Джордж Хиггинс: The New Black Mask (No 4)

The steering apparatus of my car had been tampered with; also, probably, the accelerator. Evidence of the tampering would be destroyed, of course, when my car went over the cliff. All that was necessary then was for me to be literally driven out of the house, so angered that I would jump into the car and head for town.

But Connie had overdone the business of making me angry. She had pursued me to the kitchen door — and been knocked unconscious when I flung it open. And when I headed for town, she was in the car with me...

“That’s the way it was, wasn’t it?” Claggett concluded. “You and your daughter tried to kill Mr. Rainstar, and your little plan backfired on you.”

My father-in-law looked at Claggett helplessly. He looked at me, eyes welling piteously.

“Tell him, Britt. Tell him that Connie and me w-wouldn’t, that we just ain’t the kind of p-people to... to—

He broke off, obviously — very obviously — overcome with emotion.

I wet my lips hesitantly. In spite of myself, I felt sorry for him. This man who had done so much to humiliate me, to make me feel small and worthless, now seemed very much that way himself. And I think I might have spoken up for him, despite a stern glance from Jeff Claggett. But my father-in-law compensated in blind doggedness for his considerable shortcomings in cerebral talents, and he was talking again before I had a chance to speak.

“I’ll tell you what happened!” he said surlily. “That fella right there, that half-breed Injun, Britt Rainstar, tried to kill my daughter for her insurance! He stood to collect a couple of hundred thousand dollars, and that was just plenty of motive for a no-account loafer like him!”

Claggett appeared astonished. “You mean to tell me that Mr. Rainstar was your daughter’s beneficiary?”

“Yes, he was! I’m in the insurance business, and I wrote the policy myself!”

“Well, I’ll be damned!” Claggett said in a shocked voice. “Did you know about this, Britt?”

“I told you about it,” I said, a little puzzled. “Don’t you remember? Mr. Bannerman wrote up a similar policy on me with my wife as beneficiary, at the same time.”

He nodded, and said “Oh, yes,” it all came back to him now. “But the company rejected you, didn’t they? They wouldn’t approve of your policy.”

“That’s right. I don’t know why exactly, but apparently I wasn’t considered a very stable character or something of the kind.”

“You were a danged poor risk, that’s what!” Bannerman said grimly. “Just the kind of fella that would get himself in a fix with the law. Which is just what you went and done! Why, if I hadn’t spoken up to the sheriff, after you tried to kill poor little Connie—”

He chopped the sentence off suddenly. He gulped painfully, as though swallowing something that had turned out to be much larger than he had thought.

Kay gave him a cold, narrow-eyed grin. There was a snap to Claggett’s voice like a trap being sprung.

“So Mr. Rainstar was a pretty disreputable character, was he? Was he, Bannerman?”

“I... I... I didn’t say that! I didn’t say nothin’ like that, a-tall, an’ don’t you—”

“Sure, you did. And you told everyone in town what a no-goodnik he w>as. A blabbermouth like you would be bound to tell ’em, and don’t think I won’t dig up the witnesses who’ll swear that you did!”

“But I didn’t mean nothin’ by it. I was just talkin’,” Bannerman whined. “You know how it is, Britt. You say you wish someone was dead, or you’d like to kill ’em, but—”

“No,” I said. “I’ve never said anything like that in my life.”

“You didn’t trust your son-in-law, Bannerman,” Claggett persisted. “And you sure as hell didn’t like him. But you allowed the policy on your daughter to stand — a policy that made him her beneficiary? Why didn’t you cancel it?”

“I— Never you mind!” Bannerman said peevishly. “None of your doggoned business, that’s why!”

Claggett asked me if I had ever seen the policy, and I said I hadn’t. He turned back to Bannerman, his eyes like blue ice.

“There isn’t any policy, is there? There never was. It was just a gimmick to squeeze Mr. Rainstar. Something to threaten him with when he tried to get a divorce.”

“That ain’t so! There is too a policy!”

“All right. What’s the name of the insurance company?”

“I–I disremember, offhand,” Bannerman stammered, and then blurted out, “I don’t have to tell you, anyway!”

“Now look, you!” Claggett leaned forward, jaw jutting. “Maybe you can throw your weight around with your friendly hometown sheriff. Maybe he thinks the sun rises and sets in your ass. But with me, you’re just a pimple on the ass of progress. So you tell me: what’s the name of the insurance company?”

“But I–I really don’t—”

“All right.” Claggett made motions of rising. “Don’t tell me. I’ll just check it out with the Underwriters Bureau.”

And, at that, Bannerman gave up.

He admitted weakly that there was no policy and that there never had been. But he brazenly denied that he and Connie had done wrong by King about it.

Ol’ Britt was tryin’ to get a divorce, and she had a right to keep him from it, any way she could. And never mind why she was so dead set against a divorce. A woman didn’t have to explain a thing like that. The fact that she didn’t want one was reason enough.

“Anyways, Connie hasn’t been at all well since the accident. Taken all kinds of money to pervide for her. If she hadn’t had some way of scarin’ money out o’ Britt—”

“Apparently, she’s able to take care of herself now,” Claggett said. “Or do you have round-the-clock nurses? And just remember I’ll check up on your story!”

“Well...” Bannerman hesitated. “Yeah, Connie’s coming along pretty good right now. Course, she’s all jammed up inside, an’ she’s always gonna be an invalid—”

“What doctor told you that? What doctors? What hospital did her X rays?”

“Well...,” Bannerman said weakly. “Well...” and said no more.

“Jeff,” I said. “Can’t we wind this up? Just get this — this thing the hell out of here? If I have to look at him another minute, I’m going to throw up!”

Claggett said he felt the same way, and he jerked a thumb at Bannerman and told him to beat it. The latter said he’d like to; there was nothing he’d like to do more. But he just didn’t see how he could do it.

“I used practically every cent I had comin’ down here. And that ol’ car of mine ain’t gonna go much farther, without some work bein’ done on it. I want t’get back home; these here big cities ain’t for me. But—”

“Save it,” Claggett said curtly. “You’ve probably got half of the first nickel you ever made, but I’ll give you a stake to get rid of you. Nolton.” He gestured to Kay. “Get him in his car, and see that he stays in it till I come out.”

“Yes, sir! Come on, you!”

She hustled my father-in-law out of the room, and the front door opened then closed behind them.

I gave Claggett my heartfelt thanks for the way he had handled things and promised to pay back whatever money he gave my father-in-law.

“No problem.” He dismissed the matter. “But tell me, Britt. I was just bluffing, of course, trying to shake him up, but do you suppose he and your wife did try to kill you?”

“What for?” I said. “I was willing to get out of their lives. I still am. Why should they risk a murder rap just because they hated me?”

“Well, hatred has been the motive for a lot of murders.”

“Not with people like them,” I said. “Not unless it would make them something. I’ll tell you, Jeff, I don’t see them risking a nickel to see the Holy Ghost do a skirt dance.”