I held on.
Jimmy Sung punched Exner in the face. Viviane Marais had a heavy ashtray, swung it at Exner, missed.
Li Marais scrambled on the floor, got the pistol. She held it in both hands, aimed at the German, still cocked. Exner stopped fighting. Jimmy sat down on the floor, held his arm.
I took the gun, picked up the telephone, told George Jenkins down at the desk to get the police.
Claude Marais stood alone where he had been. He had not moved. Passive, he watched as if none of it concerned him. As I hung up the receiver, Claude Marais lit a cigarette.
18
Three uniformed patrolmen and an ambulance doctor arrived at the suite first. The patrolmen took charge of Gerd Exner and his gun, and the ambulance doctor worked on Jimmy Sung. Jimmy had taken a shot through his right upper arm-a clean wound that had hit no bone or major blood vessel. The police listened to the story, gave Jimmy Sung nods of solemn admiration. They lived with daily danger, admired bravery.
“Nice work, mister,” one patrolman said.
“He threatened three of you,” another patrolman said, writing laboriously in his report book, “wanted Mr. Marais there to go with him on some work. When Mr. Marais refused, he then threatened to shoot you all, and Mr. Sung stopped him. That it?”
“More or less,” I said.
“What’s this about some package?”
“Exner seemed to think Marais had a package that was half his, said he wanted all of it,” I said.
Claude Marais said, “I have no package. It was unimportant. Some trinkets.”
The patrolmen nodded. One made his notes, and that was all. The package wasn’t their problem. When the ambulance doctor had finished with Jimmy Sung, he left. The rest of us waited. Gerd Exner had said nothing since the police had arrived, sat silent with two patrolmen beside him. Jimmy Sung lay on the couch, his arm bandaged, shaking now that the moment of action was over. Claude Marais smoked, still stood where he had the whole time. Li Marais had gone back to her chair in the corner. Viviane Marais was smoking too. I just waited.
Lieutenant Marx and two other detectives showed up half an hour later. Marx listened to the patrolman’s report, made me tell it all again, nodded approval of Jimmy Sung’s crazy attack, considered Gerd Exner and Claude Marais. He watched them, but he spoke to me.
“We got the report from Paris on Paul Manet, Dan,” Marx said. “He’s everything he says. Saved ten Jews that night in 1942 by hiding them, then rescued three others right out from under the Gestapo’s nose. Went on to build quite an Underground record after that. Since the war he’s absolutely clean. He represents ten French companies all over the world, lives high, but has no record and no hint of any illegal activity.”
I didn’t know why Marx was bringing up Paul Manet then, but he had to have a reason. He’d tell me when he was ready, or it would show soon enough.
“We’ll take Exner,” Marx went on. “We’ve been watching him. He’s in the country illegally in the first place. Had to come in like that, he’s wanted in half a dozen countries, not to mention Interpol. A little something about opium trading and all that. The D.A. and Washington are going to have a field day on the extradition. After we get finished with what we’ve got here.”
Gerd Exner shrugged, his blue eyes already calculating what chances he had, what angles he could work on. Marx turned his attention to Claude Marais. I became aware of something missing. The other two detectives who had come in with Lieutenant Marx seemed to have vanished. I hadn’t seen them leave the suite. Marx studied Claude Marais for a moment.
“Interpol is interested in Marais there, too,” the Lieutenant said. “No specific charge, though. Some countries want him, but it’s for gun-running, political action, that kind of stuff. No crimes straight out, except maybe one little matter. That right, Mr. Marais?”
Claude Marais smoked. “You are the one talking, Lieutenant.”
“So I am,” Marx said. “You don’t want to tell us about a batch of diamonds? Seems they turned up missing down in the Congo a while back, just when you and Exner there were making a deal for guns with some rebel group. Those rebels were pretty mad. They say the guns turned out no good, and the diamonds did a vanishing act. So did you and Exner. You didn’t carry the stones out, customs is sure of that. Now I’m hearing all this talk of some package.”
