Kolmar kept the muzzle trained on my waist. “You all right?” he called.
The little man was sitting up now. He held the side of his jaw and grunted.
“You got him, huh? This the bastard who slugged me? Put your gun down, A.J. I want a chance at him myself.”
“Come in,” Kolmar told him. “We’re going to settle this inside.”
Dean got to his feet and charged up the porch steps. “I’ll settle him,” he panted. “Hit a guy without warning, huh? I’ll rip his heart out, the sonof—”
“Shut up!”
Dean shut up. We walked into the parlor. Kolmar jerked the gun toward me. “Over there,” he said.
Dean began to move after me.
“You stay where you are,” Kolmar ordered.
“But I only want to give him a—”
“Never mind.”
I turned and nodded. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I apologize. I thought you were somebody else, one of the men who tried to kill me last night. You look just like him. It was a natural mistake.”
“The hell it was. You come right up and socked me one. If A. J. don’t let me have a chance at you, I’ll—”
“It’s the truth,” I said. “You look enough like this man to be his brother.” I paused. “Do you have a brother, Dean?”
“No.”
Kolmar grunted at him. “Get out,” he said.
“Now wait a minute, A.J.”
“Get out.”
“All right.” Dean moved toward the door. “But I’m not forgetting. You got something coming to you, brother.”
He went out.
“Are you sure he hasn’t got a brother?” I asked.
Kolmar grunted again. “I wouldn’t know, Clayburn. I wouldn’t know.” The gun kept watching me out of its one eye. We made a good pair, but I didn’t appreciate it right now.
“Suppose I ask the questions for a change,” Kolmar suggested.
“Go ahead,” I told him. “But why don’t you put that thing away? You’re not going to shoot me.”
“Don’t be too sure.”
“Tell you the truth, I’m not.” It was hard to grin, but I made it. And he put the gun down on the desk. Not too far away, though.
“What’s your interest in this business, Clayburn?”
“Looking for a story. Didn’t Trent tell you?”
“Why should he tell me anything?”
“That’s one of the things I wanted to find out. Trent worked for you. Polly Foster worked for you. Dick Ryan worked for you. And they’re all dead now.”
“So?”
“It could be a coincidence. But I don’t think so.”
He almost reached for the gun again. Instead his hand went to his pocket and came out with a handkerchief. He mopped his forehead. There was plenty to mop. It went all the way back.
“What are you suggesting, Clayburn? That I killed them? That’s impossible. The police have my alibis.”
“I’m not saying you pulled the trigger, no. But you have people working for you.”
“Killers?”
“This Joe Dean wanted to do a job on me just now.”
“You hit him. Naturally, he got sore.”
“Naturally.”
“But that doesn’t mean he’d kill you. It doesn’t mean he’d kill anybody.”
“He has a record in Detroit.”
“I wouldn’t know about that. He’s just my chauffeur.”
“And he used to work for Dick Ryan.”
“That’s right.” Kolmar put the handkerchief down. “He used to work for Dick Ryan and Ryan was murdered. You know what that cost me, to have that boy die on me in the middle of production? And everything he ever did went sour when the news hit the papers. Reefers, yet, they had to drag reefers into the case!”
“I know.”
“You know something else?” Kolmar sighed. “Polly Foster cost me another fortune: seven reels in the can, and three to go. Now she’s dead. I ask you!”
“Tough.”
“Tough, he says? And Trent. We were getting ready to do something with Trent. Had a new script lined up, going to make him over into a sympathetic character. Gotten ourselves a new hero type, maybe. So what happens? Bang.”
“I’m aware of that.”
“Well be aware of this, then, Clayburn. You think I’d go to work and commit suicide by knocking off my own contract players? You think I’d toss a million dollars out the window like that? It don’t make sense.”
“Nothing makes sense,” I answered. “Nothing. That’s why I’m grabbing at anything that looks as if it formed even part of a pattern. Like the fact that all these people worked for you.”
“You think I haven’t wondered about that? Maybe it’s one of my lousy competitors, some of those guys would murder their own mothers. Take a fella like Sam Hague, now.”
I shook my head. “That’s nonsense, and you know it.”
“So what else can a guy figure? Like you say, it’s all
“There’s one other possible link,” I said slowly. “And that’s what I came out here to see about.”
“What’s that?”
“Reefers.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh yes you do. They found evidence in Ryan’s trailer, didn’t they? I think that forms part of the pattern, too. Did Polly Foster smoke weed? What about Tom Trent?”
“You’re
“You’ve got Dean. He has a record.”
“So maybe I’ll fire him. Clayburn, take it from me, that reefer talk don’t mean a thing.”
“I think it does. I think it’s the key to the whole mess. And I was hoping you’d be able to furnish some information which might help me. If not, I’ll just have to keep on looking.”
“For a lousy magazine story, huh?”
“It’s a living.”
“Living?” He came around from behind the desk. “You talk about a living, after what’s happened to me? I’m going to tell you something, Clayburn. These killings cost me some of my top talent. I lost more than a million bucks so far. How long you think I can afford to sit still and watch this kind of stuff go on?
“You think I’m blind or something? I know what’s happening. It’s a conspiracy, that’s what it is. You think you fool me? Maybe the cops believe that cockeyed story of yours about how you’re out trying to write a yarn for the magazines. But I know better.
“It’s a frame, isn’t it? I was right, wasn’t I? Somebody’s behind all this; somebody’s out to ruin me. And you know who. Because you’re working for them!”
“That’s not so.”
“I say it is.” He bent over me, shaking. “And I know what you really come for. You want a deal, is that it? Well, go ahead. I’ll play ball. Tell me how much you want to lay off. But you got to promise to give me the names. I want to know who it is that’s trying to knife me.”
“You’ve got it all wrong. Nobody’s out to get you, Mr. Kolmar.”
“Quit stalling and tell me how much.”
