Up for Grabs

Chapter 5

Kramer had told me that they fed the horses around six o’clock started saddling up at a little after seven, grooming the horses and getting them ready for the morning ride which started around eight-thirty on normal days. On the two or three mornings a week when they had breakfast rides, the rides started earlier.

There was no breakfast ride scheduled, so I was up and down at the stables a little after six-thirty.

About six-forty-five the wranglers came out from the dining room where they had been having their breakfast.

Kramer looked at me in surprise. “What in the world are you doing?” he asked.

“The curse of a nervous disposition,” I told him. “No matter what time I go to bed at night I wake at daylight, and after I wake up I want to get up and get into action.

“If I’m in the city, I can sometimes control the impulse but out here where the air is pure, it seems positively wasteful to spend daylight hours in bed.”

He grinned and said, “I guess you’re right. I don’t know. I’ve never been able to find out. I’d like to try it sometime.

“Look, Lam, you’re a good enough rider so you can go out by yourself. If you want, I’ll throw a saddle on your horse and you can take him out and give him a little exercise.”

“What time does the ride start?” I asked.

“This morning the ride starts around nine o’clock. You’ll go crazy trying to find something to do between now and then.”

“What do you do now? Feed the horses?”

“No, we groom them and saddle them, but I’m going to town. I’ve got to take Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox in to the nine o’clock plane. They want to be in there by eight-thirty and they preferred to have breakfast at the airport. They’re just getting a cup of coffee here.”

“Fine,” I told him. “I’ll ride in with you. That’ll give me something to do.”

Kramer laughed and said, “You’re the exact opposite of most of the guests we have here. Most of them like to come straggling in for breakfast and then hold up the string on the morning rides... Okay, we’ll be leaving in about ten minutes.”

“I’ll get in the back seat of the station wagon right now,” I said, “or can I give you a hand with their baggage?”

“Don’t be silly,” he said. “If they caught me letting a guest carry baggage, they’d kick me so hard I’d be in orbit around the moon... There’s the station wagon over there.”

I got in the back seat.

Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox came out in about ten minutes. They were portly Easterners who had been trying to take off weight, get a sunburn and be able to go back East and surprise their friends with a line of horse lingo.

Talking with them on the way in, I learned that they had been at the guest ranch for three full weeks; that while the cowboy boots hurt his feet at first, Wilcox had managed to become accustomed to them so he was now swearing they were the most comfortable boots he’d ever had on in his life; he was going to have rubber heels put on them and wear them every day — “right in the office, by Jove.”

I noticed the broad-brimmed sombrero he was wearing, the coat of tan on his face, and felt quite certain that not only would he wear his cowboy boots but he’d manage to find lots of excuses to tilt back in his swivel chair and get his feet up on the desk where awed secretaries and employees could get a good view and realize that their employer was a real old-time, bronco-stomping buckaroo.

Mrs. Wilcox was enthusiastic over the fact that she had taken off seven pounds and “felt like a new woman.”

They were so busy talking about themselves that no one talked about me.

When we got to the airport, they checked in their baggage, then went to get breakfast.

I said to Kramer, “What would happen if I didn’t go back to the ranch with you?”

“Nothing. Why? You aren’t one of these credit risks, are you, Lam?”

“I’m paid up in advance,” I said, “and I’d like to have that cabin left undisturbed in case I don’t get back tonight.”

Kramer looked me over thoughtfully, then gave a quizzical grin. “I thought there was something strange about your restlessness,” he said. “I’ve seen stallions act the same way.”

I let it go at that and detoured around to find out when the next plane left for Dallas.

There was one in thirty minutes.

I was on it.

At Dallas, I put in a collect call for Breckinridge.

“Haven’t made that settlement yet, have you?” I asked, when he had accepted the charges.

“Not yet, but I’m getting a cashier’s check to close the deal. The operator said you were in Dallas.”

“That’s right.”

“What the devil are you doing there?”

