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

I didn’t say anything.

“You know Helen was Menotti’s mistress,” she went on. “Carlo found out she was on drugs. He told Setti that he could get at Menotti through Helen. Setti sent him back to New York. Foolishly, I couldn’t keep away from him. Helen saw us together. When Carlo approached her to sell Menotti out, she agreed. She went to Carlo’s apartment while she was negotiating her price. I don’t know how she did it, but she got hold of four of my letters to him. We only found this out much later. For two thousand dollars she let Carlo into Menotti’s apartment. I want you to believe that I didn’t know anything about this until I met Carlo weeks later on the cliff head where Helen died. It was she who told me.”

“You don’t have to go into all this, Mrs. Chalmers,” I said. “All I want to know is how Helen died.”

“It doesn’t make sense without the dirty details,” she returned. “Helen began to blackmail me. She told me she had four of my letters to Carlo, and if I didn’t give her a hundred dollars a week, she would hand them to her father. I could afford a hundred dollars a week, so I paid up. I was sure Helen was leading a rotten life, and it occurred to me that if I could get something on her, I could force her to return the letters to me. When she went to Rome, I instructed an inquiry agency to watch her and report back to me. When I learned that she had taken a villa in the name of Mrs. Douglas Sherrard, and was going to live there with some man, I decided this was my chance. I planned to go there, confront her and threaten to tell her father if she didn’t give me my letters. I told my husband I wanted to do some shopping in Paris. He loathes shopping and, besides, he was very busy. He said he would join me later. I went to Paris, then on to Sorrento. I went to the villa, but Helen wasn’t there. While I waited for her, I took a walk along the cliff head and I ran into Carlo. Helen must have been up there too, out of sight, with her camera. She must have taken pictures of our meeting. Is that what this film contains?”

“There’s a twenty seconds’ shot of you two meeting,” I said. “As this shot is on the last few feet of film, it’s my guess she went back to the villa, put in a new film, dropped the completed film into the mail box that is outside the villa, then returned to the cliff head in the hope of getting more shots of you.”

“Yes, that is what must have happened. Carlo heard the motor of the camera running. He caught Helen. There was a dreadful scene. She told me that Carlo had shot Menotti. She threatened to tell the police. She said she had taken pictures of Setti on the terrace of the villa below, and he would have to pay for the film if he didn’t want her to hand it to the police. She seemed half out of her mind, screaming and raving. Carlo slapped her face. He was trying to stop her screams. She dropped the camera. She turned and ran. It was horrible. She kept running until she went over the cliff. She didn’t kill herself. She just didn’t see where she was going. She was half out of her mind. Carlo didn’t kill her. You must believe that.”

I ran my fingers through my hair.

“Yes, I believe it. Carlo took the film out of the camera but he didn’t think to look in the mail box?”

“We didn’t think of the mail box. When I got back to Naples I kept thinking about the possibility of her having more films of us somewhere. When Carlo called me on the telephone later in the evening, I told him to go to the villa and destroy all the films he could find just in case she had taken others. I believe that was when you were there. He also went to her apartment. He found the four letters she had taken — the letters I had written to him — and he destroyed them. I want you to believe I had no idea he was trying to incriminate you, Mr. Dawson. I want you to believe that. He was always good to me, but I do know he had a rotten streak in him. There was nothing I could do about that. It was my bad luck that I loved him.”

She stopped speaking and stared out of the window. There was a long pause.

“Thank you for telling me all this,” I said. “I can understand the jam you were in. I know how you must have felt. She got me in a jam too.” I got to my feet. “Get rid of that film. I don’t know what will come out at the inquest. Your husband is trying to fix it. Knowing him, he’ll probably succeed. As far as I’m concerned, you have nothing to worry about.”

Chalmers did fix it. The verdict was wilful murder against Toni Amando, known as Carlo Manchini, with insufficient evidence to show motive. The pressmen, had been tipped off not to be too inquiring. Carlotti was bland and non-committal. The whole affair evaporated into a puff of illusive smoke.

I didn’t see June Chalmers while she was in Naples. She and Chalmers left as soon as the inquest was over and I returned to Rome.

I went right away to the office. Gina was there on her own.

“It’s over and I’m in the clear,” I told her. “I fly to New York on Sunday.”

She struggled to smile.

“It’s what you want, isn’t it?” she said.

“It’s what I want, providing I don’t go alone,” I said. “I want to take something of Rome with me.”

Her eyes began to sparkle.

“What sort of thing?” she asked.

“Something that is young and lovely and smart,” I said. “Will you come with me?”

She jumped to her feet.

“Oh, yes, darling! Yes — yes — yes!”

She was in my arms and I was kissing her when Maxwell came in.

“Now I wonder why I never thought of doing that,” he said, sourly.

I waved him towards his office.

“Can’t you see we’re busy?” I said, and pulled Gina closer.