Safer Dead

‘Don’t cut the corners,’ I said. ‘Let me have it from the beginning. What was Royce to you?’

She hunched her shoulders and leaned forward to stare at the two pools of light thrown by the Lincoln’s headlamps as they raced ahead of us.

‘What was he to me? Everything. We were fixed to be married,’ she said in a cold, flat voice, and I didn’t believe her.

‘We were happy; he was crazy about me. Then suddenly it blew up in my face. He started to cool. He wasn’t subtle about it either. I thought at first it was the Van Blake woman. She was always coming to the club. You know the club belonged to her husband?’

I said I knew.

‘But I found out it wasn’t her. It was the Bennett girl. She and Royce were meeting secretly. I had them watched. When he was supposed to be at the club in the morning, he was driving her around. When he told me to go back to the apartment as he had things to do at the club, he was taking her to dinner at Lodoni’s where no one knew either of them.’

‘Was this before Van Blake’s death?’

She turned her head to stare at me. In the dim light from the dashboard I could see her eyes were glittering with unshed tears.

‘What’s Van Blake’s murder to do with her?’

‘I don’t know; nothing perhaps. I was trying to fix the time.’

‘It was just before; two weeks.’

‘You said they were meeting secretly. How secretly? Did anyone know what was going on?’

‘No. I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t hired an investigator to watch her.’

‘But why should Royce bother to keep it quiet? Was he scared you’d make trouble?’

She laughed; it wasn’t a pretty sound.

‘With the thugs he has to look after him, he didn’t have to be scared of anyone.’

‘Then why keep it secret?’

‘I don’t know. I tried to find out, but I didn’t get anywhere. I talked to the girl. She was crazy about him. I could see that by the way her silly face lit up when I mentioned his name, but she denied ever going out with him. I was fool enough to tell her I had had her watched. That was the worst mistake I’ve ever made.’ Again her fists closed into tight, white knuckled fists. ‘She told Royce. He came back to the apartment, and I could tell by his face it was my finish with him. I thought he was going to kill me. He told me to pack up and get out. I was too frightened even to speak. I think that’s why he didn’t kill me. He stood in the bedroom doorway and watched me while I packed. When I was ready to go, he got hold of my arms and held me while he talked. I had bruises from his fingers on my arms for weeks. He said I was not to leave town. I was to work at the Hey-Day club and I was never to talk about his affairs. He said Juan was going to be my jailer. If I ever talked about him, tried to leave town or came near him, Juan would take care of me. I could see he meant it. That’s how I’ve been living for the past eighteen months. I haven’t seen him to talk to for all that time. He never gave me a thing: not a nickel. And now look what I’ve done. If they catch up with me, they’ll kill me.’

‘They won’t catch up with you,’ I said, urging the car up to fifty-seven. I still had a little in reserve, but not much. The engine was so noisy we were practically shouting at each other now. I drove for a minute or so while I brooded over what she had told me. It hadn’t taken me far. At least, I had a witness now to prove Royce and Rutland were one and the same, and that put Royce in the middle of Fay’s disappearance. That was something, but I knew there must be a lot more to this than I knew. ‘Ever heard of a guy who called himself Hank Flemming?’ I asked abruptly.

She shook her head.

‘No. Why?’

‘He’s hooked up in this. Maybe you’ve seen him. He’s short, thickset with a round, heavy face. The last time I saw him he wore a dirty trench coat and a black slouch hat. Remember seeing anyone like that?’

It was a shot in the dark, but it scored a bull.

‘Andrews saw him.’

‘Andrews?’

‘He was the investigator I hired. He gave me a description of a man just like that.’

‘Where did he see him?’

‘He was at Lodoni’s restaurant one night when Royce and the Bennett girl were there. Andrews spotted this man in a car outside the restaurant. Royce took the Bennett girl past the car and as they passed, he dropped back a little and pointed to the girl. The man left the car after a while and went to the door of the restaurant and watched her. Andrews said it was as if Royce had put the finger on her, but I didn’t believe him. He wasn’t much of an investigator. He was always trying to chisel money out of me. I thought it was just a story he had made up to make me think he was doing more than he was.’

Now I was learning something. So it was Royce who had hired Flemming to murder Fay.