The twisted thing

Chapter 7

Downstairs I dialed the operator and asked for the highway patrol. She connected me with headquarters and a sharp voice crackled at me. “Sergeant Price, please.”

“He’s not here right now, is there a message?”

“Yeah, this is Mike Hammer. Tell him that Miss Malcom, the York kid’s nurse, was shot through the shoulder by a .32 caliber bullet. Her condition isn’t serious and she’ll be able to answer questions in the morning. The shot was fired from somewhere on the grounds but the one who fired it escaped.”

“I got it. Anything else?”

“Yes, but I’ll give it to him in person. Have they found any trace of Grange yet?”

“They picked up her hat along the shore of the inlet. Sergeant Price told me to tell you if you called.”

“Thanks. They still looking for her?”

“A boat’s grappling the mouth of the channel right now.”

“Okay, if I get time I’ll call back later.” The cop thanked me and hung up. Harvey waited to see whether I was going out or not, and when I headed for the door got my hat.

“Will you be back tonight, sir?”

“I don’t know. Lock the door anyway.”

“Yes, sir.”

I tooled my car up the drive and honked for Henry to come out and open the gates. Although there was a light on in his cottage, Henry didn’t appear. I climbed out again and walked in the place. The gatekeeper was sound asleep in his chair, a paper folded across his lap.

After I shook him and swore a little his eyes opened, but not the way a waking person’s do. They were heavy and dull, he was barely able to raise his head. The shock of seeing me there did more to put some life in him than the shaking. He blinked a few times and ran his hand over his forehead.

“I’m . . . sorry, sir. Can’t understand myself . . . lately. These awful headaches, and going to sleep like that.”

“What’s the matter with you, Henry?”

“It’s . . . nothing, sir. Perhaps it’s the aspirin.” He pointed to a bottle of common aspirin tablets on the table. I picked it up and looked at the label. A well-known brand. I looked again, then shook some out on my palm. There were no manufacturer’s initials on the tablets at all. There were supposed to be, I used enough of them myself.

“Where did you get these, Henry?”

“Mr. York gave them to me last week. I had several fierce headaches. The aspirin relieved me.”

“Did you take these the night of the kidnapping?”

His eyes drifted to mine, held. “Why, yes. Yes, I did.”

“Better lay off them. They aren’t good for you. Did you hear anything tonight?”

“No, I don’t believe I did. Why?”

“Oh, no reason. Mind if I take some of these with me?” He shook his head and I pocketed a few tablets. “Stay here,” I said, “I’ll open the gates.”

Henry nodded and was asleep before I left the room. That was why the kidnapper got in so easily. That was why York left and the killer left and I left without being heard at the gate.

It was a good bet that someone substituted sleeping tablets for the aspirins. Oh, brother, the killer was getting cuter all the time.

But the pieces were coming together one by one. They didn’t fit the slots, but they were there, ready to be assembled as soon as someone said the wrong word, or made a wrong move. The puzzle was closer to the house now, but it was outside, too. Who wanted Henry to be asleep while Ruston was snatched? Who wanted it so bad that his habits were studied and sleeping pills slipped into his aspirin bottle? If someone was that thorough they could have given him something to cause the headaches to start with. And who was in league with that person on the outside?

A wrong move or a wrong word. Someone would slip sometime. Maybe they just needed a little push. I had Junior where the hair was short now, that meant I had the old lady, too. Jump the fence to the other side now. Alice. She said tsk, tsk when I told them York was dead. Sweet thing.

I had to make another phone call to trooper headquarters to collect the list of addresses from the statements. Price still hadn’t come in, but evidently he had passed the word to give me any help I needed, for there was no hesitation about handing me the information.

Alice lived west of town in a suburb called Wooster. It was little less than a crossroad off the main highway, but from the size of the mansions that dotted the estates it was a refuge of the wealthy. The town itself boasted a block of storefronts whose windows showed nothing but the best. Above each store was an apartment. The bricks were white, the metalwork bright and new. There was an aura of dignity and pomp in the way they nestled there. Alice lived above the fur shop, two stores from the end.

