captives snored. They lay side by side, sleeping off their overdose of sidecars.
Shayne went carefully through Ira Wilson’s pockets until he found the keys to the taxi. Wilson was as limp and unconscious as a rag doll. Shayne went out and closed the door.
He found the visored cap tucked in the chair seat where Will Gentry had been sitting. He pulled it out, muttering an oath as he did so, tried it on for size and found it a half-size too small.
He tilted the driver’s cap forward, went into the bathroom and looked in the cabinet mirror. He decided that it didn’t look too bad.
Then he took it off and went out into the corridor, closing his apartment door, and went down in the elevator with the cap tucked inconspicuously under his arm.
Shayne found an empty taxi outside the hotel and got in. Wilson’s keys fitted the ignition. He put the cap on at a jaunty angle and started the motor and drove across the County Causeway to Miami Beach.
Brett Halliday
Blood on Biscayne Bay
Chapter Fifteen: A TIMELY LETTER
MICHAEL SHAYNE and Christine Hudson were alone in the living-room of the big bayfront house. Neither Leslie nor Floyd Hudson was at home.
Shayne said, “Don’t hold out on me, Christine. For God’s sake give it to me straight. Did Victor Morrison write those letters to you?”
She said, “No-not unless he was completely out of his mind. And they were never mailed to me. I have never seen the originals of those photostats.”
Shayne said, “Everything I’ve turned up thus far points to their genuineness. I’m sorry as hell, but it’s your word against a lot of facts.”
“Does Mr. Morrison claim he wrote them to me?”
“Naturally not. He declares they’re forgeries. But we know they’re not.”
Christine sighed faintly but her chin remained defiantly lifted. “I can’t help it, Michael I’ve told you the truth. I swear Mr. Morrison never so much as made a pass at me during the two and a half years I worked for him.”
Shayne argued quietly, “It doesn’t make sense that way, Christine. At first I worked on the theory that he was secretly in love with you and had worked out a devious plan for discrediting you with your husband so you’d be forced to go to him to avoid public scandal. But it looks now as though he had no part in sending those men here to find the letters. Hampstead, the lawyer, is retained by Mrs. Morrison to file a divorce suit against her husband. A man with his sort of ethics wouldn’t lend himself to any legal trickery. The detective was also employed by Mrs. Morrison to get evidence against her husband. She freely admits she had planned something like this in New York when she urged Morrison to go out with you after you resigned your position. Don’t you see that I have to know the truth?”
Christine said, “How many times do I have to tell you I’ve told you the truth-about everything,” in a tone of exasperation.
Shayne sighed, leaned back, and lit a cigarette. He spun the match away and said savagely, “All right. You dope it out on that basis. The letters mentioned a plan to get rid of the present Mrs. Morrison. I’ve discovered that Morrison put that plan into effect as soon as they reached Miami. He put a private detective on her trail and got enough evidence to kick her out without a dime. Don’t you see what an utter fool he would be to let those letters get into her hands? It slashes his case against her all to hell. She can enter countersuit and demand a whopping big cash settlement. So he certainly didn’t have the letters planted here for her to find. Then who did? Who else could have?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps they are forgeries and Mrs. Morrison arranged it all.” Her voice was cold and distant.
Shayne shook his head. “Bernard Holloway doesn’t make mistakes like that. No. I’ve got to believe Morrison wrote them but didn’t plant them here. That leaves only one answer.”
“That I’m lying,” she said listlessly. “That he did write them to me and I did tie them up in a pink ribbon and hide them in my vanity drawer.”
Shayne said, “I’m sorry as hell, Christine.”
“So am I,” she murmured.
“There are some other things you haven’t told me,” he pointed out. “For instance, that the Morrisons have visited you here since your marriage.”
“They dropped in for a picnic supper on the lawn one evening.” She sounded surprised. “I didn’t think that was important.”
“Was your husband here to help entertain them?”
“No.” Christine lowered her eyes and bit her underlip. “I admit Leslie has some foolish notion of being jealous of Mr. Morrison. He pretended he had to go to the office that night and refused to stay here and help entertain them.”
“What reason has he for being jealous?”
“None at all. I don’t think he really is.” She paused thoughtfully, then said, “I believe it’s a sort of false pride in Leslie. His family have always been wealthy, and I was just an ordinary working girl. I think he didn’t relish the idea of having the man whom I’d worked for around.”
“So you entertained them alone?”
“No. Floyd was here.”
“Is Floyd in love with you?” Shayne demanded. Even in the dimness of the room he saw color flame in her cheeks.
“He-” she began, and stopped.
“He is, isn’t he?”
“When he drinks too much, he gets-ideas. The night the Morrisons were here he drank a great deal. He embarrassed me with his insinuating remarks. But it wasn’t me, particularly. After I put him off he turned his attentions to Mrs. Morrison. She didn’t discourage him.”
Shayne drew in a long breath. “These things may be very important, Christine,” he said gravely. “If I have to dig each one of them out of you I’ll never get anywhere.”
“I didn’t realize it was important,” she told him. “Nothing happened really. Floyd made a nuisance of himself, but he’s always doing that.”
“And he and Estelle Morrison became friendly?”
“Nothing more than the usual sort of thing that’s likely to happen when there’s a lot to drink. Mr. Morrison didn’t seem to mind at all. We just laughed about the way they carried on.”
“Does Floyd run around with Estelle?”
“No. That is, not that I know of.”
“The Morrisons came across in their boat that night, didn’t they?”
“Yes. A little fishing boat with an outboard motor.”
“Has Morrison ever been here since?” Shayne asked. “Without his wife?”
Christine Hudson stood up, slim and straight and angry. “I think you’d better go now,” she said. “I’m beginning to realize I made a mistake in ever going to you.”
“You did if you’ve got something to hide,” he grated.
“I’m sorry if I’ve caused you any inconvenience. I’ll have Leslie mail a check to pay for your time.”
“You can’t turn a murder investigation on and off like that,” he warned her. “I’m on this case whether you like it or not.”
She said, icily, “You’d better go now.”
Shayne got up and went past her into the hallway and to the front door. She stood stiff and unmoving, and watched him go.
Outside, the shadows across the lawn were long and the first faint coolness of evening was in the air. As Shayne approached the front gate a taxi stopped behind the one he had parked there, and Floyd Hudson got out. He
