I wasn’t going to tackle him on my own. I wanted witnesses— Regretfully, I climbed down from the balcony and reached the terrace.
I tried to remember where the nearest phone-box was: too far away, anyway. Now I knew be was there I wasn’t going to lose sight of him. If he had been in bed and asleep, I might have risked leaving the estate in search of a telephone, but not when he might suddenly take it into his head to bolt.
I remembered there was a telephone in the lounge.
I walked silently along the terrace to the casement windows that led into the lounge. In the bright light of the moon, I examined the doors for any sign of wiring or alarms, but failed to find any. But before attempting to break in, I decided to walk around the house in the hope of finding a window left open.
It was my lucky night. At the back of the house I found an unlatched window. I eased it open, put my head into darkness and listened. I heard nothing. I groped in my hip pocket and pulled out Paula’s flashlight. The battery was on the blink, but the light was strong enough for me to see I was looking into the passage, leading to the ball.
Very carefully I hoisted myself up, climbed through the window, closed it and soft-footed down the passage to the hall.
The house was very still and silent. I stood listening for a few moments before going into the lounge. I shut the door.
The telephone stood on a table by the settee. I sat down lifted the receiver off its cradle and dialled Muffin’s borne number.
I sat listening to the burr-burr-burr on the line, listening also for any sound upstairs.
There came a click on the line and Muffin’s voice growled ‘Hello.’
‘I’ve found him,’ I said, my mouth close to the mouthpiece ‘He’s at Ocean End. How soon can you get over here?’
‘You’re sure?’ Mifflin’s voice shot up with excitement.
‘Yeah; I’m sure. I’ve seen him. Now listen, Tim. Collect Paula and Mrs. Dedrick. I want them as witnesses. Park your car before you reach the house. You’ll have to get over the wall. Don’t touch the gates. Come up to the terrace, and don’t show yourselves until I call you. Tell Paula to get everything he says. Okay?’
‘You’re really sure he’s there?’ Muffin asked.
‘I’ll lose my badge if I break into that woman’s house…’
‘Forget your badge! Get moving. I’ll have the two girls ready for you by the time you reach Paula’s apartment. I expect you in twenty minutes,’ and I hung up before he could protest.
Next I dialled Paula’s number.
‘Throw your clothes on,’ I said when she answered the phone. ‘Get Mrs. Dedrick up too. Muffin’s calling for you in about ten minutes. I want you ever at Ocean End. I’ve found Dedrick.’
Paula said she would be ready. She didn’t waste time asking questions.
I hung up and lit a cigarette. I was sweating with excitement. Somewhere in the silent room a clock ticked busily. I swung my legs up on the settee and tried to keep calm. With any luck, this would be the end of the case. By tomorrow, if it worked out the way I hoped it would, Perelli would be free.
I closed my eyes. It seemed a long time since I had any sleep. A lot had happened since Maxie had given me the pass-key to Barratt’s apartment. It seemed almost too good to be true that within an hour the thing would be finished.
Then suddenly from somewhere upstairs there came a single choked bang of a gun.
I was off the settee across the room and bad the door open before the echo of the shot had ceased to roll through the silent house.
I stood in the hail, staring Into the darkness, listening. A door opened. A light flashed up. Someone ran along the gallery above me, past the head of the stairs. I caught a fleeting glimpse of a woman in a blue silk wrap. Another door opened; then a wild, horrified scream rang out. I sprang forward, mounted the stairs three at the time, reached the gallery as another scream sounded from a lighted doorway at the end of the gallery.
I ran down the gallery, paused outside the door and looked into the room: Dedrick’s room.
Serena was bending over the bed, frantically shaking his shoulder as he lay still and silent on the bed. ‘Lee!’ she was screaming. What have you done? Lee! My darling! Speak to me!’ I went quickly into the room. One brief look at the man on the bed told me he was dead. The side of his head was smashed in, and blood ran down his face on to his white shirt.
I caught hold of Serena’s arm.
‘All right,’ I said sharply. ‘You can’t do anything.’
She spun round, her face white and her eyes glazed with, horror, to stare at me. She started to scream, raised her hands as if to push me away, then her eyes rolled back and she fell into my arms in a faint.