I parked between a new Ford and a Caddy convertible. There were no lights on in Alice’s apartment, but I didn’t doubt that she’d want to see me. I slid out and went into the tiny foyer and looked at the bell. It was hers. For a good five seconds I held my finger on it, then opened the door and went up the steps. Before I reached the top, Alice, in the last stages of closing her robe, opened the door, sending a shaft of light in my face.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” she exclaimed. “You certainly pick an awful time to visit your friends.”

“Aren’t you glad to see me?” I grinned.

“Silly, come on in. Of course I’m glad to see you.”

“I hate to get you up like this.”

“You didn’t. I was lying in bed reading, that’s all.” She paused just inside the door. “This isn’t a professional visit, is it?”

“Hardly. I finally got sick and tired of the whole damn setup and decided to give my mind a rest.”

She shut the door. “Kiss me.”

I pecked her on the nose. “Can’t I even take my hat off?”

“Oooo,” she gasped, “the way you said that!”

I dropped my slicker and hat on a rack by the door and trailed her to the living room. “Have a drink?” she asked me.

I made with three fingers together. “So much, and ginger.”

When she went for the ice I took the place in with a sweep of my head. Swell, strictly swell. It was better than the best Park Avenue apartment I’d ever been in, even if it was above a store. The furniture cost money and the oils on the wall even more. There were books and books, first editions and costly manuscripts. York had done very well by his niece.

Alice came back with two highballs in her hand. “Take one,” she offered. I picked the big one. We toasted silently, she with the devil in her eyes, and drank.

“Good?”

I bobbed my head. “Old stuff, isn’t it?”

“Over twenty years. Uncle Rudy gave it to me.” She put her drink down and turned off the overhead lights, switching on a shaded table lamp instead. From a cabinet she selected an assortment of records and put them in the player. “Atmosphere,” she explained impishly.

I didn’t see why we needed it. When she had the lamp at her back the robe became transparent enough to create its own atmosphere. She was all woman, this one, bigger than I thought. Her carriage was seduction itself and she knew it. The needle came down and soft Oriental music filled the room. I closed my eyes and visualized women in scarlet veils dancing for the sultan. The sultan was me. Alice said something I didn’t catch and left.

When she came back she was wearing the cobwebs. Nothing else.

“You aren’t too tired tonight?”

“Not tonight,” I said.

She sat down beside me. “I think you were faking the last time, and after all my trouble.”

Her skin was soft and velvety-looking under the cobwebs, a vein in her throat pulsed steadily. I let my eyes follow the contours of her shoulders and down her body. Impertinent breasts that mocked my former hesitance, a flat stomach waiting for the touch to set off the fuse, thighs that wanted no part of shielding cloth.

I had difficulty getting it out. “I had to be tired.”

She crossed her legs, the cobwebs parted. “Or crazy,” she added.

I finished the drink off in a hurry and held out the glass for another. I needed something to steady my nerves.

Ice clinked, glass rang against glass. She measured the whiskey and poured it in. This time she pulled the coffee table over so she wouldn’t have to get up again. The record changed and the gentle strains of a violin ran through the Hungarian Rhapsody. Alice moved closer to me. I could feel the warmth of her body through my clothes. The drinks went down. When the record changed again she had her head on my shoulder.

“Have you been working hard, Mike?”

“No, just legwork.”

Her hair brushed my face; soft, lovely hair that smelled of jasmine. “Do you think they’ll find her?”

I stroked her neck, letting my fingers bite in just a little. “I think so. Sidon is too small a town to try to hide in. Did you know her well?”

“Ummm. What? Oh, no. She was very distant to all of us.”

More jasmine. She buried her face in my shoulder. “You’re a thing yourself,” I grinned. “Shouldn’t you be wearing black?”

