handled has boiled down in the long run to 'cherchez la femme'. But maybe that's what makes life so interestin'.
I look at 'em all an' I grin.
'Well, people,' I say, 'here is what they call the end of the story. I reckon that I am bein' a bit irregular in havin' this meetin' right now, an' without havin' Paulette's lawyer around. But you don't have to worry, Paulette, I ain't goin' to ask you any questions an' I ain't goin' to ask you for any statement. What you are goin' to do or what you ain't goin' to do is just up to you.
I look over at Henrietta.
'Honey,' I tell her. 'You have had the worst sorta deal. I reckon that I have had to make things tough for you, but the way I played it was the only way that it woulda worked. The day I had you down here at the Police Station an' grilled you about the clothes you was wearin' that night when you went to New York from Connecticut, was an act. It was an act that I put on for the benefit of Fernandez an' Periera. I was goin' to Mexico an' I had to do somethin' that was goin' to make 'em think that the case was all closed up, that you was the woman I was goin' to pinch for killin' Aymes.
'The same sorta thing had to happen earlier tonight when I pinched you for Aymes' murder. I hadta make them two guys believe that I had the case complete against you, an' that I was goin' to take them to New York as witnesses. I did this because I knew that if they knew they hadta leave the Hacienda in the mornin' the first thing they would do would be to clean up the counterfeitin' plant. I knew that plant was around there somewhere but I just hadta make 'em show me where it was an' that was the way I picked to do it. I'm sorry, lady, but by the time I'm through I reckon you'll understand.'
Henrietta gives me a little smile.
'It's all right, Lemmy,' she says. 'I'm sorry I was rude. I might have guessed that you were much too clever to suspect me of murder.'
'Swell,' I tell her. 'Well people, I reckon I'm goin' to do a lotta talkin', an' I reckon I want you to listen durn carefully to what I'm sayin'. Especially you, Paulette, because you gotta realise that this an' that are goin' to make one helluva difference to you. I told you just now that this meetin'is pretty well out of order from a legal angle; but I'm havin' it for your benefit. When you hear what I gotta say you can go back to the can an' think it over, an' you can also think over just what you're gonna tell that lawyer of yours in the mornin'.
'OK. Here we go: Fernandez an' Periera are dead. Periera squealed on Fernandez an' Fernandez shot him. I croaked Fernandez an' that's that. Both these guys was tied up with the Granworth Aymes counterfeitin' an' the guy who was behind the counterfeitin' an' responsible for it was Granworth Aymes.
'Granworth Aymes had gotta great idea. He was supposed to be a gambler playin' the stock market. Well he did-some-times. When things was good OK, an' when they wasn't, well he reckoned that he could keep goin' by counterfeitin'. This Hacienda Altmira - the place that he built an' mortgaged over to Periera - was the place where the phoney stuff was made an' was it a good scheme? He started off by getting Periera to make phoney money because it was easy to get it inta circulation up in the card room. People who have drunk plenty ain't liable to examine the bills they won or got in change, an' most of the guys who used to play at the Hacienda Altmira was birds of passage. If somebody come along who was livin' in Palm Springs I reckon they'd lay off handin' him any phoney dough. It was when they got a mug that they issued him out with this fake money.
'You remember, Metts, you told me the first night I was here that you found some guy who'd been banged over the head out on the desert not far from the Hacienda? Remember you told me that you thought that this guy had got his up in the card room. Well, I reckon you was right. I reckon this was one of the few guys who'd been given some phoney dough an' made a song an' dance about it. So they croaked him. Altogether this idea of usin' the Hacienda as a place for workin' off this counterfeit on people was swell. They got away with it easy.
'It wasn't until afterwards that they started to make phoney stock an' bond certificates an' I'll tell you why they done this later on.
'This mob was well organised. Aymes was the head of it an Langdon Burdell, the butler at the apartment, Fernandez the chauffeur and Marie Dubuinet the maid, was all in it. Periera was responsible for runnin' the Hacienda an' makin' the phoney stuff. I reckon they been gettin' away with this game for a helluva time.
