Brett Halliday

A Taste for Violence

1

MIDNIGHT brought a faint coolness to Centerville, Kentucky. The afternoon and early evening had been suffocatingly hot, and even the whirring ceiling fan in Charles Roche’s study did little more than stir up the somnolent, heat-laden air.

It was a pleasant, pine-paneled study, in a modern nine-room house set on a hillside overlooking the mining town. Windows on the south and west usually caught an evening breeze, though the inhabitants of the village below were sweltering. The location had been selected for that reason, just a little to the north and some fifty-odd feet above the old Roche mansion, built in 1897, where Charles was born and reared.

John Roche, Charles’ father, built the nine-room house for him while the young man was away at war, and at a time when building materials were practically impossible to get, and when men were demanding fantastic sums for their labor. Thus, the house had cost a great deal of money. But nothing, so John Roche had said, was too good or too costly for his eldest son. He knew that Charles and his bride wouldn’t want to move into the gloomy old mansion where he lived alone. Young married folks needed a home of their own.

At least, that’s what John Roche was fond of saying.

So, the old tyrant built the house just up the slope, within easy earshot of his own, and there the young couple had lived since Charles returned from North Africa in 1945.

From the study window, Charles could look down past the dark hulk of his father’s house to the palely glimmering lights of the village at midnight. A macadam road twisted downward through lush mountain shrubbery to join the wide, paved highway below.

Tonight, Charles Roche was working on some accounts spread out on his desk, but was unable to concentrate upon them. Frequently he arose from his chair, walked to the window and looked out, his ears attuned for the sound of an automobile laboring up the slope in second gear. But there was no such sound.

A few minutes past midnight, he impatiently pushed the papers aside and lit a cigarette. Tossing the match into an overflowing ash tray beside him, he went again to the window and stood staring at the dark and silent road.

Presently he compressed his lips, took a final drag on his cigarette, walked slowly back to the desk and picked up a newspaper. It was a week-old copy of the Miami Herald, and there was a front-page story captioned MICHAEL SHAYNE SCORES AGAIN, by-lined by Timothy Rourke, relating an incredible tale of murder and counterfeit rubies. He sighed deeply and settled back to reread the story for perhaps the twentieth time.

Charles Roche was tall and blond, with warm blue eyes and a stubborn jaw. His high forehead was plastered now with small ringlets of damp hair. His fingers were long and sensitive, and they gripped the paper tightly as he read. He wore a white shirt, open at the throat, the sleeves rolled above his elbows. He looked less than his thirty years, but there were lines of worry in his mobile face, and his lips twitched nervously. He finished the story, studied the photograph of the Miami detective for a long time, then sat staring moodily into space.

Laying the paper aside with Michael Shayne’s picture looking up at him quizzically, he drew a pad of notepaper before him. It was engraved at the top, Charles Roche, Mountaincrest Drive, Centerville, Kentucky.

He unscrewed the cap from a fountain pen, hesitated momentarily, his eyes turning toward the window. No sound disturbed the stillness. No glow of headlights shone through the darkness. The warmth in his eyes was gone, his mouth grim, as he began to write:

Mr. Michael Shayne,

c/o Timothy Rourke,

The Miami Herald,

Miami, Florida.

Dear Mr. Shayne:

I don’t expect you to remember me, but I met you once in Miami, about five years ago. I have just finished reading about one of your recent cases…

Roche stopped suddenly, his pen poised, and listened. The sound of a laboring automobile came faintly through the open window to the left of the desk. The sound came closer, then faded as the driver shifted into high gear. He narrowed his eyes and shook his head slightly. That would be Tom Grer and his wife turning off Mountaincrest Drive to their home a quarter of a mile down the slope.

