at me, he left the morgue and crossed the yard. Barty and I followed him.

‘What did she say about the dress, Harry?’ Renick asked as we all went down the long corridor to the office that had been put at Renick’s disposal.

‘She knew about it. She bought it herself. It’s a beach dress the girl kept in her car. When she went down on the beach she put it on to save a better dress she happened to be wearing.’

Renick pushed open the door to the office and we crowded in.

‘I wonder why she changed,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘Something there that doesn’t add up.’ He sat down behind the desk and put up his feet.

Barty and I found chairs.

‘Why was that briefcase full of newspapers?’ Barty asked. ‘That puzzles me.’

‘And where’s the ransom?’ Renick picked up a letter opener and started to dig holes in the blotter.

‘You know I keep coming back to the idea she was kidnapped by someone who knew her. The fact this guy used Jerry Williams’s name points to it. We’d better check all her men friends and find out what they were doing at the time she was at the Pirates’ Cabin. Will you see to that?’

Barty got to his feet.

‘Right away.’

When he had gone, Renick said to me, ‘As soon as the doc is through, we’ll get that dress photographed. Someone may have noticed her wearing it.’

There came a tap on the door and a police officer looked in.

‘There’s a guy out here, waiting to see you,’ he said. ‘His name is Chris Keller. It’s to do with the photograph in the newspaper this morning.’

‘Shoot him in,’ Renick said, removing his feet from the desk.

I was immediately alert and worried. I looked towards the door as a man of about my build came in.

He paused to look from Renick to me. I watched his reaction as he and I exchanged glances, but there was no sign of recognition. I had never seen him before, and I relaxed.

‘Mr. Keller?’ Renick said, getting to his feet. He held out his hand.

‘That’s right.’ Keller shook hands. ‘Lieutenant, I saw this picture in the paper.’ He held up the newspaper containing the picture of myself with the blocked out face. ‘I think I’ve seen this guy.’

‘Sit down. Let’s have your address, Mr. Keller.’

Keller sat down. He took out his handkerchief and wiped his sun-tanned, pleasantly ugly face. He said he lived on Western Avenue and gave the number of his apartment.

‘Where do you think you saw this man?’

‘At the airport.’

My heart started to thump. I picked up a pencil and began to doodle on the blotter lying on the desk at which I was sitting.

‘When was this?’

‘Saturday night.’

I saw Renick begin to show interest.

‘What time?’

‘Around eleven o’clock.’

‘What makes you so sure he is the man we’re looking for, Mr. Keller?’

Keller moved uneasily.

‘I’m not sure he is the man, Lieutenant. It was the suit that caught my attention. You see I planned to buy a suit like that myself. I was in the airport lobby waiting for a friend of mine off the L.A. plane and I saw this guy come in. The suit attracted my attention. I thought how well it looked, then seeing this photograph in the paper today, I thought maybe I should come in and tell you.’

‘You did right. Would you recognise this guy again?’

Keller shook his head.

‘To tell the honest truth, Lieutenant, I didn’t look at his face. I was looking at the suit.’

Renick drew in a long, slow breath of exasperation. Then he asked the question I had been silently willing him not to ask.

‘Was he alone?’

‘He had a girl with him.’

Renick got slowly to his feet. He could scarcely control his excitement.

‘Did you happen to notice the girl, Mr. Keller?’

Keller grinned widely.

‘Oh, sure. There aren’t many pretty girls that I don’t notice.’

‘How was she dressed?’

‘She had on a blue and white cotton dress. She wore big sun goggles and she had red hair — my favourite colouring for a girl.’

‘Red hair?’ Renick paused in his pacing to stare at Keller. ‘You are sure about that?’

‘I’m sure.’

I took out my handkerchief and surreptitiously wiped my face.

Renick snatched up the telephone.

‘Taylor, get that dress the girl was wearing up here right away.’

As he replaced the receiver, Keller said in a puzzled voice, ‘I thought you were interested in the guy, Lieutenant, not the girl.’

‘What did these two do?’ Renick asked, ignoring Keller’s remark.

Seeing the hard, seriousness in his eyes, Keller stiffened to attention.

‘They came into the lobby. The man was carrying a suitcase. The girl got her ticket checked and the man handed over the suitcase. Then he went away and the girl went through the barrier.’

‘Did they speak at all to each other?’

Keller shook his head.

‘Come to think of it, I don’t think they did. The guy just handed over the suitcase and left.’

A police officer came in carrying a blue and white dress. Renick took it from him and held it up so Keller could see it.

‘That’s the one,’ Keller said confidently. ‘She looked real cute in it.’

‘You’re sure?’

‘That’s the one, Lieutenant.’

