Wake Up to Murder

by Keene, Day

  Lou glowered at him. “I’m not his girl friend.”

  “Well, whatever you are,” Woods said.

  Woods disappeared into the night, in the direction of the hangar on the edge of the landing field.

  As soon as he was out of sight, Lou gripped my forearm so hard, her fingernails dug small holes in my flesh.

  “Don’t be a sucker, Jim,” she panted. “You aren’t going to get out of this alive. Even if it was Matt Kendall who killed Tony — ” Lou swallowed the lump in her throat. “Well, don’t you see? Are you really that stupid? They can’t afford to leave any witnesses.”

  “So what do you want me to do?” I asked her.

  Lou screamed at me. “Knock the old man out, you fool. And drive on before Woods comes back.”

  I shook my head at her. “No.”

  “That’s smart,” Mr. Kiefer said, quietly. His left arm and hand was lying along the back of the front seat. He laid his right hand on it. It was holding a duplicate of the pearl handled .38 I’d seen beside the body of Tony.

  Lou began to cry. Softly, to herself.

  I sat looking at the light twinkling between the trees.

  Woods came back to the car. Standing erect now, the wind carrying him along. “He’s got a plane, all right,” he reported. “A four-passenger cabin job. I’m not familiar with the make, but it’s gassed and ready to go. He’d probably be gone by now if it wasn’t for the wind.”

  “Probably,” Mr. Kiefer said. He got out of the car and opened the door for Lou. “Let’s go talk to Mr. Kendall. And, seeing that you’ve been here before, you lead the way down the path.”

  I followed Lou through the trees. The cabin was new, built of varnished logs. But I recognized the location. There had been an old fishing camp on it the last time I had been at the lake. A new pier led out into the water. Probably to the edge of the deep water channel cut out by the river emptying into it.

  There appeared to be three rooms to the cabin. All of them were lighted and the light spilled out onto the unscreened porch.

  Woods looked at the big black car pulled up in front of the stairs. “The son-of-a-bitch,” he said, without heat. “He left in such a hell of a hurry he even took Tony’s car.” I looked at the car. It was the black Cadillac I’d seen in Kendall’s drive when May and I had driven in. Of course. I was a hell of a detective. Kendall had only two cars, and both stalls of the garage had been filled.

  There was a small clearing around the cabin. When Lou reached the edge of it, Mr. Kiefer put his hand on her shoulder. “From here on, we’ll go first,” he said.

  He walked with Woods in the lead. I followed close behind him. There was no need to try to be quiet. The wind whipped all sound away.

  Then I saw Kendall pass one of the lighted windows. All he had on was shorts. I felt like I had when I’d discovered Tony’s body, like when I’d gotten hold of a dish of rotten meat in the dark. Kendall came back to the window and looked out. I thought at first he had seen us. He hadn’t. He was looking up. Studying the tops of the trees to see if the wind had lessened any. He shook his head and left the window.

  Woods and Mr. Kiefer moved closer to the cabin. I followed on their heels. I saw the divan first. Then May. She was sitting on the edge of it, leaning on her hands. Her disordered hair covered half of her face. A lighted cigarette drooped from her lips. She was wearing so little that not much was left to the imagination.

  “I told you,” Lou screamed in my ear.

  Kendall came in sight again. He had a shot glass in his hand. His lips moved as he said something. He gulped the drink and threw the glass away. Then, reaching out, he caressed May. It was like he’d touched a live wire. She spat the cigarette in his face. Her feet came up from the floor. She used her spike heels to kick him, where it would do the most good.

  “Good for her,” Mr. Kiefer said.

  Kendall staggered away from the bed, doubled up in agony, holding where he hurt. Then, his face contorted with anger, he straightened. He doubled his fists and walked toward May.

  Woods pushed open the door and walked in. I followed him across a knotty pine-paneled living room to the open bedroom door. The fingers of one of Kendall’s hands were tangled in May’s hair. His other hand was lifted to strike her.

  “You bitch. You little blonde bitch,” he panted. “You’ve tormented me long enough.” His muscles tensed for the blow.

  “Uh uh,” Woods said sharply. “I wouldn’t, Counselor.”

  Kendall melted like a snowman. His raised fist fell to his side. His muscles went visibly flabby. His mouth gaped. His knees sagged. His head lolled on his neck.