“Chasing down some angles on this case.”

“Now look, Donald, I don’t want to have any misunderstandings about this. If that man has a whiplash injury, we want to settle while we can settle. Actually, he hasn’t got an attorney yet but he’s threatened to get one. He said he would if it became necessary.

“Now, in a situation of that sort, we settle and we settle fast.”

“But you haven’t settled yet?”

“No. I have a representative going to the guest ranch this afternoon with proper releases all ready to sign. He’ll have cashier’s checks. We’re going to make a very substantial settlement.”

“Tell your man to hold off until you hear from me again.”

“Why?”

“There’s something fishy about this.”

“There can be a lot about it that’s fishy but he’s got a whiplash injury and we’re going to have to confess liability. Good heavens, Lam, do you have any idea what it means when you walk into court and have to stand up in front of a jury and say, ‘We admit liability, the only question is that of damages’?”

“I know,” I told him, “but— When is your adjuster going to get to the guest ranch?”

“He’s getting in on the afternoon plane that arrives about three-thirty.”

“Okay,” I said, “tell him to get in touch with you before he leaves the airport at Tucson. I’ll be in touch with you by then.”

Breckinridge said, “I like energy, Lam, but there is such a thing as being overzealous.”

“I know,” I told him, “and there’s a damned good chance you’re not going to like me because I’m becoming overzealous. That guy, Bruno, is a crook. I’ll call you later.”

I hung up on that one and left him thinking it over.

I called Bertha Cool, collect.

“What the hell are you doing in Dallas when you’re supposed to be at that dude ranch?” she asked.

“Running down a special lead,” I told her, “and I’ve got a hurry-up job for you. There’s a registered nurse named Melita Doon. I want a report on her. I particularly want to find out the name of her boy friend. I want to find out where she is staying, whether she’s living in a dormitory with nurses, whether she has an apartment, whether she has another girl sharing the apartment with her — in fact, I want to find out all about her.”

“What does Melita Doon have to do with this case?” Bertha asked.

“I don’t know,” I told her. “I want to find out.”

Bertha groaned. “Leave it to you to dig up a woman. She’s a registered nurse?”

“Right.”

“Okay. We’ll get busy.”

“Don’t say anything to Breckinridge,” I warned her. “I’ll keep him posted on everything he should know.” I hung up.

I went into one of the department stores, I purchased a small suitcase, an electric blender and an electric can opener.

I took off all price marks, packed the stuff in the suitcase, then studied the Help Wanted columns of the morning paper. I found one advertising for salesmen on a high-class, dignified, house-to-house presentation which would net a large income.

I went up to the address mentioned and applied for a job.

It was selling a set of encyclopedias.

I said I could do the job, was given some sample brochures, some order blanks and told that after I proved myself I could probably get a guarantee against commissions, but until then I would be strictly on a commission basis. No guarantees, no advances.

I had Helmann Bruno’s address, 642 Chestnut Avenue.

I rented a U-Drive car and took my suitcase and samples around. The place was an apartment house, the Meldone Apartments, a pretty fair-looking place.

A check of the mailbox showed that Helmann Bruno was in 614.

I went up and rang the bell.

After a moment, a good-looking woman or thirty came to the door.

“Are you,” I asked, “the lady of the house?”

Her smile was weary. “I’m the lady of the house,” she said. “I’ve got a dozen things to do and I’m not interested in buying anything. I don’t know how you got in here. There is a strict rule against solicitors, peddlers, agents and appliance salesmen.”

She started to close the door.

“I’m here,” I said, “to give you your free blender and your free electric can opener.”

“My what?”

“Your free electric can opener and your free blender.”

I put the suitcase down on the carpet in the corridor, opened it up so she could see the blender and the can opener.

“What do you mean ‘free’?” she asked.

“Free,” I said.

“What do I do in return for these?”

“Nothing.”

“Come on, come on, what’s the catch?”

