James Chase - Just Another Sucker

I was immediately alert and worried. I looked towards the door as a man of about my build came in.

He paused to look from Renick to me. I watched his reaction as he and I exchanged glances, but there was no sign of recognition. I had never seen him before, and I relaxed.

‘Mr. Keller?’ Renick said, getting to his feet. He held out his hand.

‘That’s right.’ Keller shook hands. ‘Lieutenant, I saw this picture in the paper.’ He held up the newspaper containing the picture of myself with the blocked out face. ‘I think I’ve seen this guy.’

‘Sit down. Let’s have your address, Mr. Keller.’

Keller sat down. He took out his handkerchief and wiped his sun-tanned, pleasantly ugly face. He said he lived on Western Avenue and gave the number of his apartment.

‘Where do you think you saw this man?’

‘At the airport.’

My heart started to thump. I picked up a pencil and began to doodle on the blotter lying on the desk at which I was sitting.

‘When was this?’

‘Saturday night.’

I saw Renick begin to show interest.

‘What time?’

‘Around eleven o’clock.’

‘What makes you so sure he is the man we’re looking for, Mr. Keller?’

Keller moved uneasily.

‘I’m not sure he is the man, Lieutenant. It was the suit that caught my attention. You see I planned to buy a suit like that myself. I was in the airport lobby waiting for a friend of mine off the L.A. plane and I saw this guy come in. The suit attracted my attention. I thought how well it looked, then seeing this photograph in the paper today, I thought maybe I should come in and tell you.’

‘You did right. Would you recognise this guy again?’

Keller shook his head.

‘To tell the honest truth, Lieutenant, I didn’t look at his face. I was looking at the suit.’

Renick drew in a long, slow breath of exasperation. Then he asked the question I had been silently willing him not to ask.

‘Was he alone?’

‘He had a girl with him.’

Renick got slowly to his feet. He could scarcely control his excitement.

‘Did you happen to notice the girl, Mr. Keller?’

Keller grinned widely.

‘Oh, sure. There aren’t many pretty girls that I don’t notice.’

‘How was she dressed?’

‘She had on a blue and white cotton dress. She wore big sun goggles and she had red hair — my favourite colouring for a girl.’

‘Red hair?’ Renick paused in his pacing to stare at Keller. ‘You are sure about that?’

‘I’m sure.’

I took out my handkerchief and surreptitiously wiped my face.

Renick snatched up the telephone.

‘Taylor, get that dress the girl was wearing up here right away.’

As he replaced the receiver, Keller said in a puzzled voice, ‘I thought you were interested in the guy, Lieutenant, not the girl.’

‘What did these two do?’ Renick asked, ignoring Keller’s remark.

Seeing the hard, seriousness in his eyes, Keller stiffened to attention.

‘They came into the lobby. The man was carrying a suitcase. The girl got her ticket checked and the man handed over the suitcase. Then he went away and the girl went through the barrier.’

‘Did they speak at all to each other?’

Keller shook his head.

‘Come to think of it, I don’t think they did. The guy just handed over the suitcase and left.’

A police officer came in carrying a blue and white dress. Renick took it from him and held it up so Keller could see it.

‘That’s the one,’ Keller said confidently. ‘She looked real cute in it.’

‘You’re sure?’

‘That’s the one, Lieutenant.’

‘Okay, Mr. Keller. I’ll be seeing you again. Thanks for your help,’ and nodding to the police officer to take Keller out, Renick went to the telephone and called Barty to come in.

I felt as if a noose was slowly tightening around my throat. I just sat there, doodling and sweating.

‘There’s something phoney about this business,’ Renick said, sitting down at his desk. ‘I’ve had an idea from the very start that this wasn’t a straightforward kidnapping.’

‘What do you mean?’ I said, aware my voice sounded husky.

‘I’m damned if I know, but I’m going to find out.’

Barty came in.

‘What’s up?’

Renick told him what Keller had said.

Barty sat on the edge of the desk, frowning.

‘She went alone, but a redhead. This girl’s dark. There’s two of them — Keller and the air hostess who both swear the girl was a redhead. What was she listed as on the flight record?’

Renick took out a file and glanced through it.

‘Ann Harcourt: booked for L.A. Who’s Ann Harcourt? Look, Barty, drop everything. I want to know everything about this girl. Get the boys working. Get L.A. to check on her there. I want all the hotels checked just in case she stayed at a hotel.’

‘Just what’s on your mind, John?’

‘There’s something phoney about this set-up. The kidnapper tells the girl he is Jerry Williams who she hasn’t seen for a couple of months. He persuades her to go to a joint like the Pirates’ Cabin: a place where none of these youngsters ever go. From there she suddenly vanishes. A big guy wearing a brown sports suit is seen in her car at ten-thirty. Another car is heard to drive off, but is not seen. Then a big guy in a brown sports suit is seen with a girl wearing the same dress the murdered girl is found in at the airport at eleven o’clock. That would make the timing right. From the Pirates’ Cabin to the airport is just about half an hour’s drive. So far so good. She could have been kidnapped. She could have been so terrorised that she changed her dress, put on a red wig and sun goggles and gone with the man. But what happens?’ He slammed his fist down on the desk. ‘ She goes alone ! There were fourteen other people travelling in the plane, all in couples. They couldn’t have had anything to do with this girl. The air hostess knows them all! This man who was driving her car, walks out of the airport and disappears. Then the briefcase containing the ransom money is found with the murdered girl. It’s stuffed full of old newspapers, and a rather sinister fact comes out there are two briefcases, the replica of each other.’ He paused to stare at Barty. ‘Make anything of it so far?’

‘Could have been a faked kidnapping,’ Barty said. ‘Providing this girl Ann Harcourt was Odette Malroux. That’s something we’ll have to find out.’

‘Yeah,’ Renick said. ‘Okay, get going. Let’s check on this girl, and when I say check, I mean check!’

He swung round to me.

‘Get that dress photographed. Get one of the office girls to put it on and block out her face. Someone else might recognise it. Get the picture circulated in all the local papers and in L.A.’

I picked up the dress and went back to my office. I felt as if I hadn’t a bone in my body. The teeth of the trap were closing too fast. In another twenty-four hours, if not sooner, Renick might even be on to me. Somehow I had to think of a way to prove that O’Reilly had killed her — but how?

I was too busy for the next hour to think about my problem. I got the dress photographed, gave a Press meeting and made sure the photograph would be circulated in Los Angeles.

By then it was lunch time. I was preparing to go to lunch with Renick and Barty when the telephone bell rang. We three were in Renick’s office. He answered the phone, then handed the receiver to me.

‘It’s Nina,’ he said. ‘She wants you.’ I took the receiver.

‘Yes?’ I said. ‘I’m just going to lunch.’

‘Harry, will you please come home?’ There was a note in her voice — a note I had never heard before– that sent a chill snaking up my spine. ‘I have to talk to you.’