Fletcher Flora - The First Golden Age of Mystery & Crime MEGAPACK™ - 26 Stories by Fletcher Flora

She shrugged and began leafing through another old magazine, and I began to think again about Banty and try to figure when he’d probably be back. He hadn’t told me any schedule, of course, because that was something he’d have to work out in KC after he got there, but I figured he’d probably contact Arnold Gotlot tonight, or maybe even this afternoon, since the job was hot. Besides, he wouldn’t want to prolong his chances of running accidentally into Archie Flowers or one of his boys. He’d tell Arnold Gotlot about having Felicia and wanting the half million to give her back alive, and then he’d probably hang up and let Gotlot think about it for a while. Later on, maybe tonight or early tomorrow, he’d call again from another phone and set the time and place exactly for the payoff. I didn’t know where the place or when the time would be, naturally, but I knew, knowing Banty, that the place would be one he’d choose carefully and the time would be soon, and it was my bet that it would be tomorrow night. That meant Banty would be back early the next morning at the latest, probably between midnight and daylight.

As I expected, it was a long day and a bad one, and I thought it would never pass, but it did. We ate something from cans about noon, and something else from cans before dark, and between the two times, Felicia Gotlot went into the bedroom and lay down on the bed and had a nap. I was tired and sleepy myself, having started the day so early after a hard night, but I didn’t dare go to sleep because of having to watch Felicia Gotlot, to see that she didn’t run away, maybe hitting me over the head or shooting me with my own .38 before running. I made her leave the door to the bedroom open so I could see her lying in there from where I sat, and I played Old Sol ten times with a pack of cards I found, and he beat me every time.

A little while after dark, I was so tired and sleepy I couldn’t stand it any longer, and I told her I was going to bed and she’d have to go too.

“Are you going to tie me in bed already?”

“That’s right.”

“Would you let me sit up by myself if I promise not to do anything you told me not to?”

“No.”

“You aren’t quite as dumb as I thought you were.”

“I’m not dumb enough to think you wouldn’t lie to me if it suited you.”

“I’m quite an accomplished liar. I have a particular talent for it.”

“And that’s the truth,” I said.

I tied her in bed the same way Banty and I had tied her before. She didn’t fight it, or try to talk me out of it anymore, but just lay there quietly looking up at me with that odd little smile on her face.

“Enjoy yourself while you can,” I said.

“You aren’t as dumb as I thought,” she said, “but you’re still pretty dumb.”

“You may change your mind,” I said.

“What makes you so sure Banty’s coming back?”

“He’ll be back.”

“Well,” she said, “half a million is twice as much as a quarter million, and I don’t see what’s to keep him from going north or east or west instead of south.”

Then she closed her eyes, still smiling, and I don’t mind admitting that I couldn’t put what she’d said out of my mind, and I couldn’t sleep because of it, tired as I was and much as I needed to. I got up and began smoking cigarettes, but I had to quit after a while because I only had about half a pack left to last me until Banty came back, if he ever did, and I sat there in the dark for almost ten years trying to convince myself that he surely would. Finally I lay down on the sofa again and shut my eyes, but I kept seeing Banty heading any direction but south, and it was after midnight before I went to sleep and began dreaming about the same thing. It was a dirty trick of Felicia Gotlot’s to put me deliberately in such a frame of mind, and I hoped she was having as much trouble sleeping as I was, but she said the next morning she hadn’t.

I got back at her a little by leaving her tied in bed until the middle of the morning, but then I let her up for coffee, and let her stay up afterward. Things were strained between us, though, and it wasn’t until afternoon, after we’d had something to eat out of cans, that she finally said any more to me than was strictly demanded by necessity. Then she said she was sick of staying inside all the time and would like to take a walk.

“I don’t think so,” I said.

“Oh, come on. We could just walk up the hill to the crest and back. What harm could it do?”

“Well, none, I guess.”

The truth was, I wanted to get out of the house myself, and I was glad to go. We walked on up the hill at an angle to the crest, and it was something to see how well she managed to walk among the rocks in her high heels and tight skirt, and she was, as I’ve said, pretty remarkable at more things than you’d think. There was a fallen tree near the crest, and we sat down to rest on the trunk of the tree. It was mighty nice up there, if you care for rocks and scrub timber, and I could see, glittering in the sunlight at the foot of the hill below the house, the good fishing stream that Cousin Theodore came here to fish in.

“I’ve made up my mind to tell you something,” Felicia Gotlot said.

“Don’t bother,” I said.

“I’ve made up my mind to tell you the truth, and you’d better listen.”

“I’ll bet it’s the truth!”

“You know why I’ve made up my mind to tell you? Because you’re not a really bad fellow, only dumb. It’s that bad Banty who makes you do things that get you into trouble, but Banty won’t do it anymore, because Banty won’t be back.”

“There you go again, and you may as well quit.”

“I don’t mean because he’ll run away. I just said that to bother you and make you realize how dumb it is to trust someone like that Banty. I mean because the police will get him.”

“Not Banty.”

“Yes, they will, and I’ll tell you why. Do you want me to tell you?”

“Suit yourself.”

“The police will get him because when he goes for the payoff, whenever and wherever it is, Arnold Gotlot will have enough men there to fight a small war.”

“No, he won’t. Not after Banty tells him what will happen to his precious daughter if he tries any tricks.”

“That’s what I’ve been getting around to telling you. Nothing is going to happen to Arnold Gotlot’s daughter, and Arnold Gotlot knows it, because his daughter is at home this minute with a broken leg, where she has been for nearly a week.”

“What the hell you talking about?”

“I’m talking about Felicia Gotlot’s leg, which is broken. She fell off a horse.”

“Oh, sure. And I suppose you’re Felicia Gotlot’s grandmother or someone like that. Is that it?”

“No one like that at all. My name is Amanda Swanson, and I’m a maid in the Gotlot home. Felicia likes me and humors me, and when I go out at night she lets me wear her clothes and jewelry. When that Banty was so nasty last night, refusing to take me back to Kansas City and all, I lied about being Felicia because I thought it would impress him and make him take me. Then when he got the idea to kidnap me, it was too late to tell the truth, because he wouldn’t have believed me. Besides, I didn’t like him, and wanted to get him into trouble, which I have, and he deserves every bit of it.”

“I don’t believe you. You’re always telling lies, you said so yourself, and you’re lying now.”

“I admit I’m a good liar, and I lie when it pleases me, but now it pleases me to tell the truth, and you’d better believe me. I know old Arnold Gotlot like the palm of my hand, and I know how he hates con men and blackmailers and crooks of all sorts. The minute Banty contacts him, he’ll start laying the trap to catch him. He won’t let on or say a word about Felicia’s being at home, because that would scare Banty off. What he’ll do, he’ll play along and agree to everything, setting the trap all the while, and then, probably tonight, it’ll be the end of Banty, and if you don’t get out of here right away, it’ll be the end of you too.”