He raised his little eyebrows. “You think that?”
“Only you might not know her as Muriel Chess. Supposing that you knew her at all you might have known her as Mildred Haviland, who used to be Dr. Almore’s office nurse. Who put Mrs. Almore to bed the night she was found dead in the garage, and who, if. there was any hanky-panky about that, might know who it was, and be bribed or scared into leaving town shortly thereafter.”
Webber picked up two matches and broke them. His small bleak eyes were fixed on my face. He said nothing.
“And at that point,” I said, “you run into a real basic coincidence, the only one I’m willing to admit in the whole picture. For this Mildred Haviland met a man named Bill Chess in a Riverside beer parlor and for reasons of her own married him and went to live with him at Little Fawn Lake. And Little Fawn Lake was the property of a man whose wife was intimate with Lavery, who had found Mrs. Almore’s body. That’s what I call a real coincidence. It can’t be anything else but, but it’s basic, fundamental. Everything else flows from it.”
Webber got up from his desk and went over to the water cooler and drank two paper cups of water. He crushed the cups slowly in his hand and twisted them into a bail and dropped the ball into a brown metal basket under the cooler. He walked to the windows and stood looking out over the bay. This was before the dimout went into effect, and there were many lights in the yacht harbor.
He came slowly back to the desk and sat down. He reached up and pinched his nose. He was making up his mind about something.
He said slowly: “I can’t see what the hell sense there is in trying to mix that up with something that happened a year and a half later.”
“Okay,” I said, “and thanks for giving me so much of your time.” I got up to go.
“Your leg feel pretty bad?” he asked, as I leaned down to rub it.
“Bad enough, but it’s getting better.”
“Police business,” he said almost gently, “is a hell of a problem. It’s a good deal like politics. It asks for the highest type of men, and there’s nothing in it to attract the highest type of men. So we have to work with what we get—and we get things like this.”
“I know,” I said. “I’ve always known that. I’m not bitter about it. Goodnight, Captain Webber.”
“Wait a minute,” he said. “Sit down a minute. If we’ve got to have the Almore case in this, let’s drag it out into the open and look at it.”
“It’s about time somebody did that,” I said. I sat down again.
28
Webber said quietly: “I suppose some people think we’re just a bunch of crooks down here. I suppose they think a fellow kills his wife and then calls me up on the phone and says: ‘Hi, Cap, I got a little murder down here cluttering up the front room. And I’ve got five hundred iron men that are not working.’ And then I say: ‘Fine. Hold everything and I’ll be right down with a blanket.’”
“Not quite that bad,” I said.
“What did you want to see Talley about when you went to his house tonight?”
“He had some line on Florence Almore’s death. Her parents hired him to follow it up, but he never told them what it was.”
“And you thought he would tell you?” Webber asked sarcastically.
“All I could do was try.”
“Or was it just that Degarmo getting tough with you made you feel like getting tough right back at him?”
“There might be a little of that in it too,” I said.
“Talley was a petty blackmailer,” Webber said contemptuously. “On more than one occasion. Any way to get rid of him was good enough. So I’ll tell you what it was he had. He had a slipper he had stolen from Florence Almore’s foot.”
“A slipper?”
He smiled faintly. “Just a slipper. It was later found hidden in his house. It was a green velvet dancing pump with some little stones set into the heel. It was custom made, by a man in Hollywood who makes theatrical footwear and such. Now ask me what was important about this slipper?”
“What was important about it, captain?”
“She had two pair of them, exactly alike, made on the same order. It seems that is not unusual. In case one of them gets scuffed or some drunken ox tries to walk up a lady’s leg.” He paused and smiled thinly. “It seems that one pair had never been worn.”
“I think I’m beginning to get it,” I said.
He leaned back and tapped the arms of his chair. He waited.
“The walk from the side door of the house to the garage is rough concrete,” I said. “Fairly rough. Suppose she didn’t walk it, but was carried. And suppose whoever carried her put her slippers on—and got one that had not been worn.”
“Yes?”
“And suppose Talley noticed this while Lavery was telephoning to the doctor, who was out on his rounds. So he took the unworn slipper, regarding it as evidence that Florence Almore had been murdered.”
Webber nodded his head. “It was evidence if he left it where it was, for the police to find it. After he took it, it was just evidence that he was a rat.”
“Was a monoxide test made of her blood?”
He put his hands flat on his desk and looked down at them. “Yes,” he said. “And there was monoxide all right. Also the investigating officers were satisfied with appearances. There was no sign of violence. They were satisfied that Dr. Alrnore had not murdered his wife. Perhaps they were wrong. I think the investigation was a little superficial.”
