Mink Is for a Minx [1st Annual Edition: The best from Mike Shayne's Mystery Magazine]

1.

Michael Shayne jammed on the brakes of his car, his eyes glinting with sudden anger. In the dark summer night the other car was slanted across the highway in his path at the center of the small drawbridge. Shayne got out of his car and strode toward the stalled vehicle.

The car was a four-year-old black sedan. For a moment Shayne thought there was no one in it. Then he stepped closer and saw a figure slumped over the wheel. The car was jammed against the guard rail of the small bridge. Apparently the driver had passed out for some reason, perhaps a heart attack, and the car had slewed across the bridge and been stopped by the guard rail.

The car’s engine was still running, giving it even more the look of a tragic accident. But it was not an accident. It was a trap. Shayne, becoming careless, reached through the conveniently open car window to raise the head of the slumped man. The man came to life and gripped the detective’s arm.

A second figure appeared from the shadows of the drawbridge. Shayne had a glimpse of a thin, dark-haired man with a mustache. With his arm held fast Shayne could not pull free in time to defend himself.

The second man hit him on the back of the head. The blow was the work of an expert. Shayne slumped to the roadway of the bridge.

Shayne was stunned but not quite knocked out. That and the fact that the two men were in a hurry saved his life.

The other man had gotten out of the car, and Shayne had a confused recollection of seeing both men move to the edge of the bridge and back again before they slipped their hands under his armpits, lifted his big frame clear of the road, half-carried, half-dragged him to the edge of the bridge, and threw him over. The exertion wrenched a grunt from one of them.

Shayne hit the water hard. He went under. He went down and down until his feet sank into mud. For a second or two he lay unmoving on the bottom. Then, revived by the water but still groggy, he kicked free of the mud and swam upwards, fighting against the tug of the current. His lungs seemed on fire and he was afraid for a moment that he would never make it.

He came up gasping and choking. It was pitch dark. Vaguely, he saw far-off lights that could have been the bridge in the distance. In the narrow channel of Great South Bay the tide was coming in fast. He had been carried half a mile.

Painfully, he struck out for shore. He seemed to swim weakly for hours. At last his feet touched a slippery rock and the loose gravel of a sloping beach. He fell three times before he reached solid ground and collapsed. For a long moment he lay stretched out flat on his stomach, barely breathing.

2.

Lucy Hamilton told Mike Shayne over the intercom at nine-ten that morning that Alistair Finch was on the long distance phone — calling from Westhampton, Long Island. Shayne’s pert, brown-eyed secretary sounded awed. She knew Shayne had known Alistair Finch a long time, and that they were old friends, although they had not seen each other for many years. But the name of the industrialist still awed Lucy.

“He sounds very nervous, Michael,” Lucy said over the intercom.

“Finch is always nervous,” Shayne said. “It goes with all that money and success.”

“That wouldn’t make me nervous,” Lucy said.

Shayne laughed. “Okay, Angel, put him on,” he said, and reached for the desk phone and uncradled the receiver.

The industrialist’s voice was tense with anxiety. “Mike? Thank God I got you. Can you fly up right away?”

“Whoa, Ally, one thing at a time. Fly where? Remember, I’m a Miami detective!” Shayne said.

There was a sound like a deep breath at the other end of the telephone. “Sorry, Mike. I’m at the Westhampton house, the beach cabana. I have guests.”

Shayne saw a mental picture of Alistair Finch’s “beach cabana.” He had been a house guest there once ten years ago. The “cabana” was three stories high, had thirty-two rooms, and looked like a Newport mansion covered with ivy — which, in fact, it was. Its only claim to being a beach house was its location — on a slight elevation overlooking the water.

Finch had spent a sizeable sum just on a sunporch extension.

“Tell me the story,” Shayne said.

“There isn’t any story, Mike,” Finch’s voice said. “Just a pretty gruesome fact. I found a body in my garden. The police say he was murdered.”

“How do they figure that?” Shayne asked.

“He had been stabbed three times in the back.”

“I’d be inclined to agree with the police,” Shayne said. “Who did it?”

Finch sighed far away. “I don’t know. I’ve got police all over the grounds. You’ve got to help me, Mike. I know we’ve been out of touch for a good many years. But when this happened, I thought of you at once.”

“I’ll bet you did,” Shayne said drily. “Who is the man — a guest?”

“No, Mike. No one here has the least idea who he is, except—” Finch’s voice hesitated.

“Do the police suspect you?” Shayne asked, abruptly.

“No,” Finch said. “Mike, the man is a total stranger. He doesn’t have any identification papers on him. No one knows who he is—”

Shayne was more acutely aware of the hesitation this time. “Except who?”

“Except me, Mike. But no one knows that I’ve ever set eyes on him before. At least, no one in this country.”

“Who is he?”

Finch was very nervous now. “A man I knew in Italy, Mike — during the war. He was a Partisan leader in a unit I worked with.”

“How did he get to your beach house?”

“I don’t know that either,” Finch said. “The last time I saw Pietro Corelli was in Italy in nineteen forty-four. That was nineteen years ago.”

“You had no idea he was in this country?” Shayne asked.

This time there was a very deep breath on the other end of the line. “Mike, I didn’t even know he was alive.”

“You mean you hadn’t heard from him — or anything at all about him — in nineteen years? That’s not so unusual is it, Ally?”

“Mike,” Finch said, “Pietro Corelli was killed by the Germans in nineteen forty-four.”

Shayne let a long count of ten pass through his mind. Finch seemed to be doing the same thing on the other end of the telephone. Then Finch spoke again.

“I saw them take him,” Finch said, “so did two of my men. He was shot two days later. There’s no doubt at all in my mind he’s been dead for nineteen years.”

“Until a few days ago,” Shayne said.

“Mike, I can’t take anything like this. You know how important my business is and the kind of company I run. Mostly Government work. I’ll pay you well, Mike.”

Shayne considered his work calendar. He could hire people to cover two routine jobs. One major job he could let go for a few days.

“I’m on my way, Ally,” he said.

Shayne took the first jet north after arranging for his work to be covered. Before he left he asked Miami Police Chief Will Gentry to give him a letter of introduction to the New York Police. Shayne had met New York State Police Lieutenant Edwin “Ed” Masters ten years ago in Westhampton, but Will Gentry was in a position to help him secure further cooperation from the New York authorities.

He also stopped off at Tim Rourke’s office to see if he could get a file on Alistair Finch. Fortunately the man was of sufficient national importance to be of reference-file interest to a good many newspapers.

Shayne read the material on Finch on the jet north. He knew Finch, but it had been many years, and he wanted up-to-date details. Finch was president and owner of a large chemical company. He had inherited the company and his money. What Finch had not inherited was a special chemical additive for rocket fuel. The chemical was vital, and Finch had grown much richer since the war.

Finch was also a war hero. The industrialist had been a Major in the OSS behind enemy lines for most of the war. That would be where this Pietro Corelli came in, Shayne told himself. Finch had a perfect war record, and after the war had come up with his special rocket additive. Finch had a full partner — Kurt Berger, a German.

Finch also had many friends, but only a few close ones. Finch had always mixed business and pleasure, and Shayne expected that the industrialist’s business and personal friends would be at the Westhampton house.

Shayne studied the names and backgrounds of the four or five of Finch’s friends who were mentioned in the material Rourke had given him. By that time his jet landed at Idlewild.

The redhead found a car waiting for him at the airport, and smiled when he saw it. With all his money, Finch had not sent a chauffeur with the car. The industrialist had remembered that Shayne preferred to drive himself.

He drove the car into New York City to Center Street, and showed a high-ranking police officer Gentry’s letter. He left the building with a letter in his wallet to the State Police in Suffolk County.

Shayne drove out of the city through the Queen’s Midtown Tunnel and along the Long Island parkways. The weather was clear and warm in July. He drove with his window open and the wind blowing his thick red hair.

