David Goodis: Five Noir Novels of the 1940s and '50s (Library of America)

by David Goodis

  “Not as much as you. If I went to her alone I wouldn’t have much to back myself up. What I want to do is go there with you and have her see you with me so she’ll know I’m not kidding. Then and there I want her to write me out a check for sixty thousand. That’s the way we work it. We go there together.”

  “You’ve done this sort of thing before, haven’t you?”

  “Nup. This is the first time. How am I doing?”

  “You’re doing fine. Tell me, Arbogast, what are you?”

  “I’m a crook.”

  “Small time?”

  “Until now.”

  “In old clothes you don’t look like a crook.”

  “In old clothes I look like a farmer.”

  “What will you do with the sixty thousand?”

  “Probably go to Salt Lake City and open up a loan office. There’s a fortune in it. People are crazy these days. People are always crazy but these days they’re especially bughouse. They’re making money but they want more. They’re spending like lunatics. With a loan office I’ll clean up. The way I got it figured out, sixty thousand gives me a perfect start.”

  “You won’t keep bothering her, will you?”

  “I tell you sixty thousand is just the right amount. I’ll have it doubled and redoubled inside a couple years.”

  “Okay if I light a cigarette?”

  “No. Keep your hands up.”

  “You’re a careful guy.”

  “Sure I’m careful. I’m no dope. I’m careful and I’m smart. I’ll give you a slant on how smart I am. I’ll tell you the way I handled it, and then you’ll know just how much of a chance you’ve got to put something over on me. Now you remember when I picked you up on that road, you remember you were wearing a pair of grey cotton trousers and heavy shoes and nothing more.”

  “You knew who I was right away.”

  “I didn’t know anything of the kind,” Arbogast said. “You had Quentin written all over you, but that was all. So I said to myself here’s a fellow making a break from Quentin. I said to myself I’ll pick up this fellow and see what he has to offer.”

  “That,” Parry said, “I don’t get.”

  “I’ll tell you how it is with me,” Arbogast said. “I’m always on the lookout for an opportunity. Anything that comes along with a possibility tag on it I grab. Here you were, out on the road, a fellow running away from Quentin. Maybe you had connections. Maybe you’d be willing to pay for a lift and a hiding place. Maybe I could stretch it out long enough to get something on you and shake you down later. That’s the way I figured it. We’ll say it was twelve to five I could make myself some heavy money on the deal. Twelve to five is always good enough for me, especially when my only bid is picking you up and having a talk with you. Now let’s be agreeable and keep our hands up.”

  “They’re up.”

  “Get them up higher and keep them that way. And maybe you better turn around. Yeah, I think you better turn around and face the wall and I’ll see what you got.”

  Parry turned and faced the wall, holding his hands high. Arbogast came over and in four seconds checked him for a gun.

  Then Arbogast stepped back. “So that was what I had in mind. But you pulled something I wasn’t ready for and that made things tough for me. Not too tough, because I wasn’t out cold when you got in the car with that girl. I saw the car going away and at first I didn’t know what to make of it. But I’m no dope. That was a classy-looking car and there had to be money behind it. So I took the license number in my head. I got a good head for that sort of thing. You beginning to see the way I had it laid out?”

  “I’m beginning to see you’re a man who plans for the future.”

  “Always,” Arbogast said. “Anything that looks like it might lead to something. A fellow’s got to be a few moves ahead of the game. It’s the only way to get along in this world. Well, I had that license number in my head but I was in my underwear and I knew I couldn’t go far that way. But you left your grey pants there and they fitted all right and I was wearing a sleeveless jersey and I still had my socks and shoes so that was all right, too. So I got in the car with that license number in my head and I made a U-turn and went back down the road aways and took another road. There was nothing for me to worry about because all my cards were in the Studebaker and if they stopped me and asked questions I could tell them I had a fall and banged up my face. But it didn’t matter, I wasn’t stopped. I took a roundabout way to Frisco and when I got in town I made a telephone call.”

