James Chase - An Ace up my Sleeve

Archer glared at him, then at Helga.

“By God! I’ll make you two pay for this,” he mumbled. He pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed the blood from his mouth. The spite and viciousness in his eyes chilled Helga.

“Sure… sure,” Larry said softly. “We know all about that. Go ahead… get in mere!”

Unsteadily and moving like a cripple, Archer walked into the sitting-room. He picked up his denture and put it in his mouth.

“Maybe, ma’am, you’d better write the letter. I don’t reckon he’s up to it,” Larry said, eyeing Archer.

“Yes,” Helga said.

“Sit down,” Larry said to Archer. “Take it easy.”

Archer sank into a chair and held his face in his hands. His breathing was very laboured and alarmed Helga.

“Is he all right?”

“Oh, sure, ma’am… he’s fine. Don’t worry about him,” Larry said. “You get that letter written.”

Helga went to the desk, took a portable Olivetti from one of the bottom drawers and put it on the desk. Her hands were shaking a little, and the paper rattled as she threaded it into the typewriter. She hesitated for a long moment, breathing deeply until she regained some composure, then she began to type.

The only sound in the big room was the clacking of the typewriter and Archer’s laboured breathing.

Larry stripped a stick of chewing gum and put it in his mouth.

It took Helga only a few minutes to complete the letter. She ripped the sheet out of the typewriter and checked what she had written.

Villa Helios Castagnola 6976 The Manager, Central Bank of Vaud. Lausanne. 1003.

Dear Sir,

Yesterday, I mailed to you an envelope marked “To be opened in the event of my death.”

I now find I need to make additions to the document contained in the second sealed envelope. Will you please return this envelope, unopened, to me by registered and express mail at the above address. Your immediate action will oblige.

Yours truly,

John Lee Archer

She put the letter on the desk and looked at Archer who still sat motionless, his face in his hands.

“Jack…”

He didn’t move and Larry, frowning, gave him a hard poke in his back with his finger.

“The lady’s speaking to you, buster,” he said.

Archer looked up slowly and her heart sank when she saw the expression in his eyes. She saw then he had more steel in him than she had imagined. He had absorbed the first shock, and now his bruised face was set and his eyes glittered with the viciousness of a cornered animal.

“I’ll read the letter to you,” she said.

He pressed his hand to his aching face and continued to glare at her.

Her voice a little husky, she read the letter aloud. He just sat there, now staring down at the carpet and mopping at his bleeding mouth.

“Will you sign it?” she asked.

He looked up.

“I forged your signature… go ahead and forge mine.” The hate in his eyes sickened her. “Go ahead and see how far it’ll get you.”

Larry made a slight movement towards him, but Helga gestured to him to stay where he was.

“Jack… I told you I hold four aces. You’ll sign sooner or later. I must have those photographs,” she said, her hands into fists on the desk. “I hate this. I want to spare you although you don’t deserve any consideration, but I do want to spare you. Please sign this letter.”

“You and your pimp can go to hell!” Archer snarled. “As long as I have those photographs I’m safe… without them, I’m not.”

“If you sign this letter Jack, and I get the photos, I give you my solemn promise that Herman won’t prosecute, but you’ll have to lose the account. I promise you won’t go to prison.”

“What’s your promise worth to me? It’s stalemate, you bitch. I’m not signing.”

“Larry promised me he would make you sign,” Helga said, trying desperately to quell the panic and despair rising in her. “That means he will ill-treat you. For God’s sake, Jack! I don’t want you hurt. Please sign this letter!”

Archer stared at her, his eyes narrowing.

“I told you… it’s stalemate! If this ape starts knocking me about, he could kill me. “In the event of my death”… remember? I’ll tell you something I haven’t told anyone. I have a bad heart. My quack warned me on no account was I to over-exert myself. So go ahead if you want me dead. Tell your ape to start knocking me about.”

Larry, chewing gum, was listening to all this, his eyes shifting from Helga to Archer and back to Helga again. He saw the dismay growing in Helga’s eyes and he moved into action.

He went up to Archer.

“Up on your feet!” he said. “You and me are going downstairs. Come on.”

“No!” Helga’s voice was shrill. “Don’t touch him!”

“It’s okay, ma’am. I’m not touching him unless I have to. I want to talk to him. On your feet, buster.”

Archer stood up.

“Keep away from me! I’m walking out of here and I’m daring either of you to stop me! Now, get out of my way!”

With a movement like a striking snake, Larry’s big hand closed over Archer’s wrist, twisted, had Archer spinning around and then bending his arm he had him in a paralysing grip. Helga jumped to her feet.

“Larry! No!”

“It’s okay,” Larry said quietly. “He doesn’t want to drop dead, do you, Fatso? Move with the legs.”

Her heart hammering, Helga watched Larry march Archer out of the room. She heard them going down the stairs and she walked unsteadily to an armchair and sank into it and put her hands to her face.

Her bluff had been called. From the moment she had agreed to let Larry help her, she had a feeling it would end in disaster. She dare not risk Archer dying. It would be better to submit to his blackmail. Jumping to her feet, she ran into the hall and paused as she saw Larry coming up the stairs from the cellars.

“What have you done with him?”

“He’s okay, ma’am. I’ve locked him in one of the cellars… the one at the far end… the empty one. He can’t get out. I thought maybe you and me ought to have a talk before we do anything more.”

She went back into the sitting-room. 119

“We must let him go, Larry.”

“Do you think he’s bluffing about his bad heart, ma’am?”

She lifted her hands helplessly.

“How do I know? He looks like a man with heart trouble. I don’t know, but if you try to force him to sign and he the dies… no, Larry, we can’t do it.”

Larry rubbed the back of his neck.

“Mind if I have a beer, ma’am?”

“No… help yourself… have anything!”

He went over to the bar, opened the refrigerator, took out a bottle of beer.

“This is pretty handy, isn’t it, ma’am? You’ve certainly got it all laid on. Do you want something?”

“No.”

She sat in despair, trying to think of a way out and finding none.

I’ll make you two pay for this!

He would, of course. He knew Larry was an Army deserter. He would inform against him. Herself? He would be merciless, bleeding the account with impunity, making her cover up his embezzlement.

“Look, ma’am, take it easy,” Larry said. He carried his glass of beer from the bar and sat down opposite her. “We can still fix this. Have you got a copy of his signature?”

She stiffened and looked quickly at him.

“Yes, but I could never forge it.”

“Could I see it, ma’am?”

“But why? I don’t understand.”

“Could I see it, ma’am?”

She went to the desk, found a file containing the dozens of letters Archer had written to her concerning business transactions. She looked at the almost indecipherable signature. No… to forge that wasn’t possible.