By the time he reached Patchogue it was night and dark. The salt odor of the sea was pleasant in the night. Shayne watched the moon rise to the south over Fire Island. Perhaps that was why his guard was down as he turned onto the drawbridge from Westhampton to Westhampton Beach and saw the black sedan across the roadway.

3.

The moon was high above the dunes when Shayne at last staggered to his feet. He stumbled through the sparse shrubbery and knee-high tangles of prickly thorns, keeping close to the shoreline until he came to the single road of Westhampton Beach. He walked slowly along the road until he reached the “cabana” of Alistair Finch.

The big house loomed large in the night. It was blazing with light. There was a police car at the door. Shayne saw his own car, the one Finch had sent for him. They were obviously looking for him. He walked in and fell into a chair in the giant hallway.

“Mike!” Alistair Finch cried. “What happened?”

“I went for a moonlight swim,” Shayne said wryly.

His grey eyes searched all the faces in the room. He did not see the men. There were seven people in the house, in addition to the police.

“What happened, Shayne?” a State Police officer said.

Shayne recognized Ed Masters. Ten years was a long time, and Masters was heavier and a captain now. But it did not surprise Mike Shayne that Alistair Finch would rate the State Police, and a captain.

Shayne greeted the police officer and told him what had happened. Masters went away to give the descriptions of the two men who had tried to kill Shayne to his men.

“Who do you think they were?” Finch asked.

“You tell me,” Shayne said. “Who knew I was coming?”

“They don’t sound familiar, Mike,” Finch said.

“Two more men nobody knows,” Shayne said. He had the strange feeling that Finch was lying. The redheaded detective tugged on his left earlobe and narrowed his grey eyes. “Get me a large cognac, a change of clothes, and then tell me your story.”

In Finch’s study, Shayne, a Martel in his hand and his clothes changed, listened to Finch’s story. The study was a large, book-lined room furnished with leather and polished wood. The wide window overlooked the sea where a white line of surf was clear in the moonlight.

“That’s all there was, Mike,” Finch said. “We were there behind the German lines up near Milan. Corelli was our Partisan leader. Gerry Olney, Marty Maltz, and myself saw them capture him. There was nothing we could do. Corelli had planned a real suicide mission for two days after he was taken.

“Maybe he was getting careless. We heard a few days later that he had been shot. Of course, there were the usual charges of betrayal. Those Partisans were mostly Communists and they always said we betrayed them. We were cleared.”

“What do you think Corelli wanted here?” Shayne said.

“I can’t imagine,” Finch said.

“Does anyone in this house have an idea?” Shayne said. “By the way, who are your guests?”

“Not one of them knew Corelli except me,” Finch said. “There are five guests: Kurt Berger, of course; Max Helpman, one of my vice-presidents and an old friend; Sally Helpman, Max’s wife; Paul Macadam, you know him, the yacht man who spends a lot of time in Florida; and Myrna Mix the actress. My wife too, of course.”

Shayne went down the list in his mind. All the names had been prominent in Tim Rourke’s file on Finch. They were all old friends of Finch.

“Kurt Berger’s your partner?” Shayne said.

“That’s right. We own all the companies together. I run the American operation and Kurt has charge of the European companies.”

“Did you tell Masters that you knew Corelli?”

“Yes,” Finch said. “I told him you told me to.”

Shayne knew he had not told Finch to say that. But he let it pass for the moment. “Do the others know about Corelli now?”

“I told them when I told Masters,” Finch said.

Shayne nodded and said, “Those other two men who were with you when Corelli was captured. Has anyone talked to them since you called me in Miami?”

“Olney and Maltz? I don’t think so. I didn’t mention their names to anyone,” Finch said.

“Where are they?” Shayne asked.

“I’m not sure,” Finch said. “We lost touch. Olney was my radioman, a Sergeant. Marty Maltz was my second in command, a Captain. They were both good men, Shayne.”

“Men can change,” Shayne said. “Let’s talk to your guests.”

4.

The five guests and Finch’s wife sat in the giant living room. It was late and they seemed annoyed. Finch’s wife was a tall blonde half his age. She was his third wife. Her name was Laura, and she seemed to be rather friendly with Kurt Berger, her husband’s partner. She sat perched on the arm of Berger’s chair.

Shayne came directly to the point. “Masters told me that the coroner fixed the time of death at somewhere around nine o’clock last night. Berger, where were you?”

“Swimming,” Kurt Berger said. “I like to swim at night.”

Berger was a tall, blond man of about forty-five. He was still handsome and had all his hair. The partner of Finch was Finch’s best friend, according to Shayne’s information.

“You swam alone?” Shayne asked.

“Laura was with me,” Berger said. Berger smiled a wolfish smile. “Mrs. Finch, I mean, Shayne. We swam from about eight o’clock until past midnight. Right, Laura?”

“Yes,” Laura Finch said.

“That was a long swim,” Shayne said.

“We walked on the beach, too,” Berger said. “A long walk. Correct, Laura?”

“Yes,” Laura Finch said.

She looked at her husband who was red in the face by now. Shayne made a note of that in his mind. He turned to Helpman.

“How about you, Helpman?”

Max Helpman was nervous. The short, dark man fidgeted on the edge of his chair. Helpman was almost completely bald. His tall, thin, acid-looking wife sat beside him and glared at Shayne.

“Max was with me all night,” Sally Helpman said. “We were in our room. Do you want to know what we were doing?”

“Shut up, Sally,” Max Helpman said. “We were in our room, Shayne. Sally didn’t feel well and we went up right after dinner.”

“Anybody else see either of you?” Shayne said.

“I don’t think so,” Helpman said.

“We don’t usually have observers in our bedroom,” Sally Helpman said.

A tall, grizzled man standing near the yawning fireplace said, “I saw you Max, about ten o’clock. You were out in the garden.”

“Now you listen to me, Paul Macadam,” Sally Helpman began.

Paul Macadam had the shoulders of a truck driver. A man in his fifties, he had the lined and leathery face of a man who had spent most of his life in the open air. His hair was grey, and his blue eyes were hard and amused as he looked at Sally Helpman. The tall, hard-faced woman stared at Macadam.

“I came down for some air,” Max Helpman said. “I forgot that. I wasn’t down more than ten minutes.”

“Ten minutes is enough,” Shayne said drily. “How about you, Macadam? If you saw Helpman, you were down here yourself. Suppose you tell me a little more about that.”

Paul Macadam nodded. “I was down here. In fact I was down from after dinner until past midnight. I like to sit outdoors. No one saw me. I saw Max, and later I saw Berger and Laura, well after midnight. They did look like they had been swimming. But no one saw me. No alibi.”

Shayne looked toward Sally Helpman. “Does that mean you were alone while your husband was down here? Did you see anyone?”

“I remained in my room, Mr. Shayne,” Sally Helpman said coldly.

The tall woman had square shoulders and a low, throaty voice. Shayne liked voices like that. The tall woman was a cool person, and yet, very sexy.

Myrna Mix, the actress, giggled. “This is fun! Ask me my alibi, Mr. Shayne. Go ahead.”

Myrna Mix was over forty now, and she had never been a beauty. She was a real actress, with all the hard life and hard work and hard insides it was difficult not to think about when you called anyone that. She was tall and going to fat. She had always been a big, mannish woman. The giggle sounded ridiculous from her.

“Where were you?” Shayne said.

“I drove into town to the summer theater,” Myrna Mix said. “I didn’t stay for the performance, though. That much I can’t do for my admirers. They’re such bad actors. So no one saw me from eight o’clock until I arrived back here about ten-thirty. Ally saw me then.”

“Eight o’clock until ten-thirty to drive five miles?” Shayne said.

“I made a few stops,” Myrna Mix said. “I drink, you know.”

