The Golden Gizmo (8 page)

With the body there in the room, the murder made sense. It put a frame on him like a Mack truck. Without the body, it was just plain damned screwy. It was nuts with a plus sign.

"Well, Mr. Kent?" Alvarado grinned satirically.

Toddy shook his head. "I've said all I've got to say."

"I see. Dolores, you will remain here. You, Mr. Kent, in front of me and through that door. I think you will be interested to see our basement."

"Wait!" The girl's voice was a sharp whisper. "Perrito, Alvarado! The dog!"

Alvarado looked. His gaze moved sufficiently from Toddy to take in the front door. He asked a soft question in Spanish.

"
Hombres, Perrito? Si, hombres?"

Eyes shining with excitement, the dog took a few prancing steps toward him. His jaws waggled with the effort to articulate.

"
Bueno, perro!"
said Alvarado. "Stand!"

The dog became a statue-a waist-high ebony menace pointed motionlessly toward the door. "The lights, Dolores…"

Alvarado moved behind Toddy, jabbed and held the gun against his back. The lights went off. Dead silence settled over the room.

It was like that for minutes. Absolute silence except for the restrained whisper of their breathing. Then, distantly, from outside and overhead, came a soft
ping
. That, the cutting of the telephone wire, ended the silence. Having removed their sole danger, or so they thought, the prowlers were actually noisy.

There was a scraping of feet against wood, a noisy thud. Footsteps clattered across the porch. A whining, scratching sound marked the slashing of the screen.

The door shivered. The knob turned, and out of the darkness came a profane expression of pleased surprise. Feet scuffled. The door clicked shut again.

The lights went on.

Shake and Donald stood side by side on the threshold. Their eyes blinked against the light. Then they ceased to blink, grew wider and wider in their greenish-white faces.

"J-j-j-jjjjj…" said Donald.

Shake's pudding head wobbled helplessly. Oscillating, he sagged back against the door.

Alvarado's icy voice snapped him ludicrously erect.

"Take three steps forward! Now lock your arms behind you! Dolores-" He jerked his head.

The girl went in back of the two men. She searched them with contemptuous efficiency. Donald, of course, was equipped with his long thin-handled knife. From Shake's hip pocket she withdrew a man's sock, weighted and knotted together at the top. She was about to toss it to the floor when Alvarado held out his hand.

"If you please… " He hefted the sock, grinning at the two thugs as he moved slightly away from Toddy. "The chicken claws, eh-the sock loaded with broken glass. To what do I owe this honor, gentlemen?"

"It-that don't really hurt mister," Shake blurted foolishly. "W-we wouldn't-"

"I am familiar with its possibilities. I wonder if you would still maintain it doesn't hurt if I should swing it vigorously against your crotch?"

Shake turned a shade greener.

Donald pointed an angrily indignant finger at Toddy. "He's the guy you ought to do it to, mister! He got us to come here!"

"Did he, indeed?"

"Just ask him if he didn't! Told us they was an old lady livin' here all by herself-an old crippled dame with a pile of jewelry!"

"That's just what he done, sir," Shake chorused righteously. "Got us to give him two hundred dollars for tippin' us off."

Alvarado glanced quizzically at Toddy. Toddy shrugged.

"I see. You,"-nodding at Donald-"is that what you were discussing with him earlier this evening?"

"It ain't
all
we was discussing." Donald eyed Toddy venomously. "What we was really discussing was murder. We-that's how we happened to make the deal with him. He killed his wife and he needed the money to blow town on."

"Oh, now," Alvarado laughed. "Murder his wife? I find that hard to believe. Doubtless he only told you that as a means of obtaining your money."

"I tell ya, he killed her! Anyways," Donald qualified reluctantly, "she got killed. She was layin' on the bed-right there in his hotel room!"

Alvarado made a sound of disbelief. "He invited you up to pay your respects, I suppose? At what time was this?"

"Right around six-thirty. An', no, he didn't invite me up there! I sneaked up while he was out, see? I was gonna cut him up when he came back."

