James Chase - You Find Him, I'll Fix Him

I came to the surface in about five or six minutes. I found myself spread out in the lounging chair with a sore jaw and a bead that pulsated like the breathing bag of a dentin’s gas equipment.

Carlo was sitting close to me. He kept slamming his balled-up fist into the palm of his hand as if he were itching to hang another bone crusher on my jaw.

I struggled into an upright position and looked at him, trying to get him into focus. That punch had taken a lot of steam out of me.

“Okay, Mac, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Now, let’s start again. The next time I hit you, I’ll bust your jaw. What did the copper want?”

I tested my teeth with the tip of my tongue. None of them seemed loose. I felt cold, and there was a rage growing in me that made me want to get to close quarters with this thug and maim him. But I wasn’t all that crazy in the head. Maybe I am big and fairly tough, but I know when I am out of my class. I wouldn’t mix things with Rocky Marciano: net because I’d be scared to, but because I know I wouldn’t stand a chance. I knew if it came to a fight, this bull of a man was too strong and much, much too fast for me.

The way to take him was to surprise him. There was no other way, and I’d have to have a club in my hand to slow him down first.

“He wanted the names of Helen’s men friends,” I said thickly. It hurt to speak.

Carlo scratched the end of his nose.

“Why?”

“Because he’s hunting for her killer.”

I hoped that would faze him, but it didn’t. Instead, his grin switched on again, and he left off pounding his fist into his palm.

“Is that right? He thinks she was knocked off?”

“He’s sure of it.”

“Well, well” He continued to grin. “I didn’t think he’d be that smart.” He lit a cigarette. “Here, Mac, have one. You look as if you could use a smoke.”

I took the cigarette and the box of matches he nicked into my lap. I lit the cigarette and dragged down a lungful of smoke.

“Why is he so sure she was knocked off?” he asked. “You ripped the film out of the camera and stole all her spares. That was a pretty dumb thing to have done.”

“Think so? I think it was smart, pally. Has he got on to you yet?”

I tried to control my start, but I wasn’t successful.

“What do you mean?”

Carlo’s grin widened.

“Don’t feed me that crap: you know what I mean. You’re an open and shut case for the job. Why, I even took the trouble to alter her watch so the cops would think you were up there when she took her dive, and believe me, Mac, that was quite a climb to get to her. I nearly broke my neck.” I stared at him. “So you did kill her.”

He shook his head.

“The record says you did it. You were up there when she fell. You’re the guy named Douglas Sherrard.” He leaned forward and pointed a thick finger at me. Emphasizing each word, he went on, “And you’r e the sucker who left a note for her telling her to meet you on the cliff head . You forgot that little item, didn’t you? I found it where you had left it on the table, and I’ve got.

I felt as if the bottom of my world had fallen out. It was only at this moment, hearing this, that I remembered the note I had left for Helen in the villa.

“I’ve got it right here,” Carlo went on, tapping his hip-pocket. “It’s a beauty. That and the watch could fix you, Mac. You wouldn’t stand a chance.”

He was right. If Carlotti ever got hold of that note, I’d be finished. In my mind, I saw the note now as plainly as if it lay before me.

Helen (I had wr itten), meet me on the path bey ond the garden gate if we miss each other. Ed.

I had even put the time and the date on the note and I had written it on the villa’s headed notepaper. The shock of finding Helen had completely driven the note out of my head until now.

“When the cops find your bags in a left luggage office, they’ll also find the camera and some of the films,” Carlo continued. “They’ll also find a letter from Helen to you that will clinch the case if it needs clinching. She wrote it before she took her dive.”

I made an effort and pulled myself together. I couldn’t be in a worse jam, and because it was so bad, it made me angry.

The only way to get out of this situation was to get the note and destroy it. He said he had it on him. I had to surprise him, knock him cold and get the note.

“She never wrote to me,” I said.

“Oh, yes, she did. I persuaded her to. It’s quite a letter. In it she tells you how she’s hired the villa and how you two are going to stay there as Mr. and Mrs. Sherrard. It’s a complete give away, Mac. Don’t make any mistake about that. I’ve got you sewn up tight.”

But he was too glib. I was sure he was lying. There was no letter; not that it mattered. The note I had written to Helen would be enough to fix me.

“Okay, so you’ve got me sewn up tight,” I said. “What are you going to do about it?”

He got to his feet and began to wander around the room. He didn’t come near me while he wandered.

“I’ve been hoping to find a guy like you for months,” he said. “When Helen told me she was making a play for you and who you were, I knew you were the boy I wanted. I’ve got a job for you. You’re going to take a parcel across the French frontier for me. It’ll be a cinch for you. You’ll sail through. With your background and job, they won’t even bother to look in your bags, let alone examine your car. I’ve been hoarding the stuff up for months for just such a chance as this.”

“What stuff?” I asked, watching him.

He grinned.

“You needn’t know that. All you have to do is to drive from here to Nice. You’ll spend the night at a certain hotel, leaving your car in the hotel garage. I’ll have planted the parcel in your car before you leave, and my contact in Nice will collect it during the night. It’s as simple as that.”

“And if I don’t do it, Carlotti gets my note to Helen, is that the idea?”

“You cotton on fast.”

“And if I do it, what happens then?”

He shrugged.

“You have a nice vacation and come back. Then maybe in about six months’ time, you’ll find you’ll have to make another trip to Nice. A newspaper man is expected to travel. You’re custom-made for the job. That’s why I picked on you.”

“So long as I know,” I said. “Did Helen have anything to do with the picking?”

“Oh, sure, but she was strictly small-time.” He grimaced. “She wanted to put the bite on you for a thousand bucks, but I talked her out of that. I showed her you’d be far more useful as a carrier.”

I suddenly realized what this was all about.

“She was a drug addict, wasn’t she?” I said. “That’s why she had to have money and didn’t care how she got it, so long as she got it. And it’s a parcel of dope you want me to take to Nice, isn’t it?”

“You don’t think it’s face powder, do you, Mac?” he returned, grinning.

“And you supplied her with the drugs?”

“That’s it, pally. I’m always willing to help a girl if she’s got dough to spend.”

“Was it your idea or hers we should go to the villa?”

“Why should you care?”

“It was your idea, wasn’t it? It was a convenient villa, and there was a convenient cliff to fall off. You knew I wouldn’t play unless you really got a stranglehold on me. You laid the trap, threw her off the cliff and I walked into it.”

He laughed.

“You’ve certainly got a great imagination. Anyway, that’s a yarn you can’t prove, Mac, but I can prove mine.”

“Did she take you on her cine when you two were up there? Is that why you were so anxious to get rid of the film?”