I said, “You’re the hundred-thousandth prospect for the encyclopedia that I handle, and I have exactly fifteen minutes before I lose out on the prospect and it goes to another salesman. If I can telephone into headquarters that you’ve signed up within the next fifteen minutes, you get this blender and the can opener.”

She laughed and said, “Probably cheap merchandise that won’t—”

“Look it over,” I told her, handing her the blender. “That would cost you sixty-five dollars anyplace in town. That’s the highest quality brand name manufactured.”

“Why, so it is. Will it work?”

“Guaranteed.”

“Let me see the can opener.”

I showed her the can opener.

She hesitated a moment, then said, “Come in.”

I followed her into the apartment.

It was a pretty fair-looking place with a sitting room, a half-open door leading to a bedroom, and a small kitchen.

“How much is the encyclopedia?”

“About half what it’s worth,” I said.

“We have no room for an encyclopedia.”

“There’s a little bookcase that comes with it, it’s printed on thin paper, and you’d be surprised at the amount of accurate information that is packed into it.

“Take, for instance, the question of atomic power and the thrust ratio necessary to overcome the gravitational pull. Scientists refer to it as the critical speed at which a projectile would break loose from the gravitational pull of the earth.

“I can see you’re the sort of woman who goes out and gets in circulation. I don’t know what educational advantages you’ve had, but lots of times it pays to impress people with knowledge about some particular phase of a scientific activity which is before the public at the moment. Here, take a look at this reprint of the article on space orbit.”

She said, dubiously, “Well, if the encyclopedia doesn’t take up too much room and doesn’t cost too much, sit down and let me look it over.”

She prowled through the reprint pamphlet I had given her on space orbit.

“You see,” I said, “this is right up to the minute as far as scientific accuracy is concerned but it’s expressed in down-to-earth language that anybody can understand. You could put in half an hour studying that and then stand out in any gathering as a modern woman with a lot of scientific knowledge at your finger tips.”

“How much?” she asked.

I said, “We have here a contract and fifty-two easy weekly payments. When a set is bought on these terms, there is no interest.

“You’ll find the encyclopedia is really worth its weight in gold and— I have seven minutes left within which to sign you up. If I do, I’ll telephone in to the company and turn over to you gratuitously, without a penny’s expense to you, these premium articles which you get for being the hundred-thousandth purchaser.

“Of course, I can’t hold the offer open longer than seven minutes more, because there’s another salesman waiting at the doorstep of a likely prospect right now, and the minute my fifteen minutes are up, unless he’s advised by telephone that I’ve closed the deal here, I lose my chance at it. The chance then goes to Salesman Number 2. He has fifteen minutes from the time he calls on his prospect in order to close the deal.”

“And then?” she asked.

“If he closes it, the prospect gets the premiums. If he doesn’t, the opportunity goes to Salesman Number 3, and so on down the line; but at the rate these encyclopedias are selling, with the modern knowledge that they have packed into them, it probably never will get to Salesman Number 3. If you don’t close the order here, Salesman Number 2 will almost certainly have his prospect snap it up.”

She said, “I like to consult my husband before making purchases like this... Let me see that blender again.”

I gave her the blender.

She looked it all over.

“You’ll see,” I said, “that there’s an original guarantee with it right from the manufacturer. You fill out this postcard and mail it in to the manufacturer. Your blender is registered from that time on. It’s guaranteed for a full three years.

“Now, this electric can opener is designed to open any kind of a can; square, round, oblong, anything you put in there. Just pick up the can, push it into this holder, press this button, and the can is opened neatly without any jagged edges.

“Actually, it’s against the policy of the company to talk about any premiums we give. We’re supposed to sell the books, not the premiums. But we gave smaller bonuses to the purchaser who bought the twenty-five-thousandth set, one to the fifty-thousandth set, one to the seventy-five-thousandth set, and this is an extra bonus with the hundred-thousandth set.”

She hesitated.

“When will your husband be home?”

