Brett Halliday: The Body Came Back

The door to his apartment was closed, but light from inside showed through the transom.

Shayne unlocked the door and opened it, and said without too much surprise to the woman who leaped up and stood staring at him, “Hello, Carla. What’s wrong?”

“Oh my God, Mike!” She trotted toward him, both hands outstretched, seeming to go all to pieces at the mere sight of him standing there.

He caught her tightly by the elbows and she leaned her weight against him, her face buried against his shoulder, sobbing brokenly.

He held her tightly for a moment, his brooding gaze looking over her head at the two liquor bottles he and Rourke had left sitting on the center table. He wasn’t sure, but he had a feeling the level of bourbon was about two inches lower than it had been when they went out.

He turned her away from him after a moment, put an arm about her supple and firm waist, and half-propelled her back to the chair in which she had been sitting.

“This is no time to go to pieces, Carla. How is Vicky?”

“Oh, Vicky is all right. She’s fine.” She sank down into the chair and smiled waveringly up at him. “She’s sound asleep in bed with a couple of pills… convinced that everything is just fine and the sun will shine again tomorrow like always. These kids nowadays. My God,” she added wonderingly. “The way they take things in their stride…”

“She didn’t ask too many questions?”

“Hardly any. I didn’t really have a chance to tell her the story I’d worked out so carefully. She just wanted to put it away from her… out of her mind. She was hysterical at first, but when she calmed down and realized that a miracle had happened… you being the miracle, Mike… and that there wasn’t any body lying there in the bedroom… well, I think it began to seem like just a bad dream to her. When she wakes up in the morning I have a feeling she won’t be sure whether it actually happened or not.”

Shayne said strongly, “That’s fine. That’s wonderful.” His hand strayed out to the cognac bottle to pour a drink and he glanced in her direction and saw that her eyes were following his hand avidly.

“Maybe I better keep you company with a little bit of bourbon.”

He said shortly, “Make it a very little bit, Carla. We may not be all the way out of the woods yet.”

“You’re telling me!” She obediently poured a small drink in the glass Timothy Rourke had left on the table. “What did happen, Mike? I’m all confused and scared stiff. I had to come here and talk to you. I didn’t know what else to do… with Vicky asleep in the other room.”

Shayne frowned uncomfortably at his glass and took a sip from it. “Well, I mislaid the body. That’s all. If I can locate that Ford and get it back again before anybody else finds it, we should still be in the clear.”

“You… mislaid the body?” Her voice rose tremendously and she looked utterly aghast. “How could you do that?”

“It took some doing,” he admitted with a grimace. “But trust Mike Shayne to work out the small details. I thought you’d have guessed that much,” he went on. “If you heard the newscast…”

“What newscast?”

“At one o’clock. I assumed that’s what frightened you… why you were here.”

“I didn’t hear any newscast, Mike. I had a telephone call. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what to think. Some man wanting ten thousand dollars. I tried to stall him the best I could. I didn’t know what to do. I was feeling so relaxed and wonderful. Vicky was back safely and I’d just gotten her to sleep with a couple of my pills, and I thought the nightmare was over. And then the phone rang. I thought of course it was you calling to say everything was all right, and I grabbed the phone fast before its ringing in the bedroom wakened Vicky. And a strange man answered.”

“Exactly what did he say?” Shayne’s face and voice were grim.

“I… can’t repeat his exact words,” she faltered. “I was so utterly surprised and taken aback… and terribly frightened, of course. He asked, ‘What have you and that damned private dick done with Al?’ And then he began abusing me, saying I’d be sorry I called you in on it, and I’d better get some money together quick because he had to have it tonight. Ten thousand dollars, he said, because he had what I was after. That Al had given it to him for safekeeping before he came to see me, and if I didn’t dig up ten thousand dollars tonight the deal was all off and I’d never see or hear from it again.”

“What is it?” Shayne asked blankly.

“That’s what I asked him,” she cried out wildly. “I told him I didn’t know what he was talking about and he just sneered and said he thought I could guess all right.

“And I told him I didn’t have any sum like ten thousand dollars and he said I’d better dig it up in cash in the next couple of hours. And then he said something like, ‘Get your private eye pal to help you raise the money. He’s got connections in town. He’s into this right up to his neck with you, and he knows what I’ve got is worth a lot more than that.’”

Shayne’s face expressed complete puzzlement. “It couldn’t have been Duclos,” he muttered. “Talking about the body. You’re sure he said it was something Al had given him for safe-keeping before he came to see you?”

“That’s what he said. And he seemed positive I knew what he was talking about. Of course, after he hung up I realized he couldn’t know that I hadn’t even talked to Al. He was assuming that I had and that I knew all about it.”

“How did you leave things?” demanded Shayne.

“I told him to give me an hour or so to see if I could raise the money. I told him I’d have to go out, and I gave him this telephone number and your extension and told him to call me here after an hour or so. I didn’t know what else to tell him, Mike. I was afraid he’d come there and waken Vicky. Or that the phone might waken her. And I thought maybe you could help me raise the money. I’ve got a little over a thousand in my purse, Mike. I’ll give you an IOU for the rest. I can get it Monday with a wire to my bank in L.A.” The words tumbled excitedly out of her mouth. “You will help me, won’t you? There must be places you can go in Miami even at this time of night to get some cash.”

“But what for?” demanded Shayne. “What are we buying for ten grand?”

“I don’t know what he’s talking about, but the way I see it I’m buying Vicky’s peace of mind and her future happiness. Whoever he is and whatever he’s got that belonged to Al, it’s perfectly clear that he knows Al came to see me tonight, and if we don’t pay him off everything will have to come out in the papers. And that’ll be bad for you, too, Mike. He knows you’re in it with me somehow. That’s one of the first things he said. So it’s to your advantage, too, to pay him off and shut him up. But I just want to borrow the money for a couple of days. I can well afford to pay. I don’t want you to use your money. You’ve done enough already.”

Shayne moved restlessly in his chair and tugged at his earlobe. “I don’t want to see you paying ten thousand bucks for a pig in a poke,” he growled. “Let’s get this as straight as we can. From what this man said, there was nothing to indicate that he knows Al is already dead?”

“N-no. I don’t think so,” she faltered. “I don’t remember exactly how he said it. He asked what we’d done to Al, I think. Or what we’d done with him? I got the impression he didn’t know what had happened.”

“But he has something that belongs to Al which he’s willing to sell to you,” pondered Shayne. “That seems to indicate he doesn’t expect Al to come around and claim his property.”