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

I felt a cold, sinking feeling inside me. “I’ve got a cable to get off…”

“It will only take a few minutes, signor,” Grandi said. “Please come with me.” Two uniformed policemen moved forward, smiling at me. I went with them.

There were ten men already standing in a line: two of them were Americans, one of them was a German, the rest were Italians. They were all shapes and sizes. The two Americans were about my height.

“Merely a matter of a few seconds,” Grandi said with the air of a dentist who is about to extract a molar.

A door opened and a thick-set Italian came in. He stood looking along the line, his unshaven face embarrassed. I didn’t recognize him, but by his worn overcoat and the leather gauntlet gloves he carried I guess he was the taxi-driver who had driven me from Sorrento to Naples on the mad rush to catch the Rome train.

He looked down the line and his eyes rested on me. I found I was beginning to sweat. He stared at me for about three seconds. They felt like an eternity, then he turned around and went out, slapping his thigh with his gloves.

I wanted to wipe my face, but I didn’t dare. Grandi was looking at me and when I met his eyes, he gave me a sour smile. Another Italian was brought in. I knew who he was: he was the attendant at the left luggage office at Sorrento station where I had left my suitcase before walking out to the villa. His eyes swept down the line until they reached me. We stared at each other, then after looking at the other two Americans he went but. Two more men and a woman then came in. I had no idea who they were. They too glanced down the line, their eyes passing over me. They concentrated on one of the Americans at the far end of the line. They stared at him and he stared back, grinning. I envied him his lack of a guilty conscience. I was glad they didn’t stare at me as they had at him. I saw Grandi was scowling. Finally they went away.

Grandi indicated that the parade was over. The ten men drifted away.

“Thank you, signor,” Grandi said to me as I moved after them. “I am sorry to have detained you.”

“I’ll survive,” I said. I saw he didn’t look too pleased and I guessed the last three witnesses could have upset his hopes.

“Did you find the man you are after?”

He looked fixedly at me.

“I’m not prepared to answer that question at the moment,” he said, and, nodding curtly, he went away.

I left the coroner’s court and drove back to the hotel. Going up to my room, I put a call through to my Rome office.

Gina told me that she had arranged with the woman who specialized in second-hand clothes to inspect the contents of Helen’s apartment that afternoon.

“It should be cleared by to-morrow,” she told me.

“That’s fine. Is Maxwell there?”

“Yes.”

“Put him on the line, will you.”

“Ed, you should know this: Lieutenant Carlotti has been asking questions about you here,” Gina said.

I stiffened.

“What sort of questions?”

“He asked me if you knew Helen Chalmers. He wanted to know if the name of Mrs. Douglas Sherrard meant anything to me.”

“Did he? What did you say?” I found I was gripping the receiver unnecessarily hard.

“I told him Mrs. Douglas Sherrard meant nothing to me, and that you did know Helen Chalmers.”

“Thanks, Gina.”

There was an awkward pause, then she said, “He also wanted to know where you were on the 29th. I said you were at your apartment working on your novel.”

“That’s what I was doing.”

“Yes.”

There was another awkward pause, then she said, “I’ll put you through to Mr. Maxwell.”

“Thanks, Gina.”

After a moment or so, Maxwell came on the line.

I told him the coroner had adjourned the inquest until Monday.

“What’s biting him then?” Maxwell asked.

“The police think it’s murder.”

He whistled.

“That’s pretty. What makes them think that?”

“They didn’t say. Cable head office and tell them the facts, and ask for guidance. It’s up to the old man whether they print or not. The other papers are certain to cover it.”

“Well, what are the facts?”

“The inquest is adjourned until next Monday as the police want more time to make further inquiries. They have evidence that points to foul play.”

“Okay. Nothing more?”

“That’s all.”

“I’ll handle it. By the way, Ed, you didn’t by any chance bump the girl off, did you?”

I felt like a boxer who has taken a low punch.

“What’s that?”

“Oh, skip it. I was only fooling. That lynx-eyed cop was asking me questions about you and Helen. He seemed to think you knew her better than most.”

“He’s crazy.”

“I guess you must be right, I’ve always thought cops were crazy. Well, so long as you’ve got an easy conscience, why should you care?”

“That’s right. Get that cable off, Jack.”

Maxwell said he’d get it off right away.

“So long,” he said. “Try and keep out of trouble.”

I said I would.

Soon after nine o’clock, I left the Vesuvius hotel and drove the car I had hired out to Sorrento. I arrived at the harbour a little after nine-thirty. Leaving the car parked under the trees, I walked down to the harbour.

There were still three or four boatmen lounging outside the steamer station, and I went over to them. I asked one of them if I could hire a rowing-boat. I said I wanted to have a couple of hours’ exercise, and I wanted to row myself.

The boatman stared at me as if he thought I was crazy, but when he realized I was willing to pay him for his boat, he got down to business. I haggled with him for ten minutes, and finally got it for five thousand lire for three hours. I gave him the money, and he took me down to the boat and shoved me off.

It was a fine, dark, star-lit night, and the sea was as smooth as a pond. I rowed until I was out of sight of land; then I shipped oars and stripped off my clothes. I had put on a pair of bathing trunks before I left the hotel, and thus clad, I again started rowing heading towards Myra Setti’s villa.

It took me about an hour of steady rowing before I saw in the distance a red light on the harbour wall.

I paused, letting the boat drift. Above the harbour I could see the outlines of the villa. There was a light on in one of the ground-floor rooms.

I began to row again, and finally reached the rocks only a few hundred yards from where Helen had been found. Just around the cliff, another three hundred yards further on, would be Myra’s villa.

I beached the boat, pulling it up on the soft sand, making sure that the tide wouldn’t drift it off. Then I waded out into the sea and began to swim towards the villa.

The sea was warm and I made good progress, being careful to make no noise. I swam silently into the harbour, keeping away from the code of red light that reflected down on the still water.

There were two powerful motor-boats moored in the harbour and a small rowing-boat. I headed towards the steps that led up to the villa. I swam cautiously, looking along the wail of the harbour, my ears pricked for any suspicious sound. It was as well that I was on the alert, for I suddenly saw a little red spark make a circle in the air, and then drop into the sea and go out with a hissing splutter. Someone out of sight in the shadows had just tossed away a cigarette butt.

I trod water, making no sound. By now I was close up against the harbour wall. I saw a mooring ring just above my head and, cautiously, I reached up and caught hold of it. I hung on to it, looking in the direction from where the cigarette butt had come. After a minute or so I made out the dim figure of a man, sitting on a bollard. He appeared to be looking out to sea. He was on the other arm of the harbour, a hundred feet or so from where I was and some thirty yards from the steps. I waited. After about five minutes, he got to his feet and walked slowly along the harbour arm to the far end.