Turning back to the letter, he reread what he had written, and his upper lip curled derisively. It sounded sophomoric. He crumpled the sheet of paper and started again:

Dear Michael Shayne:

I need your help desperately. I’m afraid I’m going to be murdered, and I don’t know where to turn. I’ve been reading about you in the Miami Herald and I wonder if you would be interested in a case this far from your home base. I don’t want to put my suspicions down on paper, because…

He paused, frowning. Why didn’t he put his suspicions down on paper? How could he expect a man like Shayne to be interested in the plight of a man who didn’t dare confide in him? By God, the letter sounded like the yapping of a kid afraid of the dark. The thing should be calm and factual, not melodramatic. He crumpled up the second sheet of paper and started in again:

Dear Sir:

I hope you will remember having met me at a party in Miami about five years ago. I have been married a little over three years, and my wife…

Charles Roche sat back and stared with only faintly disguised horror at the four lines of his third attempt. Good God in heaven! What had he been about to say? That Elsa was…? No. He couldn’t. Not even to a private detective who might save his life. It was too monstrous, too utterly tenuous. It wasn’t the right sort of approach to Shayne.

He frowned, recalling vaguely some of the tales he had heard about the red-headed detective. Shayne was reputed to refuse any sort of domestic cases. He was a violent man, and violence appealed to him. Also money. From somewhere in his memory Roche recalled a phrase which had been quoted as coming from Shayne: “Murder is my business.”

That was the angle, he decided calmly. Violence, and the promise of money. He had it now. He started a fresh letter:

Dear Mr. Shayne:

I enclose my personal check for $5,000.00 as a retainer if you are in a position to come here immediately. Three men have been killed in Centerville in the past ten days, and I am slated to be the fourth, unless you can prevent it. I do not trust the people close to me, and the entire police force is stupid, brutal, and corrupt.

If you find it possible to come at once, I suggest you take a room at the Moderne Hotel, Route 90 coming in from the south. It’s cool there, and outside the city limits.

Telephone me at my home, Centerville 340, immediately upon your arrival, and speak to no one except me. Do not leave a message with your name with anyone else who may answer the phone, but keep on trying at intervals. Do not attempt to communicate with me in any other way.

I met you five years ago at a party at Patrick Elder’s home in Miami Shores. You were drinking cognac, and I mixed some of it with my champagne at your suggestion. Perhaps you recall the incident. I have been following your career in the newspapers with interest ever since.

I hope to God you will come at once.

Very sincerely yours,

Charles Roche signed his name firmly, then reread what he had written. It seemed all right. It was the best he could think of. He had been trying for days to write this letter, but hadn’t been able to devise a way of phrasing it.

From a drawer he took out a checkbook and made out the check to Michael Shayne, tore it from the book, folded it inside the letter and placed it in an envelope. He addressed it in care of Timothy Rourke, then wrote “Urgent” and “Personal” in the lefthand corner, underscoring the words. He put an airmail and special delivery stamp on after sealing it. There was a mail plane that stopped at the Centerville airport at three o’clock. The letter should be in Miami by early morning if he drove to the airport now and deposited it in the box there.

He heard a car laboring up the slope in second gear. He listened acutely, feeling his pulse quicken, then hastily gathered up the crumpled beginnings of the first letters. There was a fireplace in the study, closed off for the summer by an ornamental, tin cover. He hurried across to it, the overflowing ashtray in one hand, set it down to remove the cover, dumped the cigarette butts in, followed by the sheets of paper, and set fire to them. While they burned, he went back and replaced his checkbook in the desk drawer.

Glancing out the window, he saw twin headlights slowly coming up the slope beyond his father’s house. It sounded like Seth Gerald’s Cadillac coupe. Elsa had gone to the Country Club dance with Joe and Maisie Warren. Seth was probably there, too, and it would be natural for him to offer to drive Elsa home, thus saving Joe an extra two-mile trip and a steep climb. Seth had done it before.

Charles didn’t mind, but he felt it was unwise for Seth to be seen at the dance. Not at a time like this, when the miners and their families had been hungry for weeks, and while there were rumors of strike-breakers being brought in. It was going to be touch-and-go for the next few days. Even such a routine as the general manager of the Roche Mines attending the Country Club dance and drinking champagne, while the miners’ wives went without food, might burst Centerville wide open. It didn’t matter so much what Elsa did. The miners forgave her, because she was a woman and a foreigner, a Bostonian. It was all right, Charles supposed, for her to go dancing, but under the existing circumstances, he had no desire to attend such occasions.

The fire had died down. He went back to the fireplace to replace the cover. Then, suddenly, the sound of the automobile stopped.

