“The ones he refused to show me. You practically said he sent those to you.”
“Did I?”
“Didn’t he?”
“I’m sorry,” he said again. “That communication from your husband is my one ace-in-the-hole, and I’m not ready to show it yet. If you really want your husband’s murderer to pay for his crime you’ll have to let me play it my own way.”
She said, “Very well,” in a tone of weary resignation.
An automobile was approaching swiftly from Centerville, its headlights augmented by a powerful searchlight mounted above the windshield. It turned constantly to sweep each side of the highway. Its beams caught the Roche Buick at a distance of some five hundred yards.
“That light! It’s blinding me,” Elsa said.
“Stop the car,” Shayne ordered.
She put on the brakes just as the other car slowed to a stop beside them. Shayne said swiftly, “Don’t say a word except to follow my lead. No matter who it is or what they want.”
They sat quietly while a rear door of the other car slammed shut after a man had gotten out. He approached the left-hand side of the Buick and looked in at Elsa, past her to Shayne. He turned his head and called, “Yep. This is them, Chief.”
Another man got out and the other moved aside. Chief Henry Elwood said, “Evenin’, Mrs. Roche. Sort of late for a widow lady to be out with a stranger, isn’t it?”
“I’m an old friend of her husband’s,” Shayne told him quietly. “Mr. Persona will vouch for me.”
“You better come along with us,” the chief told him. “And you better drive on home, Mrs. Roche, ’less you take it in your head to pull some of the other prisoners out of my jail. I’ll send a man with you to see you find your way home all right.”
Shayne said, “Chief Elwood is right, Elsa. Try to get some sleep and I’ll call you in the morning.” He got out and went around the front of the Buick to the tonneau of the other car. There were two men in the front seat. The rear seat was empty. He got in and the chief followed him inside and slammed the door shut. The car started ahead slowly, continuing away from the village while Mrs. Roche drove on toward Centerville.
Shayne settled back in the darkness and lit a cigarette. The chief smashed the lighted cylinder against his face with a heavy, back-handed blow and said placidly, “You’re going to need your mouth for talkin’, Shamus.”
12
Michael Shayne drew in his breath, gritted his teeth, and counted slowly up to twenty-five. Then he said, “I’ve been smoking too much lately, anyhow.”
“I’ve heard,” said the chief, “that you’re a smart cookie. We’ll get along all right if you remember this is my town.”
The blow had reopened the cut on his lip. He got out a handkerchief and dabbed the blood away gently. “Mr. Persona gave me the idea the town belonged to AMOK.”
“Persona,” grunted the chief, “can hire all the special deputies he wants, but I still run Centerville.”
“And Seth Gerald runs you?” Shayne said bitterly.
Shayne felt this blow coming. He turned his face away and Elwood’s heavy palm struck the side of his head. “Keep driving straight ahead,” he rumbled to the driver. “Not too fast. We’ve got lots of time and aren’t going nowhere.”
A bell was ringing dully in Shayne’s left ear. He kept his face averted, looking out the window at the thin mist.
“When did you and Mrs. Roche fix that stunt up?” Elwood demanded.
“What stunt?”
“Getting yourself locked up in my jail long enough to talk to her boy friend.”
The man sitting beside the driver turned half-way around and Shayne could see his profile clearly. It was the larger of the two officers who had arrested him in front of the Eustis Restaurant. Shayne said, “Nobody has to work hard at getting himself locked up in the Centerville jail. I was having a few drinks… tending to my own business…”
“Putting it on that you were drunk as a hooty-owl,” the chief agreed placidly. “Abrams and Gar were dumb enough to pull you in the way you wanted. What’d you get from Brand?”
“Your cops are dumb, all right,” Shayne agreed. “If I were running this town I’d fire a bunch of them and…”
“What you wanta take his lip for, Chief?” the man in the front seat interrupted. “Le’s stop right here an’ I’ll work ’im over good.”
“Shut up, Gar. You caused enough trouble throwin’ him in the can with Brand. I’d like to hear just how a smart Shamus from Miami would run Centerville.”
“I’d fire most of my force and hire somebody to do my thinking for me,” Shayne snarled. “You’re sitting on top of a bomb and the fuse is getting short.”
“It’s been short a good long time,” said Chief Elwood. “What kind of a story did Brand give you?”
“He wouldn’t talk to me,” Shayne grated. “He’d got word I’m working for AMOK and I had all my trouble for nothing.”
“I might believe that… except for the way Mrs. Roche got you loose and brought you out in the country for a talk. That figures like a put-up job.”
“We’re old friends,” Shayne told him wearily.
“She didn’t act like it when you first busted in at Roche’s house this evenin’.”
“You weren’t there.”
“I got ways of knowin’ what goes on in my town. What’d you get out of Ann Cornell?”
“Several drinks of corn.”
Chief Elwood chuckled. “She sets out a tasty drink.”
“Look, let’s try to understand each other,” said Shayne angrily. “We’re both on the same side of the fence. If you’ve talked to Gerald you know I’ve been retained by AMOK to hang Roche’s murder on George Brand. The way I see it, you can use some cooperation.”
“If you’re on our side, why’d you pull that stunt to get in and talk to Brand unbeknownst to any of us?”
“I figured it was my one chance to get to him before it became generally known that I’d hooked up with Persona,” Shayne explained. “Even then it was too late. God knows how many pipelines he’s got out of that jail, but…”
“That’s one of the reasons I don’t believe you,” Elwood interrupted. “You didn’t make your deal with Persona till late this evenin’. You’re the first guy from outside to see him since then, so I know you’re lyin’ when you say he already knew.”
“Then you’d better check your own goddamned cops,” Shayne growled. “Somebody passed him the news fast. Hell, in a set-up like you’ve got here in Centerville, who do you think you can trust? A dumb ape like Gar up there?” He laughed sardonically. “Bribery and corruption have been bywords in Centerville for years. Do you think for one moment your force can be trusted? Any fool ought to know that a crook who’ll take money in his left hand will take it in his right hand, too.”
“Sounds like you know a lot about it,” grunted Elwood.
“I’ve been around other towns run along the same general lines. That’s why I tried to get to Brand secretly without even letting any of your cops know why I wanted to see him. I thought he might do some talking if he thought I was on his side.”
“But he already knew you wasn’t, huh?” Elwood sounded half-convinced.
“He already knew about my meeting with Persona,” Shayne lied. “If I were chief of police, I’d be studying who knew about it and had a chance to pass it on to him inside the jail.”
“Gantry!” Elwood exploded. “He was in my office while Seth was there. And he was up and down the jail half a dozen times.”