He babbled on eagerly, anxious to make the evidence against Toddy as damning as possible. Shake tried to interrupt him once; he seemed to sense that there was much more here than met the eye. A cold word from Alvarado, however, and Shake was reduced to flabby quaking silence.

Donald concluded the recital with a vicious leer at Toddy.

Slowly, the chinless man turned to the girl. "Well?"

"I told you what I saw. There is nothing more I can say."

"So," sighed Alvarado, "we are confronted with two contradictory truths. Apparently contradictory, I should say. I wonder… But we must not bother these gentlemen with out petty problems. They are obviously men of large affairs. We must speed them on their way- with, of course, some small memento of their visit."

He moved, smiling, toward the two. "You would like to leave it that way, gentlemen? After all, breaking and entering is a very serious crime."

They nodded vigorously.

Alvarado's smile vanished. "I will do you a favor. Turn around!"

"B-but-"

"I withdraw the favor!" He swung the sock-once, twice. He dropped it and grabbed the dog by the collar. "The blood scent arouses him, gentlemen. I advise you to run very fast."

They stared at him stupidly; dazed, not grasping his meaning. The blows had reddened their faces. There was no other sign of their impact.

Then it came, the blood. It spurted out from ten thousand pinpoint fountains, formed into hideous red-threaded masks. The dog snarled and lunged.

"Quickly!" snapped Alvarado, and there was no doubting the urgency of his voice.

Shake and Donald came alive simultaneously. They hurled themselves at the door and wedged there. Clawing and cursing hysterically, they broke free. They stumbled and fell down the steps. The sound of their frantically pounding footsteps receded and vanished into the night.

Alvarado closed the door and stood with his back to it. He smiled at Toddy as he delivered a firmly admonitory kick in the dog's ribs.

"I seem to owe you an apology, Mr. Kent. I wonder if you will be generous enough to forgive and forget-if, in short, you are still of a mind to accept the offer I made you earlier."

Toddy's brow wrinkled. "Maybe. But what about my wife? Regardless of what's happened to the body, my wife's absence is going to be noticed. It's just a matter of time until the police will be looking for me. I can't show myself. I don't see how you can afford to be tied up with me."

"I am planning, Mr. Kent, to absolve you of the murder. Naturally, you would be of no use to me otherwise."

"You're
planning?
" Toddy said. "But how-why?"

"How I cannot yet tell you. As to the why, I have a double reason. Not only do I wish to have you associated with me, but I think it highly possible that the murderer may be my enemy as well as yours." Alvarado held up his hand. "Please! For the present, there is little more that I can tell you. And you have not accepted my offer… or have you?"

"All right." Toddy made up his mind. "It's my only chance. You've got yourself a boy."

"Good. Now, who knew that you had the watch?"

"You did."

"Of course. And Dolores. But who else? You told your wife about it, naturally?"

"No. Neither her nor anyone else."

"You are positive of that? Did you say anything to anyone which might, even by a remote chance, lead them to suspect that you had the watch?"

"No, I-" Toddy paused doubtfully.

"Did you or not? This is easily as important to you as it is to me, Mr. Kent."

"I talked to the man I sell gold to." Toddy gave him a brief summary of his conversation with Milt. "It couldn't have meant anything to him. Anyway, my wife was killed at just about the time I was talking to him."

"Then he is of no interest to us. It is as I thought…"

"Yes."

Alvarado nodded absently. "Yes, it must be so… But sit down, Mr. Kent. Would you like some coffee?-fine, so would I. Dolores!"

Toddy sat down and lighted a cigarette. Alvarado waited until the kitchen door had closed before he spoke.

"I will tell you something," he said quietly, "and please do not ask me to elaborate at this time. I place no great confidence in Dolores. Do not trust her too far."

"I don't trust anyone very far," said Toddy.

"Excellent. She is an attractive girl and not, I am afraid, above using her attractions. But, to get back to the matter at hand-when you discovered your wife dead and this man Donald fleeing down the fire escape, did you begin your pursuit of him immediately?"