Snapping off the light as he went, Charles returned quickly to the window. The car had stopped down below the old Roche mansion. The night was clear and moonlit. If it had taken the sharp turn below, he could have seen the headlights and heard the heavier laboring of the motor up the steep, twisting road.

Could he have been mistaken? Could it have been someone turning off at the intersection a quarter of a mile down the hill? He didn’t think so. He was positive it had been much closer when it stopped. Yet, he hadn’t listened too carefully, in his eagerness to burn the crumpled letters. He had taken it for granted that Seth Gerald was bringing Elsa home.

He sighed and looked at his watch. It was only a few minutes before one o’clock. His fingers tightened on the envelope in his hand, and he put it in his hip pocket. Turning on the study light, he walked slowly around the room. Saturday night dances at the club stopped at midnight on the dot. He didn’t mind Elsa having a good time, but she knew very well he was worried when she didn’t return home promptly. He couldn’t expect her to sit around the house day and night and be bored during these times when urgent business required all his attention. Elsa had complained bitterly, and he had to admit the truth of her contention. She was young and beautiful and…

The ominous stillness of the night irritated him. It was as though a tremendous, unseen force lurked in the narrow gorge between the two mountainsides, as he stopped, in his pacing, to stare out the window again. A force that was gathering strength, tensing itself, waiting. Not an evil force, but a malignant one. Leaning forward with both hands on the window sill, he thought the two words over carefully. Evil had to do with morals, a thing that might be offset by supplying the good things of life. It was an emotion that might be dealt with. But malignancy was a thing alive and growing and destructive, boring into the vitals, killing, bringing violence and death to the sleepy mountain village. Hadn’t the whole world had enough of killing? He didn’t see why the miners…

Vague movement in the moonlit path caught his eye, the footpath leading between his father’s house and his. A figure walked slowly, moonlight glinting on the rhinestones in her hair and the silver sequins of her evening gown.

He could see more clearly as she came nearer. It was Elsa, picking her way carefully on highheeled dancing slippers, swaying a little, catching now and then at the low undergrowth.

Charles drew back from the window and leaned against the wall. He didn’t want her to think he was spying on her, but he listened for the sound of a motor starting up on the macadam road. When he didn’t hear anything, he grimly decided that her escort had swung around the circle below his father’s house, leaving his car headed down the slope before cutting the ignition and stopping to let her out. That way, he could later release the clutch and roll down silently.

Turning out the study light, he walked through the hall and into the huge and beautifully appointed living room. John Roche had designed this room especially to set off Elsa’s dark beauty. Pale rose-and-gold stippled ceilings merged into deep aquamarine walls, complimented by the enormous jade and rose Oriental rug on the floor. Soft lights from two table lamps were too dim for reading, but Charles sank into a chair and picked up an open book which he had been reading a few hours previously. He switched on a stronger light in the lamp. The book was “A Study of History” and he had worked his way almost half through the bulky volume. He lit a cigarette and stared at the words without seeing them.

He heard his wife come up the steps and cross the porch. He kept his eyes upon the book until the knob turned and the door was opened.

Turning in simulated surprise, he blinked as she swayed on the threshold. He could never look at Elsa without blinking at the perfection of her beauty. She was small and slender and vitally alive. Her upper lip was sensuously short, her skin dark, and gray-green eyes seemed always molten with passion beneath her long dark lashes and perfect brows.

She was drunk. She knew she was drunk, and gloried in the fact. Her voice was somewhat thick when she said airily, “Hi, stick-in-the-mud. Get all your work documented and filed?”

Charles didn’t get up. He closed the book with his finger marking the page and said gravely, “Yes. I finished. It’s late, Elsa.” He hadn’t meant to say it. She hated anything that sounded in the least like a reprimand. She giggled and lurched into a chair near the door. “What of it? I’ve been having fun.”

“Who brought you home?”

“People.” She waved her right hand on which a diamond and emerald dinner ring gleamed.

“I didn’t hear a car drive up.”

She narrowed her eyes at him and let her dark head sink against the back of the chair. “You never hear anything that goes on.”

Charles got up wearily. He wanted to shout that he wished to God she wouldn’t lie to him… that he wanted to know what was going on behind his back. Instead, he asked casually, “Was Seth at the dance?”

