'An' it looks like Granworth is learnin' some sense. He plans to buy some more insurance. He is insured on an annuity policy at this time with the Second National Corporation an' he waltzes along an' he says he wants to take out additional insurance. He wants to pay a down premium of thirty thousand dollars. They examine him for health an' they find him OK. They give him the new policy, but there is just one little snag.
'Two years before this guy Granworth Aymes has tried to bump himself off. He tries to commit suicide by jumpin' in East River. He'd been havin' a bad time an' was broke an' didn't like it. He was fished out by a patrolman.
'Havin' regard to this little thing the Insurance Corporation make a proviso in his policy. The proviso says that, havin' regard to the fact that he has tried to commit suicide on a previous occasion, in the event of future suicide on his pan the policy is nullified. They will pay on anything else but not suicide.
'Got that? Well, everything goes along OK an' he makes a bit more dough on the market, an' on the 12th January this year he does another little deal that nets him twelve thousand. He has got forty thousand dollars in his checkin' account at the bank, no debts, a wife with two hundred thousand Dollar Bonds an' is in the best of health accordin' to the Insurance examination of a few months before. So what? So just this. He goes an' commits suicide. Can you beat that?
'On the evenin' of January 12th he is workin' late at his office with his secretary, a guy named Burdell. His wife is stayin' in Hanford, Connecticut; he has fixed to go out to a party with some guys he knows, an' this Burdell guy says he was plenty excited about something.
'He packs up at about eight o'clock an' rings through to the garage for his car. He helps himself to a big drink, says good-night to the Burdell bird an' scrams. Burdell says he was lookin' a bit strange when he went outa the office.
'He used to drive a big grey-blue Cadillac - a car you worldn't forget. At ten minutes past nine he is seen by a wharf watchman drivin' the car down to Cotton's Wharf which is around there, an' while this guy is watchin' him Granworth drives the car into a wooden pile, bounces off an' goes over the edge into East River.
'Next mornin' they yank the car out. Granworth is smashed up pretty good. They get him along to the morgue an' Burdell is telephoned for an' comes along an' identifies him. In his pocket, inside his wallet is a note sayin' that he is feelin' funny in the head an' that he reckons he had better take this way out an' to give his love to his wife an' say he is sorry for what he is doin'.
'All this stuff comes out at the inquest, an' his wife is brought back an' is knocked out by the news, an' they bury this guy an' that is that.
'All right. They clear up his business affairs, an' after everything is fixed up Henrietta reckons that she will come out here an' give herself a holiday at the Hacienda Altmira which was a property Granworth had bought when he was out here two years before an' leased to this guy Periera who calls himself the manager out there. She goes off, an' she hands over Granworth's office business to the secretary Burdell, because Granworth had said one time that he would like him to have it
'All right. Well the Aymes dame comes out here, an' she brings with her about five thousand dollars that was what she got after probate was fixed out of Granworth's checkin' account, an' I suppose she brings out the two hundred thousand bucks in Dollar Bonds. The next thing is that Washington is advised by the State here that a phoney Bond has been slipped over by her an' that she has got another 195,000 dollars' worth of phoney Dollar Bonds, an' they put me on the job.
'I do a little bit of delvin' around an' I get the shorthand notes of the inquest an' get the dope that I have just told you. I check up with this Burdell guy, an' he confirms everything, includin' the fact that this Henrietta was a durn good wife an' a swell dame to get along with; that she was too swell for a piker like Granworth.
'Meantime, I reckon that it will be a good thing if somebody keeps an eye on this dame out here. So I get Sagers put on the job. He gets orders to get along here an' fix himself a job out at the Altmira somehow an' just case out the situation out there. He told me all he knew tonight an' it wasn't much. So there we go, an' what do you know about that?'
Mens scratches his head.
'I reckon that's durn funny!' he says. 'It looks as if somebody had got the original real Bonds off her an' slipped her the phoney stuff in their place.'
