Ross MacDonald - The Ferguson Affair

“I’m taking no chances,” he said.

“You may be taking the worst possible chance.”

“I don’t understand you.”

“Your wife may be dead now.”

I’d meant to shock him, but he was appalled by the thought. His jaw gaped, showing his lower teeth. He ran the tip of his tongue over his lips. “She’s dead, is she? They found her dead?”

“No. But it could happen, that they should find her dead.”

“Why? I intend to pay them the money. All they want is the money. Why should they harm her? The money means nothing to me-”

I cut him short. “There’s a good chance that you’ll pay your money and still not see her again. Do you understand that, Ferguson? Once they’ve got the money, there’s no advantage to them in returning her to you. No advantage, and a great deal of risk.”

“They wouldn’t take the money and kill her anyway.”

“They’re killers, some of them at least. She’s in danger every hour she’s with them.”

“You don’t have to tell him, he knows it.” Padilla shook his dark head. “Lay off, eh?”

Ferguson spoke gruffly. “I’m perfectly all right. Don’t concern yourself about me.”

“I’m more concerned about your wife. She may be killed while we stand here talking, and you’ll end up financing the killer’s getaway.”

“I know she’s in danger. I’ve been sitting with it staring me in the face all night. You don’t have to grind it in.”

“Then go to the police.”

“I will not. Stop badgering me.”

He ran his fingers through his thin hair. It stuck up and fluttered like gray feathers in the wind from the sea. He walked away to the edge of the cliff and stood there looking down. I could hear the surf pouring and lapsing, a continual sound of grief running under the morning.

“Let him alone now,” Padilla said. “You want to drive him over the edge?”

“I’m not doing it for fun. This is a bad situation all round.”

“You’re not making it any better, Mr. Gunnarson.”

“Somebody has to do something.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. We don’t want to do the wrong thing, that’s for sure. The Colonel could be right. He’s had a lot of experience in his life. He didn’t get where he is by letting other people carry the ball.”

“Nobody’s carrying it, that’s the trouble.”

“Sometimes you just have to wait. You press too hard, and everything goes to pieces.”

“Don’t give me the mañana treatment.”

Padilla was hurt. He turned away from me in silence.

“Listen to me,” I said to Ferguson’s back. “You’re not the only person involved in this. Your wife is deeply involved, more deeply than you are by a long shot. You’re taking a heavy responsibility for her.”

“I know that,” he said without turning.

“Then spread it around. Give other people a chance to help you.”

“You can help me by getting off my back.” He turned, his small eyes hot and dry. “I have to work this out for myself, and for Holly. Alone.”

“Don’t you have any friends in California?”

“None that I trust. Those people at the Club care nothing for me. The people we know in Hollywood are worse. They have a grudge against me, and for good reason. I found that my wife’s so-called friends were living off her like leeches. I got rid of them for her.”

“So you’re completely alone here?”

“I choose to be. I hope I make that clear.”

“No servants?”

“I won’t have servants under my feet, prying into my affairs. Holly was glad to be alone with me, and look after my needs. I don’t like anyone prying, do you understand me?”

He stalked into the house, stiff-necked and high-shouldered, mimicked by his dwarf shadow. I was beginning to understand something about him. He was a pigheaded Scots-Canadian, made arrogant and lonely by his money. But he was a man, and had a depth of feeling I hadn’t suspected. It’s hard to begin to understand a man without beginning to like him.

Padilla lingered outside. “Could I talk to you, Mr. Gunnarson? Person to person? I’m no great brain, and I never studied law-”

I didn’t like his guarded, apologetic tone. “We can sit in my car.”

I climbed in behind the wheel. He got in the other side, closing the door very gently as if it might shatter under his hand. I offered him a cigarette and meant to light it for him. But before I could move, he was lighting mine, in a quick, smooth bartender’s gesture.

“Thanks, Tony. I got a little wordy, there. It’s the occupational hazard of my profession.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed that about lawyers. I thought maybe you were pressing a little hard about him going to the cops. I got nothing against cops. They’re human like everybody else, though. I see them fumble a lot of balls, so do you. Most of the time they make a good try for it, but sometimes they just turn their back and let the ball bounce.”

“Get down to cases, eh?”

“I drove Secundina Donato home last night. She did some talking. Some of it made sense, some of it didn’t. But I thought I better pass the word to somebody who’d know what to do. I can’t take it to the cops.”

“Why?”

He hesitated, and then said rapidly: “She thinks Pike Granada is mixed up with the robbery gang. Don’t quote me, and don’t quote her.” He peered through the windshield as if searching for hovering helicopters. “She’s in bad enough trouble now, with her husband dead, and kids to feed. I don’t want to get them orphaned completely.”

“You take her seriously, do you?”

“I dunno.” Padilla drew in half an inch of his cigarette and blew it out in a long, sighing puff, brown-gray on the blue sky. “She may be making it up, but I didn’t think she was that smart. She’s known Granada for a long time. He used to be one of her boy-friends. Her and Gus and Granada ran with the same gang. It was a pretty wild gang, smoking weed, stealing cars, beating people up. They used to have parties out in the old ice plant-the same place where Pike shot Gus.”

“How long ago was this?”

“Not as long as you’d think. Ten years at the outside. These people aren’t old. Sexy-they used to call her Sexy-Secundina says that Gus and Granada fought for her one night. Granada was a football player, and Gus couldn’t take him with his bare hands. He took him with a knife. He put a little hole in Granada’s chest, and Granada ran away. Next thing they knew, the place was raided, and Gus was in the reformatory for stealing a car.”

“There’s no necessary connection.”

“I know that, but Secundina thinks there is. Once Gus was out of the way, Granada moved in on her. She claims that’s the way it’s been ever since. Granada keeps making trouble for Gus, so he can get at her.”

“She’s not that much of an attraction, is she?”

“You didn’t see her ten years ago, even five. She used to melt the asphalt. And I know for a fact Granada chased her for years, and had a down on Gus. According to Secundina, he never forgave Gus for making him run, and that’s why he shot Gus last night.”

“It sounds like a one-sided story to me. She’s trying to get back at Granada.”

“I hope that’s all there is in it. She said other things, too. Granada was always dropping in Broadman’s store. Manuel and Gus saw him there every week, oftener. They used to go in the back and talk.”

“That’s interesting.”

“Yeah, it is. Because Broadman was fencing for the gang, that’s definite. Gus was one of the break-in boys, and naturally he knew who handled the stuff. He also told Secundina that they had police information, somebody on the force tipping them off on when and where to strike. She thinks it was Granada.”