James Chase - Tell It to the Birds

Maddox nodded.

“That’s it… find out,” and reaching for another policy, he settled down to examine it.

Late back from his trip to San Francisco, Anson was thinking about going to bed when his door bell rang. Wondering who could be calling at this hour, he went to the door.

A woman, wearing a black coat and a green and yellow scarf over her head, hiding her face, moved quickly past him into the room.

“Shut the door!” she said sharply.

“Meg!”

Anson hurriedly shut and locked the door as Meg Barlowe took off the scarf.

“What are you doing here?” Anson asked, alarmed.

“I had to come.” She took off her coat and tossed it on a chair. “I’ve been trying to contact you all day.”

“Did anyone see you come in?” Anson asked. “Don’t you realize if we are seen together…”

“I was careful. No one saw me. Anyway, even if they did see me they wouldn’t recognize me.” She came over to him and slid her arms around him. “Aren’t you pleased to see me?”

The feel of her body as she pressed herself against him lessened Anson’s alarm. He kissed her with mounting passion until she broke away.

“Where have you been?” she asked, moving away and sitting on the arm of an armchair. “I tried to telephone you.”

“I’ve just got back from ’Frisco,” Anson said. “Look, Meg, I warned you we have to be careful. You must never telephone me. Our plan stands or falls on the fact that we are practically strangers. You must understand that!”

She made an impatient movement.

“What’s been happening?”

He told her about his interview with Maddox. She listened, her cobalt blue eyes worried.

“There’s nothing to be worried about,” he said. “Maddox won’t take it further. He’s satisfied.”

She looked down at her hands as she asked, “When do you… get rid of Phil?”

“Not yet. We must wait. Four or five months at least.”

She stiffened.

“Four or five monthsl”

“Yes. If we don’t wait, we’ll be in trouble. Imagine how Maddox would react if your husband died within a few weeks of insuring himself. It’ll be bad enough if he dies to four or five months’ time, but sooner than that would be out of the question.”

“How will you do it?”

The intensity of her stare began to irritate him.

“I don’t know. I haven’t even thought about it yet. This idea I had of him falling and drowning in the pond won’t work. I couldn’t be sure someone might come up the road while I was fixing it. It’ll have to happen in the house.”

Meg shivered.

“But how?”

“I don’t know. I have to think about it. When I get the right idea, I’ll tell you.”

“But must we really wait all that time?”

“If we rush this, we could ruin everything. Isn’t fifty thousand dollars worth waiting for?”

She hesitated, then nodded.

“Yes, of course,” she paused, then went on, “so you have no idea how you’ll do it?”

“Don’t keep on and on,” Anson said impatiently. “At least I have him now insured for fifty thousand dollars and that’s something you didn’t think I could fix.”

“Yes… you were clever about that.” She stood up. “I must go,” and she picked up her coat.

“Go?” Anson’s face became tense, “but why? Now you’re here… he’s not going home tonight, is he? Of course you must stay…”

“I can’t.” She slipped on her coat and began to put the scarf on her head. “I promised I would go to his class tonight. That’s why I’m here. He drove me down this morning. I’ve been trying to get you all day.”

He made to take her in his arms, but she avoided him.

“No, John, I must go.”

“Then when do we have a few minutes together?” he demanded, his voice edged with frustration. “Now you’re here: oh, come on, Meg… I want you…”

“No! I have to go! I shouldn’t have come here. I have to go!”

The sudden hardness in her eyes warned him it would be useless to attempt to persuade her to stay.

“You can kiss me, can’t you?” he said angrily.

She let him kiss her, but when he became ardent, she pushed him roughly away.

“I said no!”

His face congested, his eyes sullen with frustrated anger, Anson went to the front door, opened it and looked out on to the deserted corridor.

“I’ll call you,” he said as she moved past him.

He listened to her heels click on the stairs as she went down the street.

A dusty 1958 Buick was parked at the end of the street in which Anson’s apartment block stood.

Sailor Hogan sat at the wheel, a cigarette dangling from his lips, his big hands resting on his knees. His hard eyes moved continuously to his driving mirror to check the street behind him and then through the windshield to check the street ahead of him.

When he saw Meg come out of Anson’s apartment block, he started the car engine. As Meg reached the car, he leaned across the bench seat and swung open the door. Meg slid in, slammed the door as Hogan shot the car away from the kerb.

“Well? What did he say?” Hogan demanded.

“At least four or five months,” Meg told him and flinched away from the explosion she knew would follow.

“Months?” Hogan’s voice shot up. “You crazy? You mean weeks, don’t you?”

“He said months. He says they’ll be suspicious, if he does it before.”

“I don’t give a damn what he says!” Hogan snarled. “It’s got to happen before then! I can’t wait that long! I must have the money by the end of the month!”

“If you think you can do better than me… then you talk to him,” said Meg sullenly.

Hogan gave her a quick vicious glance.

“Okay, baby,” he said. “We’ll see about this.”

He shoved his foot down on the gas pedal and the car surged forward.

Neither of them spoke until they reached the Barlowe house. Meg got out of the car and opened the double gates.

Hogan drove the car into the garage. He joined Meg as she unlocked the front door. They walked side by side into the dark house and into the sitting-room.

When Meg had lowered the blinds, she turned on the lights.

Hogan stood over the fire, his big hands thrust into his pockets while he watched Meg get a bottle of whisky and glasses from the cupboard.

Hogan was above middle- height with the wide muscular shoulders of a boxer. He wore his wavy, dark hair cut short.

He was handsome in a brutish way. During his professional fighting career his nose had been flattened. There were scar tissues along the ridge of his eyebrows, but this added to rather than detracted from his animal glamour.

“Listen, doll,” he said, “you’ve got to do better than this.” He took the glass half full of whisky Meg handed to him. “I’ve got to have this money by the end of the month! You’ve got to talk this guy into doing his stuff by then or you and me will fall out.”

Meg sat on the settee. She was pale and her eyes were anxious.

“It’s no use, Jerry,” she said. “You don’t know him the way I do. He scares me.” She shivered. “I can’t handle him. I wish I hadn’t listened to you! I wish…”

“Aw, shut up!” Hogan snarled. “You do what I tell you or I’ll give you something to remember me by!” Meg looked at him.

“That policeman who was shot at the Caltex hold-up… Anson did it.”

Hogan stiffened.

“Anson? You’re lying, you rotten little…”

“He did it!” Meg exclaimed, jumping to her feet and backing away as Hogan, his hands now out of hfs pockets began to move threateningly towards her. “He killed him with Phil’s gun!”

Hogan paused, then he rubbed his jaw with a sweating hand.

“So that’s how he raised the money!” he said startled. “Joe and me wondered how he had got it. Well! what do you know… a cop killer!”