“No. It doesn’t become me.”

I blew in her ear. “No respect for the dead.”

“Uncle never liked all those post-funeral displays anyway.”

“Well, you should do something since you were his favorite niece. He left you a nice lump of cash.”

She ran her fingers through my hair, bending my head close to hers. “Did he?” Lightly, her tongue ran over her lips, a pink, darting temptation.

“Uh-huh.” We rubbed noses, getting closer all the time. “I saw his will. He must have liked you.”

“Just you like me, Mike, that’s all I want.” Her mouth opened slightly. I couldn’t take any more. I grabbed her in my arms and crushed her lips against mine. She was a living heartbeat, an endless fire that burned hot and deep. Her arms went about me, holding tightly. Once, out of sheer passion, she bit me like a cat would bite.

She tore her mouth away and pressed it against my neck, then rubbed her shoulders from side to side against my chest until the cobwebs slipped down her arms and pinioned them there. I touched her flesh, bruised her until she moaned in painful ecstasy, demanding more. Her fingers fumbled with the buttons of my coat. Somehow I got it off and draped it over a chair, then she started on my tie. “So many clothes, Mike, you have so many clothes.” She kissed me again.

“Carry me inside.” I scooped her off the couch, cradling her in my arms, the cobwebs trailing beneath her. She pointed with her finger, her eyes almost closed. “In there.”

No lights. The comforter was cool and fluffy. She told me to stay there and kissed my eyes shut. I felt her leave the bed and go into the living room. The record changed and a louder piece sent notes of triumph cascading into the room. Agonizing minutes passed waiting until she returned, bearing two half-full glasses on a tray like a gorgeous slave girl. Gone now were even the cobwebs.

“To us, Mike, and this night.” We drank. She came to me with arms outstretched. The music came and went, piece after piece, but we heard nothing nor cared. Then there was no sound at all except the breathing.

It was well into morning before we stirred. Alice said no, but I had to leave. She coaxed, but now the sight of her meant less and I could refuse. I found my shoes, laced them, and tucked the covers under her chin.

“Kiss me.” She held her mouth up.

“No.”

“Just one?”

“All right, just one.” She wasn’t making it any too easy. I pushed her back against the pillows and said good night.

“You’re so ugly, Mike. So ugly you’re beautiful.”

“Thanks, so are you.” I waved and left her. In the living room I picked my coat up from the floor and dusted it off. My aim was getting worse, I thought I had it on the chair.

On the way out I dropped the night latch and shut the door softly. Alice, lovely, lovely Alice. She had a body out of this world. I ran down the stairs pulling on my slicker. Outside the sheen of the rain glimmered from the streets. I gave the brim of my hat a final tug and stepped out.

There were no flashes of light, no final moments of distortion. Simply that one sickening, hollow-sounding smash on the back of the head and the sidewalk came up and hit me in the face.

I was sick. It ran down my chin and wet my shirt. The smell of it made me sicker. My head was a huge balloon that kept getting bigger and bigger until it was taut and ready to burst into a thousand fragments. Something cold and metallic jarred my face repeatedly. I was cramped, horribly cramped. Even when I tried to move I stayed cramped. Ropes bit into my wrists leaving hempen splinters imbedded under the skin, burning like darts. Whenever the car hit a bump the jack on the floor would slam into my nose.

No one else was with me back there. The empty shoulder holster bit into my side. Nice going, I thought, you walked into that with your mouth open and your eyes shut. I tried to see over the back of the seat, but I couldn’t raise myself that far. We turned off the smooth concrete of the highway and the roadway became sloshy and irregular. The jack bounced around more often. First I tried to hold it down with my forehead, but it didn’t work, then I drew back from it. That was worse. The muscles in my back ached with the torture of the rack.