“No one saw you?”

“Not until Ally did.”

Shayne looked at Finch. “Then you were downstairs, too?”

“Me?” Finch said in surprise. “I took a walk, Mike.”

“On the beach?”

Finch reddened. “No, along the road. Mike, I called you!”

“So you did,” Shayne said. He studied all of them for a long minute. “Well, it seems that any one of you could have killed Pietro Corelli.”

5.

The next day Mike Shayne found out that not only could all the guests have killed Corelli, but that they all could have known the dead Italian. Finch was simply the only one who admitted having known Corelli.

Shayne spent the morning studying the murder scene in the garden. He went to town and read the Coroner’s report. The only unusual facts in the report were that Corelli’s clothes were all new, and seemed to be Italian. The clothes had been wet and had smelled of salt water.

It was in the afternoon that Shayne found out that all the guests had been either in Italy or in the war at the right time.

“Yes, I was in the Wehrmacht,” Kurt Berger said. “I was a Hauptman — a Captain of Signals. I was exonerated of Nazism.”

“It figures,” Shayne said. “Where did you serve?”

“Norway, Poland, Russia, France, and Yugoslavia.”

“You got around for a Captain of Signals,” Shayne said. “Italy?”

“No, not Italy,” Berger said.

Helpman admitted having been in Italy. “I was in Finch’s OSS outfit. I thought you knew. I didn’t happen to be on the Corelli mission.”

“Tell me about the betrayal charge,” Shayne said.

“The Partisans accused Finch, Olney, and Maltz,” Helpman said. “One or all. There was no proof, so the charges were dropped. It came damned close to a court-martial, though. The story sounded fishy.”

“I didn’t know it was that serious,” Shayne said.

“No one does,” Helpman said. “Ally likes being a war hero. Besides, if there had been any real proof at the time, he’d be in trouble with the Government now. And his business would be hurt badly. His friends in Washington have covered up even the accusation.”

Finch burst into the room at that point. The industrialist was angry. “You’re a liar, Max! Those Commie Partisans accused everyone! What about Gerry Olney and Marty Maltz!”

Helpman said to Shayne, “The Partisans admitted it could have been any of the three of them.”

“And how about you?” Finch said.

“I wasn’t on that mission,” Helpman said.

Finch laughed. “No? But you came up with a message twice. I remember very well. You could have seen Corelli and turned him in. You had plenty of chance while you were crossing the lines!”

“I never saw Corelli!”

“You knew his name,” Finch said. “Maybe they picked you up and you talked, so they let you go.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Helpman said.

Shayne did not believe Berger when Berger said he had never been in Italy. He asked Captain Masters to check with the German Government. Masters agreed, and said he would try, but that would take time. Masters had located Olney and Maltz, but had not reached them yet. Olney lived in Connecticut, and Maltz in Chicago.

The other three guests turned out to have interesting pasts also. Myrna Mix, the famed actress, had been touring Italy in a USO Show at the exact time of Corelli’s capture. Her show had gone close to the front lines and had remained on tour for months.

Sally Helpman had been a nurse in a field hospital near the front lines. She had met Max Helpman during the last year of the war, and they had been married by a chaplain at the hospital.

Paul Macadam had been a Lieutenant Colonel with an Intelligence unit just behind the lines across from Milan.

“All right,” Macadam admitted, “I knew about Corelli. In fact I knew about the charge of betrayal. But I never met Corelli. As a matter of fact, I can tell you something more. When Corelli was captured, a hundred thousand good American dollars went with him!”

Alistair Finch was furious when Shayne faced him with the omission in his story. Finch had said nothing about the money.

“Look, Mike,” Finch said, “there wasn’t any money. I’m sure of it.”

“Maybe,” Shayne said.

Finch was beginning to smell very bad to the redheaded detective. It would not be the first time that a guilty man had hired him to try to make himself look innocent.

“Damn it, Mike,” Finch said, “those Partisans always said every mistake was a betrayal, and that there was money involved. If Corelli had that kind of money from us, I’d have known it. If any money changed hands, it was the Partisans who profited. Those Partisans probably betrayed Corelli themselves. They’d have betrayed their own mothers for a hundred dollars.”

Shayne was about to point out that Finch was protesting too much when Captain Masters came into the room. Masters was grim.

“Anyone here know a Martin Maltz?” Masters said.

“I do,” Finch said.

“You did,” Masters said. “We just found his body out in the bushes.”

6.

Marty Maltz had been stabbed. The coroner said it was with the same kind of weapon that had been used in the earlier slaying. A long, thin knife. No one knew what Maltz had been doing in Westhampton.

“I didn’t know he was anywhere near,” Finch said.

“Neither did I,” Helpman said.

“I did not know the man,” Berger said.

“Sure you knew Marty, Kurt,” Finch said. “I introduced you a few years ago when Marty came to the reunion of the old outfit. Remember?”

“Of course,” Berger said. “I had forgotten. He seems to have changed.”

“Lost most of his hair,” Finch admitted.

“He’s lost more than that now,” Captain Masters said grimly.

After they had taken Maltz’s body away, Shayne stood on the curving driveway of the big house and tugged on his left earlobe. The big detective ran his hand through his thick red hair. None of the guests, of course, had a real alibi for this murder. Why had Maltz been killed?

“Why did Maltz come here?” Shayne asked Masters.

“We were looking for him,” Masters replied. “Our check found he was away on a trip. His wife thought he was in New York on business.”

“What about the other man, Olney?” Shayne said.

“He doesn’t know anything. Connecticut police checked,” Masters said. “He hasn’t been away from home in six months.”

“Maybe they didn’t ask the right questions,” Shayne said.

Shayne decided to visit Gerry Olney, ex-sergeant of OSS. He borrowed the car from Finch and drove off early next morning. The drive across Long Island was uneventful. But Shayne enjoyed the changing scenery as he passed from the marsh and sand of the South Shore to the flat farmlands further inland and then to the wooded and hilly North Shore.

He drove into Port Jefferson a half an hour before the ferry was ready to sail for Bridgeport, and he had a sidecar in an elegant bar near the ferry dock. On the ferry the detective left his car to go and lean on the forward rail and watch the high white cliffs of the North Shore fade behind as the ferry rolled lightly on the water of the open Sound.

Shayne’s was the second car off the steep ramp in Bridgeport. He drove fast along the Connecticut parkway until he reached New Haven. Olney was in his office when Shayne arrived at the house. Olney’s wife called him and Olney said he would come right home. When the ex-sergeant arrived, Shayne saw that he was a tall, heavy-set, honest-looking man.

Shayne introduced himself and explained the reason for his visit.

“Anything I can do to help,” Olney said. “Marty Maltz was a good guy.”

“What was Maltz doing at Finch’s house?” Shayne said.

“I wouldn’t know, Shayne,” Olney said. “Like I told the cops, Marty and I wrote to each other once in a while — but I hadn’t seen him for a year or so. Maybe it was something Corelli told him.”

“Corelli? He went to see Maltz?”

“Sure. He came to see both of us,” Olney said.

“Why didn’t you tell the police that?”

“They didn’t ask me,” Olney said. “Frankly, Shayne, I didn’t want to get mixed up in a murder. Now that Marty’s dead, maybe I was wrong.”

“Maybe you were,” Shayne said. Or maybe Olney had a better reason for hiding the fact that Corelli had visited him. “Tell me about Corelli’s visit.”

The tall ex-sergeant shrugged. “It was a hell of a shock at first. We all thought he was dead. There was quite a stink right after the war. They accused one of us, or all three of us, of betraying Corelli and getting him killed.”

“Did you?”

Olney looked straight at Mike Shayne. “I didn’t. I don’t know about the other two.”

“How did Corelli survive?”

“He said that the Krauts who captured him were in a big hurry and turned him over to the regular Army instead of the Gestapo. The Krauts who had him didn’t know who he was, so they sent him to a labor camp in Germany instead of shooting him. He was lucky.”

