Blondes are Skin Deep

by Louis Trimble

  “It wasn’t at the hotel,” I said. “It was last night. In her apartment.”

  Chimp studied his cigar. “Hall might,” he admitted. “But I heard Peone was sick.’

  “With what?”

  “Nerves,” Chimp said. His delicate voice was tinged with amusement at the idea. “He’s got nerves. He gets upset and things bother him.” He stood up, stretching. “Hall said you were ready to clamp down, Nick.”

  I worked my coat on and looked into the mirror while I smoothed down the lapels. “I’m trying to locate Johnny.”

  “That’s not news.”

  I got my hat and adjusted it a little forward, hoping to shadow the whiskers I was too lazy to shave off. “I spent the night at Edna Loomis’ place,” I said. I shook my head a little at Chimp’s expression. “We just made a deal,” I explained. “I get ten grand if I turn up Considine’s killer—for her.”

  Chimp made an ‘O’ with his lips. “Nice dough.”

  I got the door open and waited for him to go through. “Not for Hall, not for the cops, just for her.”

  Chimp was ahead, going toward the elevator. He paused in mid-stride and looked over his shoulder. His face was questioning. “You taking it?”

  I came abreast of him and we walked on slowly. “I already did,” I said. “Providing she has a few more answers.”

  “On what?”

  “On Considine, on the money, on why she was at the Oxnan.”

  “You stayed all night and didn’t even learn that much?”

  I grinned a little. “I learned something. When I okay the deal, she’ll tell me the rest.” I was trying to play Chimp like I would play a big fish. He was wary; I had to be careful.

  He said, “So you’re taking it.”

  “Why not?”

  He didn’t answer my question. “And you’re calling me in to help?”

  I paused at the elevator and pressed the call button. “I thought together we might find a way to get more than ten grand out of her.”

  Chimp said carefully, “It’s worth a lot more than that to cross Hall, Nick.”

  I gave him a sideways look. “Who said we were crossing Hall?”

  The elevator came up and we got in. I leaned against the wall, looking straight ahead, letting the whole thing simmer around in his mind.

  From the lobby we went into the dining room. Chimp said he’d eaten but he was willing to watch while I had a meal. He didn’t say much until we got up to go.

  Then he said, “I still don’t see how I fit in, Nick.”

  “Edna Loomis is the kind a guy can’t be sure of,” I said. “I never know when she’s lying.”

  I paid the check and we went outside. There was a cab at the stand in front of the hotel and we climbed in. I gave the address of Considine’s office.

  “See what I mean?” I said.

  “No.” Chimp shifted the cigar in his mouth and got out a match. He struck it on the sole of his shoe and lit the cigar. I rolled down the window on my side.

  “You were down here when Considine was killed,” I said.

  “So were you—but we weren’t supposed to advertise it.”

  I said, “You were at the Oxnan again when she checked in.”

  “So what?”

  “You knew her,” I pointed out.

  “Yeh.”

  I leaned back in the seat. This was a delicate operation. I could feel myself sweating over it. I said, “Then you should be able to tell me what she was doing there.”

  “Trying to hang onto the dough.”

  The taxi driver broke in suddenly. “You guys want to be followed?”

  I looked out the rear window. We were on a dark side street. Headlights were coming around a corner behind us. I hadn’t wanted to be followed but I had wanted to know if Powers was closing in on me. The Considine address was no more than a blind, to test the possibility.

  I said, “Hell, no. Try and shake him.”

  The driver started to show us how well he could handle a cab. His first turn threw me hard against Chimp. I sat up, rubbing my knuckles. They had struck hard against his shoulder holster.

  Chimp seemed unconcerned. His cigar glowed briefly as he drew on it. “You’ve got a lot of guts, wanting me to cross Hall.”

  “You crossed him before,” I said. “And for what?”

  “The hell I did,” Chimp said. He sounded puzzled and a little worried.

  I figured I had the hook in and I gave a little twist, trying to set it more solidly. “You knew who Edna Loomis was when she checked into the hotel. But Hall didn’t find out for some time.”

  “I knew when I got news of her,” Chimp said. “Quist checked her in—and held out on us.”