Claude Marais said nothing. He smoked. Li Marais was up straight in her chair, watching him. Viviane Marais was staring at Claude too. On the couch, Jimmy Sung made a sound. Lieutenant Marx ignored Jimmy.
“You smuggled a package to Eugene, right? He had it in his safe, Jimmy Sung there saw it. Mrs. Marais says he mentioned returning something to you the night he was killed. Jimmy says he saw the package out of the safe that night late, on a shelf in the back room. Now we didn’t find any package, did we?”
“I would not know, Lieutenant,” Claude Marais said, his voice wary. “I have not seen the package since before Eugene was murdered.’
“No? That’s funny. It’s funny, too, that you say it’s not important, no value, just trinkets.”
“All right,” Claude said, “it is diamonds. I did send it to Eugene to hold for me, it is half Exner’s. It is worth much money, but I am not interested in money. I planned to get it from Eugene that night, yes. I planned to give it all to Exner. I want no part of it. But I did not return to the shop that night, I have no idea where it is.”
“Why didn’t you tell us about it? A fortune in diamonds there in the shop, your brother murdered, the fortune missing, and you didn’t mention it?”
“I thought-” Claude shrugged again, stopped.
“Thought what?” Marx said. “That Gerd Exner had taken the diamonds and killed your brother? Why protect Exner? You say you want no more to do with Exner.”
“I… Gerd was an old comrade. Eugene was dead. I could not help Eugene. If Gerd killed him it was by chance, an accident when Eugene refused to give him the package. It would not help Eugene to tell, and I could not inform on Gerd.”
“No,” Marx said, shook his head. “Pretty, but no. You were silent because you wanted that package. We had a tip that the package is right here. Exner didn’t kill Eugene, at least not alone. You were in the shop that night, and you have the package. Is that right, Sergeant?”
Marx spoke to the doorway into the suite bedroom. One of his detectives stood there. The detective held a shoe-box-sized package wrapped in brown paper and string.
“Inside the heat register, Lieutenant,” the detective said. “Cover taken off, the package shoved in, cover screwed back.”
“A tip?” I said.
“Anonymous, of course,” Marx said. “The package we wanted was here, it said. Disguised voice. We didn’t know about the package. We questioned. A package taken from the pawn shop, the tipster said, that night. Could have been man or woman. We sat on it, took it slow, then your call came about the trouble here, Dan. It fitted nicely.”
“I took no package,” Claude Marais said. “Put it nowhere.”
Jimmy Sung sat up on the couch. Li Marais was on her feet, took a step toward Claude. Viviane Marais swore.
“Eugene wouldn’t give you the package!” the widow cried.
Li Marais said, “Claude?”
“You were out that night, you came to me,” I said.
Lieutenant Marx had the package open. He poured a little mound of glittering, gem-cut diamonds onto a table.
“There’s a motive anyone understands,” Marx said.
Gerd Exner said, “You swine, Claude! Idiot!”
Exner laughed then, and Jimmy Sung stood in the doorway to the bedroom. He held a small metal object-metal and enamel.
“I looked into the register,” Jimmy Sung said. “This was back inside. He killed Mr. Marais.”
Jimmy Sung lunged toward Claude Marais, bandaged arm and all. Two patrolmen stopped him. Lieutenant Marx took the metal object. I looked at it. It was a military hat badge, the kind worn on berets. A French hat ba
dge.
“Could it have just fallen into the register?” Marx said.
“No, too big,” the detective who had found the package said.
“Is it his?” Marx asked Li Marais.
Li Marais looked at it, and at Claude. “Oh, Claude!”
Claude Marais stared at his wife. Then he lit another cigarette.
19
I was tired, but I didn’t want to go home or be alone. Sometimes it’s like that when a case ends.
Claude Marais said nothing more to anyone. It wasn’t the time to talk to Li, not about anything. I’m not sure I wanted to talk to her then. She went with Claude and the police, and Viviane Marais went home to Sheepshead Bay. When I asked the widow if she was satisfied, she looked at me for some time, then said we would talk tomorrow, or in a few days.