“Where had he been for nineteen years?” Shayne asked.

Olney shook his head. “He didn’t say. He just wanted to know where Finch was, and what had happened to the money. He accused me of turning him over to the Krauts. I told him he was crazy. He said maybe, but he’d watch me. I told him to watch.”

“He mentioned money?”

“Yeh. There was rumor about a lot of money after the war. I never really believed it. We’d have known.”

“You didn’t know? None of you?”

“Not as far as I know,” Olney said. “But I was just the radio man.”

“What else did Corelli say?” Shayne asked.

Olney seemed puzzled. “Well, he asked about Steiner. That was funny. I didn’t know Corelli even knew about Steiner.”

“Who was Steiner?”

“That’s a good question,” Olney said. “No one knew for sure. It was top-secret hush-hush Gestapo stuff. I used to monitor calls from the high brass about Steiner. There was talk Steiner could have been a double agent. All we knew was that Steiner was the name of a Gestapo troubleshooter who operated near the front all the time.

“There were all sorts of rumors who he could be; some even thought Steiner was more than one man. We’d get reports about him being on both sides of the line. One thing I know. He was a killer and the Kraut officers were scared as hell of him.”

“What did Corelli want to know about Steiner?”

“That was funny, too. He wanted to know if I knew where Steiner was. I told him I wouldn’t even know what Steiner looked like. I’d barely heard of him. Corelli said, of course, he had just heard of Steiner, too. He told me to forget he even asked.”

“What about that betrayal in Italy?”

“What about it?” Olney said.

“Did any of you betray Corelli?” Shayne said.

“No,” Olney said. Shayne had the definite feeling that the ex-sergeant was lying. Olney went on. “However, it would have been justified. We’d have died if he hadn’t got caught. That crazy Italian had planned a raid that was just about a suicide job. Finch tried to argue him out of it, but Corelli insisted.”

“Corelli was captured before that raid?”

“Two days before,” Olney said. “We were pretty damned glad, I can tell you.”

“What else do you know about Steiner?”

“Well, Corelli said—”

That was as far as Olney got. The shot was sudden and low. A silenced gun. Olney did not fall. He straightened up instead, stared, and slid to the floor. There was a neat hole in the side of his head. It was bleeding. When Shayne bent over the man, Olney was dead.

Shayne ran for the door. He reached the sidewalk and had a glimpse of a thin man sprinting around the near corner. Shayne ran after him. When he reached the corner a small grey coupe was already pulling away. Shayne went back to the house. He got the New York license plate, but he did not think that would do much good.

In the house Olney’s wife was bending over the dead man. She blinked her eyes and stared at Shayne.

“I’m sorry,” Shayne said.

The woman blinked again. “He went through the war.”

The woman was clearly in shock. Shayne called the police and a doctor. He found the name of the doctor in the Olney address book. The police detained him when they arrived. He told them to call Captain Masters, and after Masters had identified him they got his story and let him go. He gave them the license plate number of the grey coupe. Then he left.

Shayne got into his car and lighted a cigarette. Maltz and Olney. Only Finch was left of the men Corelli had accused of betraying him. And Corelli was dead. Shayne could understand why Corelli would have wanted to kill Maltz and Olney and Finch.

But who would kill Corelli, and Maltz, and Olney? And why not Finch? Unless it was Finch himself because there was more to the betrayal in Italy than had come out, and Maltz and Olney had known about it.

Shayne put the car into gear and headed for the parkway into New York. On the way he stopped to call Masters. He asked the State Police captain to check on the whereabouts of Finch and all of his guests that afternoon. He asked Masters to send a picture of Corelli to the New York Police right away.

Then he got back into the car and drove on toward New York. He wanted to find out how Corelli had come to the United States, and, if possible, where the Partisan leader had been for nineteen years. It might be a help.

7.

Michael Shayne reached New York in the afternoon and went to the Italian Consulate. The Consul was helpful. He did not know anything about Corelli, but he cabled Rome immediately.

Shayne left to pick up the picture of Pietro Corelli at New York Police headquarters. Masters had sent it by messenger. With the picture in his hand, Shayne walked out into the shadows of the tall buildings.

He walked through the city for the rest of the day, into the night, and all morning of the next day. He took five hours sleep in the Algonquin Hotel. By noon of the second day Shayne had checked every steamship that had arrived in the last month, every airline between New York and Rome, every terminal and pier. He had talked to crews and sailors.

He learned absolutely nothing. No one had seen a man named Corelli, or one who looked like the picture of the dead man.

The Consul had received prompt service from Rome. Nothing. As far as the Italian authorities in Rome knew, Corelli had died in the war. There was no record of Corelli’s reappearance.

Shayne left the city and drove back to Westhampton. He had called Lucy Hamilton to tell her he did not know when he would return to Miami. It looked like a long case. Lucy said she would send his mail. Shayne drove fast to Westhampton.

At State Police Headquarters, Masters was waiting. The Captain listened sourly as Shayne told him of his search for Corelli.

“We checked that out two days ago,” Masters said. “All of it.”

“Now you tell me,” Shayne said.

“You didn’t ask,” Masters said, and grinned.

“And the Connecticut cops forgot to ask Olney about Corelli,” Shayne said. He told Masters all he had learned from Olney.

“I think he knew more,” Shayne said. “And I think the killer thought he did too. But what?” Shayne told Masters about the death of Olney. “What about our suspects? Did any of them take a long drive yesterday?”

“All of them did,” Masters said, frowning. “When we checked we found that Finch went into New York to talk to his lawyer. Helpman says he drove out to Montauk just for a drive. Macadam drove up to Port Jefferson to take a sail on his yacht; he sailed alone. Myrna Mix claims she went to New York to talk to her agent. He says she showed up okay, but four hours late and drunk. Sally Helpman drove up to Wildwood State Park and swam alone all day. None of them drove a grey coupe.”

“Fine,” Shayne said.

“We got a report from Bonn on Berger,” Masters said. “Seems they were mighty interested. They’ve been watching Berger for years. Something about a little stealing back at the end of the war.”

“Stealing what?” Shayne said.

“Some German war secrets. They wouldn’t say what, because they have to clear it with Washington first. Otherwise, Berger’s record seems aboveboard. He was a Hauptman in the Signal Corps in all the places he says. He got around so much because he had friends in high places.”

“That’s what he’d use as a cover if he was Gestapo,” Shayne said. He told Masters about the mysterious Steiner. Masters was interested.

“I’ll get after Bonn again,” the State Police Captain said.

“What about Corelli?” Shayne said. “He seems to have moved around a lot also, completely unnoticed.”

“All we know is a man who looked like him took a flight to Chicago about six days ago. I figure he visited Maltz.”

“Anyone see him in Westhampton?”

“No one,” Masters said.

“That sounds peculiar. It’s a small town. He didn’t just fly to Finch’s lawn.”

“It’s mighty peculiar, all right,” Masters agreed. “Suppose you tell me.”

Shayne tugged at his earlobe. A small fact was going around in his mind. Corelli’s clothes — Italian made and smelling of salt water. Shayne stood up.

“I’ve got an idea, see you later,” he said.

Shayne drove from the station back across the small bridge to Westhampton Beach and Finch’s house. The two men who had tried to kill him still did not fit. They had looked Italian. Shayne decided to set a trap, with himself as bait.

Stealthily, Shayne left the house. Stealthily, but so that everyone in the house — and they were all there now — would see him. He carried a shovel and a large metal box. He walked quickly to the high sand dunes above the sea.

The surf was calm and breaking lazily on the beach. Far out three boats, trawlers of good size, were fishing. Two of them were obviously bunker boats fishing for menhaden. The third was of a type Shayne did not recognize.

