The Golden Gizmo

wheel… Sideswipe it?… Huh-uh. Milt had nothing to lose. An accident, any sign of trouble, would only make him kill more quickly.

Toddy forced a short ugly laugh. Elaine lowered the bottle, squinted suspiciously in the darkness.

'Something funny, prince?'

Toddy shrugged.

'Goddammit, I asked you if-'

'Quiet, my treasure.' Milt drew her back against his shoulder. 'And, yes, I think I will take charge of the liquor. He is trying to disturb you. Drink makes the task easy.'

'But-all right, honey.'

'There's one thing I don't understand,' said Toddy. 'Why was the room straightened up before Elaine skipped out?'

'On the night of her supposed death? Merely a precautionary measure. The police might have been notified if the condition of the room happened to be observed. I felt sure you would hold Alvarado responsible. I wished to make sure you had no interference.'

'That part of your plan didn't work out very well, did it?'

'It worked out well enough,' said Milt, 'as your present situation proves… But you were laughing a moment ago?'

'I was just thinking.' Toddy laughed again. 'Wondering about you and Elaine; how long it'll be before she turns on you… when you least expect it.'

'Because she turned, as you put it, on you? But there is no similarity between the two cases. You could give her nothing. I can. She never needed you. She needs me. You tried to hold her against her will. I would never do that. If parting becomes necessary, it will be arranged amicably. We will share and share alike, and each will go his own way.'

'That's sound logic,' said Toddy, 'but you're not dealing with a logical person. Elaine gets her fun out of not getting along. It's the only entertainment, aside from drinking, that she's capable of. She's a degenerate, Milt. She's liable to go in for killing as hard as she does drinking. I wouldn't believe the doctors when-'

Something hit him a painful blow on the head, the car swerved. He swung it straight again at a sharp command from Milt. In the rear- view mirror, he saw the jeweler turn, hand raised, toward Elaine.

'Dummkopf!' he snapped. 'I have a notion to…' Then he smiled, and his voice went suddenly gentle. 'It seems we both have the temper. It is not a time to give way to it.'

'I'm sorry, honey. He just made me so damned sore…'

'But now you see through his tricks, eh? You see where they might lead to?'

'Uh-huh.' Elaine sighed. 'You're so smart, darling. You see right through people.'

'He doesn't see through you,' said Toddy. 'If he did he'd take that gun away from you. He'd know what you're thinking-that all of that dough would be better than half.'

Elaine made a mocking sound with her lips. Milt chuckled fatly.

'It is useless, Toddy. In the regrettable absence of attraction, there would still be the factor of need. It was I who planned this, and there will be yet more planning, thinking, to be done. Even an Elaine as elemental as the one you portray would not destroy something necessary to survival.'

'Anyway,' said Elaine, 'I don't want the old gun; I wouldn't know how to use it. You take it, honey.'

Mitt pushed it back at her. 'But you must know! It is imperative. Look, I will show you again… The safety, here. Then, only a firm, short pull on the trigger. Very short unless you wish to empty it. It is automatic, as I told you previously…'

His own gun was in his lap for the moment, and Toddy knew another surge of hope. He couldn't, of course, do anything himself. But Elaine…

But Elaine didn't. Milt picked up his gun again. Toddy turned the car off Olympic and onto Ocean Avenue. They reached Pico Street, and he turned again. Less than a mile ahead was the ocean.

'No more questions, Toddy? Nothing else you would like to inquire about?'

'Nothing.'

'After all, the opportunity will not arise again.'

'No, it won't,' said Toddy. 'Look, Milt…'

'Yes?'

'Let Miss Chavez go. She won't-'

'I will not go,' said Dolores, calmly.

'You will not,' agreed Milt. 'I am sorry. It is a terrible penalty to pay for allying oneself with an imbecile.'

He rolled down the window of the car and peered out, and the rain sounds mingled with the roar of the ocean, the breakers rolling in and out from shore. Toddy made the last turn.

'You made one mistake, Mitt. There's one thing you didn't count on.'

'Interesting,' murmured Milt, 'but not, I am afraid, true… This is the place you had in mind, I believe? Yes. You will stop, then, and turn off your lights.'

Toddy stopped. The lights went off.

There was a moment of silence, the near-absolute silence which precedes action. Before Milt could break it, Toddy spoke.

This was his last chance, his and Dolores'. And he knew it was wasted, no chance at all, even before he started to speak. What he had to say was incredible. His strained, hollow voice made it preposterous.

'Really, Toddy.' Milt sounded almost embarrassed. 'You do not expect us to believe that?'

'No,' said Toddy. 'I don't expect you to believe me. But it is true.'

'Only stupidity I charged you with,' Milt pointed out. 'Not insanity. You did not know Elaine was alive. You were sure you would be accused of her murder. Willing though you might be to pass up a fortune, and I sincerely suspect such a willingness, you would not dare abide by your bargain. In this case, you had no choice but to run.'

'I was tired of running.' (Elaine giggled.) 'I knew I hadn't killed her. I was going to fight the case.'

'Without money? With all the evidence against you? With a long record of criminality? And if, by some fluke of justice, you cleared yourself, what then? You have no trade but to prey upon others. You-'

'I could get one.' The words, the tone seemed ridiculously childish.

'We waste time,' said Milt. 'You would have me believe you pursued one futility to achieve another. You, risking your liberty- perhaps your life-by keeping a bargain? You, placing your faith, at last, in the courts? You, Toddy Kent, doing these things for a so-called good name, a job, perhaps Miss Chavez-'

'It would not have been perhaps,' said Dolores.

'Even so,' Milt shrugged. 'I know him too well, and he knows himself too well. He does not fit the part… Now, I think…'

'Let Elaine think,' Toddy persisted doggedly. 'You can't pull out. You want to get her in as deep as you are. Don't let him do it, Elaine! There's a tape recorder in the car. I-'

'Elaine,' Milt interrupted, 'is not required to think. And, of course, there is a recorder. How else could you obtain the evidence you were supposed to get? I do not deny the existence of a bargain. Only that you had no intention of keeping it.'

'I did intend to keep it! I know it looks like I didn't, but I had to make it look that way! I was supposed to meet them here-I called them just before I went to your shop. Elaine-'