Erie Gardner - The Case of the Lazy Lover

“When did they discover it?”

“Around three o’clock in the morning. The traffic officers went to the Snug-Rest Auto Court as soon as they found the door key to a cabin there in the car. With those telephone calls it didn’t take long to get the lead on that apartment at Las Olitas.”

“If Mrs. Allred had been planning murder,” Mason said, “she’d hardly have left as broad a clue as that!”

“You can’t tell,” Drake said. “My hunch is, Perry, that the police are right. Either Fleetwood is dead, or else he’s making tracks. My best guess is he’s on an airplane right this minute, or else dead as a herring.”

“That amnesia business may be a big thing,” Mason said. “He’s already laid the foundation for it. It’s what I’d do under those circumstances. Go ahead and cover the Springfield territory, every ranch, every house, Paul.”

“Okay, if you say so.”

“And in case they should find him,” Mason said, “tell them not to tip their hand at all. Just beat it to a phone and let us know. That other detective agency still on the job, Paul?”

“I’ll say it is, but the boys evidently aren’t covering the local angles. They’re looking for Fleetwood the same places the police are.”

“That’s always a mistake,” Mason grinned. “Okay, Paul, get started.”

Drake left the office and Mason nodded to Della Street. “Let’s see what Dixon Keith wants, Della.”

Dixon Keith, an alert, square-shouldered chap in the late thirties, had dark, restless eyes, dark hair that was beginning to thin at the temples, and the quick springy steps of an athlete. His legs were short, but he had broad shoulders and a thick chest.

He wasted no time in coming to the point.

“Mason,” he said, “I guess you know about me.”

Mason nodded.

“I’m having a lawsuit with Bertrand Allred and George Jerome. They’re a couple of high-powered crooks who have been getting by with murder. I’ve found out a lot about them since I’ve engaged in a little business deal with them.”

“And you have a lawyer who is representing you?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t you think it would be better for you to have your lawyer with you when you come here?”

Keith shook his head. “I can tell you what I want in a very few words, Mr. Mason. It’s purely a business proposition. It isn’t a legal matter at all. It’s straight business.”

“What is it?”

“You and I are both over twenty-one, Mr. Mason. We know that no one gets something for nothing. I want something. I’m prepared to give something.”

“What do you want, and what are you prepared to give,” Mason asked, “bearing in mind that my primary duty is to my client?”

“That’s right. You’re representing Mrs. Allred, and unless I miss my guess, she’s in a jam.”

“Indeed?” Mason said, raising his eyebrows.

Keith said, “Look, Mason, let’s not kid each other. You have your detective agency working on this case. I have my detective agency working on the case. You’ve got a damn good detective agency and I’ve got a damn good detective agency. I don’t know how much you know and you don’t know how much I know, but we wouldn’t be paying out good money for detectives unless we were getting something. Right?”

Mason smiled, “Right!”

“Bertrand Allred’s body was found in his wife’s car. The car was driven over a rocky precipice and was left in low gear — a dead giveaway. It’s a little difficult to do a job like that and leave the car in high gear, but it can be done.”

“You talk as though you’d tried it,” Mason said.

“I did a little experimenting,” Keith admitted, “in order to find out what a person would have to do to put a car over a slope like that. You can start it running in low gear, open the door, jump to the running board and get away pretty easy. But when you shift into high gear, then you have a problem on your hands. If there’s a steep enough slope for the car to run off the highway through the brush, the car gets to going pretty fast before you can bail out. The best way is to put the car into high gear, turn the ignition on, put on the emergency brake, then get out, take off the emergency brake and let the car start rolling. As the car gathers momentum, since it’s in gear it starts turning the motor, and that starts the engine running. Then if the hand throttle is on a little bit, the car really shoots ahead.”

“Too bad you couldn’t have told the murderer about that,” Mason said.

“It is, for a fact,” Keith admitted. “Leaving the car in low gear was a technical error. That means you’re going to have a little tougher job than you would have had otherwise.”

“Assuming that my client is a murderer.”

“Assuming that your client will be accused of murder,” Keith said. “You know it and I know it.”

Mason said, “You seem to have given this a good deal of thought.”

“This thing is going to concern me,” Keith admitted. “I have to find Robert Gregg Fleetwood.”

“I understand quite a few people are looking for him.”

“Let’s not beat around the bush, Mason. You want him because you think that if you find him and get a statement from him, you may get something that will help your client. I want him because if I find him and get a statement from him, I can win my lawsuit. Furthermore, I can straighten out a lot of things.

“Fleetwood has for some time been Allred’s right-hand man. Allred hatches up the schemes and Fleetwood helps put them into execution. Fleetwood has a lot of admiration for Bertrand Allred and would do damn near anything Allred told him to.

“From all I can find out about Fleetwood, he wanted to get ahead in the world. He had the idea that you didn’t get ahead by being too damn altruistic. If you wanted things out of the world, you went out and got them. Otherwise, you didn’t get them. Allred inculcated that philosophy in him.

“Now if Fleetwood wants to talk, and I think perhaps he may want to talk, he can tell a lot. The things he’ll tell are things I want to hear, but I want to hear them first.

“I’m going to make you a proposition. You want to get hold of Fleetwood before anyone else gets hold of him. If you find Fleetwood, I feel sure you’ll talk with him about the thing that you want to know about. Then you’ll turn him over to the police.

“That’s where my proposition comes in. I’ll pay you well not to turn him over to the police, but to turn him over to me.”

Mason grinned. “You have detectives working on the job. You admit you’ve found out quite a good deal. Now suppose you get hold of him before I do. Will you turn him over to me? After you’ve got a statement from him?”

Keith shook his head determinedly.

“Why not?”

“Because I want the good will of the police. I can make quite a grandstand if I can turn Fleetwood over to the police. After I get a statement from him, I want to be damned certain that statement isn’t changed in any way. I think perhaps the police can help me there a little bit.”

“So you want me to play ball with you, but you won’t play ball with me?”

Keith didn’t hesitate for a minute. “That’s quite right.”

Mason merely smiled.

“On the other hand, Mr. Mason, I have inducements which I can offer.”

“Money?”

“Money.”

“How much?”

“Quite a bit. A certain amount for being put in touch with Fleetwood, and a further amount if he can answer some of the questions I want answered.”

“What are they?”

“I’ll leave you a list that will contain the answers that I hope Fleetwood will give, the answers that will be to my advantage.”