He turned away, and as he did so, the sound of the automobile altered. Snow creaked and snapped under rubber wheels. John B. Sweet’s rented Cadillac was entering the compound. Nearby, the engines of a propeller- driven plane sputtered to life, one after another.
The Laughter Of The Gods
“Are you all right?” the witch asked Stubb.
“I’m about blind, and my head hurts.”
“Blind?”
“They took my specs.” The waxen-faced little detective rubbed his eyes, then his temple. “Or maybe they just dropped off when Cliff sapped me. Wait till I get that son of a bitch alone.”
“You must tell me what befell you.”
“Madame S., I’m about to puke. Right now I don’t have to do one other damn thing.”
“It is important, or at least it may be so. Tell me!”
“Wait a minute.” Shakily, Stubb got to his feet, one hand at his throat. “Well, I’ve had it.”
“Had what, you fool?”
“The gold watch, the handshake, the testimonial dinner, the scroll signed by our chairman, the stucco bungalow in Florida, the whole damned schmeer. Point me at a toilet.”
“There is none. If you are sick you must swallow it.”
“I was talking about me. You know, climb in, pull the handle. Hey, what the hell!” His forearm had brushed the breast of his trenchcoat. Reaching inside, he drew out his glasses. “Son of a bitch.” He wiped the thick lenses on his sleeve. “Cliff must have stuck them in there. Or the girl did. Sure, I bet it was her.” He put them on with an expression of satisfaction and looked around at the bare room, the rusty tin chairs, and the witch. “Say, what happened to your eyes? Have you been crying?”
“Mr. Stubb, you are the most irritating man I have ever encountered, and I have encountered a great many such men. Forget my eyes—they are plants that must be watered if they are to grow. Will you please tell me what happened to you? I repeat that it may be of importance, and I remind you that you are in my employ.”
“Madame S., except for expenses, you’ve never given me a nickel.”
“I have very little money, but I assure you that you will be paid. Though it is doubtful now, very doubtful, that you will ever be in a position to render me the slightest service.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“Then let me hear no more complaints. Tell me!”
“I did already. I got the gold watch—the all-day thirtybuck tour. I got shanghied. I got—”
“Yes?”
Stubb pulled one of the folding chairs across the gray, splintered floor and sat down. “I got the case I’ve been waiting for all my life, I guess. The big time. Rich, lovely girl not even as tall as I am.” Suddenly his face twisted into a snarl as real as any savage little beast’s. “Don’t you sneer at me, sister. She was!”
“I was not ridiculing you,” the witch told him. “Nor did I look at you in any way different from the way I now look.”
“Okay.” He relaxed, taking off his glasses and polishing them automatically on his sleeve. “Only maybe she wasn’t really rich. Maybe somebody was slipping her the bread to put up a front. She’d gone to some good schools, though. She talked like it.”
“You loved her.”
“I wanted to,” Stubb said. “But it was … Hell, you’d never understand, Madame S.”
“I would try.”
“It was like … I don’t know. The Late, Late Show when you get up and yawn and empty the ashtrays because you know it will be over in a minute. Everything was perfect, just perfect, except I knew—oh, hell!”
“What is it?”
“I should have told you right off. Free’s dead.”
“You are certain?” The witch’s eyes opened so wide that for an instant Stubb could see the fires behind them.
“Pretty sure. They said so, and they showed me a picture. He was lying on a concrete floor, and there was a lot of blood.”
“But you did not see him.”
“No, I didn’t actually see the body. So yeah, it could have been faked. I don’t think it was.”
“Perhaps not. Yet those like Free so often reappear long after they have been counted among the dead. Someone struck you, I think.”
“Cliff Rebic. You don’t know him. I’ve worked for him, off and on. He sapped me too. He’d told the kid, the bellhop, to come back with tea for the girl. I forgot about that. I looked around, and Cliff sapped me.”
“Unfortunate.”
