there early, and then you brought Candy out there and, being an efficient executive, you had Simms, and whoever, kill both of them on the spot. Two birds with one stone, you might say. That took care of anyone who seemed to threaten you. And then you came back and had a nice evening and a good sleep and came in here bright-eyed and bushytailed to greet another business day.”
As I spoke he was trying to shake his head, but the pressure of the gun barrel under his nose made it hard, and so his head trembled laterally a bit. It was as close as he could come. To my right Simms was sitting up, his back against the couch.
“There’ll be a hundred cops here in a minute, buddy,” Simms said. His voice sounded slightly warped.
“The better to take you to the pokey, bright eyes,” I said. “You burned Franco and the girl, didn’t you?” Simms just sat and looked at me.
“Didn’t he?” I said to Brewster.
Brewster said “Un-uh” and tried again to shake his head. I banged him in the upper lip with the gun barrel.
“Didn’t he,” I said.
“Un-uh.”
I banged his upper lip again. Tears began to slide down his cheeks. “I followed you out there,” I said. “I know you killed her. I won’t mind shooting you right through your upper teeth. I liked her.”
“Simms shot her,” Brewster said. “He was just there to protect us from Franco, but he went crazy and shot her.”
“How about that, Rollie,” I said.
Simms looked at Brewster with disgust. “You got it right the first time,” he said.
Someone tried the door to Brewster’s office and then knocked. A voice said, “This is the police. Open the door.”
I raised my voice. “If anyone comes in here, I’ll blow both of these lizards apart.”
There was silence. Then another voice said, “My name is Sergeant Eugene Hall. I’m going to call you on the phone in there, and we can talk. There’s nothing we can’t work out.”
I said, “No. Not yet. I have a call to make. After that I’ll talk with you. Call here in five minutes.”
“Sure,” Hall said. “No hurry. Just be easy.”
I picked up the phone and got Information and called KNBS, and got John Frederics, the news director
Chapter 28
WHEN I TOLD Frederics what I wanted, he said, “I’ll come myself,” and hung up. Maybe I had underrated him.
Brewster’s lip was swelling, one eye was closing, blood still snuffled out of his hose. While I was talking, he had slid to the floor and now sat with his back against the window wall, his feet straight out in front of him. Simms had gone the other way. He was sitting on the couch now. There was a large bruise on his temple. He seemed to be missing a tooth. I noticed that there was a cut on the knuckles of my left hand.
Brewster said, “What are you going to do?” He had trouble speaking clearly.
I said, “You are going to confess on camera to the murder of Candy Sloan.”
Brewster said, “What if I don’t?”
I said, “I’ll kill you.”
“There’s cops out there.”
“Yeah, and how bad will they feel about you taking the jump when I tell them why?”
The phone rang. I picked it up and said, “Yeah?” A voice said, “This is Gene Hall. What kind of a deal can we make?”
I said, “You know a homicide cop named Samuelson?”
Hall said, “Sure.”
“Get him,” I said. “Tell him I’ve got the people who killed Sam Felton, and Candy Sloan, and Franco Montenegro. Tell him he can have them, but I want a little time to do something I have to do.”
“Who you got in there? Secretary’s so excited, I’m having trouble understanding her.”
“I got Peter Brewster, who’s the head of this company, and Rollie Simms, who’s the chief of security.”
“And what’d you say your name was?”
“Spenser.”
“Okay. You want to stay by this phone so we can keep in touch?”
“Call anytime,” I said and hung up.
Brewster and Simms sat as they had. I said to Brewster, “In a few minutes a guy from KNBS will be here with a cameraman. He’s going to come in and interview you. You are going to give him a statement that I am going to type out for you right now.”
I pulled an IBM Selectric typewriter over near me on its typing table, turned it on, and began to type with one finger while I held the gun toward Simms. Brewster had given up, but Simms was of sterner stuff.