I got mad as hell. Sucker. That’s what I was. Sucker. Someone was taking me for a damn newcomer at this racket. Working me over with a billy then tossing me in the back of a car. Just like the prohibition days, going for a ride. What the hell did I look like? I had been tied up before and I had been in the back of a car before, but I didn’t stay there long. After the first time I learned my lesson. Boy Scout stuff, be prepared. Some son of a bitch was going to get his brains kicked out.

The car skidded to a stop. The driver got out and opened the door. His hands went under my armpits and I was thrown into the mud. Feet straddled me, feet that merged into a dark overcoat and a masked face, and a hand holding my own gun so that I was looking down the muzzle.

“Where is it?” the guy said. His voice carried an obvious attempt at disguise.

“What are you talking about?”

“Damn you anyway, what did you do with it? Don’t try to stall me, what did you do with it? You hid it somewhere, you bastard, it wasn’t in your pocket. Start talking or I’ll shoot your head off!”

The guy was working himself up into a kill-crazy mood. “How do I know where it is if you won’t tell me what you want?” I snarled.

“All right, you bastard, get smart. You stuck your neck out once too often. I’ll show you.” He stuck the gun in his pocket and bent over, his hands fastening in my coat collar and under my arm. I didn’t help him any. I gave him damn near two hundred pounds of dead weight to drag into the trees.

Twice the guy snagged himself in the brush and half fell. He took it out on me with a slap in the head and a nasty boot in the ribs. Every once in a while he’d curse and get a better grip on my coat, muttering under his breath what was going to happen to me. Fifty yards into the woods was enough. He dropped me in a heap and dragged the rod out again, fighting for his breath. The guy knew guns. The safety was off and the rod was ready to spit.

“Say it. Say it now, damn you, or you’ll never say it. What did you do with them . . . or should I work you over first?”

“Go to hell, you pig.”

His hand went up quickly. The gun described a chopping arc toward my jaw. That was what I was waiting for. I grabbed the gun with both hands and yanked, twisting at the same time. He screamed when his shoulder jumped out of the socket, screamed again when I clubbed the edge of my palm against his neck.

Feet jabbed out and ripped into my side, he scrambled to get up. In the middle of it I lost the gun. I held on with one arm and sank my fist into him, but the power of the blow was lost in that awkward position.

But it was enough. He wrenched away, regained his feet and went scrambling through the underbrush. By the time I found the gun he was gone. Time again. If I had had only a minute more I could have chased him, but I hadn’t had time to cut my feet loose. Yeah, I’d been on the floor of a car before with my hands tied behind my back. After that first time I have always carried a safety razor blade slipped through the open seam into the double layer of cloth under my belt. It works nice, very handy. Someday I’d get tied up with my hands in front and I’d be stuck.

The knots were soft. A few minutes with them and I was on my feet. I tried to follow his tracks a few yards, but gave it up as a bad job. He had fallen into a couple of soft spots and left hunks of his clothes hanging on some tree limbs. He didn’t know where he was going and didn’t care. All he knew was that if he stopped and I caught him he’d die in that swamp as sure as he was born. It was almost funny. I turned around and waded back through the tangled underbrush, dodging snaky low-hanging branches that tried to whip my eyes out.

At least I had the car. My erstwhile friend was going to have to hoof it back to camp. I walked around the job, a late Chevy sedan. The glove compartment was empty, the interior in need of a cleaning. Wrapped around the steering post was the ownership card with the owner’s name: Mrs. Margaret Murphy, age fifty-two, address in Wooster, occupation, cook. A hell of a note, lifting some poor servant’s buggy. I started it up. It would be back in town before it was missed.

When I turned around I plowed through the ruts of a country road for five minutes before reaching the main highway. My lights hit a sign pointing north to Wooster. I must have been out some time, it was over fifteen miles to the city. Once on the concrete I stepped on the gas. More pieces of the puzzle. I had something. I felt in my pocket; the later will was still there. Then what the hell was it? What was so almighty important that I’d been taken for a ride and threatened to make me talk?