I lowered her gently to the floor, bent over the dead man. A .38 Colt automatic lay on the bed by his right hand. Smoke still drifted from the barrel. There was a fixed, grinning look of terror on his face, and I could see the powder burns on his skin.
‘What’s happened?’
I turned.
Wadlock, in a faded red dressing-gown, his hair standing on ends, stood in the doorway.
‘He’s shot himself,’ I said curtly. ‘Let’s get Mrs. Dedrick out of here.’
I bent over her, lifted her and carried her out of the room.
Wadlock stood aside, his old grey face twitching.
I carried Serena down the stairs and into the lounge and laid her on the settee.
‘Open the casement doors and let’s get some air in here,’ I said as Wadlock switched on the lights.
While he was opening the doors leading on to the terrace I poured a stiff whisky into a glass and returned to Serena.
As I knelt beside her, she opened her eyes.
‘Take it easy,’ I said. ‘Here, have some of this.’
She pushed my hand away and half sat up.
‘Lee.’
‘Now, look, you can’t help him. No one can help him. Just take it easy.’
She dropped back on the pillow and hid her face in her hands.
‘Lee, why did you do it?’ she moaned, half to herself. ‘My darling, why did you do it?’
Wadlock came over and looked at her helplessly.
‘Get the police,’ I said. Tell them what’s happened, and keep out of this.’
‘I don’t understand,’ he said, bewildered. What are you doing here?’
‘Never mind. Get the police.’
He started to say something, changed his mind and went slowly from the room. I heard him mounting the stairs.
‘Drink this,’ I said, turning back to Serena. ‘You’ll need it. Come on. The cops are going to get tough when they find out you’ve been hiding him.’
She took the whisky, gulped some of it, shuddered and put the glass down.
‘Why should they? He made me promise not to tell them. He came back two days ago. He escaped from his kidnappers. He said they would kill him if they found out where he was. He wouldn’t let me tell even Wadlock.’
‘Did he tell you who kidnapped him?’
‘Barratt and Perelli,’ she said breathlessly. ‘He said Barratt hired Perelli because Lee wanted to give up his past life.’
That was exactly what I didn’t want to hear.
‘Are you sure he said Perelli?’
I spotted a slight movement out on the terrace, and guessed Muffin had arrived.
She turned away from me.
‘Why should I make it up?’
I moved over to the casement doors. Muffin, Paula and Mary Jerome were out there. I beckoned to Muffin, motioning to Paula and Mary to remain where they were.
Mifflin came into the lounge like a cat on a hot stove.
Serena turned swiftly and stared at him.
‘Dedrick’s upstairs,’ I told Mifflin. ‘He’s dead. Suicide.’
Muffin grunted, walked quickly across the room to the door. I watched him mount the stairs.
‘How—how did he get here?’ Serena asked, bar band going to her throat.
&n
bsp; ‘I guessed Dedrick would be here. I spotted him through the window and called Muffin.’
‘You — you used this phone?’
I nodded.
‘Then Lee must have heard you and listened in. That’s why he — he shot himself.’
I stared at her.
Why should be shoot himself?’
She looked away.
‘The police want him on a—a murder charge, don’t they?’
‘Yeah; so they do. I don’t think it could have happened that way. I looked for a telephone extension in his room. There isn’t one.’
She didn’t say anything.
Then I had another idea: I was full of them tonight.
‘You know he was married before he married you?’ I said quietly.
She spun round; her face hardening.
‘I don’t wish to discuss that.’
‘I thought you’d like to meet her. She’s just outside.’
She started to her feet.
‘I won’t have her here! She’s not to come in!’
‘But she’ll have to identify Dedrick. I’m afraid she’ll have to come in.’
‘No! I forbid her to come into my house!’
Her face had turned ashen, and her big, glittering eyes seemed to sink into her head.
‘I loved him!’ she went on wildly. ‘I won’t have that woman go near him!’
I went to the casement door.
‘Come in,’ I said to Mary Jerome. ‘I want you to go upstairs and look at Dedrick. Don’t pay any attention to her. I’ll see she doesn’t…’
I stopped short.