  “He was taking an awful chance,” I said. “How did he work it?”

  “He was drunk,” Chimp said, as if that explained everything. He added, “He didn’t even register her for a while.”

  “So you didn’t keep that back from Hall in the hope of getting some of her hundred odd thousand?”

  He made a laughing sound. “No.”

  “Half of a hundred thousand is a lot of rocks.”

  He got the idea. “Is that what we’re after?”

  “We’re after all of it,” I said. “Half to each of us.”

  Chimp was chewing his cigar again rather than smoking it. The taxi drew to a stop before Considine’s ratty office building. It was as dark and gloomy as ever. Chimp was evidently still thinking it over. We got out of the cab. I gave the driver a dollar.

  “Dont wait,” I said.

  A car came around a corner and pulled up not ten feet behind us. There was a taxi sign glowing on its top. Our driver made a face. “Sorry, boss.”

  I gave him another dollar. “You tried,” I said. He waved his hand and drove off.

  Chimp looked at the cab that had driven up and then at me. “You got an angle, Nick? An angle good enough to take a chance on crossing Hall?”

  “Not one that I can work alone,” I said. I teetered on my toes. A foot and leg showed from the parked cab. Then a man in a gray topcoat appeared. He walked up to us, into the radiance of the cab’s headlights.

  “You looking for me?”

  “I’m looking for you,” Lieutenant Powers said. “You and Johnny Doane.”

  “This is Chimp,” I said.

  “I don’t want Chimp. I want you—and I’ve got a warrant.”

  That was something I hadn’t expected, something I couldn’t figure. “A warrant—for me?”

  “And for Johnny.”

  “What charge?” I demanded. “Stop horsing me, Powers. I’ve got work to do.”

  “Work on the rock pile is the work you’ll do,” Powers said with slow emphasis. “The charge is kidnapping.”

  19

  “THAT’S the most stupid thing you’ve done yet,” I told Powers. “Arrest me on a charge like that and I’ll bounce you and your whole department into Puget Sound.”

  I tried to make it sound big but inside I wasn’t half so confident. Powers was the cautious type; he never went off half-cocked.

  Chimp chewed on his cigar, looking from one to the other of us with interest, but not saying anything.

  “It’s my worry,” Powers said. “I’ll take the chance.”

  He sounded too damned smug. I thought again just how cautious a cop he was. “Kidnapping,” I said. “Kidnapping who?”

  “Whom?” Chimp said.

  Powers ignored him. “Maretta Considine,” he said to me.

  That was the only answer I had been able to figure out at all, and it didn’t make sense. I put out a tentative bluff. “Who is Maretta Considine?”

  Powers made a snorting sound. “Let’s go,” was all he said.

  “What if I don’t want to go?” I asked. I tested my balance, watching Powers directly and Chimp from the corner of my eye. He was being one hell of a lot of help.

  “Don’t make a fool of yourself,” Powers warned.

  “You have extradition papers?”


  “Do I need them?”

  I knew that this wasn’t doing me any good. It was a sucker’s play on Powers’ part, whether he knew it or not. But I couldn’t see any way out of it.

  “Yes,” I said, “you have to get extradition papers.” It was a sucker’s trick on my part, too, but I didn’t know what else to do. I needed time; maybe this way I would get it.

  “Get smart, Mercer.”

  “Let’s go to my hotel and talk this thing over,” I said. “Maybe we can work out a deal.”

  “I don’t make deals.”

  “Right now,” I told him, “I’m one up on you. If you use your head I might even let you take me back home. If you get tough, it’s going to cause trouble and cost your department dough.”

  Powers said, with no emphasis, “I brought my gun, Mercer.”

  “So did Chimp,” I said, and stepped back a little, leaving Chimp and Powers facing each other without me between them.

  “I’m not in this,” Chimp said quickly. “This isn’t my business.”

  I said, “Think back, Chimp. And think wise. A kidnapping rap has tentacles. You know that Powers thinks I’m in on it. Maybe he’ll think the same about you after a while.”