'Maybe,' I tell him, 'an' maybe not. Listen, Chief,' I go on, 'you tell me something. When this bank manager Krat found out that the first Bond she tried to slip over was phoney, who did he tell besides you?'
'Nobody,' he says. 'He told me that he hadn't said a word. He was the guy who found out that the Bond was screwy an' he told the boys in the Bank to keep their traps shut an' say nothiri' to anybody. He said that it would be a federal job an' the least said the better. Naturally, I ain't told a soul. I reckoned a federal agent would be along here pretty quick an' I never talk.'
He looks at me old-fashioned.
'Say,' he says with a sorta snarl, 'you don't think...
'I don't think nothin',' I tell him, 'but I'm just askin' you to get a load of this. I got my instructions to handle this job ten days ago. I was in Allentown, Pennsylvania. I ease right along to New York, an' park myself at a hotel dump I use on East 30th Street. The second day I was there somebody sent me a note with no signature on it. This note said that I would probably do a durn sight better for myself if I was to get out to Palm Springs an' take a look around the dump where Mrs Aymes was stayin', that I might find some interestin' letters there.
'Well, I was lucky. Sagers tipped me off about this place tonight, an' I went over there. There wasn't anybody around an' I had a look around an' I found the letters. They was hidden in a book with the inside cut out - you know, Chiet the old stuff-an' these letters show that things wasn't so good between Henrietta an' Granworth as the world believed. More than that they show that she wasn't in Connecticut the night he bumped himself off. She was in New York, an' she'd gone there to have a show down with him. An' how do you like that?'
He whistles.
'That's a hot one,' he says, pourin' me out some more bourbon. 'Maybe there was something screwy about that suicide of his. Maybe she bumped him somehow. Women can get like that sometimes.'
'You're tellin' me,' I say, 'an' what does she bump him for? Does she bump him because she's found that the two hundred grand in Dollar Bonds is phoney, huh? Does she find that out an' get annoyed with him? That would be a motive all right, but I reckon that if she knew the Bonds was fake she wouldn't have been such a mug as to try an'cashoneinona bank. She'd have tried a fast one on somebody who wasn't so wise as a bank guy.'
I shake my head.
'I can't get it,' I say. 'It's not so hot.'
He grins.
'Dames is funny things,' he says. 'They do all sorts of screwy things - even the best of 'em.'
I sink the bourbon.
'You're tellin' me,' I say. 'I know 'em. Dames don't care. Once they got an idea they just do something tough.'
'Yeah,' he says. 'So what are you goin' to do?'
I grin.
'Well, Chief,' I tell him, 'I'll tell you what I ain't goin' to do. I ain't goin' to run around here fiashin' a tin badge an' shoutin' out loud that I am a Federal Agent. I am goin' to check in at the Miranda House Hotel, an' I'm going to keep up the front that I am from Magdalena, Mexico, that I come here to tip Sagers off about comn' into the money, an' that I am goin' to stick around here for a bit an' take a little vacation.
'Tomorrow night I am going out to this Hacienda Altmira. I am goin' to get next to these guys. If they want to play faro, then I'm playin'. I'm goin' to get next to this Henrietta dame an' stick around until I find out what the hell this dame is playin' at an' whether she is on the up an' up or is just another female chiseller who has tried to pull a fast one.
'I gotta find out who bumped Sagers an' why. I gotta try an' get next to somethin' solid about these phoney Bonds, because, right now, it looks as if nothin' makes sense.'
'OK by me,' he says. 'An' I reckon you don't want me or the boys interferin' around at the Hacienda?'
'You're dead right,' I say. 'Say, is this place as lousy as they say?'
He shrugs.
'It's just one of them places,' he says. 'We've had plenty complaints from guys who've lost their dough there. Gamblin's illegal an' we put up a raid now an' then just to amuse the children, but what's the use of tryin' to stop