  I walked on into the room and sat down on the divan and took May into my arms. “Hello, sweetheart,” I said.

  May didn’t seem too surprised. “I knew you’d find me, Jim,” she said. “And I told Mr. Kendall so.” One of her eyes was swollen shut and beginning to discolor, but her other eye was as bright as a star. “And he didn’t, Jim,” she told me, earnestly. “He didn’t get to first base.” The first of a series of pent-up sobs shook her slim body. “Although God knows he’s tried. He — he ripped off my dress. And he hit me. He beat me until I screamed.”

  I started to get up.

  Mr. Kiefer put his hand on my shoulder. “You hug your wife, son. We’ll take care of this guy.”

  May buried her face on my chest and sobbed.

  Woods looked at a packed suitcase open on the table in the room, then back at Kendall. “You were going somewhere, Counselor?” he asked.

  Matthew Kendall didn’t look distinguished any more. There were deep bags under his eyes. Even the hair on his chest was grizzled. He looked like an old gray weasel trapped in a corner of a chicken coop. His voice sounded like it was being forced through a space too small for it.

  “Now, wait a minute, fellows,” he pleaded. “You have to believe me. Meares burst into my place like a madman. Shouting a lot of gibberish that didn’t make sense. It was self-defense. I had to kill him.”

  “Why?” Mr. Kiefer asked. “It wouldn’t be because you had a guilty conscience, would it, Kendall? Because you did throw his sister to the wolves?”

  “No,” Kendall panted. “Of course not.”

  I covered as much of May’s bare back as I could with one hand. “You lie. You did throw Pearl to the wolves.”

  “How do you know that, son?” Mr. Kiefer asked me.

  I told him. “Because Pearl didn’t kill Joe Summers. Lou did.”

  “Oh, God. Oh dear God,” Lou moaned from the doorway of the bedroom.

  I said, “If I wasn’t dumb, I’d have seen it from the first. That’s what this whole merry-go-round has been about. Lou didn’t check into a hotel with me because I could give her anything she couldn’t get from any other man. She and Kendall saw me talking to Tony. And they were afraid. They wanted to tuck me away. But by the time they did the damage had been done.”

  “You can prove this?” Woods asked.

  I shook my head. “No. But I think the law can. Lou is not normal. She has to have her loving. Not normally, like other women, but all the time. Joe Summers was a big, good-looking guy. Lou was stopping at the Casa Mañana Apartments at the time he was killed. Joe was a cheater from way back. It was only natural that they got together. Mrs. Landers heard a woman in the apartment, all right. But she didn’t hear Pearl. She heard Lou. I haven’t the slightest idea what they quarreled about.

  “Maybe Joe wanted to break it up. And Lou didn’t. He even named her as his killer. Mrs. Landers heard him. When Lou picked up the gun that he kept in his bathroom, Mrs. Landers said he yelled, ‘Hey, nix, you, that’s loaded.’ But Joe didn’t say ‘you’. He said, ‘Lou’. He said, ‘Hey, nix, Lou, that’s loaded.’”

  May stopped crying. The only sound in the room was Lou’s hoarse breathing from the doorway and the howl of the wind in the eaves.

  I said, “Then Lou shot him while he pleaded for his life. All women like her are more or less unstable. They’re crazy. But
Lou was sane enough to realize what she’d done. When she heard the front door open she knew it was Pearl coming home from work. So she played it smart. She threw the gun down beside Joe and went out the bedroom window and down the trunk of the bougainvillea growing up to the balcony. Leaving Pearl to take the rap. Leaving her with a screwy story no one would believe.”

  Woods used the barrel of his gun to push his hat back on his head. “That sounds right to me, fellow. But why should Kendall back Lou instead of Pearl?”

  I told him, “For two reasons. One, he’s Cass Hardy’s lawyer. Cass was glad to get Joe out of his hair. But this is a church town and he didn’t want any more of a stink raised than was necessary. With Joe’s murder pinned on Pearl it was a domestic affair and didn’t get much of a play in the papers. The second reason is Kendall is the kind of a man that Lou is a woman. Lou is young. She’s pretty. She probably gave him a sample. And with Lou under his thumb it gave him a steady supply of what he liked the best.”

