partner Ronald Spice were the guilty ones. I didn’t buy it myself at first, so Granada followed through on his own time. After Doc Simeon told him Mrs. Donato was killed the same way Broadman was, he stuck to Spice and Slater like a leech.”
“Why didn’t he arrest them?”
“Premature. He wanted them to take him to their leader.”
“Have you caught Gaines?”
“Not yet.” Wills sat down solidly, and crossed his legs. “I was hoping for some help from you on that, and other matters.”
“I don’t want to be inhospital-inhospitable,” I said. “But I happen to have a wife and a new baby that I’m eager to see.”
“Forget them for now. You’d never make it down to the third floor anyway. And I have some things I want to ask you about. There’s been a lot of talk about a kidnapping. Was there a kidnapping?”
“Technically, yes. Gaines kidnapped me in Mountain Grove last night. He took me to the mountain lodge where Granada found me. Gaines and I had a fight there, which he more or less won.”
“He shot you?”
“I was shot, yes, and out for a while. He set fire to the house, probably by smashing a gasoline lantern, and left me to burn.”
“And Mrs. Ferguson? He left her to burn, too?”
“Evidently he did. I came to in time to get her out. Is she all right?”
Wills answered carefully. We were fencing, and both of us knew it. “It’s hard to tell. Her husband is having her privately looked after. He says he doesn’t trust the hospital, with all the shenanigans going on. I’m wondering if he doesn’t know more than I do about the shenanigans going on.”
“Have you talked to him?”
“Just for a second, when he picked up his wife in the emergency ward. He wasn’t communicating, and I can’t force him to. He hasn’t done anything criminal, that I know about. The wife is another matter, now. I can’t figure what she was doing up in a mountain hideout with a wanted man. Was she there voluntarily?”
“I don’t know.”
“You must have some opinion on the subject. You saw her there with Gaines, didn’t you?”
“I saw her.”
“Was she tied up, or confined, or under duress?”
“I don’t know.”
“How can you help knowing?” Wills said sharply.
“There are various forms of duress, including the psychological.”
“Was she conscious?”
“Yes.”
“Did he threaten her?”
“Yes. As a matter of fact, he hit her with a gun.”
“Same gun he shot you with?”
“Same gun,” I said, but I was beginning to sweat. I hardly knew why I was framing my answers so as to protect the woman. I was in no condition to work out a conflict of conscience. The worst of these conflicts is the tendency they have to crop up when a man isn’t equal to handling them.
Wills sensed my indecision. “This psychological duress you mentioned, it’s an interesting idea. What does it boil down to, the fact that he had something on her?”
“I don’t know.”
He said as if at random: “Poor kid, they had to walk her for nearly two hours. She was loaded to the gills with morphine, did you know that?”
“I suspected she was drugged, yes.”
“Is she an addict? Is that what Gaines had on her?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“I doubt that. You’ve had opportunities to talk to them, her and her husband both. I understand you’ve been seeing quite a bit of him in the last day or two.”
“I saw him once or twice. He’s pretty good man, in case you’re in doubt about that.”
“Would you vouch for the wife, too?”
“I hardly know her.” The sweat was soaking through my hospital gown. Unless I concentrated on my vision, I tended to see Wills in duplicate. One of him was too many at the moment. “Why don’t you go away and let me enjoy my misery in peace?”
“I’m sorry, Bill, honestly. But these are questions that need answering. Ronald Spice’s unsupported statement isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. He confessed crimes that never even occurred. And some that did, of course.”
“I’d like to see that statement.”
“I’ll show it to you, soon as we get copies. I also wanted to show you a statement we got from a better witness than Spice-manager of the local Bank of America. It says that Ferguson drew a lot of cash out of his savings account yesterday. So much cash they had to borrow from their Los Angeles branches. Do you know what Ferguson did with all that cash?”
“I know what he told me.”
“What did he do with it?”
“Ask him.”
“I’m asking you, Bill. You’re a rash young fellow, but you’re basically sensible, and you’re building a position in this town. You wouldn’t lie there and try to sit on a major crime at this late date.”
“There have been several major crimes. Which one are you referring to?”
“Kidnapping. Spice says Gaines ran out with his and his partner’s share of two hundred thousand dollars. Two hundred thousand dollars which Ferguson paid to Gaines as ransom for Mrs. Ferguson. He says she was snatched from the Foothill Club while he and his partner stood by, monitoring our calls on their short wave so we wouldn’t get in the way. Which incidentally they’ve been doing all through this wave of burglaries. It was a neat little system they had, passing along information on hospital patients and then keeping track of our movements while Gaines and Gus Donato burglarized their houses.
“According to Spice, they did the same thing yesterday noon when Ferguson made the money-drop. They were supposed to get a cut of it, twenty-five grand apiece for services rendered. But Gaines ran out on them with the whole bundle. You can understand why Ronald Spice is spouting like a whale. Of course he’s trying to cheat the fireless cooker, too. Not that we’d make a deal with scum like that.”
Wills was hoarse with anger. “Scum of the earth, masquerading as public servants, using their position to knock off injured people. You know what they are. They almost did it to you.”
“Has Spice confessed the Broadman killing?”
“In effect he has. He didn’t know he was confessing. He thought he could blame it on his dead partner. Whitey Slater did the actual murder, apparently, while Spice was driving the ambulance to the hospital. But Spice shared the knowledge and intention, which makes him equally guilty, as you know. Gaines is equally guilty, too. Broadman was killed on his orders.”
“Why?”
“Broadman was an ex-leader of the ring, with emphasis on the ex. He was at the point of turning them all in. I think he knew they were on their way to capital crime, and he wanted to cut himself clear of them. The purchase of that diamond from Ella Barker was a small thing, but when he reported it to us, it served notice on Gaines. Gaines turned Donato loose on Broadman. Donato fumbled the job. Slater and Spice were standing by, and they stepped in and finished it. Next day they did the same to Donato’s wife, for the same reason.”
“Was Secundina a member of the ring?”
“I doubt it. But she knew who was, and she was about to talk to us. Granada thought she was, anyway. And apparently Gaines and his ghouls thought so. When she panicked and took those sleeping pills, it gave them a chance at her. They didn’t want her waking up.”
“Nice people.”
“Yeah. All nice people. What I don’t understand, Bill, you’ve got a chance to help us wind up the case, put the
