Erle Gardner - Turn on the Heat

“What do you want out of me?” she asked.

“I want the facts on the Harris murder,” I said. “I want everything you know.”

She started to laugh then, and I could see hard defiance in her eyes. “Well, go jump in the lake,” she said. “You’ve run a damn good bluff, and it’s got you nowhere. You win on one thing. I’m not going to stick my neck out in Santa Carlotta. John Harbet will just have to get along without me. As far as the rest of it is concerned, you’re barking up the wrong tree, and if you don’t think I know what I m doing, just stick around and I’ll call the cops.”

“A fat chance of you calling the cops,” I said.

She said, “That shows all you know about it. If you’d waited until this afternoon when I’d driven to Santa Carlotta and given my statement to the Courier , told them I had come for a settlement with Dr. Alftmont, and then disappeared, you’d have had something you could pin on me, and—”

“You were going to disappear?” I asked.

Her laugh was a sneer. She said, “Of course I was. For a smart Lick, you’re awfully dumb about some things. I couldn’t let Alftmont lamp me. He’d know I wasn’t Amelia as soon as he saw me. I was going to tell my story to a newspaper reporter. I was going to say that I had an appointment with Dr. Alftmont. Then I was going to disappear. It was going to look as though I’d been bumped off, and the evidence was going to point to Alftmont. About the time he was denying that, we were going to connect him up with Evaline Harris, and the police down here were going to accuse him of the Harris murder. The witness would identify him, and that would have been all there was to it. Public opinion would have been divided over whether he’d killed me or not, but when they added the Harris business on top of it, he wouldn’t have stood a chance.

“Now then, that’s all there is to it. Alftmont murdered Evaline. I hope they hang a first degree on him for that. He tried to get some information out of her, and she wouldn’t kick through. The party got rough. Don’t kid yourself about Dr. Charles Loring Alftmont. He’s a killer. I’m no tin angel myself, but I can’t stomach murder. If you’d waited until this afternoon, you could have pinched me for something. As it is, I’m in the clear. You can’t do a damn thing. If you don’t get out of here, I’ll call the cops.”

I said, “When did you last see Evaline Harris alive?”

She said, “About twenty-four hours before she was murdered. I told her to watch out for Alftmont.”

“Why?”

“Because I knew he was dangerous.”

“Then you knew that Alftmont could find her?”

She squinted her eyes. “I knew some detectives were working on the case. I found out that Evaline had been a greedy little bitch, and couldn’t resist the temptation of trying to pick up a piece of change from the railroad company. That was the worst of Evaline. You could never trust her. Lots of the girls in her racket pick up steady boy friends who make regular donations — not Evaline. She was too greedy, and she couldn’t resist blackmail. As soon as she’d get her hooks into some nice young chap, she’d find out all about him, and then start blackmailing. You couldn’t control her for a minute. She couldn’t control herself. It was like dope. She wanted to chisel.”

I said, “When the police found her body in the apartment, they found she’d been on an all-night party and was sleeping late. The newspaper was under the door. That means she hadn’t got up. There were cigarette stubs and an ash tray by the bed. One of them had lipstick on it. One of them didn’t.

“Evaline slept with a package of cigarettes and matches by the bed. She always had a cigarette first thing after she woke up. I know that.

“Now then, I figure someone went to see Evaline. It was someone she knew. She sat down on the bed, and they talked. The talk didn’t go to suit this man, and he slipped a loop over her neck — and I think you know who that man was.”

“Sure, I do,” she said. “It was Dr. Alftmont. He’d traced her — probably through that claim she’d made to the railroad company. He went down to see her. He was willing to be reasonable with her, but he found out she was just a tool, that there were bigger game afoot. He couldn’t buy her off, so he croaked her. Now then, you can either get the hell out of here, or I’ll call the cops, and I mean it.”

I said to Bertha, with a surreptitious wink, “Well, the police are working on that package of cigarettes and on the cigarette stubs, using that new iodine process for developing fingerprints. Don’t kid yourself. They’re going to get the prints of the man who called on Evaline. Won’t it be too bad if those are the prints of Sergeant Harbet of the Santa Carlotta police force, and won’t it be funny if Harbet drags Flo Danzer into the picture.”

“Don’t be silly,” Flo Danzer said, “How’s he going to drag me into the picture? I’ll stand up on my two feet and admit everything I did — I went to Oakview and said I was Mrs. Lintig — so what? Maybe I intended to work some blackmail on Dr. Lintig. Maybe I didn’t. I haven’t asked anyone for five cents in cash. And don’t kid yourself John Harbet is ever going to get dragged into this thing. Dr. Alftmont is the one who’s holding the bag on this rap. He lost his head and killed Evaline.”

I nodded to Bertha, got up, and started over towards the door.

“Come on, Bertha,” I said.

She hesitated.

“Come on. We’re going down to the district attorney’s office and put the cards on the table. We’re going to get a warrant for Flo Danzer and John Harbet on criminal conspiracy. We can prove the conspiracy, and her going to Oakview and registering as Mrs. Lintig was an overt act. She isn’t in the clear. She only thinks she’s in the clear.”

Bertha said, “Now listen. I—”

I raised my voice. “Come on,” I said. “Do as I say.”

I flung the corridor door open.

Getting Bertha Cool out of that room was like pulling a bristling dog away from another dog who’s trying to pick a fight. Bertha Cool finally came out into the corridor, but she didn’t want to come. She was mad clean through. She didn’t like the way I was playing the game, and she wanted to stay and have it out with Flo Danzer.

Flo Danzer didn’t say anything. She’d got control of her face now, and it was set in an expression of tight-lipped hostility.

Out in the hallway, Bertha said, “My God, Donald, what’s the matter with you? You’ve called the turn on her, and she’s just about ready to cave.”

I said, “No, she isn’t. You two women will start fighting. We haven’t enough cards to call for a showdown.”

“Why haven’t we?”

“Because we can’t prove anything. All we can do is bluff. Remember, the object of this visit was to make her call Harbet. She’ll call him now. What she’ll say over the telephone will make that switchboard operator’s hair stand right up on end. She’ll be listening in on that conversation. By the time we know what’s said over the telephone, we’ll be ready to call for a showdown. Then we’ll have some proof. Now, we’re just running a bluff.”

We went down in the elevator. I paused at the switchboard to say, “Thank you very much,” and added in a lower voice, “I’ll ring you in fifteen minutes.”

Bertha Cool paused at the clerk’s desk to flash her diamonds. “You have very lovely apartments,” she said, with that gracious smile of hers, and the clerk came out from behind the shell of icy reserve to smile all over his face. “In case you’re interested,” he said, “we have one or two choice vacancies.”