Ordinarily I’m not stupid, on the contrary, my mind can pick up threads and weave them into whole cloth, but now I felt like putting on the dunce cap and sitting in the corner.

Nuts.

Twenty minutes to nine I was on the outskirts of Wooster. I turned down the first side street I came to, parked and got out of the car after wiping off any prints I might have made. I didn’t know just how the local police operated, but I wasn’t in the mood to do any explaining. I picked up the main road again and strode uphill toward Alice’s. If she was up there was no indication of it. I recovered my hat from the foyer, cast one look up to the shuttered window and got in my own car. Things were breaking all around my head and I couldn’t make any sense out of anything. It was like taking an exam with the answer sheet in front of you and failing because you forgot your glasses.

Going back to Sidon I had time to think. No traffic, just the steady hum of the engine and the sharp whirr of the tires. I was supposed to have something. I didn’t have it. Yet certain parties were so sure I did have it they put the buzz on me. It, it, for Pete’s sake, why don’t they name the name? I had two wills and some ideas. They didn’t want the wills and they didn’t know about the ideas. Something else I might have picked up . . . or didn’t pick up.

Of course. Of all the potted, tin-headed fools, I took the cake. Junior Ghent got more than the one will. That was all he had left after the two boys got done with him. They took something else, but whatever it was Junior didn’t want me messing in his plans by telling me about it. They took it all right, but somewhere between me and the wall they dropped that important something, and figuring me to be smarter than I should have been, thought I must have found it.

I grinned at myself in the rearview mirror. I’m thick sometimes, but hit me often enough and I get the idea. I didn’t even have to worry about Junior beating me to it. He knew they had it . . . he wouldn’t plan on them dropping it. My curiosity was getting tired of thinking in terms of its. This had better be good or I was going to be pretty teed off.

Nice, sweet little case. Two hostile camps. Both fighting each other, both fighting me. In between a lot of people getting shot at and Ruston kidnapped to boot. Instead of a logical starting place it traveled in circles. I kicked the gas pedal a little harder.

Harvey was waiting with the door open when I turned up the drive. I waved him inside and followed the gravel drive to the spot where Junior had taken his shellacking. After a few false starts, I picked out the trail the two had taken across the yard and began tracking. Here and there a footprint was still visible in the soft sod, a twig broken off, flower stalks bent, a stone kicked aside. I let my eyes read over every inch of the path and six feet to the sides, too. If I knew what I was looking for it wouldn’t have been so bad. As it was, it took me a good twenty minutes to reach the wall.

That was where it was. Lying face up in full view of anybody who cared to look. A glaring white patch against the shrubbery, a slightly crinkled, but still sealed envelope.

The IT.

Under my fingers I felt a handful of what felt like postcards. With a shrug I shoved the envelope unopened into my pocket. Item one. I poked around in the grass and held the shrubs aside with my feet. Nothing. I got down on the ground and looked across the grass at a low angle, hoping to catch the sunlight glinting off metal. The rough calculations I took from Roxy’s room showed this to be the point of origin of the bullet, but nowhere could I see an empty shell. Hell, it could have been a revolver, then there would be no ejected shell. Or it could have been another gun instead of York’s. Nuts there. A .32 is a defensive weapon. Anybody who wants to kill uses a .38 or better, especially at that range. I checked the distance to Roxy’s window again. Just to hit the house would mean an elevation of thirty degrees. The lad who made the window was good. Better than that, he was perfect. Only he must have fired from a hole in the ground, because there was no place he could have hidden in this area. That is, if it wasn’t one of the two who went over the wall.

I gave up and went back to the car and drove around to the front of the house.

Dutiful Harvey stared at the dirt on my clothes and said, “There’s been an accident, sir?”

“You might call it that,” I agreed pleasantly. “How is Miss Malcom?”

“Fine, sir. The doctor was here this morning and said she was not in any danger at all.”

“The boy?”