"Of course."

"You made no search of the room?"

"I told-" Toddy interrupted himself with a startled curse. "Hell's bells! The guy could have been there for all I know!"

"Yes. He could still have been there when Dolores looked in. But do not blame yourself too much, Mr. Kent. You acted quite normally."

The kitchen door opened and Dolores came in with the coffee.

"None, thank you." Alvarado waved aside the cup the girl extended. "Pour Mr. Kent's, and then bring me my hat. After that, you may retire."

"I would prefer to remain up," Dolores said.

"It will be bad for your health to do so. Very bad. You will be amazed at the promptness with which the damage will manifest itself."

She gave him a sullen, baffled glare, but she turned and went out. Alvarado snapped his fingers at the dog.

"I will take Perrito with me, Mr. Kent. You will doubtless be able to rest better if you are alone."

Toddy said, "Thanks," and poured more coffee in his cup as man and dog left the house. Setting the enameled pot back on the serving table, he lighted another cigarette. He heard the car pull out of the driveway.

He took a sip of the coffee and let his eyes droop shut. Actually, he supposed there wasn't much use in thinking. He couldn't be guided by it except to a very limited degree. Until Elaine's murder was cleared up, it was strictly the chinless man's show.

Elaine… He held the word in his mind, turned it over and around; stubbornly, dully terrified, he refused to recognize the emotion which the name conjured…
Hatred, relief, now that she was dead?
Nonsense! He could have got a divorce. He could have let her get one, as she'd wanted to of late. He might feel that she was better off dead, but that didn't mean-And wasn't he doing everything he could to track down her murderer? Wasn't that proof that-proof of how he really felt? He was doing everything he could to lay hands on the guy who killed her. That was his only reason for stringing along with Alvarado. Of course, the latter's offer was unusually attractive, the kind of thing he'd been looking for.

Only one setup could be prettier-to find out who the present supplier was. He'd be loaded, stooped down with dough he wasn't supposed to have.

"
Mr. Kent!"

Dolores was kneeling beside him, the silken fullness of her breast pressing against his arm. The blue V-necked nightgown cast seductive shadows along the creamy planes of her flesh.

"The coffee-you have been doped. You must leave here at once!"

So he looked at Dolores now, smiling not for her but himself. And then awareness came to him, and with it the chronic suspicion and hardness which life had engendered in him. But the smile still lingered, deceptively trusting and innocent.

"How's that?" he asked. "What do you mean, the coffee's doped?"

"You saw he did not drink of it? Now you must go!"

"Why?"

"You are in great danger. I cannot tell you more than that."

"Sure," said Toddy. "Sure, I'll go. Just as soon as you tell me how to dope black coffee. I've heard of almost everything, but I've never heard of that. There ought to be a fortune in it."

"B-but I-I-"

Her mouth closed helplessly over the words which had seemed so adequate a moment ago. He looked like a different man now. The mold remained the same but the contents had undergone a fearsomely rapid change. The soft crinkles of his smile had assumed the rigid hardness of ice.

"Well?"

"All right," she said, coloring. "I lied about the coffee. But-"

His hand closed suddenly over her arm. With a movement too swift to analyze, she was twirled up and around and smacked down upon his knees.

"You don't mind?" he said. "I like to look at people when I talk to them. Always look at people when you talk to them, and you won't have to wear false teeth."

"I-
let me
-!"

She tried to fling herself forward… and his right foot swung with casual expertness. She fell back into the hollow of his knees, her feet swept from under her. She balanced there foolishly, fury slowly surrendering to a growing fear.

"A little bony, aren't they?" he nodded. "You said I was in danger; I'm willing to be convinced. What danger?"

"It-the danger is not from Alvarado."

"Well, then?"

"That is all I will say."

"Oh, now," Toddy drawled, "we can't leave it there. We just can't do that. You haven't got a twin sister, have you?"

"A twin? I do not understand."