“And who was in charge of it?” I asked.
“I think you know the answer to that.”
“When the police came, didn’t they notice that a slipper was missing?”
“When the police came there was no slipper missing. You must remember that Dr. Almore was back at his home, in response to Lavery’s call, before the police were called. All we know about the missing shoe is from Talley himself. He might have taken the unworn shoe from the house. The side door was unlocked. The maids were asleep. The objection to that is that he wouldn’t, have been likely to know there was an unworn slipper’ to take. I wouldn’t put it past him to think of it. He’s a sharp sneaky little devil. But I can’t fix the necessary knowledge on him.”
We sat there and looked at each other, thinking about it.
“Unless,” Webber said slowly, “we can suppose that this nurse of Almore’s was involved with Talley in a scheme to put the bite on Almore. It’s possible. There are things in favor of it. There are more things against it. What reason have you for claiming that the girl drowned up in the mountains was this nurse?”
“Two reasons, neither one conclusive separately, but pretty powerful taken together. A tough guy who looked and acted like Deganno was up there a few weeks ago showing a photograph of Mildred Haviland that looked something like Muriel Chess. Different hair and eyebrows and so on, but a fair resemblance. Nobody helped him much. He called himself De Soto and said he was a Los Angeles cop. There isn’t any Los Angeles cop named De Soto. When Muriel Chess heard about it, she looked scared. If it was Degarmo, that’s easily established. The other reason is that a golden anklet with a heart on it was hidden in a box of powdered sugar in the Chess cabin. It was found after her death, after her husband had been arrested. On the back of the heart was engraved: Al to Mildred. June 28th, 1938. With all my love.”
“It could have been some other Al and some other Mildred,” Webber said.
“You don’t really believe that, captain.”
He leaned forward and made a hole in the air with his forefinger. “What do you want to make of all this exactly?”
“I want to make it that Kingsley’s wife didn’t shoot Lavery. That his death had something to do with the Almore business. And with Mildred Haviland. And possibly with Dr. Almore. I want to make it that Kingsley’s wife disappeared because something happened that gave her a bad fright, that she may or may not have guilty knowledge, but that she hasn’t murdered anybody. There’s five hundred dollars in it for me, if I can determine that. It’s legitimate to try.”
He nodded. “Certainly it is. And I’m the man that would help you, if I could see any grounds for it. We haven’t found the woman, but the time has been very short. But I can’t help you put something on one of my boys.”
I said: “I heard you call Degarmo Al. But I was thinking of Almore. His name’s Albert.”
Webber looked at his thumb. “But he was never married to the girl,” he said quietly. “Degarmo was. I can tell you she led him a pretty dance. A lot of what seems bad in him is the result of it.”
I sat very still. After a moment I said: “I’m beginning to see things I didn’t know existed. What kind of a girl was she?”.
“Smart, smooth and no good. She had a way with men. She could make them crawl over her shoes. The big boob would tear your head off right now, if you said anything against her. She divorced him, but that didn’t end it for him.”
“Does he know she is dead?”
Webber sat quiet for a long moment before he said: “Not from anything he has said. But how could he help it, if it’s the same girl?”
“He never found her in the mountains—so far as we know.”
I stood up and leaned down on the desk. “Look, captain, you’re not kidding me, are you?”
“No. Not one damn bit. Some men are like that and some women can make them like it. If you think Degarmo went up there looking for her because he wanted to hurt her, you’re as wet as a bar towel.”
“I never quite thought that,” I said. “It would be pcssible, provided Degarmo knew the country up there pretty well. Whoever murdered the girl did.”
“This is all between us,” he said. “I’d like you to keep it that way.”
I nodded, but I didn’t promise him. I said goodnight again and left. He looked after me as I went down the room. He looked hurt and sad.
The Chrysler was in the police lot at the side of the building with the keys in the ignition and none of the fenders smashed. Cooney hadn’t made good on his threat. I drove back to Hollywood and went up to my apartment in the Bristol. It was late, almost midnight.
The green and ivory hallway was empty of all sound except that a telephone bell was ringing in one of the apartments. It rang insistently and got louder as I came near to my door. I unlocked the door. It was my telephone.
I walked across the room in darkness to where the phone stood on the ledge of an oak desk against the side wall. It must have rung at least ten times before I got to it.
I lifted it out of the cradle and answered, and it was Derace Kingsley on the line.