  When I’d finished, Mr. Kiefer said quietly, “I think I’ll buy that, son. Having a guilty conscience, Kendall was naturally on edge when Tony burst in on him. For once Tony was a trifle too slow. Then, having killed Tony, all Kendall could do was run. He knew he was in wrong with me. He was in wrong with Hardy, for having created a stink right in the height of the sucker season. Then there were those pictures on his wall.” He might have been talking about a deck of Camels. “Yes. I’ll buy that.” Mr. Kiefer motioned with the barrel of the gun in his hands. “Get your clothes on, Counselor. Tony was one of my favorite boys. And you and I and Jack are going for a little ride.”

  “You heard the Captain,” Woods said.

  May forgot that she didn’t have much on. Lifting her head from my chest she said, “I hope they beat him until he can’t stand up. He’s a dirty, nasty old thing, Jim. He’s been coming to the house, when you weren’t there, almost every day for a month. And when I told him if he stepped foot on our breezeway once more, I’d call the police, he got even by firing you. On your birthday.”

  May lifted her hand to touch my cheek. As she did, her hand brushed her bare skin. Her chin high, with all the dignity in the world, she said, “Would you please hand me my dress, Jim!”

  I picked May’s dress from the floor.

  She slipped it over her head. Then, taking a couple of pins from somewhere, she pinned the torn places together.

  “It’s been like an awful nightmare. From the time I started into Mr. Kendall’s house. He was waiting just inside the door. He hit me before I could scream. And the next thing I knew we were in a car on our way here. And all the time he wasn’t talking dirty and saying what he was going to do to me, he boasted that the police would think you had killed us and buried our bodies somewhere. According to his big talk, you, Lieutenant David, everyone but him, were fools.” May patted my cheek. “But I knew better. I knew that you’d find me.”

  I looked at Kendall. He’d put on his pants and shoes with fingers that shook so badly Woods had to lace his shoes and zip up his pants for him. He knew what kind of a ‘beating’ he was going to get.

  Woods located Kendall’s coat. There was a familiar looking sheaf of bills showing in one of the pockets. Woods handed the sheaf to Mr. Kiefer. He counted it and put it in his pocket.

  “Okay,” Mr. Kiefer said coldly. “Get his hat and let’s go.” He gripped Kendall’s arm.

  “No,” Kendall pleaded. “For God’s sake, fellows. It was self-defense. Tony came at me with a gun. He — ”

  Kendall stopped in the middle of his pleading, gaping open-mouthed at the bedroom door.

  It was small wonder Lou hadn’t said anything more. She couldn’t. Hap Arnold was standing in back of her with one arm around her waist and his other palm clamped over her mouth. His black felt hat pushed back on his head, his inevitable chew of fine cut in one cheek, Lieutenant David was leaning against the jamb of the door.

  “Hi,” he said, without smiling.

  Neither Woods nor Mr. Kiefer seemed to know quite what to do with their guns. They finally returned them to their holsters. Mr. Kiefer’s resemblance to a kind old man wasn’t so marked now. Big shot or not, he was on the wrong side of the law, and one never knows just which way a cop will jump.

  Mr. Kiefer controlled his breathing with an obvious effort. “Well,” he said, finally. “Well. How long have you been there, Lieutenant?”

  “Quite a piece,” Lieutenant David said, poker-faced.

  Woods swore under his breath. “It was you in that pick-up truck.”

  Lieutenant David looked for a place to spit. “Could be.” He spat in the general direction of the fireplace. “I’ve been in quite a few different cars tonight. Ever since Hap and I spotted you fellows taking off after Charters when we kind of cat-and-moused him up to Kendall’s place. Sort of figured something was in the air and you might need help, changing a tire or something.”

  “You never can tell,” Hap added. He patted Lou. “Stop wiggling. So you killed Joe Summers. After they take a look at those cute little legs of yours the same kind of a dumb jury that convicted Pearl Mantinover will probably give you a medal.”

  Mr. Kiefer realized he was still holding Kendall’s arm. He released it. “Well,” he repeated. “Well.”

  “Thanks,” Lieutenant David said. “Thanks a lot, Mr. Kiefer. I mean for detaining Kendall until we got here, but I guess Hap and I can handle it now. If we can’t, I got four, five more boys outside.”

