spares. That was a pretty dumb thing to have done.”
“Think so? I think it was smart, pally. Has he got on to you yet?”
I tried to control my start, but I wasn’t successful.
“What do you mean?”
Carlo’s grin widened.
“Don’t feed me that crap: you know what I mean. You’re an open and shut case for the job. Why, I even took the trouble to alter her watch so the cops would think you were up there when she took her dive, and believe me, Mac, that was quite a climb to get to her. I nearly broke my neck.” I stared at him. “So you did kill her.”
He shook his head.
“The record says you did it. You were up there when she fell. You’re the guy named Douglas Sherrard.” He leaned forward and pointed a thick finger at me. Emphasizing each word, he went on, “And you’r
II
I felt as if the bottom of my world had fallen out. It was only at this moment, hearing this, that I remembered the note I had left for Helen in the villa.
“I’ve got it right here,” Carlo went on, tapping his hip-pocket. “It’s a beauty. That and the watch could fix you, Mac. You wouldn’t stand a chance.”
He was right. If Carlotti ever got hold of that note, I’d be finished. In my mind, I saw the note now as plainly as if it lay before me.
I had even put the time and the date on the note and I had written it on the villa’s headed notepaper. The shock of finding Helen had completely driven the note out of my head until now.
“When the cops find your bags in a left luggage office, they’ll also find the camera and some of the films,” Carlo continued. “They’ll also find a letter from Helen to you that will clinch the case if it needs clinching. She wrote it before she took her dive.”
I made an effort and pulled myself together. I couldn’t be in a worse jam, and because it was so bad, it made me angry.
The only way to get out of this situation was to get the note and destroy it. He said he had it on him. I had to surprise him, knock him cold and get the note.
“She never wrote to me,” I said.
“Oh, yes, she did. I persuaded her to. It’s quite a letter. In it she tells you how she’s hired the villa and how you two are going to stay there as Mr. and Mrs. Sherrard. It’s a complete give away, Mac. Don’t make any mistake about that. I’ve got you sewn up tight.”
But he was too glib. I was sure he was lying. There was no letter; not that it mattered. The note I had written to Helen would be enough to fix me.
“Okay, so you’ve got me sewn up tight,” I said. “What are you going to do about it?”
He got to his feet and began to wander around the room. He didn’t come near me while he wandered.
“I’ve been hoping to find a guy like you for months,” he said. “When Helen told me she was making a play for you and who you were, I knew you were the boy I wanted. I’ve got a job for you. You’re going to take a parcel across the French frontier for me. It’ll be a cinch for you. You’ll sail through. With your background and job, they won’t even bother to look in your bags, let alone examine your car. I’ve been hoarding the stuff up for months for just such a chance as this.”
“What stuff?” I asked, watching him.
He grinned.
“You needn’t know that. All you have to do is to drive from here to Nice. You’ll spend the night at a certain hotel, leaving your car in the hotel garage. I’ll have planted the parcel in your car before you leave, and my contact in Nice will collect it during the night. It’s as simple as that.”
“And if I don’t do it, Carlotti gets my note to Helen, is that the idea?”
“You cotton on fast.”
“And if I do it, what happens then?”
He shrugged.
“You have a nice vacation and come back. Then maybe in about six months’ time, you’ll find you’ll have to make another trip to Nice. A newspaper man is expected to travel. You’re custom-made for the job. That’s why I picked on you.”
“So long as I know,” I said. “Did Helen have anything to do with the picking?”
“Oh, sure, but she was strictly small-time.” He grimaced. “She wanted to put the bite on you for a thousand bucks, but I talked her out of that. I showed her you’d be far more useful as a carrier.”
I suddenly realized what this was all about.
“She was a drug addict, wasn’t she?” I said. “That’s why she had to have money and didn’t care how she got it, so long as she got it. And it’s a parcel of dope you want me to take to Nice, isn’t it?”
“You don’t think it’s face powder, do you, Mac?” he returned, grinning.
“And you supplied her with the drugs?”
“That’s it, pally. I’m always willing to help a girl if she’s got dough to spend.”
“Was it your idea or hers we should go to the villa?”
“Why should you care?”
“It was your idea, wasn’t it? It was a convenient villa, and there was a convenient cliff to fall off. You knew I wouldn’t play unless you really got a stranglehold on me. You laid the trap, threw her off the cliff and I walked into it.”
He laughed.
“You’ve certainly got a great imagination. Anyway, that’s a yarn you can’t prove, Mac, but I can prove mine.”
“Did she take you on her cine when you two were up there? Is that why you were so anxious to get rid of the film?”
“Nothing like that, pally. Don’t worry about the cine. That was a plant to make the cops think it was murder.” He lit another cigarette. “Now let’s get down to business. Are you going to Nice or do I send the note to Carlotti?”
“Doesn’t look as if I have much choice, does it?”
I glanced aimlessly around the room, looking for a likely weapon. There was nothing I could see substantial enough to hit him with. I knew I wasn’t going to stop him with my bare fists.
Near the door was a small occasional table, and on the table stood a large vase full of carnations. By the vase was a large photograph in a silver frame of Myra Setti. She was in a white swimsuit, lying on a lounging chair and sheltered by a big sun umbrella. There was something vaguely familiar about this photograph, but I only half- glanced at it. My eyes shifted to a solid glass paper-weight that stood by the photograph. That, I told myself, might do.
“So you’ll do it,” he said, watching me.
“I guess I’ll have to.”
“That’s the boy.” He grinned. “I knew you’d play. Okay, this is what you do. Leave your car in your garage on Thursday night. Don’t lock the garage. I’ll be along during the night to plant the parcel. Get off early on Friday morning. Stay the night at Geneva, then, on Saturday, you drive to Nice. You want to time it so you cross the frontier around seven in the evening. That’s when they’ll be thinking of their suppers and they’ll be glad to push you through quickly. You go to the Soleil d’Or hotel. It’s one of the swank joints on the Promenade des Anglais. Maybe you’d better book a room there. Leave your car in the hotel garage and forget about it. Got all that?”
I said I had got it.
