Double or Quits

by Erle Stanley Gardner

  “I’ll admit I made a mistake in running out when Dr. Devarest told me to call the police. I had a reason for doing so. I’m not going to tell you what that reason was. I’m not going to tell anyone what it was. If I keep out of sight until the authorities find whoever stole the jewels, I won’t have to tell anyone anything.

  “Jim Timley understands the entire situation. He can vouch for me.”

  “That’s right,” Timley said hastily. “She’s telling you the truth, Lam.” Nollie Starr went on with that same rapid vehemence. “All I want is to be left alone. I’m minding my own business, and I want other people to mind theirs. And if you really want to do me a favour, you can quit tagging me around, and get out and find out who really stole those jewels.”

  “Have you any ideas?” I asked.

  She looked at Timley, hesitated, said, “I’m not sticking my chin out.” Timley looked at his watch, hesitated a moment, picked up his hat. “I want to talk with you, Lam,” he said. “I’ll walk as far as the corner. My car’s in the parking lot.” Nollie Starr looked at him significantly for a moment, vanished in the direction of the kitchenette. Dorothy Grail walked toward him and gave him her hand. “Good-night, Jim,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s all right.”

  “I know how you feel—how embarrassed you are over anything like this. I’m sorry it happened. It was nothing I could prevent. It wasn’t my fault. You understand that, don’t you?” There was anxiety in her voice.

  “Of course,” he said impatiently.

  She clung to him. “Jim, you’re not going to—it won’t make any difference, will it?”

  “No.” Her arm came around his neck. Her face was close to his. “Jim, dear—promise.” He seemed impatient to get free. “No,” he said. “I tell you it won’t make any difference.”

  “You darling,” she said, and held half-parted lips up to his. He bent over and put a listless arm around her waist. He seemed preoccupied, anxious to get away.

  I stood there, waiting for them to break up the clinch.

  Timley’s arm tightened. His other hand came up to the back of her neck. She twined her fingers in his hair. Their shoulders swayed slightly.

  Nollie Starr, coming in from the kitchenette, called, “Time! Come up for air, you two.” It was Dorothy Grail who pushed herself free. Jim Timley’s eyes were drinking her in. The lipstick formed a red smear on his lips. His face was flushed.

  “You don’t need to come on my account, Timley,” I said.

  He turned toward me. “That’s all right. I—I want to talk with you.” He turned back to Dorothy Grail. “You bet it isn’t going to make any difference,” he said.

  There was laughter in her eyes. She glanced past him to Nollie Starr, then back to Timley. “Be your age, Jim,” she said, “and run along with the nice detective and tell him everything he wants to know.” Timley picked up his hat.

  Nollie Starr said, “Watch those lips, Timley. Dorothy leaves a wicked smear. And don’t forget your books. We’ve enjoyed them a lot.” She came to stand in front of him, and, with a handkerchief wrapped around her index finger, wiped the lipstick off his face. She handed him a package wrapped and tied with cord.

  Timley said, “Good-night, Nollie,” turned to Dorothy, looked at her, started to say something, changed his mind, and swung back toward me.

  “Good-night—sweetheart,” Dorothy said.

  He acted as though he wanted to kiss her again.

  I said, “Well, I’ve got work to do,” and opened the door.

  Timley came hurrying after me. We walked down the steps together. At the sidewalk he said, “Look here, Lam, you seem like a decent chap.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You look the sort of man who would listen to reason.”

  “What sort of reason?” He said, “I don’t know whether it’s ever occurred to you to consider my exact relationship in the Devarest household.”

  “If it hasn’t, it will,” I told him.

  He said, “Aunt Colette is self-centred and vain. She happens to control every dollar I have or can ever hope to get. My folks left me penniless. Aunt Colette put me through college; then she wanted me to travel. I was willing. She wanted to go along. Well, that was all right, too. She liked to be squired around by a young man. After a while she quit telling people I was her nephew. The trip got pretty ghastly after that. I saw a good deal of the world, South America, the Orient, and Europe. I paid quite a price for it. Aunt Colette kept me with her almost constantly. However, there were times after she’d go to bed when I could sneak out for a few hours, and really see some of the places I wanted to see.

