I Would Rather Stay Poor (14 page)

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Authors: James Hadley Chase

BOOK: I Would Rather Stay Poor
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Travers shifted impatiently.
‘Tha
t’s
too easy,’ he said. ‘She just isn’t the type to steal nor is she the t
ype ever to have a boy-friend.’
Easton blew out his fat cheeks.
‘There you go again
…
making things complicated,’ he said. ‘We
know
she had a boy-friend. Calvin said so, didn’t he? This guy has been seen by these two old people and by Mrs. Loring. What’s the point in you saying she isn’t the type to get herself a boy-friend when we know she has one?’
‘I know
…
I know,’ Travers said. ‘That’s what foxes me. I am sure she isn’t the type to have a boy-friend.’
Easton hissed through his teeth.
‘Look, you’re young,’ he said. ‘You haven’t the experience of people the way I have. There are girls who don’t look as if they know a thing. There are girls as sexless as hot-water bottles. A girl like Alice is made like other girls. She’s got sex like any other girl. When the right guy comes along, a smooth crook who knows his stuff, she could be a sucker for him.’
Travers saw some sense in this reasoning, but he wasn’t convinced. He thought of Alice Craig. She was so earnest, so dedicated to her work and so shy with men.
‘Well, let’s see what Mrs. Loring has to say. I’m still not sold on the idea.’

Easton glanced uneasily at him.

‘I’m just sounding off,’ he said. ‘I could be wrong. You’re young and smart. I need all the help I can get.’
‘How did you make out with Calvin?’ Travers asked.
Here, Easton felt he was on safe ground. He had talked with Calvin and had been impressed. He liked the guy.

‘He’s quite a man, isn’t he?’ he said enthusiastically. ‘He sure knows his job. That’s a thing I go for
–
a guy who really knows his job. I bet he plays a fine game of golf.’

‘He’s a scratch player,’ Travers said impatiently, ‘but what has that to do with his job?’
‘It’s tough on him to ha
ve
this break,’ Easton said, shaking his head. ‘He hasn’t been in charge of the bank for more than six weeks when this girl has to spring this on him. It’s tough.’
Travers flicked his cigarette out of the window.

‘You take the second turning on the right,’ he said, ‘then it’s the third house on your right.’

Ten minutes later the two men were with Kit Loring.

What
a
woman! Easton thought. He compared her to Mavis Hart and the comparison made him feel old and unsure of himself. L
ook
ing at her, Easton realised how sordid and depressing his affair with Mavis was. To be in bed with a woman like Kit Loring would be a major experience. He scarcely listened to what she was saying. His attention was riveted on her slim, sensual body and her blatant breasts that offered a challenge from behind the soft grey covering of her sweater. This was a woman, he told himself. There was nothing skinny nor sordid about her. She had the structure and the flesh that he had so often thought about. She was the most exciting and desirable woman he had ever met.
Travers stayed in the background, watching and listening. He realised that Kit was slightly drunk and this shocked him. When she moved past him, he smelt the whisky on her breath. It hurt and worried him, knowing she was to be his future mother-in-law.
Kit was drunk enough to be very confident.
‘I just can’t believe Alice would do such a thing,’ she said. ‘Of course, this man must have influenced her. Although she is a nice girl, I’m afraid she has no character. She is very weak and unsure of herself.’

‘You know for
a
fact she did have
a
boy-friend?’ Easton asked, glancing at Travers with
a
knowing grin.

‘Why, of course. I saw him. I saw them together.’

‘When was this, Mrs. Loring?’

‘Oh, about ten days ago. I was in my room when I heard
a
car drive up. I looked out of the window. I saw Alice and
a
man get out of the car. They kissed, then Alice ran into the house and the man drove away.’
‘Did you see him well enough to give me
a
description?’
‘Oh, yes. He moved in front of the car’s headlights. But Major Hardy and Miss Pearson had a better view of him. I was on the top floor, but they saw him from the ground floor.’
Easton gave her an admiring smile.

‘You tell me. I’d rather have it from you. From my experience, old people aren’t reliable.’

Kit lifted her hair off her shoulders. Her firm breasts pointed at Easton who stared at them.

‘He was tall and thick-set. He had black sideboards and a moustache. He wore a fawn, belted overcoat and
a
wide-brimmed hat.’
‘Any idea how old he could be?’

‘Perhaps thirty
…
thirty-five. It’s hard to say.’

‘You haven’t ever seen him in town?’

‘Oh, no.’

‘And the car?’

‘I didn’t notice the car.’ Kit glanced at Travers. His silent presence was making her uneasy. ‘I suppose Mr. Calvin told you about Alice’s bank examination? She pretended to be working in her room, but she would sneak out to meet this man. I knew because her coat and hat was often missing.’
Easton nodded.
‘Yeah, he told me. That shows, doesn’t it?’ He again glanced at Travers. ‘She must have fallen hard for this guy. Could I see her room?’

‘Of course.’ Kit led the way upstairs. On the second floor, she paused to open a door. She stood aside. Easton, followed by Travers entered a small, impersonal room.

As Easton looked around, Kit said, ‘I have to prepare lunch, if you’ll excuse me. If you want me again, I’ll be in the kitchen.’

When she had gone, Easton blew out his cheeks.

‘Now there’s a baby I’d like to drag into my bed,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘Some chick!’

‘Think so?’ Travers said, an edge to his voice. ‘She happens to be my future mother-in-law.’

Easton’s fat face turned red.