"Uh-huh. Some girl that looked just like you chased me all over hell tonight; hunted me down with a dog the size of a Shetland pony. I had my legs run off. I damned near got killed two or three times. And after the dog had caught me and herded me into her car, she brought me out here- the last place in the world I wanted to go. I tried to bribe her. I tried to argue with her. It was no soap right on down the line. And after all that, she turns pal on me. She's my bosom-no offense, honey-friend, I'm supposed to-"

"Please! If you'll give me a chance…"

"You've got it."

"I had to bring you here. I could not let you escape. Alvarado would have accepted no excuse."

"Why didn't you take it on the lam? Why don't you now-if you really don't like the game? Alvarado's not in any position to make much trouble and neither are you. You'd be even-stephen."

He waited, eyebrows raised, watching the shivering rise and fall of her breast. There were tears in her eyes. She looked pathetically sweet and helpless and baffled, like a child who has had its hands slapped in the act of presenting a gift.

"I'm still here," he said harshly. "Let's have it."

"You!" she snapped, her eyes suddenly tearless, "you are so full of your own image that you can see nothing else! Are you blind? Have you forgotten that I tried to protect you tonight? I could have received much more than a blow. To make my story conform with yours, I-"

"Uh-huh. After it wouldn't do any good. After you'd already told him another one… Did you ever get worked over by the cops, honey? It's pretty cute. You're in a soundproof room, see; you're buried where no one can get to you; you're not even booked, maybe. There's not a thing you can do but take it, the slaps, the hose, the kidney kicks; and you've had more than you can take hours ago. And then the door slams open and a nice fatherly guy comes in, and he gives these guys hell. They can't do that to you. He won't stand for it. He's going to get 'em all fired. Cute? Why, you'll fall on his neck-if you haven't been through the routine before."

"Oh," said Dolores, softly. "You think that-yes, you would have to think that. You could not be expected to think otherwise."

"Bingo, gin and blackjack," Toddy said. "Let's see if we can't agree on something else."

"I had better go. There is nothing I can say to you."

"How many times were you in my room tonight?"

"How-Why, once!"

"And the room was in order?"

"Yes! It was in order and I did not move the body-why in the world should I?-and you can believe that or disbelieve it and-
and I hate you
!"

"Sit still!" Toddy grabbed her arm and drew her back. "I haven't got much more to say but I want to be sure you hear it. My wife was a tramp. They don't come any lower. But I didn't want her dead, I particularly didn't want her dead that way… No one deserves to die like that, alone, gagged, and strangled in a sleazy room in a third-class hotel. If I live long enough, I'll get my hands on the party that did it. When I do…"

"Surely, you cannot think that-"

"Think it?" Toddy shook his head. "I don't even think that you're trying to steer me away from my one chance to find the murderer. I don't even think that I might find myself in trouble if I picked you up on that steer-if I tried to leave. I don't think a thing. All I know is that hell's been popping ever since I came to this house this afternoon, and you've been right in the middle of the fireworks. I don't think a thing, but I don't
not
think anything either. That's the way it is, and as long as it is that way here's a tip for you. Don't toss that pretty little butt toward me again. If you do, I'll kick it for a field goal."

He put a period to the words with a knee jerk. It sent her stumbling to her feet, and she wobbled awkwardly for a moment, startled, furious, fighting to regain her balance.

"
You!"
she flung over her shoulder, and the door banged shut on the word.

She was none too soon… if it wasn't an act. For Alvarado had returned; a car was pulling into the driveway. Toddy wondered what line you took in a case like this.

If it was the chinless man's way of testing him, there was only one thing to do. Tell him about it. It wouldn't hurt the girl; it would hurt him, Toddy, if he didn't.

If, on the other hand, she had given him a warning or a threat, the chinless man should still be told. He and Chinless were riding the same boat temporarily. What hurt one was very apt to hurt the other.

So he had every reason to speak of this, the girl's attempt to make him leave. But he couldn't quite make up his mind to do it. He still hadn't when, a moment later, Alvarado and the dog came in.