Smiling grimly to himself, Shayne picked a spot that was hidden from the house but was in partial view from the sea. He began to dig. He dug for a half an hour, slowly. Then he buried the metal box and returned to the house. He made sure anyone could see that he no longer had the tin box.

In the house Shayne played casino with Alistair Finch until just before dark. He had seated himself so that he could watch the spot where he had buried the metal box. He was sure nothing would happen until dark, but he sat at the window just to be sure. Nothing happened. Finch went to dress for dinner. The others were all in their rooms.

Shayne went to his room, got his pistol, put it into his pocket, and left the big house. He crouched low behind the dunes and hurried to where he had buried the box. Behind a dune, from where he could observe both the spot where he had buried the box, and the sea and beach, Shayne lay down and held his pistol in his hand.

Far out Shayne could see the important something he had been counting on. The moon was just rising, and the detective could make out the vague shadow of a distant boat. One boat now. It was very late for a fishing boat to be at work.

8.

They seemed to rise up like ancient monsters from the sea. Shayne had been staring at the empty ocean, the lazily breaking waves, and then they rose from nowhere. They came straight out of the sea.

There were two of them. In the pale moonlight they were indistinct. They could have been real monsters. But actually they were two men with heavy air-tanks on their backs, rubber suits, fins on their feet, and what looked like spear guns in their hands.

Shayne held his breath and waited. The two men took off their fins, looked carefully around, and started up the beach toward where Shayne had buried the metal box. Both of them had flipped down their rubber head hoods. They walked steadily but carefully to the dunes and stood just above where Shayne had buried the box.

One of the men was carrying a canvas-wrapped case. He put it down and opened it. He took a shovel from the case and began to dig. The other man said something to him. The first man grunted in answer. They were speaking Italian.

Shayne stood up and leveled his pistol. “Sorry gents, the money’s not there,” he said.

The two men leaped back as if shot. One of them — he was small, and thin, and wore a dark mustache — reached for a pocket that bulged in his rubber suit.

“Hold it!” Shayne snapped.

The small thin man stopped moving. Shayne walked down with his pistol covering both men.

“I thought you’d be watching me,” he said, grinning. “Did my digging interest you?”

The thin man with the mustache swore in Italian. The other, who was short and chunky, said nothing.

“Try English,” Shayne said. “You Partisans speak English, I’m sure.”

The thin one shrugged. “Of course we speak English.”

“Bet you were surprised to see me alive,” Shayne said. “Such careless work. I hope you did better in the war.”

“We were in a hurry,” the chunky man said. “I told you to kill him before you threw him into the water, Marcello.”

“Shut your mouth!” Marcello said.

Shayne smiled. “Attempted murder is a bad charge in this country. You want to tell me about it?”

Marcello hesitated. Then the Italian shrugged an eloquent Latin shrug.

“We made a mistake. The car, you understand? It was his car, that Major Finch. We thought you were him.”

“Try again,” Shayne said.

“It is true,” Marcello said. “We think you are Major Finch, the swine, and then when we hit you and see you are not, we think you are in it with him anyway.”

“You think he killed Corelli?” Shayne asked.

“Who else?” Marcello said. “Twice the swine kill Pietro!”

Shayne waved his pistol. “Okay, now sit down and tell me the whole story. All of it.”

The two Italians looked at each other. They both shrugged and sat down. Shayne sat on the sand facing them. Sitting down they were all out of sight from the house and the beach. But Shayne kept his ears cocked for any sound while the thin Italian with the mustache talked.

“That Major Finch he betrayed Corelli,” Marcello said. “The money it disappear, you know? We tell the Americans about it, but they say there is no proof. What can we do? We are poor Italians, and Major Finch is important man. So we try to forget. For nineteen years we try. And that is a very long time.

“Then, one day maybe two, three months ago, Corelli he come back. He was lucky. The Germans who captured him turned him over to regular German Army unit. Those Germans do not know he is great Partisan leader. They put him with many other poor Italians and send him to labor camp in the east of Germany. At end of war Russians liberate him. Corelli identifies himself. They do not treat him well until they check and find he is Pietro Corelli, a great Communist Partisan.

“When they find out who he is, they send him to Russia. He stay there nineteen years. All the time he is asking about Major Finch, Captain Maltz, and that Sergeant Olney. He is sure that one of them betrayed him. He waits. He thinks about all the money. At last he decides to leave Russia. Corelli says Russia is not so good now. They don’t like him any more in Russia because he was a Stalin man.

“He gets away and he comes home. He finds three of us from the Partisan unit. He has plenty money, but he tells us this one who betrayed him must have all the money. If it is Major Finch, we get even more because he is so rich now. Corelli he says he will give us our share.

“So he buys a boat, good fishing boat, and we come over here. Corelli is afraid Italians will put him in jail as traitor or foreign Communist if he tells who he is before he gets the money. With the money he can prove he was betrayed, and, besides, money will buy anything.

“We sail over here. Corelli goes to see Captain Maltz and Sergeant Olney. Then he goes there to the big house to talk to Major Finch. Then he is killed. We know it must be Major Finch. Corelli must have found out and the Major killed him.

“The other two, they did not kill him. That is how we know it is the Major.”

“Then why did you kill Maltz and Olney?” Shayne said.

“Olney? Maltz? No. It is true we try to kill the major, because we were angry. But when we see we have not killed the major, we think. Why kill him, let us get the money first. We see you bury something. We think it is the money.”

Shayne studied the two men. The thin one with the mustache seemed nervous, but Shayne felt he was telling the truth. The chunky one had not spoken. They did not seem like the kind who would kill without an excellent reason, such as revenge or cash. Still, revenge could be the motive, a vendetta for Corelli.

“You two can be jailed for a long time,” Shayne said to the Italians. “Now, maybe I’ll forget about the attempt on me, and about the illegal entry into the United States. I said maybe. If you boys come clean all the way.”

Marcello, the spokesman, shrugged. “What you want to know?”

“You said Corelli didn’t know for sure which of the three Americans betrayed him,” Shayne said. “What made him think he was betrayed at all, and why only those three?”

Marcello nodded. “All right, I tell you. We were a unit, yes? These Americans they are with us. They have much money for us. This Major Finch he is in charge. One day Corelli he come to us, he say the major wants us to attack a German barrack. Twelve of us! We are to attack a whole barrack, and kill all the Germans.

“Corelli he says the American major is crazy. The job is a suicide, no? We do not like it. Corelli says we cannot say no, because the American major says if we don’t attack we don’t get money. We got to have money to pay for food, to help our wives, to help the poor.

“Corelli says the job is so bad he thinks maybe the American major is trying to get him killed or captured. He says if anything strange happens to him when we attack the barrack, we should tell everyone what we know about the American major.

“Two days before we are supposed to attack we are all scared. I never see us so scared. Then, two days before, Corelli he is out on a routine job. He visit the village for wine. Corelli goes. I go. We are on the way back. Corelli is behind. Then we see the Major Finch and Captain Maltz and the Sergeant Olney.

“They are across the valley, maybe two hundred yards away. They wave. Corelli he goes to see. He gets maybe one hundred yards and the Germans are waiting; I run. I get away. Later the Major, the Captain, and the Sergeant come back. Corelli was captured they tell us. Two days later we all hear. Corelli is dead, shot.

“I tell Americans one of those three men, maybe all three, betray Corelli, set trap. Nineteen years we wait. Corelli comes back, and now he is dead again.”

Shayne could see the whole picture. An isolated unit behind enemy lines. Italians and Americans in uneasy alliance. The fear and need of the moment. And someone had ordered a suicide mission? Why?

Olney had said the mission was a suicide job. Finch had said the same. Now the three Italians. Only their stories did not agree. Finch and Olney said the attack on the barrack had been Corelli’s idea. The Italians said it was an American idea. Someone was lying.

