The Golden Gizmo

'Then you probably know how I got myself sprung. You know I can't keep my bargain unless I dig up the guy that killed Elaine.'

'Which you cannot do,' said Mitt. 'Not'-he added- 'that you have any intention of keeping your bargain. Another, perhaps, almost any other man, but not you.' He grinned faintly, his hands clasped over his fat stomach. 'You do not want to keep your bargain with the government agents. You cannot keep it. A confession you may extract from me, but it will be worthless. I can prove that I did not kill Elaine or cause her to be killed.'

'Maybe.' Toddy studied the bland, chubby face. 'Maybe,' he repeated, 'but I'm taking you with me, anyway. No one knows how you worked this setup here. I'm going to find out, just in case I ever get back to this country. If you come clean with me I may just tie you up and dump you somewhere. Some place where you'll be found in a few days. Otherwise…'

He gestured significantly with the gun. Milt laughed openly.

'Yes? You were thinking of the dunes, doubtless? Oh, excellent! It will be a wonderful place to leave a body… or should I say two?'

'Two?' Toddy frowned. 'What the hell are you talking about?'

'Bodies,' said Milt. 'Yours and Miss Chavez'.'

Toddy's chair grated against the floor. 'Damn you! If you've hurt that-'

Behind him the curtains rustled faintly. Something cold and hard pushed through them, pressed into the back of his neck.

Milt nodded to him, solemnly. 'That is right, Toddy. Sit still. Sit very, very still. Yes, and I think I shall just take your gun. Miss Chavez'-he glanced at the clock- 'should be here at any moment. Your hotel, your former hotel, I should say, was kind enough to refer her to me. I suggested that she return here tonight when you, in your hour of dire emergency, would most certainly come to me for aid. So… So'-the front door opened and clicked softly shut-'she has come.'

She came down the aisle, hesitantly at first, then with quick firm steps as she saw the two men in the dim glow of the lamp. 'Toddy! I am so glad I-I-'

'Do not scream,' said Milt. 'Do not move.'

He thrust himself up from his chair, moved around Toddy and out through the wicket. Toddy waited helplessly, his hands carefully held out from his sides… This was the one thing he hadn't foreseen-the fact that Mitt might have a confederate. Who the hell could it be, he wondered, and why had Milt behaved as he had? What had he hoped to gain by appearing defenseless, letting Toddy talk?

Toddy didn't know, and there was no time now to think about it. The person behind him came through the drapes, and the gun barrel dug viciously into his neck.

He got up slowly. He looked into Dolores' pale strained face, and tried to grin reassuringly. He heard Milt's chuckle as he pushed her forward through the wicket.

He turned around.

'Hi-ya, prince,' said Elaine.

25

Through a blinding downpour of rain, the car moved cautiously, steadily westward. Toddy drove, bent over the wheel, staring through the windshield. Dolores was at his side, Milt and Elaine in the rear seat. It was almost an hour before the city proper was left behind them, and silently, except for the humming of the tires and the wet lash of the windshield wipers, they went rolling down Olympic Boulevard. It ran in practically a straight line to the ocean. There was almost no traffic on it now.

Toddy eased up on the gas a little more. He'd outsmarted himself this time. In outwitting McKinley, he'd handed Milt a setup. Now there was nothing to do but stall, postpone the inevitable as long as possible.

The air was thick with the odor of Elaine's cigarettes and whiskey. She coughed, choked, and a fine spray showered Toddy's neck. Milt cleared his throat, apologetically.

'Perhaps, Liebling, it might be well to..

'What?' said Elaine. 'You trying to tell me when to take a drink?'

Milt hesitated. Toddy felt a faint surge of hope. If she and Milt should start fighting, if she'd only throw one of those wild tantrums of hers… But she didn't. Moreover, Toddy knew, she wasn't going to.

'If you put it that way,' Milt said, coldly, 'yes. Rather, I am telling you when not to drink. And I am telling you that now. There is too much at stake. Later it will be all right; I would be the last to interfere.'

There was a moment of silence. Then, 'All right, honey,' Elaine said meekly. 'You just tell li'l Elaine what to do and that's what she'll do.'

'Good,' said Milt complacently. 'We must give our Toddy no advantage, hein?'

'Whatever you say, honey.'

'He is a very intelligent man,' Milt went on. 'He tells me in substance how much time the police have given him. He informs me, indirectly, that there is no one following his movements. Finally, by a reverse process, he makes excellent suggestions for disposing of himself. Do you wonder that I fear him, this intellectual giant?'

Elaine's giggle tapered off to a troubled note. 'Yeah, but honey. I don't-'

'Consider,' Milt continued, enjoyably. 'Everything he is told, yet nothing he sees. He knows that Alvarado has told the anonymous gold-supplier of the theft of the watch. He knows his wife detests him, and he is thoroughly familiar with her talents as an actress. But does he draw any conclusions from these things? Not at all. He is baffled by her strange death and the subsequent disappearance of her body. It does not occur to him that she had simulated death, that she followed him down the fire escape taking the watch with her.'

Dolores half-turned in the seat and her eyes flashed. 'He is not stupid! He trusted you! It is easy to-'

'Of stupidity,' said Milt, 'you are hardly a competent judge. You who revealed his release from jail to a stranger. Now if you wish to take full advantage of your remaining minutes of consciousness, you will turn around.'

'You are too cowardly! I-'

'Turn around,' said Toddy softly. 'She called the turn on you, Milt. I trusted you. On top of that, you had a lot of luck. If I hadn't chased off after Donald, I'd have found out that Elaine was pulling a fake.'

'There was no element of luck,' Milt said. 'I telephoned Elaine when you left the shop. There was ample time to locate the watch and prepare for your arrival.'

'But if I'd examined Elaine…'

'If you had-well, it would be a prank; and later we should have tried again. But we-I-knew you would not do that. So many predicaments has your stupidity placed you in, and always you react in the same manner. You place no faith in the wisdom or mercy of constituted authority. You make no study of the factors behind your contretemps. Tricks you have, not brains; tricks and legs. So, where tricks are futile, you run.'

Toddy grunted. 'You're a funny guy, Milt. Very funny.'

'Oh, there is no doubt about it. Everyone has always said so. There is only one person who did not.'

'Me,' cooed Elaine, snuggling against him. 'I knew better right from the beginning.'

'So you did,' Milt nodded benignly. 'So now, I think, you should have another drink. A very small one.'

Ahead and to the right, blurred lights pushed up through the shrouds of rain. Santa Monica. It wouldn't be long now.

A car came towards them, fog-lights burning, moving rapidly. Toddy's hand tightened on the