A. Fair - The Bigger They Come

‘I had a job,’ I said, ‘as a detective, working for a woman named Bertha Cool. Morgan Birks had a wife. Her name was Sandra, and she had a friend staying with her, Alma Hunter, a girl who’s a little bit of all right.

‘Well, I was hired to serve papers on Morgan Birks, but I saw someone had been choking Alma Hunter. I asked her about it and she said someone had been in her bedroom. She’d woke up just when he’d clamped down on her throat, and she managed to kick him loose. She was frightened to death.

‘She was a good kid, and I started to fall for her. We staged a little necking party in an automobile and I thought she was just what the doctor ordered. I’d have gone to hell for her. Then she told me about this choking business. I didn’t want her to stay there in the apartment alone. I put it up to her that I was going to sneak in and spend the night standing guard in the closet. She said I couldn’t do that because Sandra Birks slept in the same room. So I told her I was going to come and stay until Sandra got in.

‘Well, I went up there, and we talked for a while, and then I saw Sandra was going to be late so I told her to switch out the light and get into bed and I’d wait. I went over and sat down in the closet. I had this gun with me. I tried to keep awake, but I guess I dozed off a bit. I woke up some time in the night and heard Alma Hunter give a little scream. I had a flashlight, and I switched it on. A man was bending over the bed, feeling for her throat. When the flashlight hit him, he turned and started to run. I was pretty much excited. I pulled the trigger, and he went down for the count. I threw the gun on the floor and ran out the door into the corridor. Alma Hunter jumped out of bed and came running after me. The wind slammed the door shut. There was a spring lock on it. She couldn’t get back in to get her clothes. She said she’d hide until Sandra came in. We decided there was no use making a squawk to the police. We figured Sandra would help cover the thing up some way. Alma said she’d protect me. So I beat it.

‘Then I found that she was eying to take the rap for me, and I figured she could get away with it on account of self-defense; but the last I heard, things didn’t look so hot.’

The sheriff said, ‘Sit down, Lam. Sit down, and take it easy. Now don’t get all worked up about it. After all, you’re going to feel a lot better when you’ve told us all about it. Now, where did you get the gun?’

‘That,’ I said, ‘is something else.’

‘I know it is, Donald, but if you’re going to tell the story, you’d better tell the whole story. It isn’t going to do any good just to get half of it off your mind. Think of how much better you’ll sleep tonight if you come clean and give us the whole thing.’

‘Bill Cunweather gave me the gun,’ I said.

‘And who’s Bill Cunweather?’

‘I used to know him back East.’

‘Where back East?’

‘Kansas City.’

In the silence that followed, I heard the deputy district attorney take a deep breath.

‘Where did you last see Cunweather?’ he asked.

‘He has a place out on Willoughby Drive.’

‘Do you remember the number?’

‘Nine hundred and seven, I think it is. He’s got his whole mob with him.’

‘Who’s in the mob?’

‘Oh, everybody,’ I said. ‘Fred, and all the rest of them.’

‘And he gave you the gun?’

‘Yes, when I decided to sit up in the room with Alma, I knew that I was going to need some sort of protection. I’m not big enough to protect any girl with my fists. I tried to get Mrs. Cool to give me a gun, and she laughed at me. So I went out to Cunweather. I told him the spot I was in, and he said, “Hell, Donald, you know where I stand. You can have anything I’ve got.” ’

‘Where did Cunweather get the gun?’ the deputy district attorney asked.

‘His wife was there,’ I said. ‘He calls her the little woman. He told her to — say, come to think of it, I guess I hadn’t better tell you anything about Cunweather. What difference does it make where I got the gun?’

‘You knew Cunweather in Kansas City?’

‘Sure.’

‘What did he do there?’

I narrowed my eyes, and said, ‘I told you we weren’t going to talk about Cunweather. I’m talking about me and about Morgan Birks. I guess you know all about it, or you can find out by getting in touch with the people in California.’

‘We know all about it,’ the deputy sheriff said. ‘The newspapers have been full of it. The girl was supposed to have shot him.’

I said, ‘Yes, I know. She was taking the responsibility. I shouldn’t have let her do it.’

‘We’re pretty much interested in this gun,’ the sheriff said.

‘Why?’

‘When did you get it?’

‘The afternoon of the shooting.’

‘Where?’

‘Well, I told Cunweather that I wanted a gun and he said he’d get me one. He asked me where I was going to be later on. I told him I was going to be registered at the Perkins Hotel under the name of Donald Helforth. So he said he’d fix it up to deliver the gun to me there.’

‘And that’s where you got this gun?’

‘Yes.’

‘Who was with you in that hotel, Donald?’

‘Alma Hunter. She was registered with me. I think it was room 620.’

‘And who brought you the gun?’

‘A fellow by the name of Jerry Wegley. He was supposed to be a bell captain there in the hotel, but I think he was Cunweather’s man. I think Cunweather had planted him on the job.’

The sheriff said, ‘It’s going to help a lot if you can prove that, Donald.’

‘If I can prove what?’

‘That about the gun,’ he said. ‘The gun was hot. It had been used in a murder in Kansas City.’

‘In Kansas City?’

‘Yes.’

‘When?’

‘A couple of months ago.’

‘Good God!’ I said.

‘Can you prove that you got the gun from Jerry Wegley?’

‘Why, sure. Cunweather won’t deny he gave me the gun ― well, maybe he will, too, if it was that hot ― but maybe Cunweather didn’t know.’

‘He must have known it if it was his gun.’

‘Well, he had Jerry Wegley get it for me.’

‘We’d like to take your word for that,’ the sheriff said.

‘You don’t have to take my word for it. I can show where I was two months ago. I wasn’t anywhere near Kansas City — and I’ll tell you something else, when Wegley brought up that gun, he brought up a box of shells for it. I loaded the magazine, and shoved the box with the rest of the shells way in the back part of a bureau drawer in room 620 in the Perkins Hotel. You can search the room and find the shells.’

‘And you were registered as Donald Helforth there?’

‘Yes.’

‘And you didn’t give the gun to Alma Hunter?’

‘Hell no! I wanted the gun myself. She didn’t need a gun.

All she had to do was go to sleep. I was going to be on the job to see that nothing happened to her.’

The sheriff said, ‘Well, Donald, you’re out of the frying pang and into the fire. I’ll have to lock you up now and notify California that I’m holding you.’

‘I killed him in self-defense,’ I said.

‘He was running away, wasn’t he?’

‘I guess he was, but you know how those things are. You get pretty excited. I saw him start to run, and it was hard to see just what he was doing. I thought perhaps he was reaching for a. gun, and — I don’t know. I guess I just got excited.’

The sheriff said, ‘Come on, Donald. I’ll have to take you back down and put you in the jail. I’ll try and make you as comfortable as possible. I’ll telephone the officers in California and they’ll come and get you.’

‘Do I have to go back to California again?’