I went to the Black Lion where my old friend and bartender, Joe Harris, was working. I told him the whole story.
“Sounds like he did it,” Joe said. “Simple motive.”
An ex-soldier with a shadowy past sends a fortune in diamonds to his quiet brother. The brother wants him to settle down to normal work, so refuses to hand back the diamonds. There’s an argument, made desperate by Gerd Exner being around, and the quiet brother is killed. All the rest is Claude trying to make it look like simple robbery. Motive-the diamonds. Opportunity-Claude was expected at the shop, I proved he had been out that night late. But…?
“Who tipped the cops,” I said to Joe. “Why and how?”
“Someone who hated him, someone who was afraid of him, or maybe someone who just wanted to get rid of him. Who knows how the tipster knew the stuff was there?”
“The tipster could have planted the diamonds there for any of those reasons, too,” I said. “And that hat badge.”
Anyone would fit. Charlie Burgos? For Danielle, maybe? Had Charlie seen Claude that night, and that was his interest in the affair? Protecting someone-first by trying to stop me, then with a frame-up? Li Marais? The way Claude had looked at her. Maybe Claude had done it, and she had turned him in-for me? Maybe Claude knew that? His silence?
It was after midnight when I went home. I had a bad taste in my mouth. It all fitted, and yet…? I swore at myself as I opened my apartment door, and stopped. Listened.
Someone was in the apartment. I knew it, sensed it. I barely breathed just inside the door in my dark living room, and looked down at the outer door lock. It hadn’t been touched. Yet I knew someone was inside, waiting somewhere in my five rooms.
I breathed lightly, didn’t move. As my eyes became accustomed to the dark in the living room, I saw nothing. Except that my bedroom door was closed. I never closed it, not in the heat of a New York summer, and this morning it had not yet rained and cooled the city. I took off my shoes, laid them carefully down, stepped softly into the kitchen and found a butcher knife on the counter. I reached the bedroom door without a sound, and listened. There was a faint line of light under the door. Someone had my small bedside reading lamp on-the low bulb.
My lone hand shook, but I held the knife and opened the bedroom door at the same time. I opened the door fast, jumped inside and left.
“Hello, Dan,” Marty said.
She was in bed. The reading light on, shaded and turned low, but she wasn’t reading. She was watching me, the strange contrast of her almost boyish face and woman’s body never more sharp. The smile, and the soft, almost velvet eyes. I closed the door, put the knife on a table, went to her.
“I got back tonight,” she said. “Come to bed. Now.”
I didn’t kiss her, I don’t know why. Something about her, about her there waiting in my bed. A decision. I undressed, but I didn’t get into bed. I sat on the bed.
“How was the vacation?” I said.
“Fine,” she said. “Dan? We can talk later.”
“I’ve just finished the Marais killing. It was the brother,” I said. I told her all about it, step by step. The whole case, except Li Marais. I talked because her eyes told me she wasn’t interested. No, she didn’t want to hear the story, so I told all of it to keep from knowing what she had to talk about.
“Dan?” she said. “Don’t you want to?”
“I want to,” I said. “Tell me what it is, Marty.”
She looked down, but only for a second. “I’m getting married. Next week.”
I’d known, in a way, but knowing and being sure are not the same. To know a man is a murderer, and to be sure of it, aren’t the same at all.
“Who?” I said. We always want to know that, we men. Who? Is he better than I? Richer, nicer, gentler, better in bed? It isn’t going to be easy to liberate the men.
“Kurt Reston,” she said.
The director, the theater man. The other man who had long believed in her work, in her. But a man going places, who still believed in winning the same prize she wanted.
“I can’t go on drifting, Dan,” she said. “Day to day where the wind blows us. He can give me what I have to have.”
“We all drift. In the end, that’s all we really do.”
“No,” she said. “There has to be more. More than waking up each morning and wondering what’s going to happen today. I want to know what today’s going to be like. Real things, solid. A base to start from, no more empty space when I’m not working. An anchor to stop the drifting.”