‘Okay, Mr. Keller. I’ll be seeing you again. Thanks for your help,’ and nodding to the police officer to take Keller out, Renick went to the telephone and called Barty to come in.

I felt as if a noose was slowly tightening around my throat. I just sat there, doodling and sweating.

‘There’s something phoney about this business,’ Renick said, sitting down at his desk. ‘I’ve had an idea from the very start that this wasn’t a straightforward kidnapping.’

‘What do you mean?’ I said, aware my voice sounded husky.

‘I’m damned if I know, but I’m going to find out.’

Barty came in.

‘What’s up?’

Renick told him what Keller had said.

Barty sat on the edge of the desk, frowning.

‘She went alone, but a redhead. This girl’s dark. There’s two of them — Keller and the air hostess who both swear the girl was a redhead. What was she listed as on the flight record?’

Renick took out a file and glanced through it.

‘Ann Harcourt: booked for L.A. Who’s Ann Harcourt? Look, Barty, drop everything. I want to know everything about this girl. Get the boys working. Get L.A. to check on her there. I want all the hotels checked just in case she stayed at a hotel.’

‘Just what’s on your mind, John?’

‘There’s something phoney about this set-up. The kidnapper tells the girl he is Jerry Williams who she hasn’t seen for a couple of months. He persuades her to go to a joint like the Pirates’ Cabin: a place where none of these youngsters ever go. From there she suddenly vanishes. A big guy wearing a brown sports suit is seen in her car at ten-thirty. Another car is heard to drive off, but is not seen. Then a big guy in a brown sports suit is seen with a girl wearing the same dress the murdered girl is found in at the airport at eleven o’clock. That would make the timing right. From the Pirates’ Cabin to the airport is just about half an hour’s drive. So far so good. She could have been kidnapped. She could have been so terrorised that she changed her dress, put on a red wig and sun goggles and gone with the man. But what happens?’ He slammed his fist down on the desk. ‘ She goes alone! There were fourteen other people travelling in the plane, all in couples. They couldn’t have had anything to do with this girl. The air hostess knows them all! This man who was driving her car, walks out of the airport and disappears. Then the briefcase containing the ransom money is found with the murdered girl. It’s stuffed full of old newspapers, and a rather sinister fact comes out there are two briefcases, the replica of each other.’ He paused to stare at Barty. ‘Make anything of it so far?’

‘Could have been a faked kidnapping,’ Barty said. ‘Providing this girl Ann Harcourt was Odette Malroux. That’s something we’ll have to find out.’

‘Yeah,’ Renick said. ‘Okay, get going. Let’s check on this girl, and when I say check, I mean check!’

He swung round to me.

‘Get that dress photographed. Get one of the office girls to put it on and block out her face. Someone else might recognise it. Get the picture circulated in all the local papers and in L.A.’

I picked up the dress and went back to my office. I felt as if I hadn’t a bone in my body. The teeth of the trap were closing too fast. In another twenty-four hours, if not sooner, Renick might even be on to me. Somehow I had to think of a way to prove that O’Reilly had killed her — but how?

I was too busy for the next hour to think about my problem. I got the dress photographed, gave a Press meeting and made sure the photograph would be circulated in Los Angeles.

By then it was lunch time. I was preparing to go to lunch with Renick and Barty when the telephone bell rang. We three were in Renick’s office. He answered the phone, then handed the receiver to me.

‘It’s Nina,’ he said. ‘She wants you.’ I took the receiver.

‘Yes?’ I said. ‘I’m just going to lunch.’

‘Harry, will you please come home?’ There was a note in her voice — a note I had never heard before– that sent a chill snaking up my spine. ‘I have to talk to you.’

The fear, the cold flat tone in her voice shook me.

‘I’ll be right over,’ I said and hung up. ‘Nina wants me to have lunch with her. Something’s come up.

One of the usual domestic things,’ I said. ‘I’ll be back by two o’clock.’

‘Sure, go ahead,’ Renick said. He was reading a file and didn’t even look up. ‘Take a car, Harry. I want you back here at two o’clock.’

As soon as I left his office, I ran down the passage and down the stairs. I got in a police car and drove home fast. I knew something had happened. I couldn’t imagine what, but I knew from the tone of her voice it was bad.

I parked the car outside the bungalow and walked fast up the path, took out my key and pushed open the front door.

‘Nina?’

‘I’m here, Harry,’ she said from the lounge.

I crossed the hall, pushed open the lounge door and entered. Then I stopped short.

Nina sat in a chair, facing me. She looked small and scared and very white.

Seated near her, his legs crossed was O’Reilly. He had changed out of his chauffeur’s uniform and he had on a sports shirt and bottle green slacks. He was picking his teeth with a match splinter and he grinned at me as our eyes met.

In his right hand, he held a .38 police automatic. Its blunt blue nose was pointing at me.