Paul Cain - The Paul Cain Omnibus

She glanced at me swiftly. “Barbara and Fritz’d been married eight years but they hadn’t worked at it the last two or three.”

Axiotes was staring at Maude with the same mechanical grin. His hands were tight on the arms of the chair and he didn’t move, just sat and grinned at her unpleasantly.

“The first I knew about that — that happening to Fritz,” she went on, “was about two-thirty Saturday morning. I’d been expecting Barbara all day and was worried. She and George and that big ape” — she pointed at the giant — “came in together. Barbara was hysterical. I put her to bed and tried to find out what had happened but she passed out, and then you called and told me Fritz had been murdered.”

She was silent a moment, staring at the floor; then she poured another drink and went back and sat down on the divan.

“Barbara was almost crazy when she woke up in a couple of hours but I finally got it out of her. She and George were coming down to my place together but they stopped here and started drinking and kept it up all afternoon. Barbara got paralyzed. She remembered it in flashes after that; she remembered George telling her they were going out and force Fritz to give her a divorce so he could marry her and then they picked up the ape someplace, and the next she remembered they were in front of the house and Fritz came out on the porch and George shot at him, twice...”

Delavan turned and smiled at me a little. He put his gun on his lap and took out a cigarette and lighted it, settled back in the chair.

Maude sipped her drink, glanced swiftly at all of us, went on: “The next thing she knew they were all in the house and the ape was kicking the life out of Fritz and she was screaming her head off. A man she didn’t know — that was Raymond — appeared in the doorway suddenly and George shot him. Then she fainted, and when she came to they were halfway to Palm Springs. George and the ape brought her to my house and left.”

Someone knocked at the door and Delavan got up and opened it. The men he’d sent for were there and he told them to wait and closed the door and went back and sat down.

“We drove into town early and called George and he came out to the house.” Maude was speaking swiftly now, staring dully at Axiotes. “He gave us a long song and dance about not meaning to kill Fritz — that he was so drunk he didn’t know what he was doing, that sort of thing. Barbara fell for it — she’s crazy about him, anyway, and he worked on her sympathy and told her how much he loved her and how jealous he’d been of Fritz... But I didn’t fall for it, and before he left we had a session by ourselves, downstairs. He got mad and spit out the whole thing...”

Axiotes leaned forward slowly and put his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands. He hadn’t taken his eyes off Maude since she’d been talking.

She watched him dully. “He’d come out here to buy out Fritz and Finn and McLennon and a few more gamblers with big clienteles — or run them out, or get control of their business in any way he could. He didn’t say who he was acting for but intimated that it was someone big in the East. Fritz wouldn’t sell and when George met Barbara he made a big play for her thinking he’d be able to reach Fritz that way. When he found out Fritz and Barbara hadn’t been getting along for a long time he changed his plans and it worked out” — she gestured vaguely with her hands — “this way.”

She glanced swiftly at Delavan, then turned again to Axiotes.

“He told me the police were working on the theory that Raymond was the key to the whole business and that that was a great break for us. Us! — he talked about us all the time as if we were just as guilty as he! And he said if I didn’t play ball with him he’d see that Barbara was stuck as the instigator of the whole thing...”

Maude laughed a little hysterically. “He’s a great convincer. He laid it on thick and I was scared. I told him Mrs Bergliot had hinted to me that she’d recognized Barbara’s voice and he said he’d take care of her with some money. I told him she wasn’t the kind of woman you could take care of that way and he wanted to know all about her and I said she was mixed up with some spiritualist cult on Larchmont. He took down the address and said he’d see what he could do about it...”

Delavan said: “We picked up Cora Haviland, the leader of that outfit this evening. Axiotes gave her two thousand dollars to go into a trance and tell Bergliot the voice she’d heard was Myra Reid’s.”

Maude smiled faintly, went on: “Then he said you” — she nodded at me — “were the only other person he was worried about; that he thought you knew more than you were telling and he was having you followed. I guess when you went to see Amante he thought he’d better get rid of you quickly and they tried it when you were driving home. Barbara was asleep when George left and when she woke up I gave her a lot of Luminol and she slept through the afternoon and night. When she woke up Sunday morning I told her what George had said and she was scared to death, too. I wanted to tell you about it but she vetoed that. I think that in her heart she’s still in love with George...”

Her eyes moved to Axiotes and the two of them stared silently, expressionlessly at each other for a moment. Then she turned back to me, went on swiftly, almost breathlessly:

“He called Sunday morning and said he was coming out, we were expecting him when you came in the afternoon; that’s the reason Barbara worked the gag about you shielding Myra Reid so hard — she was afraid George would come while you were there. He called later and said he couldn’t make it and she started drinking and she’s been at it ever since; I sobered her up enough to get to the funeral, but she started again as soon as it was over and insisted on coming here. And here we are.”

Maude finished her drink and put the glass down on the floor. “I guess that’s about all...”

It was entirely quiet for a few moments. All of us were looking at Maude. Then the giant groaned and rolled over on his stomach and I heard something behind me and turned around. Barbara was standing in the bedroom doorway. She held a nickled revolver loosely in her right hand.

She said, “No — that isn’t all,” thickly.

She swayed suddenly and put her free hand up to steady herself and then her other hand tightened on the revolver and it roared five times with the tick-tock regularity of clockwork. I whirled and saw Axiotes half rise out of the chair and his body jerk as the last two slugs went into it; then he sank slowly back and his surprised face went loose and soft and his head sank forward to his chest.

Delavan was standing with his gun focused on Barbara but as I watched he lowered it, and maybe I imagined it but I thought he smiled a very little. Maude sat staring dumbly at Barbara, and the other man — the t.b. — had jumped up and backed against the wall.

Someone pounded on the door.

Barbara went down suddenly; the revolver dropped from her hand and her knees gave way and she slumped down in the doorway, sobbing.

The giant groaned again and rolled over and sat up groggily.

Delavan crossed to the door and opened it, said: “Come in, boys.”

The doctor tightened the last stitch and snipped off the ends of the gut.

Delavan said: “Hollberg’s been under Axiotes’ thumb for a month; he was afraid to do anything without an okay. Axiotes made him call you tonight and ask you over to the bungalow. Hollberg thought he was putting the finger on you but Axiotes figured he’d kill two birds with one automatic rifle.”

The doctor finished and helped me put my coat on and Delavan and I went out to his car. We drove out Sunset a little ways and then I said: