The Golden Gizmo

that.'

Airedale stared in unwinking silence, and the house detective shifted uncomfortably. 'Guess they must of gone out,' he remarked, averting his eyes from the bondsman's liquid brown gaze. 'Must of.'

Absently scratching his nose, Airedale started for the window again, and his protruding elbow struck against the stack of the incinerator. He leaped back with a profane yell. Kennedy roared and pounded his knee.

'Oh, J-Jesus,' he laughed. 'You should of seen yourself, Airedale!'

'What the hell is this?' Airedale demanded. 'A hotel or a crematory? What you got a goddam furnace goin' for in weather like this?'

Panting, shaking with laughter, the house detective explained the nature of the stack. Airedale made a closer examination of it. He kicked it. He removed a wisp of hair from the clamp. He measured the stack with his eye, and knew unwillingly that it was quite large enough… to hold a woman's body… Strolling back toward his hotel, he considered the smog through doggish eyes, reflecting, unsentimentally, that Elaine was doubtless part of it by now. That would be like her, to remain a nuisance even in death. Certainly it had been like her to get herself killed at such a completely inopportune time. When she failed to show in the morning, the cops would come after her. They'd do a little investigating, a little talking here and there, and the dragnet would go out for Toddy. There was an all-night drugstore on the next cornet Airedale went in, entered a telephone booth and closed the door firmly behind him. He consulted a small black notebook and creased a number therein with his thumbnail. Fumbling for a coin, he checked over the contemplated project for possible pitfalls.

Fingerprints? No, they'd gotten her prints on her first arrest, and they hadn't bothered with them since. Pictures? No, they already had her mug, too, the newspapers and the police. And as long as she showed up in court-a woman of about the same age and size and coloring- Yeah, it could be done all right. Hundreds of women were in the Los Angeles courts every week. Elaine would draw the interest of papers and police only if she didn't show up.

Airedale dropped a slug into the coin box and dialed a number:

'Billie?'-he stared out through the door glass- 'Airedale. How's it goin'?.. – Yeah? Well, it's slow all over, they tell me. – .. How'd you like a cinch for a while?… Oh, a buck-no, I'll make it a buck and a half… – Sure, don't you understand English? A hundred and a half a week… Well, I'll have to talk it over with you personally. I don't like to kick it around on the phone… Expenses? Sure, you get 'em, Billie girl. Board and room… absolutely free.'

13

Toddy stared at the girl stonily. That reluctance of hers, the way she'd seemingly made Alvarado drag the story out of her, had been very well done. He'd almost believed for a moment that she was on his side. And now she'd lied. It had to be a lie. Either that or it was about time to wake up. It was time to give himself a pinch, put on his clothes, and go out for coffee.

With the body there in the room, the murder made sense. It put a frame on him like a Mack truck. Without the body, it was just plain damned screwy. It was nuts with a plus sign.

'Well, Mr. Kent?' Alvarado grinned satirically.

Toddy shook his head. 'I've said all I've got to say.'

'I see. Dolores, you will remain here. You, Mr. Kent, in front of me and through that door. I think you will be interested to see our basement.'

'Wait!' The girl's voice was a sharp whisper. 'Perrito, Alvarado! The dog!'

Alvarado looked. His gaze moved sufficiently from Toddy to take in the front door. He asked a soft question in Spanish.

'Hombres, Perrito? Si, hombres?'

Eyes shining with excitement, the dog took a few prancing steps toward him. His jaws waggled with the effort to articulate.

'Bueno, perro!' said Alvarado. 'Stand!'

The dog became a statue-a waist-high ebony menace pointed motionlessly toward the door. 'The lights, Dolores…'

Alvarado moved behind Toddy, jabbed and held the gun against his back. The lights went off. Dead silence settled over the room.

It was like that for minutes. Absolute silence except for the restrained whisper of their breathing. Then, distantly, from outside and overhead, came a soft ping. That, the cutting of the telephone wire, ended the silence. Having removed their sole danger, or so they thought, the prowlers were actually noisy.

There was a scraping of feet against wood, a noisy thud. Footsteps clattered across the porch. A whining, scratching sound marked the slashing of the screen.

The door shivered. The knob turned, and out of the darkness came a profane expression of pleased surprise. Feet scuffled. The door clicked shut again.

The lights went on.

Shake and Donald stood side by side on the threshold. Their eyes blinked against the light. Then they ceased to blink, grew wider and wider in their greenish-white faces.

'J-j-j-jjjjj…' said Donald.

Shake's pudding head wobbled helplessly. Oscillating, he sagged back against the door.

Alvarado's icy voice snapped him ludicrously erect.

'Take three steps forward! Now lock your arms behind you! Dolores-' He jerked his head.

The girl went in back of the two men. She searched them with contemptuous efficiency. Donald, of course, was equipped with his long thin-handled knife. From Shake's hip pocket she withdrew a man's sock, weighted and knotted together at the top. She was about to toss it to the floor when Alvarado held out his hand.

'If you please… ' He hefted the sock, grinning at the two thugs as he moved slightly away from Toddy. 'The chicken claws, eh-the sock loaded with broken glass. To what do I owe this honor, gentlemen?'

'It-that don't really hurt mister,' Shake blurted foolishly. 'W-we wouldn't-'

'I am familiar with its possibilities. I wonder if you would still maintain it doesn't hurt if I should swing it vigorously against your crotch?'

Shake turned a shade greener.

Donald pointed an angrily indignant finger at Toddy. 'He's the guy you ought to do it to, mister! He got us to come here!'

'Did he, indeed?'

'Just ask him if he didn't! Told us they was an old lady livin' here all by herself-an old crippled dame with a pile of jewelry!'

'That's just what he done, sir,' Shake chorused righteously. 'Got us to give him two hundred dollars for tippin' us off.'

Alvarado glanced quizzically at Toddy. Toddy shrugged.

'I see. You,'-nodding at Donald-'is that what you were discussing with him earlier this evening?'

'It ain't all we was discussing.' Donald eyed Toddy venomously. 'What we was really discussing was murder. We-that's how we happened to make the deal with him. He killed his wife and he needed the money to blow town on.'

'Oh, now,' Alvarado laughed. 'Murder his wife? I find that hard to believe. Doubtless he only told