A. Fair - Up for Grabs

“And I’m just mentioning that it won’t do you any good to try and contact Bruno independently, because Bruno is leaving when I leave.”

“Going back to Dallas?” I asked.

“I don’t think so,” Melvin said, smiling. “I think he’ll be someplace where it would be difficult to reach him until after the suit has been filed and he has been interviewed by the press.”

I said, “All right, now I’m going to talk.”

“Go right ahead,” Melvin said.

I said, “You’re an attorney. You can represent your client but you can’t resort to blackmail. Now, you are trying to blackmail Breckinridge into paying an exorbitant amount by way of settlement in order to get those motion pictures back.”

Melvin apparently became enraged. “What the hell are you talking about,” he said, “accusing me of blackmail!”

“If it weren’t for those pictures you wouldn’t set any such figure by way of settlement.”

“Oh, is that so!” he said. “Well, you’re so damned smart perhaps you don’t know that your client is being sought for murder right now by the Los Angeles police.”

“What?” I asked.

“That’s a fact,” he said. “Check on it. I wasn’t supposed to let the cat out of the bag, but since you’re talking blackmail to me, I’ll talk murder to you.

“Your man, Chester, that the insurance company is representing, had been having trouble with his wife for a while.

“In the days when they had a happier marriage and they wanted to take care of property rights, they took out a joint insurance policy in the amount of a hundred grand. But after the romance went on the rocks and Chester got the idea his wife was cheating on him, he wound up having one big fight with her and she walked out on him. He followed her from their apartment to San Bernardino; from San Bernardino she was driving to San Francisco, and he followed her and pushed her off the road. He was after that insurance.

“Unfortunately the ear didn’t roll as far as Chester had expected, so he cracked his wife over the noggin with a jack handle, pushed the car down to the bottom of the barranca, and set it on fire.”

“Where did you get all that?” I asked.

He said, “I have connections with the police in Dallas. The Los Angeles police found that Chester was mixed up in an accident in Dallas and wanted to know all about it, and wanted particularly to know if the man who was injured had any address for Chester that would help locate him.

“So the police came to me to find out whether Bruno had any address different from what the Los Angeles police had, and I made them tell me what they were working on before I consented even to get in touch with Bruno, which I did by telephone yesterday.

“Now then, you tell Breckinridge that when this case comes up for trial we’re going to be suing for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, that we’re going to claim the insurance company aggravated my client’s injuries, that we’re going to try a few motion pictures of our own, and that the jurors are going to know that the man we’re suing is either a fugitive from justice or is awaiting trial on a charge of murdering his wife.

“Now then you laugh that off and don’t go telling me a hundred grand is too much to ask by way of settlement in a case of that sort.”

“Where will you be?” I asked.

“I can be reached at my office in Dallas,” he said. “And anytime anyone wants to reach Helmann Bruno, he can be reached through me. In the meantime, he won’t be available to sign any papers or make any statements.

“I imagine you’ll want to telephone Breckinridge, confidentially from a telephone booth, probably at the airport, so I’m giving you forty-eight hours within which to arrange a settlement.”

Melvin shot out his hand. “Awfully nice meeting you, Lam,” he said “The fact that we’re on opposite sides of the case doesn’t need to affect our pleasant relationship... You’ll be leaving, I take it, before Dolores gets back?”

“I’ll be leaving,” I told him.

“And I don’t think you’ll be back,” he said, smiling. “I’ll say good-by to her for you.”

“Do that,” I told him.

I went back and hunted up Buck Kramer, “How about a rush trip to the airport?” I asked.

“Again?” he asked.

“Again,” I told him.

“Why don’t you get them to furnish one of the sleeping bags that we have for outdoor camping and spread it out there in the foyer of the airport?”

“I think I will,” I told him. “As a matter of fact, I may not be back here.”

His face lost its grin. “Any trouble, Lam?” he asked.

“A little,” I said.

“That lawyer from Dallas?”

“He’s connected with it.”

“Say the word,” he said, “and I’ll have that lawyer immobilized.”

I raised my eyebrows.

“Oh no,” Kramer said, “nothing crude, you understand. I wouldn’t stand for anything like that, and I wouldn’t expose Mrs. Gage to any suit or even any criticism. In fact, it would be done so smoothly that this damned lawyer wouldn’t even know what had happened to him.”

“Just by way of curiosity,” I asked, “what would happen to him?”

“Well,” Kramer said, “you say the word and I’ll take him out on a most interesting ride. I’ll see that he has the right sort of a horse.”

“You wouldn’t have him bucked off?” I asked.

“Heaven forbid!” Kramer said. “But we have a few horses that are pretty stiff in the shoulders and when they trot — well, I’ll tell you it takes a damned good rider to sit a trot on one of those horses; and because they’re slow walkers, they’d rather trot than walk.

“So when we have someone who’s particularly obstreperous— Hell, Lam, I shouldn’t be telling you this. I’m letting you in on a lot of secrets.”

“They’re secrets, as far as I’m concerned,” I told him. “I’m just interested, that’s all.”

“Well, we put them on one of those rough horses and put some fast-walking horses in the string, and those stiff horses trot every damned step of the way, and by the time the dude gets back he isn’t feeling like doing any dancing for a little while.”

I said, “Buck, I’m representing an insurance company. I’ve been told to pay out anything that is necessary or advisable for expenses. I think you’re entitled to a hundred bucks, and as far as I’m concerned, I would like very much to have Alexis Bott Melvin immobilized to some extent.”

“It’ll be done,” Kramer said. “I have some interesting things to show him. Under the circumstances, you won’t mind if one of the other fellows drives you in to the airport, because this is a deal I’ll have to handle myself.”

“I won’t mind in the least,” I said, “if someone else drives me in to the airport.”

We shook hands.

“Come back any time,” Kramer said. “It’s nice to have you here, Lam. I like to work with people who get along with horses.”

He turned and called one of the wranglers. “Get the station wagon,” he said, “and take Mr. Lam in to the airport right away, will you?”

“Right away,” the wrangler said.

I called Breckinridge from the airport.

“You’re reporting early,” Breckinridge said. “I take It that you have good news, Lam, that you have everything all settled and that congratulations are in order.”

“Congratulations are a trifle premature,” I said.

“You mean you didn’t settle it?”

“No.”

“What’s the trouble this time?”

I said, “I can’t discuss it in detail over the telephone. I take it this call is going through a switchboard?”