His voice sounded tight and brittle and strained. “Good Lord, where in hell have you been?” he snapped. “I’ve been trying to reach you for hours.”
“All right. I’m here now,” I said. “What is it?”
“I’ve heard from her.”
I held the telephone very tight and drew my breath in slowly and let it out slowly. “Go ahead,” I said.
“I’m not far away. I’ll be over there in five or six minutes. Be prepared to move.”
He hung up.
I stood there holding the telephone halfway between my ear and the cradle. Then I put it down very slowly and looked at the hand that had held it. It was half open and clenched stiff, as if it was still holding the instrument.
29
The discreet midnight tapping sounded on the door and I went over and opened it. Kingsley looked as big as a horse in a creamy shetland sports coat with a green and yellow scarf around the neck inside the loosely turned up collar. A dark reddish brown snapbrim hat was pulled low on his forehead and under its brim, his eyes looked like the eyes of a’sick animal.
Miss Fromsett was with him. She was wearing slacks and sandals and dark green coat and no hat and her hair had a wicked lustre. In her ears hung ear drops made of a pair of tiny artificial gardenia blooms, hanging one above the other, two on each ear. Gillerlain Regal, the Champagne of Perfumes, came in at the door with her.
I shut the door and indicated the furniture and said: “A drink will probably help.”
Miss Fromsett sat in an armchair and crossed her legs and looked around for cigarettes. She found one and lit it with a long casual flourish and smiled bleakly at a corner of the ceiling.
Kingsley stood in the middle of the floor trying to bite his chin. I went out to the dinette and mixed three drinks and brought them in and handed them. I went over to the chair by the chess table with mine.
Kingsley said: “What have you been doing and what’s the matter with the leg?”
I said: “A cop kicked me. A present from the Bay City police department. It’s a regular service they give down there. As to where I’ve been—in jail for drunk driving. And from the expression on your face, I think I may be right back there soon.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said shortly. “I haven’t the foggiest idea. This is no time to kid around.”
“All right, don’t,” I said. “What did you hear and where is she?”
He sat down with his drink and flexed the fingers of his right hand, and put it inside his coat. It came out with an envelope, a long one.
“You have to take this to her,” he said. “Five hundred dollars. She wanted more, but this is all I could raise. I cashed a check at a night club. It wasn’t easy. She has to get out of town.”
I said: “Out of what town?”
“Bay City somewhere. I don’t know where. She’ll meet you at a place called the Peacock Lounge, on Arguello Boulevard, at Eighth Street, or near it.”
I looked at Miss Fromsett. She was still looking at the corner of the ceiling as if she had just come along for the ride.
Kingsley tossed the envelope across and it fell on the chess table. I looked inside. It was money all right. That much of his story made sense. I let it lie on the small polished table with its inlaid squares of brown and pale gold.
I said: “What’s the matter with her drawing her own money? Any hotel would clear a check for her. Most of them would cash one. Has her bank account got lockjaw or something?”
“That’s no way to talk,” Kingsley said heavily. “She’s in trouble. I don’t know how she knows she’s in trouble. Unless a pickup order has been broadcast. Has it?”
I said I didn’t know. I hadn’t had much time to listen to police calls. I had been too busy listening to live policemen.
Kingsley said: “Well, she won’t risk cashing a check now. It was all right before. But not now.” He lifted his eyes slowly and gave me one of the emptiest stares I had ever seen.
“All right, we can’t make sense where there isn’t any,” I said. “So she’s in Bay City. Did you talk to her?”
“No. Miss Fromsett talked to her. She called the office. It was just after hours but that cop from the beach, Captain Webber, was with me. Miss Fromsett naturally didn’t want her to talk at all then. She told her to call back. She wouldn’t give any number we could call.”
I looked at Miss Fromsett. She brought her glance down from the ceiling and pointed it at the top of my head. There was nothing in her eyes at all. They were like drawn curtains.
Kingsley went on: “I didn’t want to talk to her. She didn’t want to talk to me. I don’t want to see her. I guess there’s no doubt she shot Lavery. Webber seemed quite sure of it.”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” I said. “What he says and what he thinks don’t even have to be on the same map. I don’t like her knowing the cops were after her. It’s a long time since anybody listened to the police short wave for amusement. So she called back later. And then?”
“It was almost half-past six,” Kingsley said. “We had to sit there in the office and wait for her to call. You tell him.” He turned his head to the girl.
Miss Fromsett said: “I took the call in Mr. Kingsley’s office. He was sitting right beside me, but he didn’t speak. She said to send the money down to the Peacock place and asked who would bring it.”