“Still quite agitated after his experience. The doctor gave him another sedative. Parks has remained with them all this while. He hasn’t set foot out of the room since you left.”

“Good. Has anyone been here at all?”

“No, sir. Sergeant Price called several times and wants you to call him back.”

“Okay, Harvey, thanks. Think you can find me something to eat? I’m starved.”

“Certainly, sir.”

I trotted upstairs and knocked on the door. Billy’s voice cautiously inquired who it was, and when I answered he pulled a chair away from the door and unlocked it.

“Hi, Billy.”

“Hello, Mike . . . what the hell happened?”

“Somebody took me for a ride.”

“Cripes, don’t be so calm about it.”

“Why not? The other guy has to walk back.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know yet.”

Roxy was grinning at me from the bed. “Come over and kiss me, Mike.” I gave her a playful tap on the jaw.

“You heal fast.”

“I’ll do better if you kiss me.” I did. Her mouth was a field of burning poppies.

“Okay?”

“I want more.”

“When you get better.” I squeezed her hand. Before I went into Ruston’s room I dusted myself off in front of the mirror. He had heard me come in and was all smiles.

“Hello, Mike. Can you stay here awhile this time?”

“Oh, maybe. Feeling good?”

“I feel all right, but I’ve been in bed too long. My back is tired.”

“I think you’ll be able to get up today. I’ll have Billy take you for a stroll around the house. I’d do it myself only I have some work to clean up.”

“Mike . . . how is everything coming? I mean . . .”

“Don’t think about it, Ruston.”

“That’s all I can do when I lie here awake. I keep thinking of that night, and Dad and Miss Grange. If only there was something I could do I’d feel better.”

“The best you can do is stay right here until everything’s settled.”

“I read in books . . . they were books of no account . . . but sometimes in cases like this the police used the victim as bait. That is, they exposed a person to the advantage of the criminal to see if the criminal would make another attempt. Do you think . . .”

“I think you have a lot of spunk to suggest a thing like that, but the answer is no. You aren’t being the target for another snatch, not if I can help it. There’re too many other ways. Now how about you hopping into your clothes and getting that airing.” I peeled the covers back and helped him out of bed. For a few seconds he was a bit unsteady, but he settled down with a grin and went to the closet. I called Billy in and told him what to do. Billy wasn’t too crazy about the idea, but it being daylight, and since I said that I’d stick around, he agreed.

I left the two of them there, winked at Roxy and went downstairs in time to lift a pair of sandwiches and a cup of coffee from Harvey’s tray. Grunting my thanks through a mouthful of food I went into the living room and parked in the big chair. For the first time since I had been there a fire blazed away in the fireplace. Good old Harvey. I wolfed down the first sandwich and drowned it in coffee. Only then did I take the envelope out of my pocket. The flap was pasted on crooked, so it had to be the morning dew that had held it shut. I remembered that look on Junior’s face when he had seen what was in it. I wondered if it was so good mine would look the same way.

I ran my finger under the flap and drew out six pictures.

Now I saw why Junior got so excited. Of the two women in the photos, the only clothes in evidence were shoes. And Myra Grange only had one on at that. Mostly, she wore a leer. A big juicy leer. Alice Nichols looked expectant. The pictures were pornography of the worst sort. Six of them, every one different, both parties fully recognizable, yet the views were of a candid sort, not deliberately posed. No, that wasn’t quite it, they were posed, yet unposed . . . at least Myra Grange wasn’t posing.

I had to study the shots a good ten minutes before I got the connection. What I had taken to be a border around the pictures done in the printing was really part of the shot. These pics were taken with a hidden camera, one concealed behind a dresser, with the supposed border being some books that did the concealing. A hidden camera and a time arrangement to trip it every so often.

No, Myra Grange wasn’t posing, but Alice Nichols was. She had deliberately maneuvered for position each time so Grange was sure to be in perfect focus.

How nice, Alice. How very nicely you and York framed Grange. A frame to neutralize another frame. So?