“Tell me about Steiner?” Shayne said.

The thin Italian said, “Steiner? Who is he?”

“You never heard of Steiner?”

The thin man shrugged. “No, I never hear.”

The chunky Italian said, “I no hear.”

Shayne pulled his earlobe thoughtfully. They both seemed to be telling the truth.

Shayne heard a faint noise behind him. He whirled, and climbed swiftly to the top of the dune. A hundred yards away in the dark he thought he saw the shadow of a man moving. Then the shadow was gone. It had looked very much like the same man who had killed Olney. Just below where he stood on the dune, Shayne saw depressions in the sand.

Someone had been listening. Someone who had crawled up in total silence. Shayne motioned to the Italians to walk ahead of him. He marched the Italians to the house. He led them into the hall and called Masters. While he was waiting for Masters, Finch came into the hall.

“Marcello! Candio!” Finch cried. “What the hell...”

“The two men you didn’t know who jumped me,” Shayne said.

The thin Italian, Marcello, shouted, “Betrayer! Traitor!”

The chunky Italian spat on the thick carpet of the hall. Finch sat down hard in a chair.

“Get them out of here!” Finch said.

“In a minute,” Shayne said. “They bother you?”

“Get them away from me, Mike!” Finch shouted. “You hear me?”

Finch was almost hysterical. Shayne watched the industrialist. The man was far too affected by men who had simply accused him of something he said he hadn’t done. Finch appeared to be on the verge of attacking the two men.

“Take it easy, Ally,” Shayne said.

“You’re fired, Mike!” Finch cried. “Do you understand? I hired you, and I can fire you. I don’t want you around, I—” The man was raving hysterically now.

Shayne reached out and slapped Finch. Finch stopped and stared. Then the industrialist began to cry. Finch was still crying in the hallway when Masters arrived. The State Police captain looked at Finch.

“Two guests for your calaboose,” Shayne said.

“What charge?” Masters wanted to know.

Shayne looked at the two men. “Illegal entry,” he said. “I want them around a few days, okay?”

Masters nodded. “I can hold them a few days, I suppose. No other charge?”

“Not right now,” Shayne said.

The thin Italian, Marcello, nodded to Shayne. There was a certain gratitude in the eyes of the Italian. The charge could have been much worse.

Masters took the two men away. Finch had vanished somewhere. Shayne rubbed his big jaw for a moment. It was beginning to make some sense, but he had two more things to find out.

9.

After the two Italians had gone, the rest of the night was uneventful. Finch did not appear again. Macadam got quietly drunk by himself on the enormous terrace. The Italian trouble seemed to have disturbed Macadam, and Shayne kept his eye on the yachtsman.

Myrna Mix got noisily drunk, as usual. Helpman took a long walk alone. Berger and Laura Finch went off together for a drive. Sally Helpman did not leave the house. She sat and watched television all night.

Shayne went to his room, and with a cognac in his hand sat in the oversized armchair cogitating on his analysis of the case. The case boiled down to two questions: Had Finch betrayed Corelli and then killed him when he showed up again? If Finch had not killed Corelli, who else knew Corelli? They all could have known Corelli.

One thing was certain. Whoever had killed Corelli had thought that Corelli was dead. Therefore it had to be someone who had known Corelli in Italy and had also known Corelli had been captured and, presumably, shot.

The next morning, Shayne puzzled over this all the way into New York along the sunny Southern State Parkway. He did not strike bad traffic until he reached Cross Island Parkway and turned north. He went into Manhattan through the Queens-Midtown Tunnel. He drove straight to Finch’s lawyer.

Alistair Finch’s lawyer was an old man. His name was Whitestone Gibbs, and he had been the lawyer for the Finch family for fifty years. The old man was brusque.

“All right, Shayne, I’ve heard about you. I don’t like petty legal peeping toms.”

“And I don’t like shysters,” Shayne said. The redhead eased his big frame into a deep leather chair in Gibbs’ fine office. Shayne smiled. “But then, you’re no more a shyster than I am a peeping tom, are you? Why trade insults for no reason at all?”

Gibbs glared. Then the white-haired old man laughed.

“All right, Shayne. We’ll play it clean.” The old man sat down. “What dirt do you want to know about my client?”

“Does he have any dirt to find?”

“Who doesn’t,” Gibbs said evenly. “I advised him against hiring you, you know, when he asked my advice.”

“He’s smarter than I thought,” Shayne said, “to ask you.”

“I’ll flatter any man who flatters me,” Gibbs said. “What is it, his women? Alistair has three passions, Shayne, but murder isn’t one of them. He is not a violent man despite his war record. As a matter of fact, I imagine he got more medals for less killing of the enemy than any man in history. His forte was clean, safe work. He has courage.”

“What are his passions?” Shayne said.

“Blonde women too young for him, plenty of money and his social position that money helps him keep, and the reputation for being a patriotic industrial genius,” Gibbs said.

“You’ve given him three good reasons for killing Corelli,” Shayne said. “That is, if he betrayed Pietro Corelli. I am presuming Finch told you the whole story!”

“Most of it,” the lawyer said. “And what I told you about Finch would also do for his partner, Kurt Berger, just as well. Berger likes money, he likes position, he likes being the industrial tycoon, and he likes young and blonde women. In fact, he likes the same young blonde woman, I’m very much afraid.”

“But he didn’t know, or betray, Corelli,” Shayne said. “If Finch betrayed Corelli over there in Italy, he could be made to smell very bad.”

Gibbs agreed. “I doubt if they could touch him, but the Government would put a lot of pressure to get him out of his own company. That I will concede. A traitor makes a bad patriotic industrialist.”

“What about the money? If Finch took the money, Italy and the United States might wonder about his whole operation.”

Gibbs looked at a point above Shayne’s head. “You know, Shayne, I’ve always wondered how Kurt Berger got so high in Alistair’s company so quickly. Berger’s a sly one. There he was, a supposedly unimportant captain in a defeated army, tainted with Nazism, and within two years after the war he owned half of a large international company.”

“Money?” Shayne said.

“Where would Berger get money? On the other hand, how did Berger happen to contact Alistair and go so far so quickly?”

“You’re suggesting that Berger somehow got the Partisan money, found out about Finch at the same time, and looked him up? Is that it?”

“It is a bit of a coincidence that Berger was a Nazi officer, and Alistair operated within the German lines,” Gibbs said. He looked at Shayne. “I suppose you’ve found out that Bonn is interested in Berger’s career?”

“You don’t miss much,” Shayne said.

“No, not much,” Gibbs said. “I believe that Berger stole something from someone back in those days.”

“And you know if Finch needed money before the war,” Shayne said.

The white-haired old man frowned. His lined and weather-beaten face became severe. Shayne watched the old man struggling with himself over something.

“Did he need money?” Shayne said.

Gibbs stared straight ahead. “I’ve been the Finch lawyer a long time, Shayne. I can’t answer that.”

“You mean you won’t? I think the police could find out very quickly,” Shayne said.

“I suppose they could,” Gibbs said. “Let me say this much, Shayne. Old man Finch, Alistair’s father, was not a good businessman. He was a financial wizard, but he was careless about money. It seems a contradiction, but it isn’t. The old man loved finance, the manipulation of money and goods. But he did not care about personal money.”

“When Alistair came out of the Army,” Shayne said, “how much money did he have? No, I’ll phrase that question differently. How much money should he have had?”

Gibbs shook his head. “I can’t tell you, Shayne. If the police want to know, they can go to court.” He turned to look at Shayne. “But I will tell you that two years before the war the Finch company was in bad shape. Then, when he went into the Army, Alistair put all his money into war bonds. At least he said he did.”

“Did anyone ever see the actual bonds?” Shayne said.

“No,” Gibbs said. “They were in a safety deposit box; he had the key with him.”

“Thank you,” Shayne said.