  “Oh,” Parry said. “There’s another party in on it.”

  “No,” Arbogast said. “You don’t need to worry about that. It’s just that I belong to an automobile club. It’s not a big club but it’s convenient and it has a knack of getting a line on people. So here’s what I did. Now get this, and you’ll see how it happens that a guy can go along for years living on breadcrumbs and out of a clear blue sky a jackpot comes along and hits him in the face. I called up this automobile club and told them a grey Pontiac convertible slammed into me and busted my car and made me a hospital case and then kept on going on a hit-run basis. I gave them the license number and I wanted to know if it was worth my while to start action. They told me to wait there and they’d call back in ten minutes. When they called back they said I should go get myself a lawyer because I really had something. They said she was a wealthy girl and they gave me her name and address. They said she was listed for a couple hundred thousand at the inside and I ought to collect plenty. You staying with me?”

  “I’m right alongside you.”

  “That’s dandy,” Arbogast said. “Now stay with me while I go out of that telephone booth telling myself I’m in for a thousand or two. Or maybe four or five if I can rig up a good story. Stay with me while I walk down the street and while I pass a newsstand. Then I’m walking away from that newsstand and then I’m spinning around and running back to that newsstand and throwing two bits into the tin box and forgetting to pick up change. And there I am, looking at that front page, looking at those big black letters and looking at your face.”

  “You must have been glad to see me.”

  “Was I glad to see you? You asking me was I glad? I’m telling you I almost went into a jig. Then I pulled myself together and I started to think. What I don’t understand was how she got connected with you at that particular place in the road. But I’m no dope. She must have seen you getting out of the car or else you waved to her when she passed in the Pontiac. Something like that, but I wasn’t bothering myself about it. All I had to do was keep my eyes open and my head working and stay with her. So I did that. I had some money from a job I did in Sacramento and I got myself some clothes. I really splurged, because I knew I’d soon be coming into some high finance. But I didn’t think in terms of a room. No, because I knew the Studebaker was going to be my home for a while, parked outside the apartment on the other side of the street. So there I am, parked there on the other side of the street and playing it conservative and taking my time. I saw her Pontiac parked outside the apartment and that was fine, but I wanted to make sure you were still with her. Late that night I saw you coming out of the apartment and that was what I’d been waiting for. I saw you getting into a taxi.”

  “You followed me.”

  “No. I’m no dope. I knew you’d come back.”

  “Who told you?”

  “Nobody told me. Just like I say, I had my head working. That’s all I need. That’s why I always work alone. All I need is my head. I knew you’d come back because she was in on it with you and you had to come back sooner or later. So I stayed there and early in the morning I was there in the Studebaker and I was watching that street with both eyes. And I saw you coming down the street.”

  “You couldn’t know it was me. My face was all bandaged.”

  “Look.” Arbogast sounded like a patient classroom instructor. “I recognized that brand new grey suit. I checked the suit and your build and I figured it out in no time at all. You had somet
hing done to your face and that’s no new story with fellows in your position. I knew you were going to lamp the Studebaker and I wasn’t worried about that but I didn’t want you to lamp me. Not yet, anyway. So I ducked and stayed on the floor. When I got up I saw you going into the apartment house. Then I knew I had to keep you guessing, the two of you, I had to handle it like a spider, getting you in, not too fast, nothing hurried about it, just coaxing you in. I took the Studebaker down a block and parked it there so you couldn’t see it from the window. And from there I watched the apartment house. And the only thing that bothered me then was maybe when you came out with your new face you wouldn’t be wearing that grey suit. But I couldn’t do anything about that. So I waited and then along comes another jackpot when I buy a paper from a boy and I read all about that Fellsinger job. And that doubled the pot, because now she wasn’t only tied in with a jailbreak, she was connected with a murder. You see what I had on her?”

  “But I didn’t do it.”