  “We came back. She wanted me to stay on in the house with her for a few months. She thought I needed building up. I’d picked up a tropical dysentery, and it was bothering me. Dr. Devarest told me to take it easy for a while and to get plenty of sunlight and fresh air. Well, things started drifting. I sort of got in the habit of being there. Dr. Devarest liked to have young people around. I think Aunt Colette bored him to distraction.” Timley took a deep breath, turned to meet my eyes, and said, “That is the real low-down on the whole situation. It’s a mess. Sometimes I feel like a heel, but I wasn’t fitted for anything. I had an education along cultural lines. Don’t think I’ve taken it lying down. I’ve gone out and tried to get jobs. I’ve gone to the airplane factories. They’ve promised to investigate and let me hear from them. What happens is they look me up, find that I’m living with relatives and am supposed to be something of a playboy. Of course, I have to keep from letting Aunt Colette know that I’ve been looking for work.

  “Well, I suppose I’m a prize heel. I’ve decided to settle down to it. She’s promised to remember me in her will. She says I’m still suffering from the effects of those tropical diseases, that I’m not strong enough to get out and really work, that when I’ve fully recovered, she’ll be glad to help me get into something. She could do it, too, if she used her influence, or, rather, if she’d got Dr. Devarest to use his. But she’d never think I was fully recovered. It was always another few weeks of sunlight and fresh air.”

  “Your Aunt Colette will live a long time,” I said.

  He acted as though he wanted to say something, but didn’t.

  “Another twenty-five or thirty years of this, and you’ll be quite the faded Beau Brummell,” I said, goading him on to make him say the thing that was trembling on the end of his tongue.

  It came out with a rush. “Aunt Colette won’t live more than two or three years at the most. It’s a heart condition that becomes progressively worse. Dr. Devarest knew of it, but never told her. He said she’d go suddenly when she went, and it was better to let her live her life the way she wanted, and then go all at once.”

  “Who told you about this? Dr. Devarest?” He shook his head. “Nadine,” he said. “Dr. Devarest told her, and she told me. Probably she shouldn’t, but—well, she knew how I felt. I can’t explain it exactly, Lam, but Aunt Colette has been frightfully jealous. Perhaps I shouldn’t say that, but she doesn’t like to have me take an interest in girls. She makes a lot of excuses, saying that women would interfere with regular hours, that I’d be running around at all hours of the night, that I should keep out in the open air, and have lots of sunlight. But the fact is, she’s just plain jealous. She wants to be the centre of attraction everywhere. She wants really to rule the roost. Oh, I’m not telling you anything that can’t be verified. Ask Nadine sometime.” I said, “If Nadine Croy doesn’t like it there, why the devil doesn’t she get out? She’s not financially dependent on ”

  “If you can find the answer to that,” Timley told me, “you’re a better detective than I am.”

  “You mean your aunt has some hold on her?” He shrugged his shoulders, said, “I’m talking too damn much.”

  “Not enough.” He said, “Look here, Lam, could we—could we reach some understanding?”

  “No.”

  “You aren’t going to tell Aunt Colette about Do
rothy Grail?”

  “I’m working for your aunt.”

  “But you’re trying to recover the jewels, and prove that Dr. Devarest didn’t deliberately commit suicide. You’re trying to collect insurance. My affair with Dorothy—if you want to call it that—doesn’t enter into it.”

  “I’ll think it over,” I told him. “Good-night.” He stood on the kerb, watching me walk away.

  Chapter VIII

  I DROVE about six blocks, stopped in at a drugstore, called police headquarters, and asked for Lieutenant Lisman of the Jewel Theft Detail. He was on nights and had just come in.

  “This is Lam talking,” I said, “Donald Lam of the firm of Cool and Lam, Private Detectives.” His voice held no welcoming recognition. “Yeah. What do you want?”

