Nothing More Than Murder

He nodded and leaned back in his chair. 'You got bills outstanding, Joe. You got insurance to pay, you got taxes to pay. You got a little bank loan, maybe two of 'em. Not much. None of it amounts to much- if you're running. But let your house go dark and see how big all them little things are. See how fast people start coming down on you. Then-'

'Oh, hell,' I said. 'I'm-'

'I'm not through, Joe. I could wait you out two, three months, but I won't have to. I'm going to crack down if you even look like you want to be stubborn. I'm going to get you for that marquee you swindled me on.'

'You?' I said.

'Me. I was interested in that company. I still am. I started watching you when you beat me on that deal. I figured you were a man worth watching. I figured I could make a lot more by letting the five grand ride than cracking down on you. Funny, ain't it? If you'd played square with me I never would have started looking into Stoneville. I wouldn't have noticed the kind of business you were building up.'

'Hell, Sol,' I said, 'you shouldn't hold a grudge over that. I didn't know it was your company.'

His eyes closed for a second behind the big horn rims. 'Joe,' he said. Then he shook his head and sighed. 'I don't hold any grudge, Joe. I'm just showing you what's going to happen if you try to hold me up. I'll sue you for that marquee; the actual price of it plus interest plus general losses due to having my product unjustly condemned. Do I make myself clear? I'm moving in. I'll either buy your lot or I'll take it.'

'But five grand, Sol,' I said. 'That's no dough at all. You can do better than that. You know damned well you'll give the lot a book value of thirty or forty thousand.'

'But it was my idea, Joe.' He shrugged. 'You can't expect to cash in on my ideas, can you?'

'What'll I do with my equipment? It's no good without a house to put it in.'

'So I've heard. You gave your former competitor a hundred and fifty dollars for his stuff, didn't you?' He shrugged again, smiling out of the corner of his mouth. 'Don't cry on me, Joe. On you tears don't look good. And don't stall me. That marquee deal ain't the only thing I've got on you. I can pile up stuff to the doors of the Barclay if I take a notion. You got the most remarkable record of chiseling I ever laid eyes on.'

'I'm not trying to stall,' I said. 'I'm just trying to think. It seems like everything has come down on me at once. Being sick, and losing my wife, and now-'

'I know, Joe.' His face softened a little. 'But I'm not moving in tomorrow. You can run until the end of the season.'

'You want an agreement to buy at the end of that time?'

'That's it.'

'All right,' I said. And I took the biggest, almost the biggest gamble I've ever taken in my life. 'Give me your check for five thousand and we'll close the deal.' If he'd taken me up on it, I'd have been washed up. But I had a pretty good idea he wouldn't, and he didn't. You see? Why should he have made a special trip out from the city to bully me into selling something he could take?

'If you want it that way, Joe,' he said slowly. 'But for your own good I'd advise you to hold off. You've got to run until the end of the season. Selling now would ruin your credit.'

'It wouldn't help it any,' I agreed. 'But I supposed-'

'I just wanted to reach an understanding with you. I'm not afraid of your trying to sell to someone else. No one's going to buy a big show property without a lot of investigation. I can muff any deal you try to make.'

'I know,' I said. 'That's the deal, then. Five grand at the end of the season for the lot. I keep everything else.

'Providing you move it.'

'That's understood.'

He stood up and held out his hand. 'We'll let the option slide, then, as long as we understand each other.'

'You're the doctor, Sol,' I said.

I walked him to the door, closed it, and poured myself another drink. I swallowed it just as I started to laugh, and for a minute or two I thought I was going to strangle. When Carol came in I was staggering around, sputtering and laughing like a hyena with the whooping cough.

She slapped me on the back and got a drink of water down me. Finally I began to get my breath back.

'You're drunk, Joe,' she frowned. 'You shouldn't get drunk at a time like this.'

'Baby,' I said. 'I was never more sober in my life.'

'Who was that man? What did he want?'

'That was Sol Panzer,' I said. 'Sol is the smartest-' I had to stop for a second, 'showman in the business. He wanted to buy the Barclay.'

'Oh?' She stiffened a little. 'How much will he give you for it?'

'Nothing, baby. Nothing. And do you know why? Because he doesn't want it.'

'But you just said-'

I didn't say anything for a minute. I just put my arms around her and squeezed until her breasts flattened against me, until the veins in them swelled and began to throb. Then I said, 'Leave it to me, kid. Just a little longer. Leave it to me, and we'll pull out of this town with two hundred grand. Will you do that?'

I felt her nod, slow, unwilling. Eager.

'Yes, Joe. Yes!' she said. And: 'Mrs. Whitcomb- she's taking a nap, Joe-'

Once, right at the last, like you will, you know, I looked into her face. Then, I closed my eyes and kept them closed.

23

Hap Chance called during the afternoon. I had Carol tell him I was sleeping. Andy Taylor called, too; and I had her tell him I'd see him that night. She called Appleton for me and made a date for dinner. She was curious, of course, but she didn't ask questions. I'd taken care of that for a while, at least.

I drove down to the hotel about six. Appleton was waiting for me in the lobby. We shook hands and found a table in the dining-room.

'Well, Joe,' he said, looking me up and down, 'your rest seems to have done you a lot of good.'

'I needed one,' I said. 'I guess I've been going around in a daze ever since the accident. I got to the point where I couldn't go on any longer.'

'That's the way it goes,' he nodded, glancing at the menu. 'By the way, what's this talk about you having a competitor in here?'

The glass of water I was holding almost slipped out of my hands.

'Where did you hear anything like that?'

'Oh, it wasn't anything definite. Just a rumor.'

'There's a rumor for every inch of film in show business,' I said. 'Your statement was that there was talk going around. I want to know where it's coming from.'

I could see that he didn't really know anything. There's always gossip in any good spot where one man has control. Someone will start talking about how much the showman must be making, and how there ought to be another show there. And, before you know it, the story gets twisted to where there is another house coming in.

'I've got a hundred-thousand-dollar investment here,' I said. 'If there's a rumor going around I want to know what there is to it, and who's spreading it.'

'It wasn't anything, Joe. Just some wishful thinking, I guess. Let's forget it.'

'I can't afford that kind of talk,' I said.

For once he was on the defensive. 'Let's forget it,' he mumbled. 'If I hear anything more, I'll put the damper on it.'

He didn't have much to say during the meal. As soon as we had finished we went up to his room.

'Well, here we are, Joe,' he said, grinning again. 'The secret lair of Operator 31.'

It was one of the sample rooms that salesmen use. Two of the big sample tables were fixed up for kind of a laboratory. He even had a little weight scale, and a centrifuge like they've got down to the creamery, only smaller. One of the tables was covered with stuff from the fire- -little envelopes of ashes, pieces of wood, wire, and metal.