be interested, listen to the TV programme, local network, at eleven tonight for a news flash.
Got it? The local station at eleven tonight. See you in the gas chamber,’ and I hung up before he could say anything.
As I came out of the booth I saw a big man with a red face and with cop written all over him come into the store.
I knew sooner or later the axe would fall, but when I saw him my blood ran cold.
He came straight up to me.
‘Mr. Barber?’
‘That’s right.’
‘You’re wanted at headquarters. We have a car right here.’
‘Why, sure,’ I said, and as we walked together from the store to the waiting car, I thought of Nina.
The detective and I got in the back of the car. The other detective who had been waiting by the car, slid under the driving wheel.
‘What’s it all about?’ I asked as the car shot away. ‘Has something come up?’
‘I wouldn’t know,’ the detective said in a bored flat voice. ‘They just told me to fetch you, and I’m fetching you.’
There was nothing now I could do. I had played a King and now everything depended on whether O’Reilly held the Ace or only the Queen. If he held the Ace, I was sunk.
II
Renick was working at his desk. The one light in the room came from his green shaded lamp. It made a pool of hard light on his blotter.
The two detectives shepherded me into the office as if they were handling something fragile, then as soon as I was safely delivered, they stepped back into the passage and closed the door.
I walked to a chair and sat down, glad of the heavy shadows in the room.
Renick was smoking. He tossed his pack of cigarettes and his lighter into my lap. There was a short silence as I lit a cigarette.
‘What’s up?’ I asked as I put the lighter and the cigarettes on the desk. ‘I was just going to bed,’
‘Let’s cut out the bluff, Harry,’ he said quietly. ‘You’re in bad trouble and you must know it.’
‘Am I under arrest?’
‘Not yet. I thought I’d have a talk with you first. This is off the record. I could lose my job handling it this way, but I’ve known you, come rain, come sunshine for the past twenty years. You and Nina are real people to me so I’m giving you a break. I want you to tell me the truth. If you’re in the kind of trouble I think you are, I’m handing you over to Reiger. I’m not going to work on you. Let’s have the truth and it’s strictly off the record: did you kill Odette Malroux?’
I looked directly at him.
‘No, but I don’t expect you to believe me.’
‘There are no microphones in this office, and no witnesses. I’m asking you, not as a police officer, but as your friend.’
‘The answer is still the same: I didn’t kill her.’
He leaned forward to crush out his cigarette. The white light from the desk lamp lit up his face. He looked as if he hadn’t had any sleep for a couple of days.
‘Well, at least that’s something,’ he said. ‘You’re mixed up in this business, aren’t you?’
‘I certainly am. I’m in such a jam, even having you as a friend, isn’t going to do me any good.’
He lit another cigarette.
‘Suppose you tell me the whole story.’
‘Sure – how did you get on to me, John?’
‘Tim Cowley told me he had seen you at the bus stop on the night of the murder with a redhead, wearing a blue and white dress. I kept checking on you, and everything I turned up pointed to you.’
‘I thought maybe Cowley would give me away,’ I said wearily. ‘I was nuts to have got myself mixed up with these two women, but I wanted the money. They offered me fifty thousand dollars for what looked a pretty simple job. I wanted that money to get out of town and make a fresh start.’
‘Let’s have the story.’
So I told him. I told him everything except that Nina had helped me move Odette’s body. I kept her out of it.
‘I thought I was playing safe by having those tapes,’ I concluded, ‘but O’Reilly beat me to it. Now I have nothing – not one thing to support my story.’
All the time I had been talking, Renick had sat motionless, staring at me. Now he drew in a long, slow breath.
‘Well – for the love of Mike! What a story!’ he exclaimed. ‘There’s one thing that doesn’t seem to add up – how was it Odette co-operated in this kidnapping plan?’
‘Yes, that had me guessing, but I’ve thought about it and it’s not all that hard to figure out. It’s my guess she fell for O’Reilly. He probably made a terrific play at her. She must have known her father wouldn’t let her marry the guy. She wanted money to hold O’Reilly. What she didn’t realise was that he had fallen for Rhea. The two of them
