Ed McBain - The Last Brief

Davis paused and turned to the redhead with the gun. ‘I can fill it in, if you like. A lot of guessing, but I think I’m right.’

‘Go ahead,’ Janet said. ‘Fill it in.’

‘Sure. Alice met Tony as scheduled on the day they were to be married. He probably suggested a drink in celebration, drugged her, and then took her some place to get her into some of your clothes. He drove her to the airport because your signature was necessary on the insurance policy. You insured Alice, who was now in Janet Carruthers’ clothing, with Janet Carruthers’ identification in case anything was left of her after the crash, for two hundred thousand dollars. And Janet Carruthers’ beneficiaries were Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Radner. You knew that Nick would be on the DC-4, but outside of him, no one else on the plane knew what you looked like. It would be simple to substitute Alice for you. You left the airport, probably to go directly to City Hall to wait for Tony. Tony waited until Nick took a pilot up on a test, and then he brought Alice to the plane, dumped her into her seat, with the bomb in her suitcase, and left to meet you. You got married shortly after the DC-4 took off. You used Alice Trimble’s name, and most likely the identification — if it was needed — that Tony had taken from her. The switch had been completed, and you were now Mrs. Radner. You flew together to Las Vegas, and as soon as the DC-4 crashed, you made your claim for the two hundred G’s.’

‘You’re right except for the drug, Mr. Davis. That would have been overdoing it a bit.’

‘All right, granted. What’d Tony do, just get her too damned drunk to walk or know what was going on.’

‘Exactly. Her wedding day, you know. It wasn’t difficult.’

Davis heard a sob catch in Anne’s throat. He glanced at her briefly and then said to Janet, ‘Did Tony know he was going to be driving into a pile of rocks?’

Janet smiled. ‘Poor Tony. No, I’m afraid he didn’t know. That part was all my idea. Even down to stripping the brakes. Tony never knew what hit him.’

‘Neither did all the people on that DC-4. It was a long way to go for a lousy hunk of cash,’ Davis said. ‘Was Tony insured, too?’

‘Yes,’ Janet said, ‘but not for much.’ She smiled. ‘Enough, though.’

Davis nodded. ‘One after the other, right down the line. And then you sent for Anne because she was the only living person who could know you were not Alice Trimble. And it had to be fast, especially after that picture appeared in the Las Vegas paper.’

‘Was that how you found out?’ she asked.

‘Exactly how. The picture was captioned Alice Radner but the girl didn’t match the one in the photo I had. Then I began thinking about the colour of Alice’s hair, which I knew was light, and it got clear as a bell.’ He shook his head sadly. ‘I still don’t know how you hoped to swing it. You obviously sent for Anne because you were afraid someone would recognize you in Frisco. Hell, someone would have recognized you sooner or later, anyway.’

‘In Mexico?’ Janet asked. ‘Or South America? I doubt it. Two hundred thousand can do a lot outside of this country, Mr. Davis. Plus what I’ll get on Tony’s death. I’ll manage nicely, don’t you worry.’ She smiled pleasantly.

Davis smiled back. ‘Go ahead,’ he said. ‘Shoot. And then try to explain the shots to your landlady.’

Janet Carruthers walked to the dresser, keeping the gun on Davis. ‘I hadn’t wanted to do it here,’ she said, shrugging. ‘I was going to take Miss Trimble away after everyone was asleep. You’re forcing my hand, though.’ She opened a drawer and came out with a long, narrow cylinder. The cylinder had holes punched into its sides, and Davis knew a silencer when he saw one. He saw Janet fitting the silencer to the end of the .22 and he saw the dull gleam in her eyes and knew it was time to move. He threw back his coat and reached for the .38 in his waistband. The .22 went off with a sharp pouff, and he felt the small bullet rip into his shoulder. But he’d squeezed the trigger of the .38 and he saw her arm jerk as his larger bullet tore flesh and bone. Her fingers opened, and the silenced gun fell to the floor.

Her face twisted in pain. She closed her eyes, and he kicked the gun away, and then she began swearing. She kept swearing when he took her good arm and twisted it behind her back.

He heard footsteps rushing up the stairs, and then the landlady shouted. ‘What is it? What is it?

‘Get the police!’ he yelled through the closed door. ‘Get them fast.’

‘You don’t know what you’re doing,’ Janet said. ‘This will kill my father.’

Davis looked over to where Anne sat sobbing on the bed. He wanted to go to her and clasp her into his arms, but there would be time for that later.

‘My father...’ Janet started.

‘Your father still has Nick.’ Davis said, ‘and his porcelain.’ His shoulder ached, and the trickle of blood down his jacket front was not pleasant to watch. He paused and lifted his eyes to Janet’s. ‘That’s all your father ever had.’

I said Look, all I want is the truth, Liz. I just want to know what the hell’s going on. I can’t walk in that squadroom tomorrow and not be able to take a stand on this. It’s been going on too long up there, the guys talking behind my back. I got to be able to tell them they’re wrong. Whatever you done or didn’t do, that’s our business. If it’s true what they’re saying, well then we’ll have to talk it over. I don’t know what we’ll do if it’s true, Liz, I just don’t know. I know I love you. So if it’s true, I guess we’ll have to talk it over, find out how we can patch things up. I hope it isn’t true, Liz. I love you so much, I... I just hope it isn’t true. What I’m hoping is I can go in there tomorrow and tell the guys Look, I know what the rumble’s been around here, I wasn’t born yesterday. And I talked to my wife last night, and I’ve got the straight goods now, and if I ever hear anybody else around here even hinting she’s playing around, I’ll personally break his arms and legs. That’s what I’m hoping I can do tomorrow, Liz. But if it’s true what they’re saying, then I got to know that, too, so I can figure some way of handling it. You understand me, Liz? We been married twelve years now, we never had any trouble talking about anything before. I want to talk about it now. I want your side of it. So you want to tell me about it, or what?

So she sat on the edge of the bed there, this was in our bedroom. I’d been home maybe ten minutes, I was still wearing the shoulder holster. I was in my shirt-sleeves and wearing the harness. So I took it off and hung it on the back of the chair, and still she didn’t say anything, just sat on the edge of the bed there and stared at me. This was maybe a little after midnight. I’d been sitting that liquor store on Twelfth with O’Neill; the guy closed at eleven and I went straight home. She sat there staring at me, not saying anything, and then she took off her shoes, and stood up and walked barefooted to where I was standing by the dresser, and turned her back to me so I could lower the zipper on her dress. Then she said, ‘All you want is a confession.’

I said, ‘No, I don’t want a confession, Liz. I just want to set things straight between us.’

She took off the dress, and carried it to the closet and hung it up. Then she went to the dresser in her bra and panties, and shook a cigarette loose from the package there, and searched around for a match, and got the cigarette going. She took an ashtray to the bed with her, and sat on the edge again, and let out a stream of smoke, and crossed her legs and said, ‘Tell me exactly what they’re saying.’