Brett Halliday - Last Seen Hitchhiking

“A little farfetched, don’t you think?”

“So is Bruno. So are you and Eliot Tree and your ex-husband. You were surprised that she hadn’t brought you the mask. She hadn’t even succeeded in stealing the whole thing, just a fragment, and that fragment was missing. Probably you were disagreeable to her, you and Andy. She’d let you down badly. She’d cost you your chance at the big money, but wasn’t there time to squeeze a little something? Sure, if you worked it right. You wrote Holloway asking for thirty-eight thousand in return for the missing piece, which you didn’t actually have, and signed the letter Meri.”

He waited. Only silence came down the line from Seminole Beach.

“You used the right language and picked the right figure, and Holloway fell for it. He’s as greedy as you are, and he was shooting for bigger stakes. There’s a chance you may be able to sneak out of this, Maxine. I mean you, personally. When we bring Andy in I think we’ll find he’s carrying the full thirty-eight thousand. That’s why I was so sure he’d come back after I left, to pick up his half. But the temptation was too great. Why leave anything for you after all the names you’ve been calling him?”

“He’s a skunk. He’s capable of anything.”

Frieda said, “Everybody else in this is interested in money. Are you, Bud?”

Bruno gripped a cold glass of whiskey. He drank from it, sloppily, and rubbed his hand across his mouth. “What?”

“Two hundred thousand. That’s an attractive figure. There are ways you could collect it.”

He glanced at the bright eye on the bookcase. “If it hadn’t been for that damn thing, I wouldn’t be in so much trouble.”

“When Mike says no questions asked, he means it. He’s been go-between in some very big deals, and people know they can trust him. You’ll need a good lawyer, Bud. They cost money.”

“I’ve got to think. I’ve got to make some plan.”

“The reward is for two things. The mask and me. I can handle it for you.”

“What are you trying to get me to do? Think about it! I have to kill you, it’s the one chance I have. You have four hundred dollars and a gun. I have about five hundred and a car. I’m going to be moving from now on. Moving.”

“Tell me why, Bud,” Frieda said quietly.

“I killed her! Will you get that through your head? Accidental homicide, manslaughter. But do you think anybody’s going to let me bargain about what I plead guilty to? What about that girl up near Jacksonville, with her head cut off? I’m carrying newspaper clippings. I’ve told everybody I did it. That’s what I do! Murder girls! Maybe in real life I didn’t murder anybody but Meri, but the Mad Doctor can’t turn normal in the last reel, for God’s sake. I don’t even claim to be normal!”

He was in motion, swinging the drink. “We’ve all heard of the sexual revolution. Oh, yes. In ninety-nine cars out of every hundred at a drive-in, sexual intercourse is happening. And who’s in the hundredth car? Bruno! If I have a woman with me, we’re talking about the nuances and subtlety of the screenplay. It’s obvious that I’m out of my mind.” He swung around. “Isn’t it? Isn’t it obvious?”

“I think so, Bud. What isn’t so obvious to me yet is that you killed Meri.”

“You don’t know what you’re saying,” he said irritably. “The sound when I hit her. The way she looked at me. I killed her, all right. The victim doesn’t have to die on the premises.”

“According to Mike, she was alive when she got to Maxine’s.”

“She didn’t have to get that far. She called them up and died in the phone booth, and they came and got her and dumped her. If they were going to hit Holloway for money, they couldn’t just call the police and say here’s a dead body, come get it. Frieda, let me alone for a minute.”

“I can’t, Bud. You have me strapped to a table. All I can do is talk. Will you call the radio station and let me ask Mike one quick question?”

“Your turn, Holloway,” Shayne said, picking up another phone. “Say something so I can be sure I pressed the right button.”

“Fantastic.”

“Anything else?”

“You’ve stirred up a wasps’ nest here, Shayne, no question about that. I’ve been waiting for this opportunity. If anybody has that fragment and can bring it to me, I’ll pay two hundred and fifty. Again, no questions asked, and inasmuch as I’m not tying it to the return of any missing women, you can count on being asked fewer questions. Did you cut me off, Shayne, or let it go out on the air?”

“I’m not censoring anything,” Shayne said. “You have six hundred thousand to play with, and I thought you might try to top our offer. So I reserved another piece when I was repacking the box in the St. Albans. I have it here somewhere. Yeah, here it is. Blue with red lines.”

“Talk about swindlers,” Holloway said through his teeth.

“Why did you shoot that Indian last year, Holloway?”

“You’re reaching. You’re reaching. That matter is closed.”

“Murder cases are never closed. And murder’s an extraditable offense. So worry about it a little. You killed him to call attention to your expedition.”

“Stick to something you know,” Holloway said pityingly.

“I’ve had it explained to me. You needed two stories. One was official, but nobody believed that. To make sure everybody heard about the Yucatan expedition, all the museum people and other potential buyers, you shot an Indian and planted a knife on him. At first I thought that must be what Scotch was blackmailing you with. Blackmail’s the only thing that fits his financial picture, small sums coming in after regular trips to Miami, a larger sum expected when you dealt off the mask to Terre Haute. Let’s kick this around for a minute. We have time.”

“I don’t see what you’re getting at,” Bruno said worriedly. “One quick question to Shayne. I know they wouldn’t have time to trace the call. What do you hope to accomplish? Seriously. You’ve had more experience than I’ve had. Explain it.”

“Assault is a better kind of trouble than murder. Natalie won’t bring charges against you. You’ve been seeing psychiatrists. That won’t help much, but it’s something.”

“If you think I’m going to sit there while people argue about whether or not I’m sane—”

“Bud, stand still and look at me. It’s hard to do any orderly thinking, tied down like this. Whenever I think I have it, I go out of gear and everything starts racing. You’ve been pretty convincing. If you think you killed Meri, you’ll think you have to kill me.”

“It isn’t what I think, it’s what they think.”

“Meri passed through two sets of hands, yours and Andy’s and Maxine’s. I know how Mike works. He’s been getting the facts together. Now he’s about to start pounding. Wait and see what they say.”

“I don’t have a chance!”

“You don’t have a chance if everybody just hangs up and calls in the lawyers. But Mike’s got them hooked. They want to know what’s going to happen to that two hundred thousand dollars. He’s going to turn them against each other and surprise them into saying damaging and imprudent things. Things that may clear you, Bud. And we can help.”

“I don’t get it,” he said stubbornly. “You’re trying to take advantage of this damn migraine—”

“He’s giving Maxine a breathing spell, but she’s the one he’s after, I think. If Mike’s right, Andy stole nineteen thousand dollars from her tonight, half the money they conned Holloway into giving them. Andy can be picked up at any time. Mike will work on them separately, and try to get one of them to cave in. Let me talk to him, please. I can’t tell him where I am, because I don’t know. Keep your finger on the switch. If I say anything you don’t like, cut me off.”