I fired up a butt and shoved the pics back in my pocket. The outer rim of the puzzle was falling into the grooves in my mind now. Grange had an old will. Why? Would York have settled his entire estate on her voluntarily? Or could he have been forced into it? If Grange had something on her boss . . . something big . . . it had to be big . . . then she could call the squeeze play, and be reasonably sure of making a touchdown, especially when York didn’t have long to go anyway. But sometime later York had found out about Grange and her habits and saw a way out. Damn, it was making sense now. He played up to Rhoda Ghent, plied her with gifts, then asked her to proposition Grange. She refused and he dropped her like a hot potato then started on Alice. York should have talked to her first. Alice had no inhibitions anyway, and a cut of York’s will meant plenty of action to her. She makes eyes at Grange, Grange makes eyes at Alice and the show is on with the lights properly fed and the camera in position. Alice hands York the negatives, York has a showdown with Grange, threatening to make the pictures public and Grange folds up, yet holds on to the old will in the hope something would happen to make York change his mind. Something like a meat cleaver perhaps? It tied in with what Roxy told me. It could even explain the big play after the pictures. Junior had found out about them somehow, possibly from his sister. If he could get the shots in a law court he could prove how Alice came by her share and get her kicked right out of the show. At least then the family might have some chance to split the quarter of the estate. One hostile camp taken care of. Alice had to be the other. She had to have the pictures before Junior could get them . . . or anybody else for that matter. What could be better than promising a future split of her quarter if they agreed to get the pictures for her? That fit, too. Except that they came too late and saw Junior, knew that he had beaten them to it, so they waylay him, take the stuff and blow. Only I happened in at the wrong time and in the excitement the package gets lost.

I dragged heavily on the cigarette and ran over it again, checking every detail. It stayed the same way. I liked it. Billy and Ruston yelled to me on their way out, but I only waved to them. I was trying to reason out what it was that Grange had on York in the beginning to start a snowball as big as this one rolling downhill.

Flames were licking the top of their sooty cavern. Dante’s own inferno, hot, roasting, destroying. It would have been so nice if I could only have known what York had hidden in the pillar of the fireplace. York’s secret hiding place, that and the chair bottom. Why two places unless he didn’t want to have all his eggs in one basket? Or was it another ease of first things first? He could have put something in the fireplace years ago and not cared to change it.

With a show of impatience I flipped the remains of the butt into the flames, then stretched my legs out toward the fireplace. Secrets, secrets, so damn many secrets. I moved my head to one side so I could see the brick posts on the end of the smoke-blackened pit. It was well concealed, that cache. Curiosity again. I got up and looked it over more closely. Not a brick out of line, not a seam visible. Unless you saw it open you would never guess it to be there.

I went over every inch of it, rapping the bricks with my bare knuckles, but unlike wood, they gave off no sound. There had to be a trip for it somewhere. I looked again where the stone joined the wall. One place shoulder-high was smudged. I pressed.

The tiny door clicked and swung open.

Nice. It was faced with whole brick that joined with a fit in a recess of the concrete that the eye couldn’t discern. To get my hand in I had to hold the door open against the force of a spring. I fished around, but felt nothing except cold masonry until I went to take my hand out. A piece of paper caught in the hinge mechanism brushed my fingers. I worked it out slowly, because at the first attempt to dislodge it, part of the paper crumbled to dust. When I let the door go it snapped shut, and I was holding a piece of an ancient newspaper.

It was brown with age, ready to fall apart at the slightest pressure. The print was faded, but legible. It bore the dateline of a New York edition, one that was on the stands October 9, fourteen years ago. What happened fourteen years ago? The rest of the paper had been stolen, this was a piece torn off when it was lifted from the well in the fireplace. A dateline, nothing but a fourteen-year-old dateline.

I’m getting old, I thought. These things ought to make an impression sooner. Fourteen years ago Ruston had been born.