I'd like to run around with a dame like you. But you see they ain't different, an' I've got a job to do an' I'm goin' to do it even if you don't like it. So long, an' I'll be seem' you.'
I scram down the steps of the porch an' go around the back an' get my car. I am so tired that I am almost seem' double an' I reckon that I am goin' to call it a day an' get back to the hotel an' have a piece of bed.
I have got about five miles away from the Hacienda an' am passing a place where the road narrows down an' there is a joshua tree standin' way back off the road in front of some scrub on a hillock when somebody has a shot at me. The bullet hits the steerin' wheel, glances off an' goes through the wind shield.
I pull a fast one. I tread on the brakes, slew the wheel round an' drive the car into a cactus bush just as if I was shot. Then I slump over the wheel an' lie doggo with one eye open.
I wait there for a coupla minutes an' nothin' happens. Then, over the back of the patch of scrub, in the moonlight, I see somebody movin'. As he gets out into the open I go after him. He starts to scram out of it an' this guy can certainly run. I let him go because I have got another idea. I go back to the car, turn her round an' step on it. I drive straight back to the Hacienda an' ask if Fernandez is there. They say be ain't, that maybe he won't be around tonight. I find Periera an' ask him where Fernandez is livin' an' he tells me that he has gotta cabin just off the Indio road. I find out where this place is an' I start to drive there pronto.
As I go speedin' down this road towards Indio I begin to think that this desert is a belluva place for things to happen. Some of these guys who are always talkin' about the wide open spaces might not think that deserts are so good if they got around on 'em a bit more.
Presently I see this dump. It is a white cabin fifty yards off the road, railed in with some white fencin' an' white stones. I pull up the car by the side of the road an' I ease over to the cabin. There is a window by the side of the door an' I look through an' there, sittin' at a table smokin' a cigarette an' drinkin' rye all by himself, is Fernandez.
I knock on the door an' after a minute he comes over an' opens it
'What do you want, copper?' he says.
'Get inside an' shut your trap, Fernandez,' I tell him. 'Because to me you are just one big bad smell, an' if I have any trouble outa you I am goin' to hurt you plenty.'
He goes inside an' I go after him. He hands over a chair an' I sit down an' take a look around.
The cabin is a nice sorta place. It is furnished comfortable an' there is plenty of liquor kickin' around. I light a cigarette an' look at Fernandez.
He is standin' in front of the hearth lookin' at me. He is a lousy-lookin' guy an' I think that I should like to give him a good smack in the puss with a steam shovel, just so that he wouldn't think he was so good.
I have got an idea as to how I am goin' to play this so-an'so along. I reckon that there was never a crook who wouldn't do a trade if he thought that he could do himself some good that way.
'Listen, Fernandez,' I tell him. 'It looks to me I ain't popular around here, some guy has tried to iron me out tonight while I am goin' back to Palm Springs, but he wasn't quite good enough an' he just dented the steerin' wheel an' bust the wind screen. I suppose you wouldn't know anything about that, Fernandez?'
He looks at me like he was surprised.
'You don't think I'm such a mug, do you?' he says. 'What good do I do by tryin' to bump you? You tell me that.'
'I wouldn't know,' I tell him, 'but there's somebody around here has got one in for me - but maybe it's Periera.'
'I don't get that,' he says. 'Why should he wanta bump you?'
'I wouldn't know that either,' I say. 'However, I ain't partial to guys shootin' at me, an' I just wanta know which side you're on, so you listen to me.'
I help myself to some of his rye.
'Thanks for the drink,' I say. 'Now here's how it goes. It looks to me like I am goin' to make a pinch down here pretty soon, an' I'll give you two guesses as to who it is. Well, it's little Henrietta. That dame looks screwy to me an' I believe she knows a dum sight more about Granwortli Aymes' death than a lotta people think. OK. Well, the thing is this. There is some dame who is playin' around with Granworth Aymes an' this dame's husband is supposed to write some letter to Henrietta tellin' her that he is bein' a naughty boy an' that she'd better do something about it, Well, either that story is true or it ain't true.