  Chimp was silent. Powers was equally silent. I just waited, letting each man work it out in his own way. I couldn’t see much hope, but if this did pan out I had an idea to gamble with. If that worked, I’d have something. If it fell flat …

  I stopped thinking about it. Chimp said, “Yeh,” in a thoughtful voice. “Yeh, I see what you mean.” His cigar bobbed in the dim light. “Powers, I think maybe we ought to talk this over.”

  Powers said, “Don’t get in my way. And don’t let Mercer bluff you. You’re in the clear as far as I know. Don’t tangle yourself in it now.”

  Chimp sounded apologetic. “I hate to do this, Powers, but Mercer has something in what he says. I hate to argue with the cops but maybe I’ll have to.”

  I wondered if this wasn’t the first decision he had made on his own since starting to work for Hall. If so, it was a good one from my point of view. Chimp’s soft voice carried a lot of weight. He wasn’t menacing the Lieutenant, he just made it sound very reasonable and sensible. At that moment I appreciated him.

  Powers said reluctantly, “All right, we’ll go talk. It won’t do you a damned bit of good, Mercer, but we’ll go talk.”

  “That’s better,” I said. Getting into the cab between Powers and Chimp, I sat back, trying to think this thing out. I didn’t get very far.

  The ride was too quick. I did manage to wonder what Powers’ angle was. If Chimp had seen him at the airport as he claimed, the Lieutenant had killed an hour someplace when he could just as easily have been putting the clamp on me. Maybe, I thought, he had tried a little interviewing.

  I said casually, “Have you see Edna Loomis lately, Powers?”

  I could feel Chimp stiffen at my side. Powers said, “What about her?”

  “I thought maybe you’d like to know where she was when Hall got shot, that’s all.”

  “What for?” Powers asked. “She didn’t shoot him.”

  “Oh?” I wriggled around, reaching for my cigarets. The cab pulled up at the hotel. I got a cigaret and lighted it as we stepped to the sidewalk. After Powers paid, I said, “Who did?”

  “Johnny.”

  “Bah,” I said.

  Powers made a shrugging motion and headed for the hotel doors. “Or his sister Nelle.

  “Or me,” I said. “Or this Maretta Considine. Or Chimp here. You know one hell of a lot, don’t you?”

  Powers sounded sore. “Bleat,” he said. “You aren’t changing anything.”

  Chimp was laughing silently to himself. I could tell it by the way his cigar bobbed. I wondered what was so funny. But I didn’t ask him. I spoke to Powers.

  “So now Nelle’s worked into this, too?”

  “The kidnapping charge includes her.”

  I swore at him. Chimp seemed to find the whole thing funnier than ever and a softly explosive laugh popped out around his cigar. Powers ignored us both. He was carefully putting his taxi receipt into his wallet.

  I said, “How about a phone call, Powers?”

  “Lawyer?”

  “Same as.”

  “Go ahead,” he said. “We’ve got you sewed up.”

  He walked beside me to the lobby booth and stood beside it while I went inside. I made no effort to conceal my call to the Oxnan.

  I got Quist on the line. He sounded as if he were on the bottle again. I said, “Ring me three-thirty-six.”

  “That room ain’t occupied.”

  “This is Mercer. Just ring it.”

  “Listen, Nick. The cops …”

  “Are with me here. Just ring, damn it.”

  Quist rang. On the third buzz someone lifted the telephone. I could hear quick breathing. I said, “This is Nick Mercer, Maretta.”

  From the corner of my eye I could see Lieutenant Powers stiffen and then press his ear a little tighter to the side of the booth. I grinned and opened the door a crack. He glowered but he took advantage of it anyway.

  Maretta said, “I don’t know what to do now.”

  “I suppose you’ve heard,” I said, “that Johnny and I are being hung with a kidnapping rap.”

  “I know,” she said. “Mr. Hall told me.”

  That one nearly floored me. Mr. Hall, indeed. She went on to explain that Johnny had told her not to stir, no matter what had happened. But after he left she started worrying and finally went to Kane Hall. He told her about the trouble, advised her to sit tight, and told her to let me handle it.

  “It was nice of him,” I said. “Did Johnny drag you forcibly from Portland to the hotel?”