  Mr. Kiefer rolled his cigar between his fingers without taking it from his mouth. His face got red. He started to make some remark and thought better of it. When he did speak his voice sounded like two dry palm fronds being rubbed together.

  “I’m certain you’re welcome, Lieutenant.”

  Mr. Kiefer shaped his expensive Panama to his head. Then he nodded to Woods and both men walked out of the room, neither looking back.

  Kendall buried his face in his hands and began to cry. It wasn’t a nice thing to hear. I helped May to her feet and stood with one arm around her.

  Lieutenant David looked at Hap Arnold. “You take Miss Tarrent and Mr. Kendall down to the station, Hap. Book ’em both for murder. I won’t be far behind you.”

  “Right,” Hap Arnold nodded.

  Lieutenant David pointed his fingers at May and me. “And you two come with me.”

  May had to pass so close to Lou that their skirts touched. I held my breath. But nothing happened. May didn’t even turn her head. As far as May was concerned, Lou didn’t exist. As Lou.

  She was just some girl that Sergeant Hap Arnold was holding.

  18

  WE rode in Lieutenant David’s car, all three of us in the front seat. I rode with my arm around May, her body warm and soft against mine. The wind died as suddenly as it had sprung up. The night was warm again.

  Lieutenant David talked of this and that, mainly about how he’d always had his doubts about the Pearl Mantinover, Joe Summers business, and how the first thing he would do in the morning would be to call Tallahassee and get the legal wheels rolling so the injustice done Pearl could be squared.

  I said, ‘Yes, sir,’ when yes was called for and ‘No, sir’ when no was the answer, not knowing quite where I stood with the law. And worrying about it.

  All Bill David said about Lou was that he was sorry for her, but it would seem that she had brought all her troubles on herself. Then, turning the corner by the dark Sandbar and driving slowly up our street, he said:

  “Look, now, tell me this, Charters. Like I told you out at Kendall’s place, we know you for a pretty right guy. That’s why we gave you the leeway that we did. You’d be surprised how much the Department goes on a guy’s past record. If you’d been a troublemaker or a drunk I’d have had you down to the station beating in your back teeth before you could say Apalachicola. But we know you for a hard-working Joe. So tell me. How come you decided to pitch the binge you did that touched off this whole thing?”

  As I groped for words to try to ex
plain, he added, “And don’t give me, if you’ll pardon the word, Mrs. Charters, that crap about things not being too bright for you and your wife on account of you getting fired. You’re smart. You proved that tonight. And a smart guy like you can always get a job.”

  “Sure,” I said, still a little bitter. “At maybe sixty dollars a week.”

  May squeezed my hand, hard. “But that’s good money, Jim. We manage. A lot of men are raising families on less.”

  Lieutenant David jabbed my ribs with his elbow. “You listen to the Missus. And you listen to me.” He swung into our drive and braked just short of the breezeway. “I’m bringing up a girl and two boys on a little better than eighty, after deductions.”

  He made no move to open the door of the car. I was hesitant to do so. I didn’t know if I was in some form of custody or not and didn’t want to ask.

  A long moment of silence followed. The fragrance of Gwen Shelly’s night-blooming jasmine filled the car.

  “I think,” Lieutenant David broke the silence, “it being your birthday and all, that I know what was eating you.” He pushed his battered felt hat back on his head and loosened the knot in his tie. “I guess every guy gets spells like that. Life doesn’t turn out the way we thought it was going to when we were kids.” His temples were silver in the dim light from the dashboard. Somehow they made him look distinguished. Not distinguished like Matthew Kendall. Distinguished like a guy wearing medals. “Take me, for example,” he said quietly. “I was going to be chief of police by now. I was going to wear hundred-dollar pajamas and tailor-made white suits. I was going to live out there on Ponce de Leon Beach with all the rest of the big shots. Leola was going to have a maid and maybe even someone to help with the children. She was going to be dripping with diamonds and there was going to be a fur coat in every closet in the joint.” He sighed. “So I’m still a lieutenant of detectives, hoping some day I’ll be a captain or an inspector and maybe can run in guys like Cade Kiefer, instead of having to be polite to him and letting him go like I did out there tonight, for fear of winding up in front of a trial board because I didn’t have a definite charge against him. Because he’s a big shot. With political connections. And money. A lot of money. Dirty money. While me, I’m just a cop trying to make a living for my family.”