“Not for a couple of weeks, I’m afraid, He’s off on a business deal and— Poor man... I expect he’ll telephone me tonight.”

“What’s the trouble?” I asked. “Why do you say ‘poor man’?”

“He was in an automobile accident. He shouldn’t be traveling at all, but this is an important business deal and he had to go.”

I looked at my watch and said, “Well, I’m sorry, but if that’s the way it is I guess Salesman Number 2 is going to get the bonus customer.”

I started putting the electric can opener back into the suitcase, and reached for the blender.

“Wait a minute,” she said.

She again looked the electric blender over.

I waited until she had lifted her eyes, then ostentatiously looked at my wrist watch.

“All right,” she said, “I’ll take it.”

“Sign here,” I told her, pushing out the contract for the books.

“Heavens, I wouldn’t have time to read all this.”

“You don’t have to,” I told her. “You’re dealing with a reputable firm. You don’t have to pay any money down. Sometime within the next week a person will come and deliver the merchandise. When the delivery is made you make the first payment. Then you make fifty-two equal payments without interest as mentioned right here in this part of the contract. That’s the only part that entails any obligation on your part — except, of course, that you represent your credit is good, that you are solvent, that you are not signing this contract with any intention of defrauding the company.”

Again I looked at my wrist watch.

She grabbed the pen and signed.

I said, “May I use the phone, please? I only have just a few seconds left.”

I dashed over to the phone, dialed a number at random and said, “Hello, hello.”

A voice said, “Yes, hello?”

I said, “I’m Mr. Donald and I’ve made the hundred-thousandth sale. I claim the right to deliver the bonus premiums.”

A voice said, “You have the wrong number,” and hung up.

I said into the dead telephone, “I have the signed contract. Check with me on time please... That’s right, I’m still fifty seconds within the margin. I’m delivering the electric blender and the electric can opener to Mrs. Bruno and I’ll bring the contract into the office— That’s right, I’m making a delivery now.”

I said, “Yes, I have the signed contract,” and hung up the telephone.

I picked up the electric blender, took it out to the kitchen, put it on a shelf and said, “There are some screws with which to install this electric can opener. Would you like to have me help you put it up?”

“No, that’s fine,” she said, “I’ll put it up myself. I want to test that blender.”

She took off the container, held it under a water faucet, filled it half full of water, put it back on the stand and turned on the blender.

Her smile was ecstatic. “We’ve been needing one of these,” she said. “It seems too good to be true, getting one virtually for nothing this way.”

“You’re buying the hundred-thousandth set that has been sold to the public on door-to-door canvassing,” I said. “When did you say you expected your husband back?”

“Not for two weeks. He’s in Minnesota on a business deal.”

“Was he injured very bad?”

“One of those whiplash injuries,” she said, “At first he didn’t think very much of it, but after a while he began to get headaches and dizzy spells and then he went to a doctor, and the doctor diagnosed it as a whiplash injury.”

I made clucking sounds with my tongue. “That’s too bad. And I suppose the other fellow wasn’t insured?”

“No, the other man was insured, but I don’t know what the insurance company is going to do about it. My husband is negotiating with them.”

“No lawyer?” I asked.

Her eyes were shrewd. “A lawyer would want thirty-three and a third per cent of whatever he recovered. I don’t see any reason why a lawyer should cut himself in on something of that sort if we can make our own settlement with an insurance company. There’s no reason to pay a lawyer five thousand bucks just for writing a letter and doing a little talking. Heavens, some of those lawyers get rich on good cases like ours. The insurance company sends a representative to their office; they bargain around for an hour or so and then make a settlement.

“Now, it’s different if a lawyer has to put up money and file suit and all of that. My husband would be willing to deal with a lawyer on that basis, but no lawyer wants to deal that way. They want to have it understood that they get a third right from the start.”

“Well,” I said, “I suppose the lawyers have their problems, too. They have to make money on the easy ones in order to enable them to break even on the hard ones.”

