Shooting Star/Spiderweb

It was black as midnight when I came home. In fact, it was midnight. There were no lights shining inside the house, not even from Rogers’ upstairs room. I let myself in and clicked the living-room switch.

Immediately, the phone jingled.

I answered. The Professor’s voice snapped across the wire. “Where have you been? I’ve called many times.”

“Sorry. Just got in.”

“Answer my question, please. Where were you?”

“Visiting Ellen Post.”

“Good.”

“I’m glad you approve.”

“I do. By the way, we collected the first fifty thousand tonight. No trouble.”

“Congratulations.”

“And that brings up another matter. I’ve got to invest the money, right away. I’m leaving for San Francisco for a few days, perhaps a week. Taking Rogers with me. You’ll carry on as usual, with one new assignment.”

“What’s that?”

“Keep on seeing Ellen Post.”

“Very pleasant assignment. I intend to.”

“You might enjoy going out and doing the town with her. She likes to drink, doesn’t she?”

“Now wait a minute. You sound as if you have ideas. And you promised me—”

“Nothing to worry about, I assure you. I just think you’re in need of relaxation. The tension of recent weeks seems to be wearing you down. Why not have some of that amusement you’re always talking about?”

Sure. The Professor was right. Live it up a little. He was my friend. My friend, who wanted me to get Ellen Post drunk in public, preparatory to working some new blackmail scheme I wasn’t supposed to know about. He and Rogers would go away and line it all up, and I’d be here laying the groundwork. But suppose I double-crossed him and wouldn’t play?

He answered that without my asking. “Don’t worry while I’m gone. Miss Bauer will communicate with me regularly. And I’ve told Jake to keep an eye on you.”

“That was thoughtful.”

“You ought to know by this time—I think of everything.”

“All right.” I kept my voice even. “Have a good trip.”

“Thank you,” said the Professor. “Enjoy yourself, while I’m gone.”

Click.

Well, there it was. Mike Drayton was dead, Edgar Caldwell was framed and not long for this world, and Ellen Post was next on the list. Everybody I touched was marked for doom. Because I was a puppet named Judson Roberts, and the Professor pulled the strings.

Only he was going away. I’d have four or five days to work. Four or five days to straighten things out, pull out forever, with Ellen. It was my only chance. I’d have to make my plans and execute them quickly.

I switched off the light. I could think better in the dark. Picking up a cigarette en route, I walked over to the window and stared down at the street. There was a beat-up old Ford parked before my door. It was empty. But lounging in the shadows, staring up at me, watching and waiting patiently, was Jake.

That’s how the nightmare began...

Sixteen

Maybe he went away before dawn. Maybe he slept in the car. All I know is that when I went downstairs the next morning, he was standing there.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hello. What are you doing around here?”

“Oh, I’m just gonna stick around for a while, if you don’t mind. You know, the Professor’s going away and he sort of hinted you might need a little protection. In case this gay Caldwell hollers copper or somethin’. If it’s all right with you.” He grinned.

I grinned back. “Sure, Jake. But you needn’t bother.”

“No bother. I’ll come along to the office with you now.”

“I’ll be there all day. I can call you when I decide to go anywhere.”

“Thanks. But I’ll come along. I like hanging around your office. That May, she’s a dish all right.”

“Suit yourself.”

He rode with me to the office and I got inside my private room and closed the door. I picked up my personal phone and dialed Ellen at the beach house. I had to watch what I said in case the Professor had thoughtfully tapped the wire for May to record my conversation.

“Darling, when can I see you? About two be all right? No, I’ll come on out. Like to talk to you. No, I’m not upset. Everything’s fine. Goodbye until then.”

No, I wasn’t upset. Merely petrified. But I had to figure something out, and I had to move fast.

Jake had a time keeping up with me in his battered Ford, but he managed.

“Why you going to drag me off to Malibu?” he grumbled.

“I’m going to see a woman. And you’re going to sit out in the hot sun and sweat. Professor’s idea, remember?”

He called me a name and I gave him a sweet smile. Then we were off.

The same sun shone over the beach today, shimmering in Ellen’s hair. Jake stayed up on the roadway. But even if he’d seen us, it wouldn’t have stopped me from taking her in my arms.

“My! You did want to see me, didn’t you?”

“Let’s go inside,” I suggested.

“Good idea.”

“No—I must talk to you.”

“You disappoint me greatly, sir,” she said.

“Listen, Ellen, this is serious.”

“All right. What’s the matter, Eddie?”

Funny how the little things count. Even then, I wasn’t sure I’d have the nerve to go through with what I planned. But she called me “Eddie.” That was enough. That did it.

I told her everything, then. I told her the Professor had plans to blackmail her uncle through her. I told her that I was to be a part of the scheme. I told her what I suspected.

She shook her head. “But that’s utterly insane! People don’t go around doing such things. Imagine him thinking that you would go for such a scheme!”

“I did go for it, Ellen. I’m taking you out tonight and getting you drunk.”

“You’re what?”

“It’s the only way. I think I’ve figured an angle. If we go to some place like The Gin Mill—”

I explained my angle to her in detail. She nodded.

“This is our only chance, Ellen,” I told her. “I’ve tried to figure it all out. The Professor is gone, but Jake is tailing me. I’ve got to shake him sometime during the next few days, without his realizing that I’m shaking him.

“Then I can get hold of whatever cash is available and disappear with you. We’ll go down to Mexico together, and further south if necessary. We’ll run away for good.”

Ellen pulled away from me. “For good?” she said, softly.

“I don’t understand. Can it be that you don’t want to go away with me?”

“You know I do, Eddie. But we can’t run. You’ll never be safe or sure.”

She was right. She didn’t even know about Drayton’s death, but she was right. I sensed that.

“No, there’s another way. A better way. You told me about this man, Caldwell, and those pictures.”

“Yes.”

“The Professor and his friend Rogers will be gone. Jake is trailing you. Where do you think those pictures would be?”

“At the Professor’s office—no, wait a minute, that would be too risky. Probably at his house.”