'OK. Well, returnin' to Granworth. He goes back to his car an' he starts it up an' he drives back to his office. By now it is about eight-thirty an' he is lookin' forward to havin' a big laugh with Paulette about his talk with Henrietta an' maybe he is reckonin' on takin' her some place to dinner.
'Right. Granworth goes up to his office an' there he finds two people waitin' for him. He finds Langdon Burdell an' Paulette. When he goes in the door of the outer office he is so high that he forgets to close it behind him. If he had I mighta not been tellin' this story.
'Anyhow he goes inta the inner office an' he gives himself another drink an' he starts laughin' his head off. Then he starts tellin' Paulette and Burdell about his interview with Henrietta. He tells these two that the poor sap Henrietta thinks that she has got two hundred grand in dollar bonds an' that the poor mutt is threatenin' him with divorce thinkin' that she has got plenty money an' that all the time all she has got is a bunch of counterfeit paper.
'They all start laughin' like hell. They all think that it is one helluva joke an' just when they are screamin' their heads off the door opens an' in walks Rudy Benito, and I reckon this guy has been standin' in the outer office an' has heard them tellin' the whole bag of tricks.
'Rudy starts in. He tells 'em about it. He tells Granworth what a cheap four-flushin' devil he is an' then he turns around to Paulette an' tells her what he thinks about her. He tells her just what he thinks about a lousy daughter of hell who would help to swindle her dyin' husband an' who could sit down an' laugh about it.
'He stands there pointin' his finger at 'em. An' then he tells 'em something else.
'He says that the fact that Granworth is prepared to return the money don't matter a durn to him. He says that he is goin' to the police. He says that he is goin' to bust the whole works an' hold 'em both up for all the world to see what lousy scum they are. He says that if it's the last thing he ever does he's goin' to put 'em behind the bars.
'An' then what! Well, I'll tell you. Paulette here is pretty burned up. She is furious at bein' caught out like this. Right by where she is sittin' on the edge of Granworth Aymes' desk is a big paper weight-the figure of a boxer, the same one that's there now. She gets up an' she grabs it. She smashes it down on Rudy's skull an' she kills him. He lies there dyin', a poor sick guy that never had a chance, an' there, sittin' in that chair lookin' at us, is the lousy dame who did it!'
Paulette cracks. She jumps up. She rushes across to the desk an' she leans across it. Her eyes are blazin' an' she is so worked up she can hardly talk.
'I never did it,' she yells. 'I tell you I never did it. It's all true but the killing. I didn't do that. Granworth did it. He killed Rudy. I tell you he killed him with the paper weight.'
She falls on the floor in front of the desk. She lies there writhin'. I go around an' take a look at her.
'Thanks a lot, Paulette,' I tell her. 'Thank you for the tip. That's just what I wanted to know.'
CHAPTER 15
I WALK around the desk an' I stand there lookin' at her as she is lyin' on the floor. I reckon she is goin' to give herself a double dose of hysteria in a minute.
I bend down an' pick her up. I carry her over to the chair an' while I am doin' it she tries - even fixed the way she is - to pull something. While she is in my arms she sorta turns her bead an' looks at me an' she puts everything inta that look that she's got. I reckon that if that dame coulda cut off ten years of her life if she was able to kill me with a look she woulda done it. It was poison I'm tellin' you.
I throw her down in the chair.
'Take it nice an' calm, Cleopatra,' I tell her, 'because gettin' excited or raisin' hell around here is goin' to be as much use to you as a red pepper on a gumboil. Sweet dame, you are all shot to hell, you are washed up like a dead fish in a waterspout. From now on you are the sample that got lost in the mail, you are the copy the news-editor spiked, you are the lady who got stood-up by a gumshoein' Federal dick that you thought was a pushover. You make me sick. Even if you was good I wouldn't like you.'
She goes as red as hell. I reckon talkin' to her this way has stopped her hysterics anyhow. She takes a pull at herself.
'You cheap heel,' she says. 'I wish I'd shot you when I had the chance. I wish I'd hurt you so that it took you a year to die. But get this. Somebody will get you. Somebody will get you for this!'
'Nope, little buttercup',' I tell her. 'Somebody won't, an' if you keep them shell-like ears of yours flappin' an' stop thinkin' of new things to call me you'll hear just why 'somebody' won't. Another thing I ain't frightened of friends of yours, little dewdrop, an' though they may be all the world to you to me they are just bad smells. An' another thing, if every crook who has tried to iron me out had done what he wanted I would be so full of holes that they could use me for a nutmeg grater.
'Stay quiet an' take what's comin' to you like a lady.'
I turn around to Henrietta. She is sittin' up starin'. She is tryin' to understand just where she is breakin'. You ain't never seen a dame as surprised as Henrietta.
'But, Lemmy,' she says. 'You say that Granworth killed Rudy Benito. Then what happened? I don't understand. Did Granworth commit suicide afterwards?'
'Take it easy, honeybunch,' I tell her. 'You ain't heard the half of it yet. By the time I'm through you'll begin to understand just what a lousy heel that husband of yours was, an' just how much trouble a cheap dame like this Paulette here can start if she feels like it.
'OK. Well let's go on from there. There is poor Rudy Benito lyin' on the floor as dead as last month's prime cuts. Langdon Burdell, Granworth, an' Paulette standin' lookin' at each other an' wonderin' what the hell they are goin' to do next, an' then Paulette gets another swell idea - an' is it a good one? I'm tellin' you that it was such a good one that they nearly got away with it.
'She remembers that Granworth has tried to commit suicide two years before - the time when he drove his car over the wharf. OK. Well, nobody much knows about Rudy. He ain't known in New York an' anyhow he was just plannin' to scram down to Mexico. So nobody is goin' to miss him. So she suggests to Granworth an' Burdell that they take the clothes off Rudy, put Granworth's clothes on him, stick him in the car an' drive him over the edge of the wharf. Everybody will think that Granworth has committed suicide, an' Granworth can scram off with Paulette an' clear down to Mexico an' pretend that he's her husband Rudy.
'The only thing they have gotta be careful about is the police identification. But they know that Henrietta has gone back to Hartford. If they can keep her outa New York till Rudy's body is buried an' if Langdon Burdell fixes so that he is the guy who identifies Rudy's corpse as bein' that of Granworth then everything is hunky dory. Do you get it?
'Granworth thinks the idea is a jewel. It lets him out. All he has gotta do is to scram with Paulette an' get outa New York to some place where nobody won't know him an' he is safe as the bank. Also he gets rid of Henrietta which is another idea he likes, an' anyhow he is a lousy dog who will do anything that Paulette tells him to. So he takes his clothes off an' they put them on Benito who is about the same size. Then they smash Benito's face in some more; then Granworth writes a suicide note an' they put it, with Granworth's lettercase, in Benito's pocket.
'Then they have a meetin' as to how they are goin' to get the body down to the wharf an' Paulette has another big idea. She says that she will get in the car an' drive Benito's body down, because as Granworth was meetin' his wife Henrietta that night, if anybody sees her they will think it is Henrietta.
'So Granworth an' Burdell pick up the body an' they take it down by the service lift at the back of the block. Paulette' is waitin' there in the car. They stick Benito in the passenger seat an' Paulette, drivin' round the back streets, gets down to Cotton's Wharf. Once there she gets out, leans in the car, puts her hand down on the clutch an' pushes the gear lever in, an' steps back an' slams the door. The car starts off an' after hittin' a wood-pile goes over the edge.