  “I don’t care whether you did it or not. The cops say you did it. That’s enough for me. Anyway, I was still sort of bothered about that business of you coming out of the apartment wearing a different suit, so I decided to have a talk with you before anything like that could take place. I went up to the apartment and I rang the buzzer. That was during one of those times after she went away in the Pontiac to go shopping. You see I used to watch her going away and coming back with packages and I knew you were going to be there for a while. So there you have me ringing the buzzer and then changing my mind, saying to myself to hold off for a while, play it the way I’d been playing it, taking it slow. How did I know there wasn’t a third party up in that apartment? Or a fourth party? Or a mob? What I had to do was take my chances with that suit situation and wait it out until I could get you alone and away from the apartment. With all that money involved I could afford to stay in with those aces back to back and just waiting there for somebody to raise. And that raise came this morning when the grey suit came out of the apartment house. I wasn’t even looking at the face. I followed the grey suit. I followed the taxi. Downtown the grey suit got out of the taxi and the whole thing was going nicely until that dick got hold of you in the diner. I saw you give him a bribe. How much did you give him?”

  “Two hundred.”

  “You see what I’m getting at? If you could afford two hundred she must have handed you at least a couple thousand. Whoever she is, she’s got feeling for you. She’ll do what you say. That’s why I’m arranging it the way I am. That’s why we’ll go there together and you’ll do the asking. Now look, don’t get smart.”

  “What’s the matter?”

  “You just keep your hands up, that’s what’s the matter. You’re not dealing with no dope. I played it shrewd all the way and I aim to keep on playing it shrewd. I didn’t miss a trick. I followed you from the diner and I followed you on that taxi ride to and from Golden Gate Park and I followed you on that department-store trip and I followed you here. At the desk I said I had a message for the man who just came in wearing a grey suit and they asked did I mean Mr. Linnell and I said yes. That puts us here together where I wanted us to be. So now you can turn around and we’ll talk it over face to face and we’ll see what we got.”

  Parry turned and faced Arbogast and said, “You’ve still got that question of a third party or even a mob.”

  Arbogast smiled and shook his head. “You wouldn’t be checking in here alone if there was a mob. You’d either want someone with you or if there was a boss the boss would want someone with you. I know how these things go. Let’s call it the way it is. It’s you and the girl and me and nobody else.”

  “I won’t argue with you.”

  Arbogast widened the smile. “That kind of talk is music to me. Who did that job on your face?”

  “I’m not saying.”

  “It’s high-class work.”

  “What good is it now?”

  “Don’t talk like a dope,” Arbogast said. “You’re going to be better off now than you ever were. As soon as I get the sixty thousand I’ll be clearing out and you’ll be set. All right, what do you say?”

  “You’re holding the gun.”

  “Now you’re using your head. I’m holding the gun. I’m holding the high cards. And as soon as I rake in the chips I walk out of the game.”

  “You make it sound simple.”

  “Sure, because that’s the way it is. It’s simple. Why make it complicated?”

  Parry wanted to think that it was simple. He wanted to conclude that once she gave Arbogast the sixty thousand everything would be all right. And yet he knew that once Arbogast got the sixty thousand he would ask for more and keep on asking. The man was made that way. This was the first real money Arbogast had ever come up against. For Arbogast it was a delicious situation and Arbogast would want it to remain that way.

  Parry told himself what he had to do. He looked at Arbogast and he told himself he had to get rid of Arbogast. He had foxed Arbogast once and maybe he could do it again.

  “No,” Arbogast said.

  “No what?”

  “Just no, that’s all. The only way you get rid of me is sixty thousand. That’s the only way. Look at the gun. If you try to take it I put a bullet in you. If you try to run away I put a bullet in you. And I make myself five thousand. Either way you die and either way I make money.”

  Parry told himself he had to get rid of Arbogast because Arbogast would keep on bothering her. Arbogast wasn’t interested in him. He wished Arbogast was interested in him and only him.

  Arbogast said, “All right, what do we do?”