“All right,” she said, “the lawyers can look out for the lawyers, and the Brunos will look out for the Brunos. However, I’m not supposed to discuss the case.”

“Why not?” I asked, my eyes wide.

“Oh, you know how it is with insurance companies.”

“Oh, yes,” I said. “Yes, I can see. Well, perhaps you hadn’t better say anything about it then, and I’ll be on my way. Thank you very much indeed, Mrs. Bruno. It’s a real pleasure to me to be able to deliver the bonus articles. I was afraid for a while there that time was going to run out on us.”

She laughed nervously and said, “So was I. My, that’s a wonderful presentation on atomic energy and orbiting and that stuff in the encyclopedia.”

“You’ll enjoy it,” I told her, and bowed out.

I went to the office of the encyclopedia company. “What do I do with this contract?” I asked, showing the signed contract.

“You turn it in,” the man at the desk said, his voice showing surprise.

I handed in the signed contract. He looked it over carefully.

“That’s fast work, Lam. You haven’t been on the job more than an hour or two.”

“I know,” I told him. “I like to work fast.”

“Well, you’re going to have a real profitable relationship with this company,” the man said.

“No, I’m not,” I told him.

“You’re not?”

“No,” I said, “there’s too much sales resistance to suit me. It took me almost an hour to land this prospect. When I do door-to-door canvassing I like to make at least five sales a day.”

“Five sales a day! Do you realize what your commissions would be if you made five sales a day?”

“Of course, I realize what they’d be. I’m in this business to make money and I like to make real money.”

“You’re making it. How many calls did you make?”

“Just this one.”

“Only one?”

“Of course. I don’t waste time with poor prospects.”

“Well, I’ll be damned,” he said.

He looked at the contract again.

“Look here, Lam,” he said, “you didn’t check on the rating here!”

“Was I supposed to?”

“Well, you guarantee the credit. At least to commissions.”

“How do you mean?”

“We deliver the encyclopedias. We retain title until the last payment is made. Payments are on a weekly basis. If the payments aren’t made, you don’t get your commission.”

“You peddle your paper, don’t you?”

“We peddle the paper, but only after a check has been made on the credit rating and even then we have to stand back of our paper. We have to guarantee it.”

I grinned at him and said, “In other words, you have a subsidiary company which handles the financing and you turn the paper over to it?”

His face flushed, but he didn’t make any answer.

“All right,” I said, “let’s check on the credit rating right now.”

He didn’t like to do it, but he picked up the telephone, called, the credit bureau and asked for a rating on Helmann Bruno at the Meldone Apartments.

I watched his face.

After a few minutes, he frowned and said thoughtfully, “Well, that’s okay, I guess.”

He hung up and said, “They haven’t been there very long, only about three months, but their credit rating is okay. They seem to have cash. They have a bank account, pay by check; have a good: automobile that they bought when they came to town, and they pat cash on the barrelhead. On the other hand, no one knows very much about them. Their only charge was for payments on an automobile contract. They say they don’t want any credit, so they won’t give references.”

“That’s swell,” I said. “I shouldn’t have any trouble over commissions then.”

“You won’t. You won’t, Lam, but you should check the credit rating on these customers... Well, that’s all right. You’ve done a good job, a splendid job. Usually it takes a salesman a week or two to get familiar with the ins and outs. My big job is keeping them from getting discouraged.”

“I’m discouraged,” I told him.

“You — I just can’t understand you, Lam.”

“I’m easy to understand,” I told him. “I’m a guy who likes to make money and I have the line of patter that will make it.”

“Well, you sure made a sale in record time on this one. Why don’t you stay with us?”

“Not for me,” I told him, “I need greener pastures and more lettuce.”

“Don’t be too pessimistic about this, Lam. Some of our salesmen make very good money, very good money indeed.”

“Not my kind of money,” I told him. “I’ll let you know where to send my commissions on this deal later. In the meantime, here’s your advertising matter and samples. I’m picking up something more profitable.”