'Now I hear that you are stuck on marryin' Henrietta. Whether that is a true bill or not I don't know, but I know one thing an' that is this that you were Aymes' chauffeur, an' you usta drive him around, an' if he was stuck on some woman you would know who it was.'
'I was for Henrietta,' he says, 'an' I offered to marry her when she was broke an' hadn't any friends, but maybe after that phoney bond business I sorta changed my mind. I don't say she ain't a very attractive number,' he goes on, 'but I don't know that a guy is justified in marryin' a dame who is gettin' herself all mixed up in counterfeitin' stuff an' who may have been takin' time out together, don't it?
I do some quick thinkin' because this is a very interestin' situation. You will remember that Burdell told me that he was all for Henrietta until he suspected her of the counterfeitin' job, an' here is another guy who was supposed to be hot for marryin' her pullin' the same story. It looks like these guys have been takin' time out together, don't it.
'Looky, Fernandez,' I say. 'Here's the way it is. It's goin' to be pretty easy for me to find out whether Aymes was runnin around with a woman if I get the boys in New York on the job, but I reckon you can save me the trouble. I'm goin' to make a bargain with you, although I don't often do a deal with a lousy two timer like you, an' the bargain is this. I want the truth outa you about this woman that Aymes was supposed to be gettin' around with, an' I wanta know what was goin' on. If you llke to cash in well an' good. If not, I'm pinchin' you here an' now on a charge of attemptin' to murder a Federal Agent because I think that you were the guy who had a shot at me way back on the Palm Springs road.'
His eyes start poppin'.
'Say listen, Caution,' he says. 'You can't say that. I can produce about six guys who will say I was around with them all the evenin'. Besides, anything you wanta know I'll be glad to tell you.'
'OK,' I say, 'listen to this.'
I then tell the story that Henrietta has told me. He stands there smokin' an' listenin'. When I have finished he starts in.
'I reckon that she is stringin' you along,' he says with a grin. 'It stands to reason that since you know she was in New York on that night she has gotta have some sorta story to give a reason for bein' there. If she ain't got a reason then it looks as if she just came down from Connecticut for some other reason that she don't want you to know-such as bumpin' her husband off. I reckon that she made up that story about the other dame.
'I used to get around with Aymes a lot,' he goes on. 'I usta drive him around the place an' he had dames all over the place, the usual sorta dames, but there wasn't anything special about that. There wasn't any special one that he went for. Nope, there was just a whole lot of 'em an' I could make you outa list of 'em if you want it. But I reckon you'd be wastin' your time.'
'OK,' I say. 'Now you listen to me, Fernandez. An hour ago some palooka has a shot at me an' tries to iron me out. Now that mighta been you or it mighta been Henrietta or it mighta been Maloney or it mighta been Periera. Well, as the professors say, for the sake of this argument, I am goin' to say it was you.'
I slip my hand under my coat an' I pull my Luger outa the shoulder holster an' cover him with it.
'Look, sweetheart,' I say. 'I have gotta reputation for bein' plenty tough, an' I am goin' to be tough with you. If I have any nonsense outa you I'm goin' to drill you. Then I'm goin' to say that it was you who tried to bump me earlier tonight; that I followed you out here to pinch you an' that you tried another shot an' then I shot an' killed you, an' how do you like that?'
He stands there an' I can see that he is beginnin' to sweat. 'An' if you don't want me to do that,' I tell him, 'you're goin' to tell me the name of that dame who was kickin' around with Aymes. There was one, an' I wanta know who it was. If you ain't made up your mind who she was an' where she is livin' right now, by the time that I can count up to ten, I am goin' to give it to you in the guts. See?'
He don't say anything. I start countin'.
When I have got to nine he puts his hand up. His forehead is covered with sweat an' I can see his hands tremblin'.
'OK,' he says. 'You win. The dame's name is Paulette Benito, an' she's livin' at a dump called Sonoyta just off
