Реймонд Маршалл - Lady — Here’s Your Wreath

The desert road runs for about a couple of hundred miles through sand and shrub, it links up with a small town called Plattsville, and then starts all over again to the Pacific. Just a long ribbon of road, straight, flat and monotonous, linking up small hick towns, like a string of badly spaced beads.

I checked the time. It was just after two o’clock. I reckoned that in about an hour I should run into Plattsville. I made up my mind, I wouldn’t go further than Plattsville without finding out what was scaring Mardi. Maybe, after a sleep, she’d get a grip on herself.

I pushed the car along at a faster rate. At this time in the morning the wind nips off the desert, and I was beginning to feel cold. I was not only wanting a drink bad, but I was beginning to feel sleepy. I told myself that I’d stop at Plattsville whatever happened.

My guess that it would be about an hour’s run was near enough. The hands of the dashboard clock stood at three-fifteen when I spotted the few street lights of Plattsville. I shoved the clutch out and ran the car to a stop by the side of the road. The little jerk woke Mardi, who sat up nervously.

‘It’s all right, baby,’ I said quickly. ‘We’re running into a town. I thought maybe you’d like to talk things over with me before we go any further.’

She peered out of the window, then she turned round to me and put her hands on my arm. ‘Oh, Nick, it’s good to have you,’ she said. Her voice was quite steady, and I knew she’d got her nerve back.

I lit a cigarette and gave her one. ‘We’ve come a mighty long way,’ I said. ‘So you don’t have to get scared any more.’

She shook her head. ‘No, I’m all right now. I was so frightened, Nick. I wanted to get away. I don’t want to go back. Promise me you’ll not go back any more.’

I patted her arm. ‘It’s all right now. We’ve washed them up. You don’t have to worry your head any more. We’ve turned the whole business over to the Federal Bureau to deal with—’

She clutched my arm. ‘The whole business?’ Once more her voice trembled. ‘Do you have to be in it?’

‘Now take it easy,’ I said. ‘I’m out. Ackie’s doin’ it all. You an’ me are out of this.’

She drew a deep breath. ‘I see,’ she said.

I said, ‘I must know what happened at the lodge.’

She turned her head and looked at me. ‘Happened? Why, what do you mean? Happened?’

I shifted a little in my seat. ‘Where were you? I got back to the lodge and you weren’t there.’

She shivered. ‘No — I got scared and ran away.’

‘What scared you, honey? Where did you go to?’

‘I don’t want to talk about it, Nick. Can’t we drive on now?’

I took her in my arms and pulled her round so she faced me. ‘I’m sorry, baby, but this is serious,’ I said. ‘When I got back to the lodge I found you gone and Blondie dead.’

I felt her body stiffen. ‘Dead? You mean someone killed her?’

I said, ‘Yes... someone killed her.’

Mardi began to cry softly. ‘Oh, Nick, and she came to warn me. She came and told me that they were coming for me. I was so scared that I ran out of the place into the woods and left her there. She said that Katz had told her that Spencer wanted us out of the way. He thought we knew too much and Katz was on his way to the lodge.’

I said, ‘But Spencer didn’t know we were at the lodge.’

She hid her head. ‘He knows everything — I tell you he knows everything.’

I drew her to me. ‘Well, it ain’t goin’ to do him much good now,’ I said. ‘When the Feds get on his tail that guy’s going to have a bad time. Listen, baby, suppose we put up at this town until the gang’s smashed up, then we can go back and get started again.’

She shook her head. ‘I can’t think now. Tell me about the woman... what happened, Nick? Have you told the police?’

I saw she wouldn’t relax until I told her the whole story. So, leaving out the messy details, I told her how I had come back to the lodge, how I had thought it was she who had been killed, how I had found Blondie and the whole set-up. She sat, hiding her face from me, crying softly.

‘That’s how it was, honey,’ I said. ‘You ain’t got anythin’ to cry about. Maybe she did come an’ warn you, but she had it comin’ to her. Blondie was a tough baby, you don’t have to mourn for her.’

Mardi put her handkerchief to her nose and looked at me with bright eyes. ‘What made her come like that, Nick?’ she asked. ‘Why should she risk her life for — me?’

I leant forward and started the engine. ‘Search me,’ I said. ‘I never would have thought she’d done a thing like that.’

As I began to roll the car, another thought struck me. ‘How did you know I’d be goin’ to Sarah Spencer’s?’

‘I had to take the chance — I didn’t know, but I didn’t know where else to look for you. I thought if you got back to the lodge and found me gone you’d come on to her place.’

‘That’s pretty cute of you, baby,’ I said admiringly. ‘That’s pretty cute.’

We drove on after that in silence. I knew Mardi was still tense. I guessed the shock of hearing about Blondie’s death had shaken her pretty badly. I was glad when we ran into Plattsville and found a hick hotel that we could stop at.

The guy behind the desk seemed three-quarters dead, but the other quarter was enough to get us a bedroom and me a drink. When we got left on our own, I hit that bottle as hard as most bottles can be hit. Mardi sank on to the big, old-fashioned bed, her head dropping with fatigue.

I took one look at her and made up my mind. ‘You’re going straight into the sheets an’ sleep. I’ve gotta ring Ackie, then I’ll be up. Come on, honey, I’ll get you fixed first.’

She raised her head. ‘It’s all right, Nick, you go and ’phone. I can manage. You’ll be quicker if you go now.’

That was sense, so I left her and got through to Ackie on the ’phone downstairs. That guy was full of it. He just didn’t give me a chance to tell him where I was, but jumped into his story with both feet.

‘Boy! You ain’t seen anything’ like this since the San Francisco fire!’ he bawled. ‘You gotta get into it quick. The lid’s off an’ hell’s hoppin’. I got round to the Bureau and gave them the works, at first they thought I was tight but, knowing me, they finally decided they’d do somethin’, so we all gumshoed along to the jail and had a look at Katz. Gee! That sergeant had certainly patted him around. Katz was in no state to crack wise. He just opened his mouth and kept it open. That guy spilled the dope so fast the G-men couldn’t get it down quick enough. Then they took him outside. I guess no one thought of it except me, but I wasn’t worrying my head. I stayed in the station until it was over. I wanted a story and by golly I was getting it. The G-men an’ Katz no sooner got outside into the street than a couple of the boys opened up with a Thomson. Katz got a barrel of slugs and folded up an’ one of the G-men caught it, then the other two started with their artillery an’ there was a grand gun fight up an’ down the street, with yours truly yellin’ the news like a broadcast commentary down the ’phone to the press-room.

‘I’m tellin’ you, it was a grand five minutes. Anyway, that did it. The Federal Bureau got so mad that they raided Spencer’s place, the Mackenzie Fabrics an’ the Wensdy Wharf all at the same time. It was a grand clean-up. They’ve got ’em all. Spencer, Gus, the little fat guy, an’ the whole mob of thugs. They got enough evidence that’ll put that bunch away for fifty years, an’ I’ve got the story. It’ll be on the street in a couple of hours.’

I said, ‘That’s a grand bit of work. You kept me out of it?’