  “We’ll go there,” Parry said.

  “That’s fine,” Arbogast said. “You’ll stay just a bit ahead of me and you’ll remember there’s a gun behind you.”

  They walked out of the room. In the elevator Arbogast remained slightly behind Parry. In the lobby Arbogast was walking at the side of Parry and half a step behind. On the street it was the same way. The street was bright yellow from hot August sun following the heavy rain. The street was crowded with early morning activity and horns were honking and people were walking in and out of office buildings and stores.

  “Let’s turn here,” Arbogast said.

  They turned and walked up another street, then down a narrow street and Parry saw the Studebaker parked beside a two-story drygoods establishment.

  “You drive,” Arbogast said. He took keys out of a pocket and handed them to Parry.

  Parry got in the car from the pavement side and Arbogast came sliding in beside him. Parry started the motor and sat there looking at the narrow street that went on ahead of him until it arrived at a wide and busy street.

  “The whole thing won’t take more than an hour,” Arbogast said.

  The car moved down the narrow street.

  “And remember,” Arbogast said, “I’ve got the gun right here.”

  “I’ll remember,” Parry said.

  The car made a turn and it was on the wide street. Parry took it down three blocks and turned off.

  “What are you doing?” Arbogast said.

  “Getting out of heavy traffic,” Parry said.

  “Maybe that’s a good idea.”

  “Sure it’s a good idea,” Parry said. “We can’t afford to be stopped now. As long as we’re started on this thing we might as well do it right.”

  The car made another turn. It was going past empty lots. There were old houses here and there. The sun was very big and very yellow and it was very hot in the car.

  “I can’t start worrying about her,” Parry said.

  “You gotta be selfish,” Arbogast said. “That’s the only way to get along. Even if she means something to you. Does she mean anything to you?”

  “Yes.”

  “How bad is it?”

  “It’s not too bad. I’ll manage to forget about her.”

  “That’s what you gotta do,” Arbogast said. “You gotta go away and forget about her. She’ll be all right.
I won’t keep after her. Once I get that sixty thousand I’ll leave her alone. You don’t need to worry about anything. Hey, where we going?”

  “We’ll go down another few blocks and then we’ll circle around and get up there from the other side of town.”

  The street was neglected and bumpy and the car went slowly and there were empty lots and no houses now and it was very hot and sticky and quiet except for the motor of the car.

  “You do that,” Arbogast said. “You go away and forget about her.”

  “She helped me out and I thanked her,” Parry said. “I can’t keep on thanking her.”

  “What you gotta do is get away,” Arbogast said. “You got that new face and it’s a dandy. All you gotta do is fix up some cards and papers for yourself and you’ll be in good shape. Where do you figure on going?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Mexico’s a good bet.”

  “Maybe.”

  “You won’t have any trouble in Mexico. And if you use Arizona you won’t have any trouble at the border. How much did she give you?”

  “I’ve got about fifteen hundred left. Close to sixteen hundred.”

  “That’s plenty. Tell you what you do. You use Arizona and when you get down there buy yourself a car in Benson. That’s about thirty miles from the border. Once you got some papers arranged you won’t have any trouble buying the car. They’ll be only too happy to sell you one. And once you have the car you’ll have the owner’s card and that’s all you’ll need. Do you know where you can get papers arranged?”

  “I guess I can find a place.”

  “Sure, it’s not hard. There’s guys with printing presses who specialize in that sort of thing. Once you get to Benson and buy that car you’ll be all right.”

  “They’ll ask questions at the border.”

  “Sure they’ll ask questions. Don’t you know how to answer questions?”

  “They’ll ask me why I’m going to Mexico.”

  “And you’ll tell them you’re going there to mine silver. Or you’re going there to look for oil. Or you just want a vacation. It don’t make any difference what you tell them. All you gotta do is talk easy and don’t worry about anything and don’t get yourself mixed up. Didn’t you learn all these things when you were in Quentin?”