He became convinced the nurse was not coming back, and he turned crosswise on the bed, stretching out his serviceable arm for Brother’s briefcase. He was able to reach it and drag it onto the bed. It was not locked. He gripped the zipper tab with his fingers and pulled it open. He looked inside.
What is this thing? he thought. He lifted out a device with a leatherette covering. It was about the size of a cigar box for twenty-five cigars. On the outside were two knobs and a red light. When he accidentally tapped the device while handling it, he noticed the light glow.
He got it. The device was a battery-driven wire recorder. Since the light was glowing, it obviously was operating. There was nothing else in the briefcase.
More frosting on the cake, he thought.
He considered smashing the recorder against the floor or at least pulling the wire off the uptake spool and ruining it, crumpling it into a little metal wad—but in the end he just put the device back and returned the briefcase to the chair.
Let the bastard hear what he wanted to hear. Maybe it would mean getting to the bottom of things that much faster.
If Harsh retained any doubts about Brother being an oddball, they were removed when Brother paid a second visit. Harsh was lying with his eyes closed trying to doze. Four or five hours had gone by and he had more or less calmed down. He knew he needed rest. When he heard the door open, he supposed the nurse was back, and he kept his eyes shut until he heard the newcomer pick up the briefcase and heard the zipper rasp as it opened. Harsh lifted his head.
Brother was removing the little wire recorder from the case, and looking at Harsh with an expression of contempt. Without speaking he placed the recorder on the bed and turned one of its knobs. The recorder whirred as it rewound. Brother adjusted the knobs again. The recorder began to talk, playing back what Brother and Harsh had said on their first meeting. Then came what Vera Sue and Harsh had said to each other. The device evidently had a triggering mechanism so that it only recorded when there was sound being made in range of the microphone.
Brother shut it off. His lips twitched with amusement. “The young lady made a fool of you.”
Harsh had decided he was not going to let the man get his goat. “Did she?”
“She showed you up.”
“Well, if you say so.”
“Harsh, I can tell you something that may make you feel better. She did not have any idea of asking five hundred dollars for those names. Or asking anything. I merely made her the offer and she grabbed it.”
Harsh gave this some thought. “Can you prove Vera Sue didn’t make a fool out of both of us?”
“How is that?”
“You paid her five hundred dollars for something worth nothing. What does that make you? I may have been a dope, but I didn’t pay out five hundred for the privilege.”
Brother shook his head. “You miss the point.”
“I guess I miss it, all right. What is the point?”
“Everything has to be done my way.”
“That is the point?”
“Exactly. Everything has to be done my way. Remember that. When I ordered you to give me five references in return for twenty-five dollars and you refused, I paid the young woman five hundred dollars for the same information. I was teaching you a lesson. I hope you got it.”
Harsh reached out a hand and his fingers felt on the table for cigarettes. Dumb bastard, Harsh thought. He pulled a cigarette out of the pack and put it between his lips. I’ll be goddamned if I ever heard the like of this.
“Mr. Brother, you gave me something to think about, I admit that.”
“When I give an order, it must be obeyed without question or haggling. That is what I am trying to establish. Do you understand?”
“I don’t know how you could say it any plainer, Mr. Brother.”
“But do you comprehend?”
“Sure.”
“I doubt it, Harsh.” Brother’s eyes were contemptuous. “I do not think you are very good at comprehension.”
“If you want to think so, okay. You could be wrong, though.”
“No, Harsh. I have had you investigated thoroughly.”
Harsh lifted his hand, removed the cigarette from his lips, and looked at it. He did not want the man to see his expression. “I heard there was a private detective from Kansas City snooping around. Was he your boy?”
“One of them. One of about twenty.”
“I don’t know what you thought that would get you.” Harsh rolled the cigarette slowly in his fingers.
Brother smiled with dislike. “It got
“It did? How is that?”
“It enabled me to arrange to protect you from the police in the matter of D. C. Roebuck.” The man’s teeth were small white chisel edges under his lifted lip. “Providing you cooperate, of course.”
Harsh closed his eyes. For a moment he thought he was going to faint. His hand holding the cigarette lay limp on his chest.
“Harsh, I am going to talk steadily for several minutes. Making explanations. Do not interrupt.”
Harsh’s mouth was becoming very dry. He merely nodded his head.
“Harsh, I have been searching for a man to fit a certain exact description. The man must look exactly like the picture you have seen. He must have O-negative blood. The man must be of near criminal character, and he must be for sale. To find such a man I set up a so-called foundation and offered a reward, twenty-five dollars, for each O-negative blood donor, and I have expended many thousands of dollars fruitlessly on the device. Finally a local policeman notified me of someone who had needed such a donor here. It was you. I had a firm of private detectives from Kansas City investigate you at once, as I have had every possible candidate investigated in the past. The detectives found you had crowded D. C. Roebuck off the road and he was killed. They found a man in a service station in Carrollton, Missouri, who saw Mr. Roebuck drive away in pursuit of you. I have had them pay the service station man in Carrollton a sum of money to be silent. My detectives also found that locally the police wished to charge you with statutory rape, and I have stopped that by obtaining a birth certificate showing Miss Crosby is over twenty-one years of age. I have sold your car, and you will receive the price of a new one. I have paid your hospital bill here. The private detectives have checked your references, and I find you are a borderline crook. I have paid off the detectives, and they are gone. In other words, you are satisfactory, Harsh. I find you acceptable. Therefore only one thing remains to be settled.”
Harsh slowly put the cigarette between his lips. He felt for the book of matches on the bedside table, bent a match back to light it one-handed, and held the flame to the end of the cigarette. He noticed his hand was unsteady. He took one puff, and after that the cigarette hung on his lip with the tip smoldering.
“Mister, you kind of took the wind out of my sails.”
“You have questions, Harsh?” A sneer curled his lip.
“Yeah, I got a bushel of questions, Mister. You say you bought the service station guy in Carrollton, but will he stay—”
“I will answer no questions whatever, Harsh. You have been told the essential facts. That is sufficient.”
Harsh frowned at the thin curl of blue smoke coming off the end of the cigarette. “You’re kind of a puzzle to me, Mister.”
“Are you for sale, Harsh?”
“Eh?”
“Are you for sale. You heard me.”
Harsh took the cigarette away to moisten his lips with his tongue. “I admit taking Roebuck off my neck is worth something. But will it stick? I got to know more about—”
“I am talking about selling yourself for dollars, Harsh.”
