Brett Halliday: Too Friendly, Too Dead

Shayne said evenly, “I don’t believe that, Rodman. I can prove she came to see you in New York immediately after your marriage at sea and you promised her money for her silence if she would come to Miami to collect it.”

“You can prove nothing of the sort because it simply is not true.”

Shayne abandoned that tack for a moment because, of course, he could not prove the accusation. He said, “All right. Let’s take what you do admit up to now. You don’t deny a previous marriage in New York which you concealed from your present wife?”

“No. I don’t deny that. How can I? It’s a matter of record. It was a foolish mistake which I regretted within a week after marrying her.”

“As soon as you discovered she wasn’t a Philadelphia heiress and couldn’t pay the hotel bill you’d run up at the Commodore while courting her?”

Rodman slumped back into his chair sullenly. “I was a fool to be taken in by her,” he admitted. “I just happened to be in a cash bind at the time… with all my liquid assets tied up. It would have been only a matter of time… as I tried to explain to her.”

“When you offered to pimp for her so she could earn money to pay your hotel bill?” asked Shayne coldly.

“Goddamn it, Shayne. I don’t have to take that kind of talk from any man.” Rodman’s eyes were hot and his right hand shot out to lift the heavy pistol from the table beside him. “You’re goading me beyond the limit a man can endure,” he warned the detective through clenched teeth.

Shayne leaned back and grinned mockingly. “While you’re about it, tell me how much progress you’ve made in liquidating your industrial holdings in the Mid-west since you’ve been married to Betsy Ann Durand.”

The automatic wavered in Rodman’s grasp. He said thickly, “None of this has the slightest thing to do with murder… which I understand is your purported reason to be here.”

“Two murders,” Shayne reminded him. “Your first wife and one of the witnesses to that first wedding. Two murders,” he repeated grimly. “Both by use of sodium amytal and within two months of each other. I strongly suspect that an analysis of your sleeping pills will show them to have a sodium amytal base. Whether we can prove murder against you or not,” he went on dispassionately, “you must realize by this time that you’re washed up in Miami, and have lost every chance you ever had of getting your hands on the Durand millions. How do you think your wife is going to react to the knowledge that you are a penniless adventurer who deserted his first wife because she refused to prostitute herself to pay your bills, and then married her on false pretenses? If you are legally married to her,” he added. “Personally, I doubt that you ever bothered to get a Mexican divorce. Even in Mexico these days there has to be the written consent of both parties, and I’m quite certain Rose never gave her consent. I don’t think a woman like Betsy Ann Durand is going to take all that lying down, Rodman.”

“Leave Betsy Ann out of this discussion,” panted Rodman hoarsely. “She’s my wife and she trusts me implicitly. You can’t drive a wedge between us.”

“Maybe not,” said Shayne. “Somehow, though, I find myself doubting the implicit trust of a wife who recently sought to take out a large insurance policy on your life without your knowledge.”

“What sort of nonsense is that?”

“It isn’t nonsense. I have a sworn statement to prove it. The funny thing is, Rodman, that she went to Jerome Fitzgilpin with her proposition. How do you explain that?”

“Not Betsy Ann. There’s some mistake.”

“There’s no mistake about it. The only question in my mind is why she did it. Is she already getting tired of you, Rodman? Has she discovered the truth… that you just married her for her money?”

“That’s absolutely false.” Rodman was breathing heavily, his handsome features contorted. “She loves me devotedly. I’m the first man who ever…” He paused suddenly, his face working, and Shayne finished for him mockingly:

“… the first man who ever proposed marriage to her. Naturally, she was flattered. In the beginning, at least. But how do you explain her attempt to take out insurance on your life without your knowledge? That’s hardly the action of a loving and devoted wife.”

“I don’t believe a single word of it.”

“I can prove it,” Shayne told him relentlessly. “Tell me why she chose Fitzgilpin to go to, Rodman. It’s a hell of a curious coincidence that of all the insurance men in Miami Beach she should go to the one who just happened to have been a witness to your previous wedding.”

“I don’t believe it,” he said again stubbornly.

“It’s a matter of record. How do you suppose she’ll explain it when I ask her?”

“Leave Betsy Ann out of this.”

“She’s in it,” Shayne told him. “Up to her neck. Unless you want to make a full confession and explain how you conned her into going to Fitzgilpin to discover for certain whether he was the same man whom you met at the Commodore Hotel in New York a year and a half ago. Because that’s what she did, and goddamn it to hell, if she doesn’t have a logical explanation for what she did, we’ll charge her with being an accessory before the fact.”

Rutherford Rodman leaped to his feet, baring his teeth and waving the heavy automatic excitedly.

“Get out!” he shouted. “I don’t know what your stinking game is, but I don’t want any part of it. If you dare come around saying any of these things to my wife…”

“What sort of things is the man saying Rutherford?” inquired an icy voice from the hall doorway. They all turned to see a tall, angular woman framed there. Her hair was stringy and her plain face was devoid of makeup. She clutched a blue woolen dressing gown tightly about her, and her lips were thinned against slightly protruding teeth.

Rodman exclaimed, “Betsy Ann! My dear. I’m terribly sorry you were disturbed. These men are here on business and…”

“What sort of business, Rutherford? At this time of night and you waving that ridiculous gun around?”

Rodman looked down at the pistol in his hand as though surprised to discover it there, and Shayne got to his feet behind him. He said, “Police business, Mrs. Rodman. Now that you’re here, I’d like to ask you a couple of questions.”

“I warned you, Shayne. Leave her out of it.” Rodman whirled about, lifting the gun menacingly, but Shayne’s big right hand shot out and his fingers clamped about the man’s wrist. He tightened his grip inexorably and said, “Drop it.”

Rodman’s body writhed for a moment against Shayne’s bone-crushing grip, then the automatic dropped from his lax fingers.

Shayne stooped to scoop it up and dropped it into his coat pocket. He said curtly, “Both of you will answer my questions or I’m taking you in to police headquarters.”

“What sort of questions, dear?” Mrs. Rodman moved slowly into the room to stand beside her husband and link her arm in his. “I’m certain we have nothing to hide from the police.”

“That’s what I’ve been telling him,” blustered Rodman. “He’s made the ridiculous and damnable accusation that you have been trying to insure my life without my knowledge.”

“But, darling. I wanted it to be a surprise,” she said composedly. “You said you wanted us to take out joint policies, but were a little short of cash to pay the premiums, and I thought I’d surprise you by doing it myself.”

“Using the name of Mrs. Kelly?” Shayne put in.

“I suppose it was foolish of me,” she agreed, “but I intended to use my right name, of course, when the policy was issued. But the nasty little man I went to was most insulting in his refusal. He seemed to think I had an ulterior motive.”