Serena had moved swiftly to a drawer in the writing desk at the other end of the room, pulled it open and swung around. She had a small automatic in her hand.
‘She stays where she is!’
Mary stood quietly in the doorway, looking at Serene. Her eyes were cold and contemptuous.
‘What are you afraid of?’ I asked, moving slowly towards.
‘Stay where you are!’
I saw her knuckle tighten on the trigger and I stopped.
‘Be careful,’ I warned.
‘Get that woman out of my sight! She’s not going near him!’
‘What’s going on?’
Mifflin came in.
Outside, there came a squeal of brakes, and a pounding of feet on the terrace. Sergeant MacGraw and two uniformed cops burst into the room.
Serena took a quick step back. I was watching her. I saw her lift the gun, turning it on herself. There was a look of sick terror in her eyes as she pressed the barrel into her side. I was waiting for that move. I threw myself forward, knocking her to the floor as the gun went off.
Mifflin dashed forward, dropped on his knees and wrenched the gun out of bar hand.
I rolled away from her.
She lay on her side, her head cradled on her arm, sobbing.
‘Is she hurt?’ Muffin panted.
I shook my head, pointed to the bullet scar on the floor near her.
‘What the hell goes on?’ MacGrea barked. ‘What is all this?’
‘Take her upstairs and let her look at Dedrick,’ I said, waving my hand to Mary Jerome. ‘She has the answer to this, although she doesn’t know it.’
‘But what..’ Muffin began.
‘Take her up. It’s better to hear it from her than me.’
He shrugged, jerked his thumb to the door.
‘Go ahead,’ I said to Mary. ‘It’s all right There’s nothing to be scared of.’
She followed Mifflin, and as they climbed the stairs together, I lifted Serena and carried her to the settee.
She lay on her side, her face hidden, her body racked vith sobs.
MacGraw showed his teeth at me.
‘So you’re still solving them, Bright Boy,’ he sneered. ‘Right in there at the finish to tell us how it was done.’
‘Well, someone’s got to do it for you,’ I said, and crossed the room to Paula.
‘What is it Vic?’ she asked.
‘Cross your fingers. This may be Perelli’s out.’
We waited.
After a few minutes, Mary came down the stairs, followed by Mifflin.
‘What do you know?’ Mifflin said, breathing hard. ‘That’s not Dedrick up there. She says it’s Lute Ferris.’ He looked over at MacGraw. ‘You know Ferris. Go up there and look at him.’
MacGraw ran up the stairs.
Mifflin said to me, ‘Didn’t she say he was Dedrick?’ He nodded to Serena, who still lay on the settee, hiding her face.
I nodded.
MacGraw leaned over the banisters.
‘It’s Ferris all right,’ he called.
‘Then where the hell is Dedrick?’ Mifflin demanded.
‘Ask her. She’ll tell you,’ I said, pointing to Serena. ‘It’s my bet he’s the heap of rags and bones in the mine.’
Serena suddenly sat up, her face white and her eyes glittering.
‘I shot him,’ she said in a voice scarcely above a whisper. ‘And I shot Ferris too. Do what you like with me. I don’t care. Do what you like with me.’
III
It was around five o’clock the next afternoon when the office door pushed open and Muffin tramped in.
I was lolling in my desk chair. Paula was standing over Jack Kerman, who lay on the office couch. He had justt returned from Paris, and at this moment was endeavouring to justify an expense sheet that looked like Danny Kaye’s income-tax assessment.
‘Twenty dollars a night for champagne,’ Paula was saying, waving the expense sheet in Kerman’s face. ‘And nothing to show for it. Nothing at all.’
Kerman grinned feebly.
‘Don’t drive it into the ground,’ he pleaded. ‘A guy’s got to live…’
‘Come right in, Tim,’ I said, taking my feet off the desk. ‘I was hoping you’d look us up. Sit down. Hey, Jack, quit lying. and get the Lieutenant a whisky.’
‘That’s about all he’s any good at,’ Paula said tartly.
‘Nice to hear I’ve even that to my credit,’ Kernian said bitterly.
