James Chase - Just Another Sucker

‘We have a good impression of a tyre here, sir,’ he said as Barry came up. ‘There’s a lot of oil too. I guess the car could be in trouble. It fairly leaked oil.’

Barty examined the ground and grunted.

‘I’ve a lot of work to do here, Barber,’ he said to me. ‘Will you take the car and pick John up? Tell him I’ll be here for a couple of hours and to send a car for me.’

‘Sure,’ I said, and leaving the three men, I walked to the police car.

I drove back to Malroux’s house. I just couldn’t believe this was happening to me. It was like living in a nightmare. I kept hoping I would wake up and find it had never happened. Every now and then my mind went to the Packard in my garage, and I would come out in a cold sweat.

As I pulled up outside the main gates to Malroux’s house, I saw Renick waiting. He was carrying a briefcase: it was the same briefcase that Malroux had dropped from his car. It was unmistakable. The sight of it pretty nearly stampeded me.

Renick tossed the case into the back of the car and got in beside me.

‘Barty find anything?’ he asked.

I told him what Barty had found. My voice was flat and dead. I knew I had left the briefcase in the trunk of the car, and yet, here it was, right behind me.

‘What have you got there?’ I asked.

‘That’s like the briefcase Malroux used to hold the ransom money. He had a pair: they are identical.

This is a break for us. We’ll get the case photographed. You never know. The kidnapper may have dumped the case. We might trace it and get his fingerprints. Right now, we’ll report back to Meadows. If he is ready, we’ll alert the Press. All we can hope for now is someone will come forward who saw the girl after she left the Pirates’ Cabin.’

You won’t get anywhere with that angle, I thought. How thankful I was I had insisted that Odette should change her clothes and wear a red wig.

Meadows was waiting for us when we arrived at his office. After Renick’s report, he got up and began to pace up and down his office, chewing his cigar.

Finally, he said, ‘Well, now we go into bat. We’ll be in time for the lunch editions.’ He paused to point a stubby finger at me. ‘This is your job, Barber. We want Press co-operation. I don’t have to tell you what to do. I want plenty of good publicity. Understand?’ He swung around to Renick. ‘And watch this, John! No mistakes. We’ll be right in the limelight. This kidnapper has to be caught — check?’

‘Yeah,’ Renick said. ‘I’ll talk to Reiger, then we’ll get moving with the Press.’

We both went to Reiger’s office. He gave me a batch of photographs of the car.

‘Okay, you get busy, Harry,’ Renick said, ‘I want to talk to the Captain.’

I asked him the question I had been wanting to ask for the past hour.

‘When you talked to Malroux, did you see anything of his wife?’

I could see Renick’s surprise as he shook his head.

‘No. Malroux told me she has collapsed and is in bed.’

Reiger looked up sharply.

‘Collapsed? I wouldn’t have thought she was the collapsing type.’

Renick made an impatient movement.

‘So what? She became hysterical last night while they were waiting for the kidnapper to telephone.

The doctor had to be called. He gave her a strong sedative, and she hasn’t come out of it yet.’

Dry mouthed, I asked, ‘You checked with the doctor, John?’

He frowned at me.

‘Anything on your mind, Harry?’

‘No. Like the Captain just said: she doesn’t strike me from her photos as the collapsing type.’

‘Look, don’t let’s waste time about her,’ Renick said. ‘Whether she is the collapsing type or not, Malroux says she collapsed. Get busy with those prints.’ He handed me the briefcase. ‘Get this photographed and circulate the prints too.’

‘I’ll fix it.’

For the next three hours, I didn’t move from the telephone. The moment I replaced the receiver, the bell rang again. By ten o’clock, the outer office was packed with newspaper men, all clamouring for the story.

At ten-thirty, I took the whole crowd of them to Meadows. He certainly could handle newspaper men.

Police Captain Reiger and Federal Officer Barty were there, but they didn’t get a look in. Meadows hogged the whole show.

Glad of a little respite, I left them with him and returned to my office. As I sat down at my desk, the telephone bell rang. It was Nina.

‘Harry, I’ve lost my car keys and I want to use the car. Did you take them?’

The car!

During the past hectic hours I had forgotten about the car and what was in the trunk.

‘I hadn’t time to tell you,’ I said. ‘You can’t use the car. The gearbox has packed up. I had to get a tow home last night.’

‘What shall I do? I have a lot of pots to take to the shop. Can’t we get it fixed? Shall I get someone from the garage…?’

‘No! It means a new gearbox. We just can’t afford that. Take a taxi. Look, Nina, I’m right up to my eyes. Forget the car. I’ll see you some time tonight,’ and I hung up.

I hadn’t got over that shock before there was a tap on the door and Tim Cowley walked in.

The sight of him jarred me down to my heels.

‘Hello, boy,’ he said. ‘So you’re really in the thick of it.’

‘You’re missing something,’ I said. ‘The D.A. is holding a Press meeting right now. All the boys are in there.’

He pursed his lips and made a rude noise.

‘That old wind-bag! All he thinks about is getting his ugly mug in the papers.’ He came in and folded himself down in one of the armchairs. ‘When I write my piece about this kidnapping, it’s going to be from a completely different angle from those suckers in with your boss. This, Harry, could be the big story if it is handled right and I’m going to handle it right. Renick is a smart boy. I’ll talk to him, but not to his boss. He’s no use to me.’ He lit a cigarette, his quizzing eyes searching my face. ‘They reckon she’s dead, don’t they?’

‘That’s their guess. They don’t know for sure.’

‘How’s Malroux taking it? I went there, but the house is surrounded by cops. I couldn’t get near him.’

‘He seems to be taking it pretty well. You must remember he is a dying man. He hasn’t more than a couple of months to live.’

‘And how’s his glamorous wife taking it?’

‘She’s collapsed.’

Cowley stared at me.

‘She’s — what?’

‘She’s under doctor’s orders. She has collapsed. You know what the word collapse means?’

He threw his head back and laughed like a hyena.

‘That’s rich! I would have betted she would have been dancing the can-can on the roof.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Look, these people — the Malroux — are French. Do you know anything about the heredity laws in France?’

‘I can’t say I do. What has that to do with it?’

‘By law, a child inherits half the parents’ estate. That means this girl would have got half Malroux’s millions. Even if Malroux wanted to give his wife all his money, he couldn’t do it. Half what he owns goes automatically and by law to the girl when he dies, and half what he owns must be a very, very large slice of dough.’

I felt a spooky feeling run through me.

‘If these kidnappers have murdered the girl, and it seems likely, and if Malroux dies shortly, and that seems likely too, Rhea Malroux inherits the whole fortune. That’s why I’m surprised to hear she has collapsed — probably with joy.’

Here then could be the motive for Odette’s death: had this faked kidnapping been a blind to set the stage for murder? Had Rhea picked on me for a catspaw?

Cowley said, ‘What’s on your mind, Harry? You look as if you have swallowed a bee.’