He was flabbergasted as I tossed the stuff on his desk and walked out.

I called Breckinridge again from a telephone booth. As soon as I had him on the line I said, “I wish you’d call off that settlement Breckinridge.”

“What’s the matter, Lam?”

“They show too much familiarity with attorneys,” I said. “They have had experience with cases of this sort before.”

“What makes you think so?”

“They are willing to go to an attorney if suit has to be filed, but they won’t touch an attorney with a ten-foot pole if suit doesn’t have to be filed. They see no reason for paying some lawyer a third of the settlement just for writing a letter and they figure a third of the settlement will be five thousand bucks.”

Who told you all that?”

“The wife.”

“You called on her?”

“Yes.”

“You got her to talk?”

“That’s right.”

“The hell you did! How did you do that?”

“It’s a long story,” I said. “Of course, she doesn’t have any idea I was investigating for an insurance company.”

“And you think you’re on the track of something?”

“I think I’m on the track of something.”

“Well,” he said, slowly, “I’ll cancel the plane reservation and hold off for one more day, but we’re playing with dynamite on these whiplash injuries, Lam, you understand that?”

“I understand all of that,” I told him, “but I think you’re dealing with a professional.”

“That’s just a hunch on your part?”

“It’s a hunch on my part,” I said, “predicated on a little evidence. The guy has a pretty good apartment. His wife is well dressed. They aren’t fly-by-nights. They’re willing to make an investment in self-improvement, and they don’t intend to pay their bills.”

“What sort of bills?”

“A set of encyclopedias. They intend to get the books and then move to another address and take another name.”

“How do you know that?”

“From the way she signed the contract without reading it.”

“You sold her a set of encyclopedias?”

“That’s right.”

Breckinridge was silent for a moment, then he said, “Lam, you’re the damnedest fellow I ever got teamed up with.”

“Am I supposed to argue that?” I asked.

He laughed and said, “No.”

“All right,” I told him, “call off your settlement for a while, I think I can come up with something.”

I hung up.

As soon as I had cleared the line, I called Elsie Brand at the office. “Donald,” she said, “where are you?”

“This call’s going through the switchboard,” I said. “Make sure no one’s listening in. Step to the door and pretend you’re getting some papers out of a filing case. Make sure we have a clear line and then come back.”

She was back on the line in about forty seconds. “It’s all clear,” she said.

“Look,” I told her, “I’m coming back to town. I don’t want Bertha to know it. I don’t want anyone to know it just now. I want to be under cover. How about you telling the manager of your apartment house that you have a cousin from New Orleans who is going to be visiting in town for a few days and would it be possible for him to have an apartment?”

“Well,” she said thoughtfully. “Perhaps we could fix it.”

“I know you did that with the girl friend who visited you from San Francisco a couple of weeks ago,” I told her.

“That was a girl,” she said.

“Be indifferent about me,” I said. “Tell the manager you don’t want an apartment on the same floor necessarily, just anyplace in the building.”

“Well, I’ll see what I can do, Donald. What’s the trouble?”

“No trouble,” I said, “just good old routine, but I don’t want anyone to know I’m in town.

“Now, here’s something I want you to do. I told Bertha about a Melita Doon. I wanted Bertha to find out all about her. By the time I get there, have everything Bertha’s found out all ready for me to use.”

“When will you arrive?” she asked.

“On American Airlines at five-thirty this evening. Meet me if you can make it.”

“Do you know anything about this girl? Where she lives? What she does?”

“Bertha will know all about her by that time. Be sure you get the dope from Bertha’s file. It’s best if you copy it down.”

“Well... I’ll see what I can do. But I don’t like to lie, Donald. You know that.”

“I know,” I told her, “that’s because you don’t get enough practice. I’m giving you a chance to practice now so you can have a fully rounded personality.”

“Oh, Donald, aren’t you ever serious?”

“Never more serious in my life,” I told her, and hung up.