  She sounded surprised and very young. “No. How could he?”

  “That’s what the cops think,” I told her. “And with my help—and Nelle’s.”

  “They’re silly,” she said. “Johnny and I are married. A man doesn’t kidnap his own wife.”

  It took me a minute to digest that, but it made a lot of things clearer: her attitude toward Johnny; his toward her, the lapse of days when they had completely disappeared; and Edna Loomis’ occasional, seemingly snide remarks.

  I was so still I guess she started worrying again. She said, “Is something wrong?”

  “Nothing,” I assured her. “I love you. I love you dearly. Now where is Johnny?”

  “There,” she said. “In Portland.”

  “I know. But where here?”

  “At my place, I suppose.”

  “Then you can stop worrying,” I said. “Tell Hall to give you a better room. That’s a rathole.” I wound up with, “Everything is rosy now.”

  I stepped out of the booth with a wide grin on my face. I could see that it irritated Powers and made Chimp raise his eyebrows in surprise. I didn’t say anything. Powers had got just enough from my side of the conversation to make himself curious—that was obvious. I let him be irritated while we went to my room.

  I took a seat on the bed. Chimp snatched the easy chair and that left Powers only the straight one.

  “Now,” he said, “let’s get this over with.”

  He was really sore. He had never sounded quite so tough with me before. I said, “Your kidnapping rap is as flat as stale beer. And you know it.”

  “I told you once to stop messing around,” he said. “Get to the point.”

  “You could have got her any time you wanted,” I said. “If you thought she was kidnapped you still had a pretty good idea where she was. Why didn’t you pick her up?”

  “Department business,” Powers said curtly.

  Meaning that she was socially prominent and therefore would have to be handled delicately. That was his implication. I said, “The fact is that you got orders to smoke us out this way. Okay, I’m smoked even if Johnny isn’t. But it won’t do you a damned bit of good.”

  He just looked at me. I added, “Johnny and Maretta are married.”
r />   Powers looked as if I had hit him below the belt. Chimp went on laughing. It was obviously something that Powers had not known.

  He recovered without too much trouble, though. He said, very slowly, “That really puts the finger on Johnny, doesn’t it? He marries the guy’s daughter a few days after he’s killed the man.”

  “You’ve got too many pronouns in that sentence,” I said. “Who killed who?”

  My humor fell on its face and Powers proceeded to step on it. He said, “The Portland cops will get Johnny before long. When they get through with him—if they ever do—I want him. For attempted murder.”

  “And kidnapping,” I reminded him.

  “We’re not through with that charge, Mercer.” He went to my phone and lifted the receiver. “We left Maretta Considine at the Oxnan because we hoped Johnny might show up, and not because she was too hot to handle.”

  He put a call through to his office and issued a pick-up order on Maretta Considine Doane. “Suspicion of murder,” he said. “The Kane Hall shooting. Make that attempted murder,” he corrected himself, “and let the papers have it.” He hung up.

  He was pretty cute at that. The papers and radio would have a field day, Johnny would hear the news and, in his impulsive way, go steaming back to town. Into the hands of the cops.

  I got up, moving toward the door. “You don’t leave me much choice, do you, Powers?”

  He moved quickly, getting between me and the door. His hand went for his gun. “You aren’t going anywhere but home, Mercer.”

  I looked over Powers’ shoulder at Chimp. He was sitting with the stub of his gnawed down cigar between his lips. He shrugged. “This is one I have no connection with.”

  “No help,” Powers said. “Just sit back down and relax.”

  “All right, dammit,” I said, and stepped sideways. Powers did the relaxing, and that was his mistake. I swung on him. But he was no sucker. He backpedalled, got his gun out and twisted around. His long face was sad but his eyes were wary.

  I crowded my advantage while he was still a little off balance, and got inside his reach before the gun could level on me. I rapped a toe against his skin, cut the edge of my palm against his wrist, and then looped a left.

  He took it on the side of the jaw, still off balance, and went straight into Chimp, bowling him over as Chimp got halfway out of his chair. I had the door open and was headed down the hall before the final crash of Powers, Chimp, and chair punctuated the silence.