  “I want to give you a tip on those Devarest jewels, but I don’t want you to know where it came from.” There was interest in his voice now, but that was all. “What’s the tip?” I said, “Listen, we’re working for Mrs. Devarest, trying to clear up certain angles of the case. If she knows I told you what I’m going to spill, she’ll fire me. You’ll have to protect me.”

  “You sound like it was something important.”

  “It is.”

  “Okay, what?”

  “Is it a deal?”

  “Yes.”

  “Nollie Starr,” I said, “Mrs. Devarest’s social secretary. She vanished about the same time the jewels did. You’ll find her in an apartment at 681 East Bendon Street. The apartment’s in the name of Dorothy Grail, her room-mate. You’ll have to work fast, because she may take a powder.”

  “You’re Lam?” Lieutenant Lisman asked.

  “That’s right. Donald Lam.”

  “And that address is 681 East Bendon Street?”

  “That’s right.”

  “And the name the apartment is under is Gail?”

  “No,” I said. “Grail. G-r-a-i-l.” There was friendliness in Lisman’s voice now. “I’ll owe you one for this,” he said, and then after a moment added cautiously, “if it works out.”

  “It’ll work out,” I said, and hung up.

  I drove to the Devarest residence. There was a light in the chauffeur’s room over the garage. I parked the car by the side entrance, walked noiselessly along the driveway, climbed the stairs, and knocked.

  Rufus Bayley, the chauffeur, opened the door.

  His appearance confirmed the previous impression I’d formed of the big, good-natured power. But I wasn’t certain that the good nature wasn’t more or less a mask. His six feet of big-bone frame was loose-knit, easy-moving. His thick, black, curly hair was a tumble of confusion. He grinned, and the light caught a scar on his left cheek.

  “I’m Donald Lam,” I told him.

  “Yeah, I know. What do you want?”

  “I want to come in.” He stood to one side. “Come on.” The room had three outside walls with plenty of windows. There were Venetian blinds over the windows. The blinds looked new. The furniture was plain. The rugs were somewhat faded and worn thin. There was a bookcase fairly well filled with books. I moved over to get a quick glimpse of titles. They were the best sellers of six months ago. The room was neat and well cared for.

  Bayley said, “Sit down.” I dropped into what looked like the most comfortable chair. He sat down across from me. His face still wore that good-natured grin. He said, “You don’t need to pull that friend of the family stuff on me because Mrs. Devarest told me all about you. I’m to co-operate with you.”

  “That’s fine.”

  “Anything you want to know?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll give you anything I can.”

  “How long you been here?”

  “About six months.”

  “You came to work about the same time Nollie Starr did?” The smile remained on his lips. His eyes quit smiling. “I think she was here when I came.”

  “But she hadn’t been working very long?”

  “No.”

  “Who takes care of the place up here?”

  “I do.”

  “You keep it looking neat.”

  “I like it that way.”

  “There isn’t any wall bed in this room?”

  “No.”

  “Where do you sleep?” He motioned toward the wall which held only a single door. “There’s another room in there.”

  “I want to look at it.” I got up, and he got up. For a moment he shuffled uneasily as though debating whether to walk across and open the door. I walked over toward the door with calm assurance. He cat footed along behind me. “Whatcha looking for?” he asked. The good-natured note had left his voice. It had a sharp edge.

  “Surveying the premises,” I told him, and opened the door.

  It was a large bedroom with three outside walls. There were windows in here, and Venetian blinds on the windows. There was a single white iron bed, and a big double bed of walnut, also a walnut dressing-table with a mirror and lights on each side of the mirror. There was a bureau of cheap, stained pine with a wavy mirror. There were several chairs, a few, thin, worn rugs, and a fine Navajo rug by the side of the double bed. A bathroom was sandwiched in between the two rooms with a single window. I looked in the bathroom. It was neat and clean. The window ran almost the full width of the bathroom. There were Venetian blinds there too.

  “Nice quarters,” I said.

  “Uh huh.”

  “You like these Venetian blinds?”

  “Yeah. They give you a lot of ventilation, and then when you want, you can let in the sunshine, too.”

