Brett Halliday - Murder Is My Business

Shayne sighed, and replaced the papers in the briefcase. It was dynamite, right enough. Plenty strong enough to blow Honest John Carter right out of the mayoralty race, leaving Towne unopposed.

Shayne sympathized with Lance’s wish to keep the evidence under cover until after the election. If it wasn’t made public until after Carter was elected, he would simply be removed from office and someone else would be appointed to serve out his term in accord with city statutes. Any danger of Towne’s filling the position would be definitely eliminated. Knowing Lance’s bitter hatred for Towne, Shayne could understand why he wanted the information handled that way. But if he waited until Towne was elected, the stuff wouldn’t be worth a penny to the new mayor. Before election, it was easily worth ten thousand dollars to him. It was as simple as that.

Shayne poured himself a drink, and put a gun in his coat pocket. He tossed off the liquor, picked up the briefcase, and went out. He didn’t bother to look around for the shabby little man as he drove off to keep his appointment with Towne. It was unlikely that they would bother to tail him any farther.

He didn’t have to wait at Towne’s front door this time. The Mexican butler recognized him with a nod and led the way back to the library. Towne was standing in front of the fireplace with his hands clasped behind his back. He nodded with a scowl, his gaze going to the briefcase Shayne carried. “That the stuff you described over the telephone?”

Shayne said, “This is it. Guaranteed to knock Carter out of the race.” He set the briefcase down on a table, put his big hand up warningly when Towne stepped forward. “Let me see your end of the deal before you look at mine.”

Towne laughed shortly. “I had to answer some embarrassing questions at the bank this morning when I drew out this second ten thousand.” He drew an envelope from his pocket, opened it to riffle a sheaf of bills before Shayne. “When the police investigated the money I drew out for Barton, they practically told the bank it was for blackmail,” he went on bitterly.

Shayne said, “If you lived right, you wouldn’t be embarrassed by having to pay out blackmail.” He nodded. “I’m satisfied. Look it over and see if you are.” He unstrapped the briefcase and stepped back.

Towne replaced the money in his pocket and went to the briefcase. He took the papers out and began studying them eagerly. It was dark and gloomy inside the library, with the windows closed and half covered with dark drapes. Shayne strolled to one of the end windows and pulled the drapes back to let sunlight slant in. The windows were set in steel frames, opening on a rachet arrangement operated by a hand crank.

Shayne twisted the crank to open the window and let in a little fresh air. Towne was engrossed with the papers from Lance Bayliss’s briefcase. Shayne leaned on the low windowsill and lit a cigarette. It was very quiet there on the hillside above the city, inside the big stone house set off from its neighbors by a thick box hedge.

Shayne smoked quietly for a time, and then asked without turning his head, “Are you satisfied it’s what I promised you?”

“There’s enough evidence to put Carter and Holden behind bars the rest of their lives,” Towne told him exultantly. “I don’t know how you dug this up, Shayne, but-”

“That doesn’t matter.” Shayne turned slowly. “Is it worth ten grand?”

“It’s an outrageous holdup for me to pay you for this,” Towne asserted angrily. “You could be jailed for trying to withhold this from the government.”

Shayne nodded calmly, but his eyes held a dangerous glint. He dropped his right hand toward the gun sagging in his coat pocket and drawled, “You’re not thinking of backing out, are you?”

“I never back out of a bargain,” Towne said stiffly. He reached into his pocket for the envelope, tossed it toward Shayne. The detective caught it in his left hand. He opened it and took out the bills, fingered them lovingly while he counted the total.

“Okay,” he said finally, straightening and replacing them in the envelope. He put the envelope in his left coat pocket and remained lounging back against the sill of the open window. “Now let’s start talking about something important.”

“I haven’t anything else to discuss with you.” Towne half turned away from him.

“We’ve got lots to talk about,” Shayne corrected him gently. “Like the price of domestic silver — and the Plata Azul mine in Mexico.”

Towne’s wide shoulders stiffened. He turned slowly, and his eyes were murderous. “What do you know about the Plata Azul?”

“Practically everything,” Shayne assured him. “When Cochrane was murdered last night, we found a telegram in his pocket from an attorney in Mexico City stating that title to the mine passed to a certain Senora Telgucado twenty-five years ago on the death of her husband — to be passed on to his heirs.”

“Interesting,” sneered Towne, “but hardly relevant.”

“I think it is,” Shayne insisted. “You see, I visited the marriage-license bureau this morning and confirmed a hunch. You and the widow of Senor Telgucado were married less than twenty-four years ago.”

“It’s a matter of record,” Towne shrugged.

“But Carmela is almost thirty years old. That makes her your stepdaughter.”

“Suppose she is my stepdaughter? I adopted her legally soon after we were married.” Towne’s voice was edged but restrained.

“She’s still her father’s legal heir,” Shayne argued.

“The Plata Azul mine legally reverted to her on her mother’s death.”

“Perhaps it did.” Towne seemed uninterested. “While you were investigating my private affairs, you might have gone further to learn that I’ve been pouring money into that property for years without any returns. I was doing it for Carmela,” he added, “hoping I could make a real strike and turn her over something worth while.”

“Without her knowledge?”

“I’ve kept it for a surprise,” Towne said stiffly. “What’s your interest in it?”

“I’m interested in its proximity to the border — and the fact that Mexican silver is worth only half the price of domestic silver — plus the fact that Josiah Riley was fired from your employ ten years ago after reporting your vein in the Big Bend pinched out.”

Towne’s face was slowly being drained of color. “How do you figure those add up?”

“They add up to fraud,” Shayne told him pleasantly, “when you consider the stamp mill you set up at the Plata Azul ten years ago, your ownership of a smelter here in El Paso where your Big Bend ore is processed, your revolutionary method of mining the Lone Star with steam shovels, and the fact that you went all out ten years ago to prevent Carmela from marrying the only man she ever wanted to marry.”

“What do you know about the Lone Star mine?” Towne snarled.

“Everything. I paid the mine a visit last night, Towne. I know the shaft is abandoned, and for years you’ve been scooping up the mountainside to get bulk to load into cars on top of refined ore you’ve been smuggling over the border from the Plata Azul. By shipping it to your own smelter here, you’ve been able to hoodwink the government into paying you the double price for domestic silver. Not only that, but every ounce of it came from the Mexican mine actually owned by Carmela, and you’ve defrauded her out of a fortune during these ten years.”

Towne stood very straight and very still in front of Shayne. “You sound very sure of your facts.”

“It’s the only answer that comes out right,” Shayne said wearily. “It’s tough, isn’t it, after you got rid of Jack Barton and Neil Cochrane after they had discovered the truth? You thought your secret was safe. And now, by God, here’s another guy popping up to plague you!”