all workin' overtime with wet towels round their domes, but even that mob couldn't get you outa the jam you're in. So take it easy an' be a good girl otherwise I'm goin' to smack you plenty.'
I take her upstairs an' I stick around while she gets her things on. After this I look around for the Mexican jane but she ain't there, so it looks as if she has scrammed some place.
Paulette ain't sayin' a thing. She just looks like hell. When she is ready I take her outa the house an' back to where the car is. In the car I got a coupla pair of police bracelets an' I shackle up Paulette an' stick her in the back so's she can't move.
I get in the car an' start off. I reckon I have gotta move plenty quick otherwise some of Daredo's pals may get around an' find him an' he might decide to start something else. I would like to take this Luis Daredo along too, but you gotta realise that this guy is a Mexican an' I do not want to start any complications, so I reckon I will take a chance about him not startin' anything when I have gone.
I tread on it an' get ahead as fast as I can. I pull on to the main road leadin' to the State intersection an' pretty soon we pass the spot where Luis is lyin' in the cactus without any pants. I take a peek behind an' look at Paulette. She sees him too, an' in spite of everythin' she has to smile. That guy certainly did look a sight.
After a bit the road gets better an' we whiz, an' pretty soon we pull on to the State road to Yuma.
The day has started an' the sun is comin' up. I start singin' Cactus Lizzie which, as I have told you before, is a song that I am very partial to.
I reckon that I have got to do a hundred an' fifty miles to Yuma, an' I wanta do it quick.
There are two-three things that I have gotta fix down there pronto, because if the ideas that I have got in my head are right there is plenty goin' to start happenin'.
I light myself a cigarette, an' I throw a look over my shoulder at Paulette. She is lyin' back in the seat with her hands, with the steel bracelets on 'em, in her lap.
'One for me, Lemmy,' she says, smilin'.
I light a cigarette an' lean back an' put it in her mouth. She nods her head. I turn around again.
'You know, Lemmy,' she says after a bit. 'Aren't you taking a bit of a chance? I imagine you are holding me as a material witness, but I have yet to know the authority on which a Federal Agent can handcuff and take an American woman out of Mexican territory just because he thinks that she may have important evidence. Because that's all you've got on me. I'm just a material witness. You can't bring charges against me for attempting to shoot you, because I'm entitled to shoot any man I find in my house at night.'
She takes a puff at her cigarette.
'I think that I'm going to make things very difficult for you, Lemmy,' she says.
I look at her over my shoulder.
'Look, Paulette,' I say. 'You can take a pull at yourself an' don't talk hooey. I don't give a durn about your takin' a shot at me. An' I ain't takin' you back as a material witness or anything else like that, so don't start tellin' yourself what you're goin' to do to me, because you're takin' yourself for a ride, honeybunch, an' I'd hate to see you disappointed.'
'I see,' she says. 'Then if I'm not a material witness, an' you're forgetting about the shooting, may I be so curious as to ask just for what you are taking me somewhere for?'
'OK, honey,' I tell her. 'Here it is. I'm takin' you back to Palm Springs just because I wanta take you there, an' when I get you there I'm chargin' you with first-degree murder.'
I give her another cigarette over my shoulder.
'I'm chargin' you with the murder of Granworth Aymes on the night of the 12th January,' I tell her, 'an' how do you like that?'
CHAPTER 12
IT Is eleven o'clock at night when I pull the car up outside Metts' house in Palm Springs.
Paulette seemsta have settled down a bit. She has also got the idea that she is gain' to make a big sap outa me before she is through.
I stuck around at Yuma for a coupla hours because I wanted to telephone through to Metts an' tell him one or two things so that he wouldn't be too surprised when I showed up an' I also had a spot of business to do over the 'phone with the Mexican authorities at Mexicali an' another spot with the New York Office. I stuck around there for a bit so's Paulette could get her hair done, an' also so that we shouldn't arrive at Metts' place at Palm Springs before night because I have got an idea that I don't want anybody to see Paulette. I am goin' to keep her nice an secret for a bit.
I hand her over to Metts in his sittin' room.
'This is Paulette Benito,' I tell him, 'an' I am chargin' her with first-degree murder of Granworth Aymes. I'd be glad if you'd book her on that an' hold her pendin' extradition to the State of New York. I think that maybe two or three days in the lock-up here would do this dame a quite lotta good. It might sorta get her mind nice an' peaceful so's she feels like talkin'.'
'That's OK by me,' says Metts.
He rings the bell an' tells a cop to get through to the Police Office an' have a sergeant take Paulette along an' book her. He says that she is to be held incommunicado pendin' further instructions.
Paulette just stands there. She is lookin' fine. She has got her hair done very nice like I told you at Yuma, an' she has got a swell suit on an' ruffles. She looks like she would have to take two bites to eat a lump of butter.
She smiles at me an' Metts.
'Very well,' she says. 'You have it your own way now, Lemmy, but believe me I'm going to make the Federal Service too hot to hold you before I'm through with you. And I insist on a lawyer. I'm entitled to one and I'm going to have one. Any objections, or are you going to twist the legal constitution of the United States to suit yourself?'
'That's OK by me, Paulette,' I tell her. 'Mr Metts here will get a good lawyer sent around to you in the morning. An' then what? I reckon you an' him can have a great time together while you tell him how you didn't kill Granworth. But you ain't goin' to be sprung. You ain't goin' to get no bail or get outside the lock-up until I say so, so you can bite on that an' like it.'
She smiles at me. She shows her little white teeth an' I don't reckon I have ever seen such pretty teeth except maybe Henrietta's.
The copper comes in to take her.
'Au revoir, Lemmy,' she says. 'What a cheap fiatfoot you are! You didn't really think that I'd fallen for you, did you?'
'Me - I never think at all where dames are concerned,' I crack back at her. 'I just let them do the thinkin'. Well, so long, Paulette. Don't do anything that you wouldn't like your mother to know about.'
The copper takes her away.
I tell Metts just as much of the works as I want him to know, an' I tell him just how I am goin' to play this thing from now on. Metts is a good guy, an' he has got brains, an' he sees that what I am doin' is the only way to play this job. So he cuts in an' says I can rely on him the whole durn way.
After which he gives me a wire that has come through from the 'G' Office in New York.
An' when I read it do I get a kick or do I?
I told you that I sent a wire to the New York 'G' Office before I went inta Mexico. In this wire I sent 'em a list of the clothes that Henrietta was wearin' on the night of the 12th January when she went into New York to see Granworth, an' I asked the New York Office to check up with the maid Marie Dubuinet and the night watchman an' ask 'em if they could identify these clothes as bein' Henrietta's. Well, here is the reply:
Reference your wire. The maid Marie Dubuinet now employed by Mrs John Viaford, New York, definitely identified clothes as being part of outfit packed by her for Mrs Henrietta Aymes when proceeding to Hartford,