‘Is that right? Well
…
what do you know!’ He looked around the room. ‘Let’s see what’s here.’

If there was one thing Easton could do competen
tl
y it was to search a room. While Travers kept out of his way, Easton searched with a professional thoroughness.
He studied the half-empty wardrobe and the half-empty drawers.
‘Looks as if she took most of her clothes with her,’ he said. ‘No suitcase around.’ He push
ed the bed aside and glanced be
hind it. ‘Hello
…
what have we here?’ He fished up a crumpled ball of paper and smoothed it out. ‘Look at this!’
Travers peered over his shoulder. The two men stared at the letter that contained only a few lines, but they were lines that brought both men alert.
Dear Alice,
It’s all fixed for tomorrow night.
I’ve
got a car. I’ll pick you up at the bottom of the road at half past one sharp. You have nothing to worry about. The only thing you have to do is to leave the back door unlocked. Watch out for C. He mustn’t spot you.
Love,

Johnny.

Apart from the scrawled signat
ure, the letter was typewritten
.
‘Well, here it is!’ Easton said triumphantly. ‘I told you, didn’t I? This is enough to put them both away for fifteen years.’
Travers took the letter from him and stared at it. So she had done it! Alice of all people!
‘Yeah
…
looks like a clincher,’ he said slowly and handed the letter back. ‘It beats me. I would never have believed she would have done such a thing, but
…
well, I guess I’m convinced now.’
Easton grinned. He folded the letter carefully and put it in his wallet.
‘When you’ve had my experience, son,’ he said genially, ‘you’ll never be surprised at anything. Let’s go talk to the old people.’
Miss Pearson and Major Hardy were waiting to be interviewed. Easton found them both irritating and tiresome. Although they agreed that Alice’s mysterious boy-friend was a big man and heavily built, Miss Pearson couldn’t agree that he had a moustache and the major was sure the man’s overcoat was dark brown and not fawn. Also the major was indignant that Easton should even suspect Alice had anything to do with the robbery.
‘My dear fellow,’ the major said, ‘you’re wasting your time suspecting Miss Craig. She would never do such a thing. I’ve known her for years. She just wouldn’t do such a thing.’

‘Yeah?’ Easton said belligerently. ‘Then where is she? How about this letter?’ And he pushed the crumpled letter under the major’s nose.

‘This doesn’t mean anything,’ the major said after reading it. ‘It could have been planted.’

Easton turned red with exasperation.

‘Who planted it? Did you?’

At this moment, Kit came to the door to say Easton was wanted on the telephone. It was the sheriff calling.
‘Just had a report from the State Police,’ he told Easton. ‘The gas attendant at the Caltex filli
ng station on the Downside high
way is pretty sure he saw this guy and Miss Craig around half past one last night. Do you want to talk to
him.
’
‘You bet
I do!’ Easton said, studying Kit’s legs as she stood with her back to him looking out of the window. ‘What makes him so sure he saw her?’

‘The girl was wearing a mustard-coloured coat with a green collar,’ the sheriff said. ‘He recognised the coat. He’s seen Miss Craig from time to time.’

‘Okay, I’ll get over there right away,’ Easton said and hung up.

He went
back to the room where Travers w
as talking to the old people.

‘Let’s go,’ he said from the doorway. ‘Something’s turned up.’

The two men went out to Easton’s car. As Easton drove on to the highway, he told Travers what he had learned from the sheriff.
‘You know, Major Hardy could be right,’ Travers said. ‘That letter could have been planted.
This guy Johnny could have kidn
apped the girl. The more I think about it, the more unlikely
I
think it
is
she would have done this job willingly.’

‘Oh, for Pete’s sake!’ Easton said impatiently. ‘You just
sa
id you were convinced. She fell for the guy, and she didn’t
h
ave to do anything except unlock the back entrance to the bank
. T
hat’s all. He could have persuaded her.’

‘Maybe,’ Travers said and rubbed the side of his jaw. ‘But
t
here are a couple of points that puzzle me. Where did this guy
come
from? If he was meeting Alice so often how is it no one
but Mrs. Loring and the old people saw him? We’ve been asking
a
round and no one has seen him. Where did he live? And another
thing
if he wasn’t living here, seems odd he had a typewriter with
him.’
‘What’s so odd about that? Lots of people cart a portable around with them,’ Easton said. ‘You’re trying to complicate things.’

‘Why did he write that letter? Why couldn’t he have telephoned or seen her the day before the robbery? There’s something odd about that letter. It could be a plant.’

‘You’ve been reading detective stories,’ Easton growled. ‘You let me handle this.’
Travers shrugged and lapsed into silence. After a ten-minute drive they arrived at the Caltex filling station where a State Trooper was talking to Joe Hirsch, the gas attendant.

Hirsch, a young alert-looking man, said around one-thirty the previous night, a Lincoln had pulled in for gas. He couldn’t be absolutely sure of the time as his watch was on the blink, but it was near enough.

‘A man was driving and a woman in a mustard-coloured coat with a green collar was sitting in the passenger’s seat,’ he told Easton. ‘She had on a big floppy hat. I couldn’t see her face, but she wore spectacles. She took them off and wiped them with her handkerchief. The man was tall, heavily-built
a
nd he had black sideboards and a moustache. He wore a fawn, belted over-
coat
and a slouch hat. While I was filling the tank, he leaned into the car and got talking with the woman about the time of the last train to
’
Frisco. She said they had missed it, but he said there was one at two a.m. and they could still make it. I happen to know he was right and joined in. I told him he could still make it if he hurried.’

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