'OK. Well now I'm goin' to tell you why they started makin' phoney stock an' bond certificates an' transfers, an' I'm goin' to tell you why they made that two hundred thousand dollars' worth of Registered US Dollar Bonds, the stuff that was planted on Henrietta here. It's a swell story an' the dame responsible for it is sittin' right here with us now.'
I grin over at Paulette. She looks back at me an' gives me a horse laugh. She is still fightin' fit an' don't give a durn for anything.
'I gotta apologise to you too, Paulette,' I tell her 'I gotta apologise to you for bringin' you back here on a charge of kuhn' Granworth Aymes. You didn't kill him, but just at the time it looked like the easiest thing for me to do. Right now you are just bein' held on a charge of accessory to counterfeitin', but I don't want you to get too pleased with yourself. Just wait nice an' patient till I get finished, an' then you can laugh as much as you like.
'All right, well about a year ago Granworth meets Paulette an' he falls for her an' she falls for him. I reckon that he was a weak, silly sorta cuss an' the kinda guy who would fall for a swell dame with a strong personality like this Paulette. These two play around together an' Paulette gets to know about the money counterfeitin' business an' she thinks the idea is swell.
'An' then she gets a helluva idea. You gotta realise that she has gotta husband an' this husband is in a pretty bad way. He has got consumption bad an' he can't get around much. He don't get inta New York an' he don't suspect what is goin' on between his wife an' Granworth.
'But it looks as if he hasn't got very long to live, an' Paulette don't wanta wait until he's dead to get her hooks on the money he has got. So she has a helluva idea. She gets the very swell idea of gettin' Rudy Benito to do his investin' through Granworth Aymes, an' she suggests to Granworth that it would be one swell idea if all the stocks an' bonds that he is supposed to buy for Rudy could be made out here at the Hacienda. In other words she an' Granworth stick to the money an' issue Rudy with counterfeit stocks an' bonds.
'Rudy ain't goin' to get wise because Paulette is bein' the lovin' wife who is lookin' after his business affairs - got me? She will be the person who handles the certificates an' share documents an' Rudy is too sick to examine the stuff through a magnifyin' glass an' anyhow he trusts his wife.
'All of which goes to show you just how lousy a dame can be if she wants to be. I reckon most women whose husbands were sick an' dyin' woulda been glad to have stuck around an' given him a hand. But Paulette ain't like this. This lady is the real tough guy - an' is she tough?
'So the game works well an' they get away with it. In a few months they have cleaned Rudy out, an' all he has got is a bunch of phoney certificates.
'Okey doke. Everything is goin' hunky dory when something happens. One day - a day when I reckon that Paulette is away at New York - Rudy gets in a specialist an' gets himself examined again. The specialist tells Rudy that he's pretty bad, but that he will last longer if he gets down to a good dry climate like Arizona or Mexico. Rudy figures to do this an' thinks that he'll take a look at his finances an' things, an' see how he is goin'. So he probably goes an' gets some of the stocks an' bonds that are in Paulette's safe an' maybe he gets around to some local broker just to see what the stuff is worth an' to see how quickly he can realise on it, Can you imagine what a helluva shock this Rudy Benito gets when he finds out that the whole durn lot is phoney, that it is not worth the paper that it's printed on?
'Can you imagine how that poor guy felt? When Paulette gets back he lets her have it. He asks her what the hell has been goin' on.
'So what does she say? She can't tell him that she has been in on this job from the first. She has to make out that Granworth has done 'em both in the eye. She tells Rudy that he needn't worry because Granworth has just made a bundle of dough on the stock market - which is a fact-an' that they will make him cough it up or else they will go to the police.
'But is she annoyed with Rudy? You bet in her heart she hates him like hell. She didn't like him in the first place because he was dyin'. She didn't like him in the second place because she had been twicin' him, an' sometimes if she ever thought about herself she must have reckoned that she was pretty lousy. But when this poor sick guy gets enough intelligence to know that he is bein' done left, right, an' centre, then I reckon she does get burned up. After this she hates this guy like hell.
'Directly she gets the chance she gets on the telephone to Granworth an' tells him that Rudy is wise to the
