Лестер Дент: Honey in His Mouth

Mr. Hassam nodded. “I hope we have not said anything that will keep you from sleeping soundly.”

“Don’t worry about that. You knock off whoever you want to knock off, just so long as I get mine.”

The whereabouts of the two automobiles was important. Harsh settled that point on his way to the house. The underslung sports car and the older station wagon were under the carport at the side of the house. He took a quick look at the driving controls of the sports car. They did not look complicated, he thought, but then Vera Sue wasn’t the experienced driver he was. He began to worry about it.

The limousine was parked before the leaded glass marquee at the front door. He did not look inside, merely noted its position. As best he recalled, it was left there at night.

If anyone had found Goldberg’s body, obviously something would have been mentioned.

The upstairs hallways smelled faintly of flowers, furniture polish. At the end of the hall the windows spilled rectangles of moonlight on dove grey carpet. The sound of a sob arrested him and he stood motionless, listening. Surf whispered distantly on the beach, the coyote sound of distant bathers was audible. Birds quarreled briefly somewhere in the shrubbery.

He opened Vera Sue Crosby’s bedroom door. “For Christ’s sake!” Vera Sue was lying on the bed with an arm over her face. She did not remove the arm when he sat on the edge of the bed. He leaned down, kissed her mouth, getting a slight taste of Benedictine off her lips. “What’s the matter?”

She lifted the arm from her face, made a fist of her hand, and shook the fist angrily. “Stuck-up snobs, dirty bastards.” Her face was puffy and her eye enraged. “Telling me I couldn’t go down on the beach to eat with them.”

“Say, did they do that? I didn’t know they did that.”

“Why don’t you stick up for me, Walter?”

“I have been honey, but I didn’t know about this.”

She wiped her nose on the back of her hand. “You stick up for me, Walter? Crap.”

“Honey, I do. I’m always thinking about you, you know that.”

She sniffled moistly. “The way it looks to me, you do plenty of thinking about that Miss Muirz.”

“Vera Sue, you want to know something, I’m scared of that dame.” Harsh kissed her once more. This time she kissed back. “I’m getting scared of the whole bunch of them, if you want the facts.”

“You follow them around like their puppy dog.”

“I been playing them along. I thought I had them suckered into taking up my photographic emulsion idea and putting it over big.”

Vera Sue sat up suddenly. “Walter! What the hell, are you trying to say your plans blew up?”

“Worse than that. Jesus Christ, worse than that.” Harsh looked into the hall and closed the door before he came back to the bed. “You know what I found out tonight? These people are a bunch of crooks, that’s what I found out tonight. And not our sort of crooks either.”

“I ain’t surprised.” She was not tipsy in spite of the Benedictine on her lips. “I ain’t surprised the least bit.”

“Well, I was.”

“Walter, the whole thing was too screwed up to be on the level. Couldn’t you see that?” She peered at him intently. “Walter! My God, Walter, you are scared! I can see it on your face.”

He nodded.

“Why? What have they done, Walter?”

“It’s not what they’ve done, it’s what they’re planning to do. They’re fixing up to murder a guy, put me in his place, and embezzle the guy’s money. Damn right I’m scared. Wouldn’t you be?”

He ran his fingers through his hair. “We got to be careful. They know I’m wise to their plans, and I got a feeling they won’t want me walking out of here alive.”

“Well, by God, I’m getting out. They don’t think I know anything, do they?”

He shook his head. “I wouldn’t put it past them to knock us both off. They’re desperate characters. They ain’t like Americans.” He held his head in his hands, pretending to think. She was falling right in with his plans. “We got two handicaps, Vera Sue. No money. No transportation.”

“Couldn’t we take the limousine, then abandon it later, Walter?”

“Huh-uh, honey. No good. That little sports car could catch up with the limousine in nothing flat.”

“Well, then what’s wrong with taking the sports job?”

“Can you drive it?”

“I looked it over a few times, and once I sat in it. Yeah, I think I could handle it, Walter. But what the hell, you would be going along, and you could drive.”

“What I was thinking, baby, you could take off by yourself, and I would stay behind and fix the other cars so they wouldn’t run, then take off myself on foot. We could meet later.”

They were quiet. Harsh hoped the two servants were on the main floor in the rear where they usually were this time of the evening. He glanced out the bedroom window and saw Mr. Hassam, Doctor Englaster, and Miss Muirz still beside the beach fire with Brother.

“Walter. About the no money... ?”

“Yeah?”

“I want to show you something.” Vera Sue got off the bed and moved to the door. “Walter, do you know anything about jewelry, whether it’s worth anything or not by looking at it?”

“What are you talking about?”

Vera Sue beckoned. “Come on. That Miss Muirz brought some stuff with her when she came the last time. I been doing a little snooping on my own, Walter. Come on, I want to show you.”

She drew Harsh down the hall and opened the door of Miss Muirz’s bedroom. “In these two suitcases.” Her voiced was husky with excitement. “Goddamn, if they’re real, Walter, we could come out of this with a stake.”

The first suitcase she opened was packed with small objects wrapped in tissue and cotton. She tore away the wrappings, uncovering a necklace, several brooches, a crown-like tiara. Diamonds, emeralds, platinum, the stones all very large. Like owl eyes, Harsh thought.

“Jesus God, Vera Sue.”

She fondled the jewel pieces. “You think they’re real, Walter? The other suitcase is full of the same stuff, too.” Excitement made the muscles ripple in her throat. “Is it costume jewelry, Walter, or the real McCoy?”

“It’s real, baby.”

“How do you know?”

“It figures. It belongs to the guy they’re planning to kill. They already stole it from him, and he hasn’t missed it yet, and won’t ever miss it if they murder him. Yeah, it’s got to be real. Say, if we take it and return it to the owner, we would be in line for a big reward.”

“Reward? Return it?” Vera Sue looked startled. “Oh, well, sure, I see what you mean. Yeah, sure, Walter.” She took a deep breath. “We don’t have to hand it back to the owner right away, though, Walter, do you think?”

“No, of course not. We can keep it and negotiate with the owner, or his insurance company, so we don’t get screwed out of a reward.”

“Walter, how much reward do you suppose we would get?”

“Hell, how do I know? Maybe fifty thousand dollars. I don’t know.”

He saw her eyes turn all whites. He should not have mentioned a sum like that, he thought, remembering the effect fifty thousand dollars had had on him.

“Walter, get a bed sheet.” Two spots of apple red grew on Vera Sue’s cheeks. “We won’t take the suitcases, they’d maybe be missed. We’ll dump the stuff in a sheet.”

He went to the door, listened, went out into the hall and silently on to Vera Sue’s room, where he whipped the orchid sheet off the bed. He stowed it under his arm, ran back to join Vera Sue. She was on her knees beside the suitcase. “I just hope to Jesus this is not costume junk. My God, maybe it’s just a salesman’s sample case of cheap trash.”