sentence. He is in jail right now.’ He picked up his pencil and began to tap on the desk with it again. ‘When I found the letter from Clare Sims, warning the Marshall woman that Wilbur was after her, I checked with Frisco. They told me Wilbur had been arrested. The next morning the hotel handed your letter to the police. They sent it down to us. We didn’t bother further with it as Wilbur not only couldn’t have killed her, but he never got the letter.’
I sat there, staring at him, unable to believe him.
‘Then if he didn’t kill her, who did?’ I said hoarsely.
Keary looked bored.
‘You’re hard to convince, aren’t you? I told you in the first place who killed her — Jinx Mandon. I told you we had enough on him to put him in the gas chamber, and that’s where he’s going. He was cheating with Rima Marshall. He met this singer, Pauline Terry, who was down at Santa Barba, and he fell for her. Rima found out and threatened to give him away to the police unless he gave up the girl. He was ready to go when your telephone call came through. That gave him his excuse to leave her, but she had other ideas. She went for him with a knife. There was a struggle. He went berserk and killed her. That’s his story. We have the knife. We have his blood-stained clothing and we’ve got his confession.’
I continued to stare at him, too shocked to say anything. I had delivered myself into his hands for nothing!
There was a long pause while Keary continued to tap on the desk, then he said, ‘Looks as if you’ve talked yourself into a jam, doesn’t it?’
‘Yes. I was certain Wilbur killed her and it was my responsibility. I couldn’t let Mandon suffer.’
Keary pressed down the rewind button on the tape recorder.
‘Yeah? Why should you have worried about a rat like that?’
He took the tape off the machine and laid it on the desk.
‘That happens to be the way I feel about a situation like this,’ I said quietly.
‘Well, the chances are you’ll beat a first degree murder rap,’ Keary said, ‘but they’ll hang a fifteen year stretch on you. What’s your wife think about it? Did she think it was a good idea to come down here and talk yourself into a fifteen year stretch?’
‘She doesn’t know.’
‘It’s going to be quite a jolt for her when she finds out, isn’t it?’
I moved impatiently. His sadistic smirk angered me.
‘I can’t see how that concerns you.’
He leaned forward and picked up the gun, examined it, then put it down again.
‘What’s going to happen to the bridge when you get locked up?’
‘They’ll find someone.’ I was feeling cold and numb. ‘There’s always someone else to take over another man’s job.’
‘Yeah.’ Keary shifted his bulk in his chair. ‘Another guy takes over my job tonight. By the time I’m half way home, all the bright boys here will have forgotten I ever existed. What’s your wife going to do without you?’
‘What do you care?’ I said. ‘I did what I did and I expect to pay for it. Let’s get on with it.’
He closed the file that lay before him and put it back in a drawer. Then he looked at his wrist watch.
He got to his feet.
‘Stick around for five minutes, Mr. Halliday.’ He picked up the gun and the reel of tape and pushing past me, he crossed to the door and went out, closing the door after him.
I sat there waiting.
Fifteen years!
I thought of Sarita. I blamed myself now for not telling her the truth. It was the bleakest, longest half hour I have ever sat through.
The hands of the wall clock showed half past five when the door pushed open and Keary came in. He was smoking a cigar, and he was grinning.
He closed the door, moved around me to his desk chair and sat down.
‘Have you been sweating it out, Mr. Halliday?’ he said. ‘Imagining yourself behind bars, huh?’
I didn’t say anything.
‘I’ve been saying goodbye to the boys,’ Keary went on. ‘At five o’clock I turned in my badge. I am now officially retired. Your case is to be handed over to Detective Sergeant Karnow: the biggest sonofabitch on the force.’ He took the reel of tape from his pocket. ‘When he hears this, he’ll jump for joy.’ The small hard eyes searched my face. ‘But you and me could fix it that he doesn’t hear it.’
I stiffened, staring at him.
‘What does that mean?’
The leering grin widened.
‘We could do a deal, Mr. Halliday. After all what’s better than money? I could sell you this tape if you felt like buying it. You’d be off the hook then. You could go back to your wife and your bridge and you wouldn’t have anything to worry about.’
He had used the exact words that Rima had once used. So it was going to begin all over again. I felt a sudden urge to lean across the desk and slam my fist into his leering face, but I didn’t. Instead, I said,
‘How much?’
The grin widened.
‘She was taking you for thirty thousand bucks, wasn’t she? Well, I’ll settle for twenty.’
I stared steadily at him. ‘And how much after that?’
‘I’ll settle for twenty thousand. For that you get the gun and the tape. That’s fair, isn’t it?’
‘Fair enough until you have spent the twenty thousand,’ I said, ‘then you’ll remember me and come around with a hard luck story: they always do.’
‘That’s your risk, pal, but you have a choice. You can always serve your sentence.’
I thought for a moment, then I shrugged my shoulders.
‘Okay, it’s a deal.’
‘Now that’s what I call being smart,’ Keary said. ‘I want the money in cash. When I get it you get the gun and the tape. How long will it take you to raise the money?’
‘The day after tomorrow. I’ll have to sell bonds. If you come to my office on Thursday morning, I’ll have the money for you.’
He shook his head and winked at me.
‘Not at your office, pal. I’ll call you on Thursday morning and I’ll tell you where we’ll meet.’
‘All right.’
I got to my feet and without looking at him, I went out of the office. I had just time to catch the six o’clock train back to Holland City. I sat staring out of the window, my mind busy. There had been no way out of Rima’s proposition because she had had nothing to lose. She had been so desperate for money that she would have gone to prison with me if I hadn’t paid her, but this blackmail proposition from Keary was very different. He had everything to lose. I would have to be careful, but I had confidence that I could out-smart him. One thing was certain: I wasn’t going to pay him a cent. I would rather take what was coming to me than be blackmailed for life by this fat, crooked cop.
On Thursday morning, I told Clara I was expecting a call from Detective Sergeant Keary.
‘I don’t want you to put him through to me,’ I said. ‘Tell him I’m out, and you don’t know when I’ll be back. Tell him to leave a message with you.’
A little after eleven o’clock, Clara came in to tell me Keary had telephoned.
‘He said he would meet you at one o’clock at the Tavener’s Arms.’
The Tavener’s Arms was a roadhouse a few miles outside Holland City. A few minutes to one o’clock, I drove out there. Carrying a bulky briefcase with me, I went into the bar.
Keary was sitting in a corner, a double Scotch and soda on the table. There were only two other people in the bar and they sat away from Keary.
As I crossed over to him, I saw his eyes on the briefcase.
‘Hello, pal,’ he said. ‘Sit down. What’s your poison?’
‘Nothing,’ I said as I sat down on the bench seat beside him. I put the briefcase between us.
