James Cain - The Postman Always Rings Twice

After they had the Greek dead enough to suit them, Sackett really straightened out, and put some stuff in that meant something. He called a guy that said he represented the Pacific States Accident Assurance Corporation of America, and he told how the Greek had taken out a policy just five days before. He told what it covered, how the Greek would get $25 a week for 52 weeks if he got sick, and the same if he got hurt in an accident so he couldn’t work, and how he would get $5,000 if he lost one limb, and $10,000 if he lost two limbs, and how his widow would get $10,000 if he was killed in an accident, and $20,000 if the accident was on a railroad train. When he got that far it began to sound like a sales talk, and the magistrate held up his hand.

“I’ve got all the insurance I need.”

Everybody laughed at the magistrate’s gag. Even I laughed. You’d be surprised how funny it sounded.

Sackett asked a few more questions, and then the magistrate turned to Katz. Katz thought a minute, and when he talked to the guy, he did it slow, like he wanted to make sure he had every word straight.

“You are an interested party to this proceeding?”

“In a sense I am, Mr. Katz.”

“You wish to escape payment of this indemnity, on the ground that a crime has been committed, is that correct?”

“That is correct.”

“You really believe that a crime has been committed, that this woman killed her husband to obtain this indemnity, and either tried to kill this man, or else deliberately placed him in jeopardy that might cause his death, all as part of a plan to obtain this indemnity?”

The guy kind of smiled, and thought a minute, like he would return the compliment and get every word straight too. “Answering that question, Mr. Katz, I would say I’ve handled thousands of such cases, cases of fraud that go over my desk every day, and I think I have an unusual experience in that kind of investigation. I may say that I have never seen a clearer case in all my years’ work for this and other companies. I don’t only believe a crime has been committed, Mr. Katz. I practically know it.”

“That is all. Your honor, I plead her guilty on both charges.”

If he had dropped a bomb in that courtroom, he couldn’t have stirred it up quicker. Reporters rushed out, and photographers rushed up to the desk to get pictures. They kept bumping into each other, and the magistrate got sore and began banging for order. Sackett looked like he had been shot, and all over the place there was a roar like somebody had all of a sudden shoved a seashell up against your ear. I kept trying to see Cora’s face. But all I could get of it was the corner of her mouth. It kept twitching, like somebody was jabbing a needle into it about once every second.

Next thing I knew, the guys on the stretcher picked me up, and followed the young guy, White, out of the courtroom. Then they went with me on the double across a couple of halls into a room with three or four cops in it. White said something about Katz, and the cops cleared out. They set me down on the desk, and then the guys on the stretcher went out. White walked around a little, and then the door opened and a matron came in with Cora. Then White and the matron went out, and the door closed, and we were alone. I tried to think of something to say, and couldn’t. She walked around, and didn’t look at me. Her mouth was still twitching. I kept swallowing, and after a while I thought of something.

“We’ve been flim-flammed, Cora.”

She didn’t say anything. She just kept walking around.

“That guy Katz, he’s nothing but a cop’s stool. A cop sent him to me. I thought he was on the up-and-up. But we’ve been flim-flammed.”

“Oh no, we ain’t been flim-flammed.”

“We been flim-flammed. I ought to have known, when the cop tried to sell him to me. But I didn’t. I thought he was on the level.”

“I’ve been flim-flammed, but you haven’t.”

“Yes I have. He fooled me too.”

“I see it all now. I see why I had to drive the car. I see it, that other time, why it was me that had to do it, not you. Oh yes. I fell for you because you were smart. And now I find out you’re smart. Ain’t that funny? You fall for a guy because he’s smart and then you find out he’s smart.”

“What are you trying to tell me, Cora?”

“Flim-flammed! I’ll say I was. You and that lawyer. You fixed it up all right. You fixed it up so I tried to kill you too. That was so it would look like you couldn’t have had anything to do with it. Then you have me plead guilty in court. So you’re not in it at all. All right. I guess I’m pretty dumb. But I’m not that dumb. Listen, Mr. Frank Chambers. When I get through, just see how smart you are. There’s just such a thing as being too smart.”

I tried to talk to her, but it wasn’t any use. When she had got so that even her lips were white, under the lipstick, the door opened and Katz came in. I tried to jump for him, off the stretcher. I couldn’t move. They had me strapped so I couldn’t move.

“Get out of here, you goddam stool. You were handling it. I’ll say you were. But now I know you for what you are. Do you hear that? Get out of here!”

“Why, what’s the matter, Chambers?”

You would have thought he was a Sunday school teacher, talking to some kid that was crying for his chewing gum that had been taken away. “Why, what’s the matter? I am handling it. I told you that.”

“That’s right. Only God help you if I ever get you so I got my hands on you.”

He looked at her, like it was something he just couldn’t understand, and maybe she could help him out. She came over to him.

“This man here, this man and you, you ganged up on me so I would get it and he would go free. Well, he was in this as much as I was, and he’s not going to get away with it. I’m going to tell it. I’m going to tell it all, and I’m going to tell it right now.”

He looked at her, and shook his head, and it was the phoniest look I ever saw on a man’s face. “Now my dear. I wouldn’t do that. If you’ll just let me handle this—”

“You handled it. Now I’ll handle it.”

He got up, shrugged his shoulders, and went out. He was hardly gone before a guy with big feet and a red neck came in with a little portable typewriter, set it on a chair with a couple of books under it, hitched up to it, and looked at her.

“Mr. Katz said you wanted to make a statement?”

He had a little squeaky voice, and a kind of a grin when he talked.

“That’s right. A statement.”

She began to speak jerky, two or three words at a time, and as fast as she said it, he rattled it off on the typewriter. She told it all. She went back to the beginning, and told how she met me, how we first began going together, how we tried to knock off the Greek once, but missed. A couple of times, a cop put his head in at the door, but the guy at the typewriter held up his hand.

“Just a few minutes, sarge.”

“O.K.”

When she got to the end, she said she didn’t know anything about the insurance, we hadn’t done it for that at all, but just to get rid of him.

“That’s all.”

He gathered his sheets together, and she signed them. “Will you just initial these pages?” She initialed them. He got out a notary stamp, and made her hold up her right hand, and put the stamp on, and signed it. Then he put the papers in his pocket, closed his typewriter, and went out.

She went to the door and called the matron. “I’m ready now.” The matron came in and took her out. The guys on the stretcher came in and carried me out. They went on the double, but on the way they got jammed in with the crowd that was watching her, where she was standing in front of the elevators with the matron, waiting to go up to the jail. It’s on the top floor of the Hall of Justice. They pushed on through, and my blanket got pulled so it was trailing on the floor. She picked it up and tucked it around me, then turned away quick.