Gibbs watched Shayne stand up to leave. “Alistair is not a killer, Shayne.”

“No killer ever is,” Shayne said grimly.

10.

Shayne drove fast out of the city toward the east. The sun was at his back all the way. It had still not set by the time he reached the State Police barracks. Masters was in his office.

“No trace of the guy who killed Olney,” Masters said. “Your two Italians are safe and cooling off. Bonn says that Kurt Berger could have been in Italy at the time. Records are bad from Nazi days. But he had a personal friend on Kesselring’s staff. He was at Peenemunde for a time, something he never mentioned.”

“That’s the rocket development station?” Shayne said.

“It was,” Masters said.

“What about the elusive Steiner?”

Masters shook his head. “Nothing. Or just about nothing. Steiner was a real secret Gestapo agent. Worked all sides of the line. Absolutely no record seems to have ever been kept. No picture, no description, no file at all. The Bonn people aren’t even sure Steiner was one man.

“They do have three facts we could use. Steiner was working in Italy at about the right time. They don’t know the job, or where, or how, or if anything happened. No report. The only reason they know Steiner was in Italy is that in one of Kesselring’s intelligence reports the name is mentioned in connection with an accidental bombing of a hospital.

“Steiner was known to specialize in Partisan work. Whatever or whoever Steiner was, he was an expert in busting up Partisans. The other things are that Steiner was reported to have broken an arm badly, and that Steiner once got inside Auschwitz to ferret out a hiding Jewish scientist. That means that Steiner probably has a number tattooed on his arm.”

“Or has a scar where it was removed,” Shayne said.

The big detective sat and thought. He pulled on his earlobe and narrowed his steely grey eyes. A theory was taking shape. The key was the deaths of Maltz and Olney. They were the only two men Corelli had actually talked to in America, if Finch was telling the truth. Shayne decided it was time to get the truth from Finch.

“Thanks, Masters, I may have something for you in a few hours. Come to the Finch house about nine o’clock. Okay?”

“I can use something, I’ll be there,” Masters said.

Shayne drove back to the big house on the beach. The road was deserted. But as Shayne approached the house he had a definite impression that someone was watching him from an upstairs window.

He parked the car and walked in. He went up to change for dinner. Dinner was strained and quiet. They all seemed to be watching him except Kurt Berger who spent his time watching Laura Finch. Berger seemed to have nerves of iron. A trained spy would have nerves like that, Shayne mused.

After dinner Shayne followed them all into the living room. It was ten minutes to nine. Shayne lighted a cigarette and stood in front of Alistair Finch.

“All right, Ally, now really tell me about Corelli,” Shayne said.

Finch seemed to flinch away as if he had been expecting to be asked that. Quite obviously he had no intention of answering.

“Go to hell, Mike,” Finch said. “I should have known better than to hire you.”

“You made a mistake, all right, if you wanted everything to stay top secret,” Shayne said. “I’ve got a hunch at least two other people in this room know besides me and you. Anyway, there are three murders to worry about now, and they all had one thing in common. The killer knew about you and Corelli.”

Finch snapped, “I’m completely innocent, Shayne. Just remember that.”

“Tell me the story,” Shayne said. He looked at his watch. As he did so, he noticed Sally Helpman had come into the room. Shayne had not seen her go out. The tall, bony woman sat in a chair near her husband and smiled at Shayne. Masters would arrive in six minutes.

“Tell it yourself,” Finch said.

Shayne nodded. “Okay, I will. I figure it goes something like this. You and Maltz and Olney and your other three men were in with Corelli’s Partisans. Everything was smooth until one day Corelli told you he’d planned a mission you knew was sheer suicide.

“Maybe you weren’t sure if Corelli was just nuts or a traitor, but you knew it would be curtains for everyone. So you had to stop Corelli. You’re not a killer, Ally, and I don’t think Maltz or Olney were. Anyway, you like being the nice hero too much to risk all the trouble involved if you held a kangaroo court and executed Corelli.

“You couldn’t even prove your suspicions, and you couldn’t trust the other Partisans to believe you. So it was go through with a job you knew was a bad one, or get rid of Corelli. You tipped the Germans somehow and set up the ambush of Corelli.

“You figured they’d kill him, and you’d be safe. Or they’d show their hand and a deal by letting him live. You didn’t figure on Marcello seeing you, but you had to go through with it. So in reality, you betrayed Corelli to save your unit and the Partisans. You were a hero, Ally.”

For a long time, a full minute, Finch said nothing. No one moved in the room. Berger was looking at Laura Finch who was looking at her husband.

Finally Finch sighed. “How did you figure it, Mike?”

“It had to be,” Shayne said. “Maltz and Olney had to know about it, and they never talked. They must have approved. Both you and Olney said Corelli thought up the suicide job. Besides, I believed that you both thought Corelli was dead. And you’re just not a killer, Ally.”

“Thanks, Mike, but—” Finch began.

Shayne nodded. “But you couldn’t resist the money. I believe you when you say you didn’t know about the money when Corelli got caught. That was another thing that tipped me that Corelli was the liar, not you. Corelli had that money. Only he didn’t have it when he was caught. You found it later and you couldn’t resist. You’ve felt like a traitor ever since.”

Shayne fell silent, waiting.

“I found it later,” Finch said dully, his eyes on the floor. “I was going through Corelli’s papers and I found this note. It said the money would be under a certain tree. I dug it up. After that I couldn’t look anyone in the face, but I had to have that money! I was broke, the company was going under as soon as I got home and—”

Shayne said, “What else was on that note?”

“A name,” Finch said. Finch looked at Shayne. “Just a name. Steiner.”

11.

Alistair Finch shrugged. “Then I knew Corelli was a traitor. I had heard of Steiner. I wish to God I hadn’t taken that money. I had to get rid of Corelli, but I didn’t have to take the money. I can pay it back now. I’ve done good work, but I’ll never live it down. I hoped, when I called you, I could keep it quiet. I should have known better, Mike.”

Shayne looked at his watch. Masters would arrive any minute. Shayne turned to face Kurt Berger.

“How did you find out about Finch and Corelli?” Shayne said to Berger. “That was your hold on Finch, wasn’t it?”

Berger smiled a cool smile. “I had a connection on Kesselring’s staff. I found out a little about Finch and Corelli. It was in a report that an American had betrayed Corelli. Corelli was supposed to have been shot, but there was an error. I destroyed the record after I photographed it. I needed an industrial connection in America.”

“Kurt had a good deal,” Finch said. “But I might have turned him down except that he knew about Corelli.”

“Berger had the formula for the rocket additive,” Shayne said.

“Of course,” Berger admitted. “Just the basic formula. Finch modified it. I did not exactly steal it. I copied it. Bonn merely wants to know how I had access to it. That is my secret.”

“Steiner would have had access,” Shayne said. “Steiner got around. The way I see it, Corelli made a deal with Steiner — half the money each and safe conduct for Corelli. Steiner wanted safety by then. He was supposed to be smart, and the end was in sight for Germany.

“I figure Corelli contacted Steiner and made a deal to lead his unit into a trap at that barrack. Then Steiner would save Corelli and they’d disappear with the money. Steiner knew no one could identify him, except Corelli. He probably planned to get rid of Corelli.

“But Finch loused it all up by betraying Corelli two days earlier. Corelli went to Russia and probably figured one American was in it with Steiner for the money. So he came looking for Finch and Maltz and Olney. Only Corelli ran into Steiner right here. Steiner killed him. Then Steiner killed Olney and Maltz. The only motive that made sense was that Corelli recognized someone.

“Even if Finch or Maltz or Olney had betrayed Corelli and taken the money, killing him would only have made it worse. They would have known Corelli wouldn’t come alone. The others would know about the betrayal, because they’d made the charge after the war. But if Corelli had made a deal, then Corelli would know what Steiner looked like.

