Хал Эллсон: Mink Is for a Minx

“We were in a hurry,” the chunky man said. “I told you to kill him before you threw him into the water, Marcello.”

“Shut your mouth!” Marcello said.

Shayne smiled. “Attempted murder is a bad charge in this country. You want to tell me about it?”

Marcello hesitated. Then the Italian shrugged an eloquent Latin shrug.

“We made a mistake. The car, you understand? It was his car, that Major Finch. We thought you were him.”

“Try again,” Shayne said.

“It is true,” Marcello said. “We think you are Major Finch, the swine, and then when we hit you and see you are not, we think you are in it with him anyway.”

“You think he killed Corelli?” Shayne asked.

“Who else?” Marcello said. “Twice the swine kill Pietro!”

Shayne waved his pistol. “Okay, now sit down and tell me the whole story. All of it.”

The two Italians looked at each other. They both shrugged and sat down. Shayne sat on the sand facing them. Sitting down they were all out of sight from the house and the beach. But Shayne kept his ears cocked for any sound while the thin Italian with the mustache talked.

“That Major Finch he betrayed Corelli,” Marcello said. “The money it disappear, you know? We tell the Americans about it, but they say there is no proof. What can we do? We are poor Italians, and Major Finch is important man. So we try to forget. For nineteen years we try. And that is a very long time.

“Then, one day maybe two, three months ago, Corelli he come back. He was lucky. The Germans who captured him turned him over to regular German Army unit. Those Germans do not know he is great Partisan leader. They put him with many other poor Italians and send him to labor camp in the east of Germany. At end of war Russians liberate him. Corelli identifies himself. They do not treat him well until they check and find he is Pietro Corelli, a great Communist Partisan.

“When they find out who he is, they send him to Russia. He stay there nineteen years. All the time he is asking about Major Finch, Captain Maltz, and that Sergeant Olney. He is sure that one of them betrayed him. He waits. He thinks about all the money. At last he decides to leave Russia. Corelli says Russia is not so good now. They don’t like him any more in Russia because he was a Stalin man.

“He gets away and he comes home. He finds three of us from the Partisan unit. He has plenty money, but he tells us this one who betrayed him must have all the money. If it is Major Finch, we get even more because he is so rich now. Corelli he says he will give us our share.

“So he buys a boat, good fishing boat, and we come over here. Corelli is afraid Italians will put him in jail as traitor or foreign Communist if he tells who he is before he gets the money. With the money he can prove he was betrayed, and, besides, money will buy anything.

“We sail over here. Corelli goes to see Captain Maltz and Sergeant Olney. Then he goes there to the big house to talk to Major Finch. Then he is killed. We know it must be Major Finch. Corelli must have found out and the Major killed him.

“The other two, they did not kill him. That is how we know it is the Major.”

“Then why did you kill Maltz and Olney?” Shayne said.

“Olney? Maltz? No. It is true we try to kill the major, because we were angry. But when we see we have not killed the major, we think. Why kill him, let us get the money first. We see you bury something. We think it is the money.”

Shayne studied the two men. The thin one with the mustache seemed nervous, but Shayne felt he was telling the truth. The chunky one had not spoken. They did not seem like the kind who would kill without an excellent reason, such as revenge or cash. Still, revenge could be the motive, a vendetta for Corelli.

“You two can be jailed for a long time,” Shayne said to the Italians. “Now, maybe I’ll forget about the attempt on me, and about the illegal entry into the United States. I said maybe. If you boys come clean all the way.”

Marcello, the spokesman, shrugged. “What you want to know?”

“You said Corelli didn’t know for sure which of the three Americans betrayed him,” Shayne said. “What made him think he was betrayed at all, and why only those three?”

Marcello nodded. “All right, I tell you. We were a unit, yes? These Americans they are with us. They have much money for us. This Major Finch he is in charge. One day Corelli he come to us, he say the major wants us to attack a German barrack. Twelve of us! We are to attack a whole barrack, and kill all the Germans.

“Corelli he says the American major is crazy. The job is a suicide, no? We do not like it. Corelli says we cannot say no, because the American major says if we don’t attack we don’t get money. We got to have money to pay for food, to help our wives, to help the poor.

“Corelli says the job is so bad he thinks maybe the American major is trying to get him killed or captured. He says if anything strange happens to him when we attack the barrack, we should tell everyone what we know about the American major.

“Two days before we are supposed to attack we are all scared. I never see us so scared. Then, two days before, Corelli he is out on a routine job. He visit the village for wine. Corelli goes. I go. We are on the way back. Corelli is behind. Then we see the Major Finch and Captain Maltz and the Sergeant Olney.

“They are across the valley, maybe two hundred yards away. They wave. Corelli he goes to see. He gets maybe one hundred yards and the Germans are waiting; I run. I get away. Later the Major, the Captain, and the Sergeant come back. Corelli was captured they tell us. Two days later we all hear. Corelli is dead, shot.

“I tell Americans one of those three men, maybe all three, betray Corelli, set trap. Nineteen years we wait. Corelli comes back, and now he is dead again.”

Shayne could see the whole picture. An isolated unit behind enemy lines. Italians and Americans in uneasy alliance. The fear and need of the moment. And someone had ordered a suicide mission? Why?

Olney had said the mission was a suicide job. Finch had said the same. Now the three Italians. Only their stories did not agree. Finch and Olney said the attack on the barrack had been Corelli’s idea. The Italians said it was an American idea. Someone was lying.

“Tell me about Steiner?” Shayne said.

The thin Italian said, “Steiner? Who is he?”

“You never heard of Steiner?”

The thin man shrugged. “No, I never hear.”

The chunky Italian said, “I no hear.”

Shayne pulled his earlobe thoughtfully. They both seemed to be telling the truth.

Shayne heard a faint noise behind him. He whirled, and climbed swiftly to the top of the dune. A hundred yards away in the dark he thought he saw the shadow of a man moving. Then the shadow was gone. It had looked very much like the same man who had killed Olney. Just below where he stood on the dune, Shayne saw depressions in the sand.

Someone had been listening. Someone who had crawled up in total silence. Shayne motioned to the Italians to walk ahead of him. He marched the Italians to the house. He led them into the hall and called Masters. While he was waiting for Masters, Finch came into the hall.

“Marcello! Candio!” Finch cried. “What the hell...”

“The two men you didn’t know who jumped me,” Shayne said.

The thin Italian, Marcello, shouted, “Betrayer! Traitor!”

The chunky Italian spat on the thick carpet of the hall. Finch sat down hard in a chair.

“Get them out of here!” Finch said.

“In a minute,” Shayne said. “They bother you?”

“Get them away from me, Mike!” Finch shouted. “You hear me?”

Finch was almost hysterical. Shayne watched the industrialist. The man was far too affected by men who had simply accused him of something he said he hadn’t done. Finch appeared to be on the verge of attacking the two men.