Эллери Куин - The Madman Theory

Molly tried to cow Collins with a glare. Collins bore the glare with fortitude. She bit her lip. “Well — I’ve got two orders to get out, then I’ll be with you. What do you want?”

“There’s a man outside I’d like you to meet. After we talk a bit, I want you to tell me confidentially what you know about him.”

“Who is he?” But Collins was silent, and she shrugged. “Okay,” she said. “Just a minute and I’ll be with you.”

Collins went to the door to make sure Kershaw had not decamped. But Kershaw sat in the same position, looking down at his knees.

Molly joined him. She said haughtily, “Let’s get this over with.”

Collins took her out to the car. Kershaw immediately looked at him with the expression of a dog whose master has just stepped on his paw. Molly took one look, gave a sort of whinny, glared at Collins, and began to spread her claws.

“In the car, Mrs. Wilkerson.” Collins held open the rear door. She ungraciously got in. He climbed into the front beside Kershaw, and swung about so that he could watch both.

Kershaw said mournfully, “I thought we agreed to leave my ex-wives out of this.”

Collins grinned. “Mrs. Wilkerson is your ex-wife? I didn’t know that.”

“My second, or was it my third? I forget now. It’s something I don’t like to remember.”

Molly said something impolite under her breath.

“Well, now that I know you two know each other,” said Collins brightly, “let’s talk about Steve Ricks.”

“Steve Ricks?” Kershaw studied the ceiling of the car.

“The Steve Ricks whose name didn’t ring a bell back at your apartment. The Steve Ricks you met here two weeks ago.”

“Oh, that Steve Ricks. Why didn’t you say so?”

“I couldn’t have made it any clearer. I could pull you in right now, Kershaw, on a charge of trying to withhold information—”

“There’s a whole lot of Steve Rickses,” Kershaw muttered defensively.

“I’m talking about the dead Steve Ricks.”

“Don’t say a word!” shrilled Molly. “He can’t make you talk if you don’t want to!”

“Shut up,” said Red. “I haven’t done anything. Why shouldn’t I talk?”

“You were willing to pay Mrs. Wilkerson to keep your name out of it,” said Collins.

“A measly five bucks!” sniffed Molly. Then she glared at Collins. “How did you know?”

“Woman, time and again I told you I didn’t send you no five bucks. I wasn’t going to send you any thing.”

Collins asked Molly, “Do you still have that five?”

“I certainly do. I’m going to frame it. But you didn’t answer my question.”

“I wrote that letter, and I put in the five to get you sore at Mr. Kershaw. By the way, I want the five back; it’s official money.”

Molly shook her head mulishly. “It’s mine and I’m going to keep it.”

Collins laughed. “How would you like to go to jail for attempted blackmail, conspiring to obstruct justice, and being accessory to murder? Besides, it’s a marked bill.”

Molly promptly dug into her hip pocket and produced the five dollar bill. “And you know what you can do with it!” She started to leave the car.

“Just a minute,” said Collins, “I’m not through with you.” He turned to Kershaw. “What’s your connection with Steve Ricks?”

Kershaw gloomily nodded toward Molly. “That’s the connection.”

“Your ex-wife introduced you?”

“That’s right. Steve was a small-time bookie. He never did very much or very good, but — well, he and I were able to do favors for each other on occasion.”

“Such as?”

Kershaw fidgeted.

Molly laughed. “What he means is that once in a while he’d know when a horse was set for a certain race, and he’d belly up to Steve and they’d make a few lousy bucks together and they’d rejoice like they were real big shots. And there’s some other deals I could mention connected with the races at the county fair, when Red was hired as track steward and Steve collected for the saliva tests. Oh, there was some wonderful things that went on. I could write a book.”

“Don’t pay any attention to her!” Red told Collins anxiously. “This dame’s name is poison.”

‘“So you and Steve had business dealings,” mused Collins. “Did Earl Genneman know Steve?”

“Earl? Hell, no.”

“How do you explain the fact that Ricks followed you all into the mountains, camped at Persimmon Lake, and quite possibly shot Genneman?”

Red Kershaw gaped as if he suspected Collins of losing his reason. “What are you saying?”

“There’s pretty good proof of that.”

Kershaw shook his head. “I can’t believe it.”

“You mean you didn’t know he was following you?”

“Absolutely not!”

“That’s hard to believe, Kershaw.”

“I can’t help it. Those are the facts.”

“How come you didn’t recognize him at his camp?”

“It was a good way across the meadow. Cripes, I hardly looked at the man. He was just a spot in front of a fire.”

“Why should he want to shoot Earl Genneman?”

“Never in a thousand years. Steve was the biggest chicken alive. He could no more shoot a man’s head off with a shotgun than fly.”

Molly laughed shortly. “Even I’d agree to that. You’re barking up the wrong tree, Inspector.”

“Why else did Steve Ricks go up into the mountains?”

“It beats me,” said Kershaw.

“Did you tell Steve you were going camping?”

“No, sir, I did not.”

“Pah!” spat Molly. “How would you know? You were so drunk you don’t know what you said.”

“Well, that’s true enough,” Kershaw said weakly. “But if I said something like that while I was drunk, he’d never have believed it. So it amounts to the same thing.”

“How come you were so nervous about your connection with Ricks?”

“I’d hardly call it nervousness,” said Kershaw nervously.

“You agreed to pay Molly to keep your name out of the investigation.”

“I only told her that to get her fangs out of my neck.”

“You son of a bitch,” said Molly.

“I figured Steve was dead. I knew I didn’t have anything to do with it, and I didn’t want to get mixed up in it.”

“Well, let’s have some facts. You last saw Steve Ricks when?”

“About two weeks ago, in Smoky Joe’s.”

“Did you arrange the meeting? Did you have business to talk over?”

“No, it was just chance. He was there and I was there. So we got talking and had a few drinks.”

“What did you talk about?”

“How would he remember?” sneered Molly. “He didn’t know up from down before the evening was through.”

“I must say I overindulged a bit,” said Red. “In fact, Steve had to drive me home.”

Molly spat, “Steve never drove you home! He rode with you, but I wouldn’t let him drive.”

“What did you have to say about it?”

“Because it was my car. I didn’t want it cracked up, the condition you two were in.”

“Where was his own car?” Collins asked. They were talking beautifully.

“He left it at my house,” snapped Molly. “If you have to know.”

“That’s funny,” said Red. “All the time I thought Steve took me home. How did I get home?”

“We wanted to send you home in a cab, only you didn’t have any money in your wallet. We saw a card which said ‘In case of accident notify Opal Genneman’ at such and such a telephone number. Steve said to me, ‘He’s sure had an accident, an alcoholic accident.’ So he phoned your sister.”

Red Kershaw clutched his head. “Oh, God. That means Bad News himself came down and picked me up. I remember vaguely somebody taking me home. But why didn’t I hear about it the next day? Earl wasn’t a man to be charitable in cases like this. Are you sure it was Earl picked me up?”