“It had to be the answer. It explained why Corelli told his men that it was the Americans who cooked up the suicide attack. It was Corelli’s idea to get rid of everyone and get away with the money. And only Steiner would have wanted to kill Corelli. I don’t expect Steiner would live long if his own people ever found him.”

Shayne looked at Berger. The blond German had gone pale under his smile.

“Let me see your arm, Berger,” Shayne said. “It will either clear — or convict you.”

In the room no one moved. They all stared at Kurt Berger. The blond German was still smiling, but the smile was only on his mouth now. Shayne looked at his watch. Masters was already ten minutes late! Shayne lowered his shoulder slightly and fingered his pistol in his pocket.

“My arm?” Berger said.

“Steiner had a number from Auschwitz,” Shayne said. “I want to see both your arms. I want to see a number or a scar.”

“Scar? Number?” Berger said. “I have no scar or—”

Max Helpman had half risen from his seat. His face was red with fury. Shayne swung toward Helpman.

“A scar, Shayne? Low, on the right wrist? Maybe a faint trace of what looked like writing or figures still—” The shot rang out in the silence of the room with a sound like the explosion of a bomb. Helpman jerked stiff. The bald man stared at Shayne. Then Helpman fell on his face.

Finch and Berger started toward him. Shayne was not looking at Helpman at all. He was looking at Sally Helpman. The tall, slender woman stood with the small pistol smoking in her right hand.

“Don’t bother,” Sally Helpman said to Berger and Finch. “I don’t miss. He’s dead. I never liked him anyway, the American pig. All of you, back! Against that wall. Quick!” Shayne made a faint motion with his arm.

“No, Shayne!” Sally Helpman said. “I’ll kill you in a minute. You did very well on this. We could have used a man like you. Is this what you wanted to see?”

The tall, slender woman held out her right wrist. She pulled back the sleeve. There was a scar about two inches long on the wrist. It was faintly discolored.

“I told them the Auschwitz job was too risky for me. I was far too valuable to be marked in any way. I was the one Gestapo agent no one ever knew — not even Hitler! But they were fools. You guessed correctly, Shayne. I made the deal with Corelli. Finch ruined it and those idiots in Italy sent Corelli away before I could silence him.

“I met Helpman in the hospital where I was posing as an American nurse. It was my chance to run for cover. I had to take it. I knew we were beaten. I was safe in America until Corelli came here. I had to kill him. I killed them all.”

Shayne said, “I almost admire you. You’re a very clever woman. Why didn’t you kill me and the Italians out there on the dunes? You were there, Mrs. Helpman. Why?”

“Colonel Steiner!” the deep voice of the woman snapped. “I was a full Colonel in the Gestapo!” Then the woman smiled a thin smile. “Female vanity, I apologize, Shayne. You and the Italians? I heard, they knew nothing about me. I do not kill for nothing.

“And if you are stalling for time, Shayne, don’t bother. Masters will be at least another five minutes. You see, I raised the drawbridge. He will have to go the long way, by another bridge. Now, if you will all line up I will—”

A siren sounded in the distance. Masters was no fool. The woman listened. Then she shrugged.

“He made good time. You are lucky. I have my time schedule.”

The woman vanished through the open French doors. Shayne started after her in a split second. Finch ran for the windows. Finch was a step ahead of Shayne when the window blew up. Shayne was bowled over.

When he got to his feet the French doors were a shambles and Finch was stretched out flat on his back. Shayne bent over the industrialist. Finch was badly hurt but alive. Shayne dashed out the doors.

A motor started not far away. A boat motor. Shayne dashed toward the water. He had gone a hundred yards and was just coming up over the dunes when his feet were caught and he fell head-long. There was a sharp pain in his right calf.

Swearing, Shayne disentangled himself from the barbed wire. He reached the top of the dune just in time to see the faint shadow of a small boat fade into the night.

By the time Shayne returned to the house, Masters was there with his men. The Captain was very angry.

“Damned drawbridge was up!” Masters said. “The controls were locked and there was no operator in sight.”

“She was very smart,” Shayne said. “She fooled me. I expect you’ll find the operator dead somewhere.”

“She? She who?” Masters said.

Shayne explained it all to Masters. The ambulance came for Finch. Laura Finch went with her husband. Berger shrugged and smiled and crossed to the liquor cabinet for a drink.

Macadam had been drinking for ten minutes, and Myrna Mix was matching him glass for glass.

“The thing that made me sure it was Steiner was the killing of Maltz and Olney.” Shayne explained. “You see, the only thing that Finch, Maltz, and Olney had in common was that they all knew Corelli. And the only thing that Finch did not have in common with Olney and Maltz was that he had not seen or talked with Corelli. Corelli never got to Finch. If he had, Finch would be dead.

“Steiner, or whatever her real name is, was a real pro. She did not kill without a reason, without something to be gained. When the Italians and myself were sitting ducks she left us alone. That was another hint that started the wheels turning. We had been talking about Steiner, and the Italians knew nothing.

“So I guessed that Corelli had been killed because he knew who Steiner was. Maltz and Olney were killed simply because they had talked to Corelli, and Steiner had no way of knowing what Corelli had told them. She was taking no chances.

“Steiner, or Mrs. Helpman, didn’t even know Corelli was still alive. It must have been quite a shock when she saw him. She had a good cover. No one would suspect an American nurse, a woman, the wife of an American ex-OSS man. But she knew that if we once even guessed, even suspected, we would check into her fake American background. We’d find there never was a Sally someone who was a nurse in Italy.

“She counted on no questions ever being asked, on the fact that everyone assumed that Steiner was a man or more than one man, and on her marriage to Helpman. That was one more good step of cover for her. I can see why she grabbed it in Italy. I’ll bet a year’s income that when you check back you’ll hit a dead end at that American Hospital in Italy in nineteen forty-four.”

Masters still looked amazed.

“How did you figure it was her, though? I mean, you knew it was Steiner, but why her?”

Shayne laughed. “I didn’t know it was her. I figured it had to be her, or Helpman, or Macadam. Finch was too involved in all of it to be Steiner, Laura was too young, and Berger had stolen that formula. Steiner would never have stolen so obvious a thing. I just used Berger to help smoke her out. I admit she caught me by surprise, and that drawbridge trick was good. She was thinking all the time.

“Of course, the scar did it. I should have guessed a woman like her, though. She is big enough, and has a deep enough voice, to pass as a man. That’s what made her such a good agent. She had that get-away planned like a military operation. After all, she was a colonel.”

“She won’t get far,” Masters growled. “The Coast Guard’s out now.”

Shayne shook his head, “She’s had it planned too long, Masters. They won’t get her that easily.”

By morning they had not found Sally Helpman, alias Colonel Steiner. Just after dawn the State Police found her boat less than a mile down the coast. There were helicopter tire marks near it. Master’s notified Washington, and Shayne caught the jet back to Miami.

Seven months later Shayne was in his office when Lucy Hamilton brought in the newspaper. There was a small item on a back page. It said that a woman known as Sally Helpman had been found dead in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It said she was a famous German agent known only as Steiner.

Two days later Shayne got a letter from Masters. It told him that the FBI had finally tracked the woman to Tulsa. She had been working as a clerk in a bank, disguised as a man. No one knew who she was, and everyone had liked her. When the FBI carefully closed in, they found her sitting alone in her room smiling at them. She had taken poison and died in ten minutes.

“They traced her back to that hospital and no farther,” Shayne said to Lucy. “They never did find out her real name.”

“No name at all,” Lucy said. “She was a horrible woman, but at least she should have a name.”

“Just Steiner,” Shayne said. “Colonel Steiner. I think that’s the way she would have wanted it. She thought of herself as a soldier, I suppose. But she was just a killer, Lucy — just a paid killer.”

Shayne read the letter again and turned back to his quiet, routine cases.