“Naturally I am.” Lew Recker spoke strongly. “I simply can’t see Dave in that connection. My God, he’s…”
Shayne made a swift gesture with his open hand. “No matter what sort of person Dave Jenson is, I strongly suspect he’s a double murderer. Keep that in mind while I go on.
“His first reaction when he arrives is going to be very important. I want him to do some talking before he realizes there’s anyone else here. Even Estelle. I want you to lead him on, Recker. It shouldn’t be too difficult. Act scared as you did over the phone and tell him the police have been here questioning you about the Elbert Green murder. Remind him of the way you helped cover up for Elsie on the telephone call, and…”
“But I didn’t,” protested Recker between clenched teeth. “I’ve told you again and again I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“And I still say you’re a liar. You play this my way or else.” Shayne strode through the side door off the living room and found himself in a hallway leading directly into a small kitchenette, with a bedroom opening off on the left.
He turned back and beckoned to Estelle, saying, “You and I will step in here when Jenson comes. We’ll leave the door ajar so we can hear everything, and I’ll be watching you, Recker. Put your door on the latch right now, so you can stand back here in my sight while you call for him to come in. Stay there in my sight while you talk to him. If you make one gesture to warn him I’m here it’ll be too damned bad for you.”
“I won’t do anything like that,” protested Recker weakly. “Why in the name of God should I? If Dave has done anything, I certainly have no reason to protect him.”
He went forward as he spoke, opened his front door and pressed the button that took it off the night-latch. He closed it again, and Estelle came over submissively to stand next to Michael Shayne at the side door. She was trembling and her voice shook a trifle as she asked him, “Couldn’t I just go now? I’ve told you everything I know. I don’t see why I have to stay.”
“Because I don’t know yet how much you’ve told me is truth and how much isn’t.” Shayne put his hand on her arm and stiffened as the soft thud of footsteps sounded in the carpeted hallway outside. “That may be Jenson now. Do your stuff, Recker.”
He drew her back through the doorway, holding her arm in a firm grip. Leaving the door partially ajar, he stood where he could watch his host through the opening.
There was a knock on the door, and Recker glanced aside nervously to be sure Shayne and Estelle were invisible to anyone entering the room, then called out loudly, “Come in.”
Shayne heard the outer door open, and a pleasing baritone voice exclaimed, “Lew! What’s this about Elsie and the police?”
Recker stood where he was. “You heard what happened to her last night?”
“Of course. She got her foolish neck twisted just as she’s been begging to have done for years. What’s that to do with you and me?”
“I don’t know. The police seem to think her murder goes back somehow to that other thing three months ago. When a man named Green was murdered.”
For a moment there was no response from David Jenson. Shayne would have given a great deal to have been able to watch his face at the moment, but it was best, he thought, to remain concealed as long as possible.
“Green?” the newcomer finally said in an oddly altered voice. “I thought that was what you said over the telephone. But why, Lew? She was completely in the clear on that, as you know.”
“The cops don’t seem to think so.” Recker’s voice shook slightly. “They’re trying to tear down her alibi for that night… trying to prove, I guess, that she went to the hotel with him and did it.”
“But that’s impossible! You took her home that night, practically passed out, and… well damn it, maybe you never did know this, Lew. I don’t suppose the police told you at the time. No reason why they should. They were damned decent about not giving it to the papers, and Lucy never did find out. But I know she had nothing to do with Green because I was in her apartment with her all the time.”
“I didn’t know that.” Watching Lew Recker carefully through the half-open side door, Shayne was convinced the writer hadn’t known this fact. He made a hopeful gesture, now, and said, “All you have to do then is to remind the police of that and convince them they’re barking up the wrong tree.”
“But how did they get started on this line?” demanded Jensen’s voice in a tone of genuine puzzlement. “They’ve got your testimony and mine in the old records.”
“Don’t ask me why any cops thinks what he thinks or does what he does. There’s something,” went on Recker unwillingly, “about a telephone call Elsie is supposed to have made that night.”
“A telephone call?”
Recker nodded, tight-lipped. “I don’t know where the idea came from but they’re trying to prove she went to some barroom near her place that night and telephoned Elbert Green to come and pick her up outside the place.”
“But that’s impossible! She didn’t go out to any barroom while I was with her. And I don’t believe she had time to do it before I got there.”
“I don’t believe it either,” said Recker nervously. “I’m just telling you what the police are saying.”
“Where could they have got hold of that idea?” The smooth baritone voice was lower now, with an ominous note concealed beneath the outward suavity. The visitor was moving forward into the room.
“How do I know?” burst out Recker defensively. “It’s the first I ever heard of it.”
“Are you sure of that, Lew? Sure you didn’t hand them that bit of gratuitous information?”
“How could I when I didn’t even know about it? Damn it, Dave! Are you suggesting she did make such a call?”
“I’m suggesting nothing.” Jensen’s voice was soft again. It came from a position near Recker, just beyond Shayne’s line of vision. “It occurred to me it was the sort of thing you might have dreamed up to save your own skin. After all, we know that you and I both perjured ourselves to save Elsie’s skin that night. We both know she had no idea in the world where she was or what happened after she left the party.”
Lew Recker wet his lips and cast an anxious, sidelong glance at Shayne beyond the door.
“I don’t know any such thing. No matter what you did, I didn’t perjure myself.”
“Come off it, Lew. Just between us girls, I know all about her turning up at Estelle’s place at four o’clock after being passed out cold for several hours. You didn’t tell the cops that.”
“N-no,” Recker stammered. “I didn’t see any reason to. I felt sorry for her.”
“Yeh?” David Jenson jeered. His voice cold and thick with jealous hatred. “It also gave you a hold over her, didn’t it? You know damn well she despised you after the first time you took advantage of her when she was tight, and that hurt your lousy ego. So you made a deal with her. You’d help alibi her for Green’s death if she’d let you into her bed when you demanded entry.”
“No! It wasn’t like that.” Beads of sweat were appearing on Lew Recker’s forehead. Close beside him, Michael Shayne felt Estelle trembling violently. His fingers tightened warningly on her arm. He wanted nothing to interrupt the conversation that was taking place in the other room.
Unfortunately, an interruption did occur at that moment. Lew Recker’s telephone began ringing, and with an apologetic, sidelong glance toward the redheaded detective, the writer moved forward to answer it.
Shayne heard him lift the receiver and say, “Hello?” and after a brief moment his voice came more loudly, “Michael Shayne? Wait just a moment. I don’t know… “
With an exclamation of angry impatience, Shayne released his grip on Estelle’s arm and strode forward into the living room. David Jenson whirled about in the center of the rug to stare at him in utter consternation, and Shayne had a momentary glimpse of a big blond man with a smoothly boyish face and light blue eyes that were round and big and seemed to stand out from the flesh.
Shayne tramped past him without a second glance, to Lew Recker who held the telephone out to him wordlessly. Shayne took it and snapped, “Yes?” into the instrument, heard Ed Radin’s voice come over clearly:
“Mike! We’re at the hospital and Brett will pull through. X-rays show no fracture. He won’t be conscious for twelve hours or so, but is otherwise okay.”
“Swell. You want to come down here for the windup?”
“You mean that, Mike?” Radin’s voice was eager. “Lieutenant Hogan is with me. He’s been wondering what the devil you’re up to?”
“Just tell the Lieutenant,” said Shayne happily, “that I’m about to make one of my famous passes and give