He rolled off the couch and busied himself with glasses, while Mifflin lowered his bulk into a chair opposite my desk.
‘Thought you’d want to know how it worked out,’ he said. ‘It’s been some day. Brandon’s having fits.’ He blew out his cheeks. We had no trouble with Serena. She talked. It’s a funny thing: once a woman really lets herself go, can she talk!’
‘Men aren’t exactly backward in that line either,’ Paula reminded him gently.
He winked at me as he stretched out his hand for the whisky Kerman had poured him.
‘This is going to do me a lot of good,’ he said, sipped and sighed appreciatively. ‘Yeah, very nice, and I certainly need it. Francon has taken over Serena’s defence. He had a lucky break. He was with Perelli when I brought her in. The way he switched from Perelli to her made me dizzy. Perelli was released about an hour ago. Brandon hated letting him out, but there was nothing else he could do after he’d listened to Serena. Perelli tells me he’s coming round to see you as soon as he’s located his girl friend. He said something about a celebration.’
‘Hot dog!’ Kerman said enthusiastically. We’ll throw them a party!’
‘And you can finance it,’ Paula said.
‘Do you want to hear the story the way Serena told it to Brandon?’ Muffin asked me. ‘You bet.’
‘Well, you weren’t far off the beam. Souki started the trouble. He hated Dedrick at sight, and when Dedrick was staying with Marshland, Souki went through his baggage. He found evidence of Dedrick’s smuggling activities as well as his marriage to Mary Jerome. Before he could report his discovery to Serena, he had to leave with Dedrick for Orchid City. He left the evidence in Serena’s room. She promptly charted a plane and came after Dedrick. They met at Ocean End. Souki had returned to the Orchid Hotel, and was coming out to fetch Dedrick at ten. Serena accused Dedrick of marrying her bigamously. He laughed at her, admitting be had married
her for what he could get out of her. Apparently you don’t talk like that to a Marshland. She shot him. Dedrick had arranged to meet Barratt and Ferris at Ocean End. They walked in a few seconds after the shooting, and caught Serena red-handed. Barratt saw his chance, and took it. So long as the shooting wasn’t discovered, he had Serena in his power. He offered to cover up the murder if she paid and continued to pay. There was no out for her.
‘Ferris took Dedrick’s body in his car and hid it in the mine while Barratt drove Serena back to the airport. He and Ferris returned to Ocean End and waited for Souki to return. They shot him and Ferris phoned you, making out he was Dedrick. By shooting Souki and phoning you they established the faked kidnapping had taken place at ten, whereas, of course, Dedrick had been murdered at eight; giving Serena an alibi.
‘You know the rest of it. When Ferris heard Barratt was dead, he went to Ocean End and forced Serena to hide him. She heard you when you telephoned me, and listened in on her extension. She knew Ferris would talk if he was caught. She decided to silence him, hoping we would believe he was Dedrick. It was a gamble that might have come off. She went into Ferris’s room, shot him and staged the suicide scene. If it hadn’t been for Mary Jerome, she might have got away with it’
I shook my head.
‘I don’t think so. I think Wadlock would have given her away. He knew Dedrick; and besides she slipped up when she said Ferris had listened in to my conversation with you. He hadn’t a phone in his room. That made me wonder why he had shot himself so conveniently and suddenly. It crossed my mind then that maybe he wasn’t Dedrick. What’ll happen to her, Tim?’
Mifflin shrugged.
‘With Francon looking after her, anything can happen. It’s a wonderful thing what money can do.’
‘I don’t think even Francon can save her: not when the whole story comes out. What’s happened to Mary?’
‘She’s in the clear. She’ll be our chief witness, but we have nothing on her.’ Muffin heaved himself out of his chair. ‘I guess I’ll blow. Perelli doesn’t seem to like coppers. I wouldn’t want to spoil his celebration.’
When he had gone, Kerman asked casually, ‘What’s Perelli’s girl like — nice?’
‘Never mind what she’s like,’ Paula said briskly. ‘You have other things to worry about just now,’ and she reached for his expense sheet again. What’s this item — fifty dollars for Perfume?’
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