“Marty, there isn’t any anchor except to fill our time with as much sun as we can. You know the old Coverdale Bible? ‘Let us leave some token of our pleasure in every place, for that is our portion, else we get nothing.’ Marty-”
“No!” She sat up in the bed. I looked away. She was near to crying. “Maybe you’re right, Dan, but I know now that I can’t leave pleasure in every place. I want one sure place, and the sure pleasures. I want the rewards of this life, here and now, the way it is. With you I’d drift on and on without tomorrow. Two castaways in a lifeboat.”
“And you want the ship, the ocean liner.”
“Yes. First class.”
“It’s a ghost, the ship. A Flying Dutchman.”
“Maybe, but you can see it. People know it’s there. They see it, wave to it. No one sees your lifeboat down in the high waves alone.”
She wanted to be seen, waved to. Wanted her existence testified to by the eyes of others. So that she’d know that maybe she did really exist after all. The normal need.
“They’ll see you, Marty,” I said. I smiled. After all, I’d been with this woman for a long time.
“Come to bed,” she said. “Once more, Dan. For us.”
“I don’t think so,” I said. “No.”
I wanted to, yes, then why did I say no? Because it would make it harder? No. To hurt her, to attack her. Deny myself, refuse her, not let her be nice to me. Make her guilty so I could feel better. People are made of that irrationality.
She got up and dressed. When she was dressed, I wanted her back in bed even more. I’m as irrational as the next person.
“Will you be all right?” she said.
“I’ll be fine.”
“I’ll… I’ll call you.”
“Sure,” I said.
She went out of the bedroom, and out of the apartment. Out of my life. I lay down, and closed my eyes.
They began, the thoughts. The plans for revenge, the schemes of victory. The scenes where I stopped her, where I appeared at the wedding to stand between her and him, and she came to me. The dreams where she ran to me, and we were married, and lived in a big house and
…
I was dressed, and on the cool night streets. Walking. Uptown, that’s where a Kurt Reston, director, would live. On my way to find his house, his pad, to show her how much more of a man I was. Take her away. All our years had to mean…
I was in a bar. Naturally. What else does a man do when his woman has gone? He gets drunk, of course. Very drunk. He gets drunk and laughs with strangers and watches late-night TV above the bar and tells war stories. Strangers are very nice people in bars, and they are interested
in how I lost my arm. First the arm, then the woman, then…
Claude Marais was a drifter. Do drifters kill? Not their brothers. Drifters don’t have brothers. Of course they kill, especially their brothers. And wives…
Sun. Cool. Daytime taverns are oddly quiet and cool and dim. Lazy, a sense of endless time…
Dark. I’m glad you asked how I lost my arm. It’s a long story. The war, you know? We were up near the Meuse River, that’s in France, and this Tiger tank came. I saw its shadow in the fast water, the shadow of the Tiger. So, I had the shadow of a bazooka, and I shot that Flying Dutchman…
Roaches on a ceiling don’t like the sunlight, their thin feelers quiver uneasy…
She had a nice face above her glass, blonde and raped at fourteen by some uncle her father beat her for enticing. Old, at fourteen. Come on, Dan, honey, I’ve got a nice place and we can talk. Fourteen is getting old in Saigon. I don’t know anything about Saigon, I’m studying to be an artist. I never saw a man with one arm so close… honey…
Sure Claude Marais did it. What else? Only no one saw him, did they? No one saw Eugene Marais refuse to give him that package. No witnesses. She had a nice face, old and dark-haired, and where the hell was I now…?
The Oriental women are so small in the dark.
20
A familiar room, and hot. Too hot. The hot spell had broken, then why was it so hot? And if I was in my own familiar room with Marty in bed beside me, asleep and small, then…? In bed with me? Marty? I touched her, kissed her.
Li Marais looked up at me, sleepy but waking fast, not smiling as I touched her. “How are you, Dan?”
I lay back on the pillow. “Tell me. How did I get here?”
A familiar room, but not my room. The bedroom of the suite in the Hotel Stratford. Soft sun, so morning, and too hot.
“How long have I been?” I said.
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