  “You’re a pretty good housekeeper.”

  “I aim to be. I like things kept up. I keep the cars in good shape, and keep the garage clean and tidy. I have a vacuum cleaner to use on the car cushions, and I bring it up here and go over things.”

  “You do quite a bit of reading?”

  “Uh huh.”

  “You aren’t kept very busy?”

  “That’s what you think.” The good-natured grin was back on his face now.

  “Do you drive for anyone except Mrs. Devarest?”

  “Occasionally Mrs. Croy.”

  “She has her own car?”

  “Yes.”

  “But you keep it up?”

  “That’s right.”

  “How about Timley? Does he have a car?”

  “Yes.”

  “You keep that up?”

  “Uh huh.”

  “And Dr. Devarest’s car?”

  “He never wanted his car kept up. He had it greased and serviced down at the garage in the Medical Building. I don’t think he ever washed it. They’d wipe it off once in a while. It would stand out in the weather when he was making calls. He used to wash-board a fender every once in a while and leave it that way, said the only use he had for a car was to call on patients.” I walked over to the bureau. A plain black hairbrush and comb were on it, a box of talcum powder, a bottle of hair tonic, and a bottle of shaving lotion. There was a crystal-backed hairbrush and comb on the dressing-table.

  “Where does that door lead?”

  “The closet.” I opened the door. The closet was large. It, too, had a window—and more Venetian blinds. Several suits of clothes on hangers, four or five pairs of shoes, and an assortment of neckties on a tie rack. I noticed a silk scarf on the tie rack.

  “You do all the housework—making your own bed, and all that?”

  “Yes.” I looked at the neatly made beds. “Looks as though you’d fallen heir to some cast-off bedroom furniture from the main house.”

  “That’s right. Mrs. Devarest changed the bedrooms around, put in some other stuff, and sent the surplus out here.” Both beds were made up. I said, “You’re given the privilege of having a guest occasionally?” The grin was back on his face. “Occasionally.” I walked back to the sitting-room and sat down in the chair. “Want a cigarette?” I asked, holding my cigarette-case toward him. He took one. We both lit up.

  “Anything else you want to know?” />
  “Yes.”

  “What?”

  “I first saw you looking through the door to the garage the night Dr. Devarest’s body had been discovered.”

  “That’s right.”

  “You didn’t stay.”

  “Shucks, no. I saw the place crawling with police. You see, it was my night out. I came in to go to bed. The maid told me Dr. Devarest was dead. I looked in, saw the bulls and the coroner, and decided I couldn’t help any. I hadn’t been around when it happened, and so I ducked out of the garage.”

  “You stood in the door for a minute or two?”

  “Yes.”

  “Where did you go after that? You didn’t come upstairs. If you did, I didn’t hear you.” He said, “Those stairs are built pretty solid. I’m kinda light on my feet.”

  “Then you did come up here?”

  “Yes.“Right away?” _ “Well, not exactly right away. A little later.”

  “It was some time later, wasn’t it?”

  “What’s that got to do with it?”

  “I want to know.” His eyes were sullen now, and the mouth was closed in thick-lipped defiance. He kept silent.

  “How much later?” I asked.

  “I don’t see what that has to do with it.”

  “I want to know how much later.”

  “I can’t tell you.”

  “Why not?”

  “I didn’t look at my watch.”

  “It might have been a half-hour later?”

  “Well—yes, it might have been.”

  “And it might have been several hours later?” I said. “I tell you I don’t see what this has to do with it.” I said, “At the time you left the place, as I remember it, the police were talking about taking finger-prints. They’d just found the jewel cases.” He said, “Now listen, buddy, you’re probably a smart little runt. I don’t know. You’ve got your racket, and I’ve got mine. I’m not interfering with you, and I don’t want you to interfere with me. I wasn’t here the whole evening. If necessary, I can prove where I was. I don’t know a damn thing about those sparklers. Now lay off of me.” I said, “That’s a nice scarf you have in the closet on the tie rack.” I saw a puzzled look come into his eyes. “Scarf?”