“Oh, sure. Seth… and lots of people. It was fun.” She sat up, her arms extended along the chair arms and looked pensively at the toe of one frail dancing slipper she was wiggling.

“I’m glad it was fun,” he said heavily. He laid the book on the table and went to the hall closet to get his hat. Elsa was still studying the toe of her slipper when he came back. “Now that you’re home all right, I have to go out.” He didn’t want to reprove her, but it was there, in the tone of his voice.

She glanced up sharply. “Out? At this time of night?”

“To look for Brand,” he told her. His hand touched the letter in his hip pocket.

“George Brand!” A shadow of fear was in her eyes, her face tense. “Don’t be ridiculous, Charles.”

“What’s ridiculous about it?” He was irritable now.

“Please don’t.” There was real fear in her eyes. She was sitting forward, red-nailed fingers tightly gripping the upholstered chair arms. “Not… tonight. Please, Charles.”

He looked at her, puzzled, then said, “I believe you do actually care, Elsa… a little.”

“Of course I care,” she cried drunkenly. “How can you be so cruel,” but she didn’t move to go to him.

He went to her chair and looked down into her lovely face. “There’s nothing to fear,” he reassured her. “Brand is a sensible man, even if he is leading the strikers against us. He’s not a hot-blooded Communist like some of the other labor agitators we’ve had here and in Harlan. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t talk with him at one o’clock in the morning.”

“Maybe not.” She sank back wearily. “I’ll have a little drink and wait up for you. You’re so brave and kind, Charles.”

Charles reached for her hands and drew her up from the chair, close to him. The smell of liquor on her breath repelled him. He kissed her swiftly, put her aside, and went out the door to his car.

2

CHARLES turned on the headlights and released the emergency brake. His car rolled forward, and he kept his foot on the brake to ease it down the slope. The beams from the lights tunnelled through the green tangle of foliage in a sweeping arc that carried him past the big house below. He noted that the open double garage was empty as he glided past.

That wasn’t strange. The house was usually dark, the garage empty, at this time of night. Jimmy lived alone in the big house, now that John Roche was dead, with only a couple of Negro servants who occupied rooms in the rear and retired early. Jimmy seldom came home before daylight. He was either drunk in the village, or he might be drunk at the Cornell woman’s house.

There wasn’t anything to be done about Jimmy. Charles knew, for he had tried to reason with him. He was five years younger, a slender bundle of bitter frustration and angry nerves; an alcoholic who declared there was nothing to do in Centerville but fool around with females or fish, and the fishing didn’t interest him. He was determined to go to hell in his own way. He scorned the mining village because he was bound to it by the terms of John Roche’s will, and he despised the mines which provided the money he threw around so carelessly.

When Charles thought of Jimmy he had an uncomfortable sense of inadequacy. At first he had felt guilty, but after three years of trying to reason with him he no longer censured himself for his younger brother’s predicament, but he still groped for some solution. He knew Jimmy hated him. Knew that he had taught himself to blame his elder brother for the terms of the will which required them both to stay in the Kentucky mountains near the mines where men slaved and sweltered and risked their lives every day beneath the earth’s surface. Even in death, John Roche’s unreasoning pride and unrelenting drive held them here. It was natural that their father had selected him, Charles, to be groomed to take his place as head of the Roche Mining Industries. He was much stronger physically, more serious-minded and more capable of succeeding his father.

Mist was gathering in the valley, and as his car rolled slowly downward, Charles’ mouth tightened into a grim line.

He reached an intersecting road leading east and west and turned east along the hillside contour toward the airport. He switched on the ignition and slipped the car into high gear. The motor took hold when he let the clutch out and he stepped on the accelerator. He was now travelling parallel to the strungout mining village, approximately half a mile above it, measured along the slope, and perhaps four hundred feet measured vertically. Lights of the village showed through the treetops, and were gradually left behind. Directly below were the shacks of the miners, clinging precariously to both sides of the gorge, rising on high stilts in front and sitting flat on the mountainside in the rear.

The airport was a mile and a half farther on, where the gorge widened out into a flat meadow.

The crackle of gunfire sounded below and slightly behind Charles’ car. He jerked as though the bullets were aimed at him and had found their mark.

Braking the car and switching off the lights simultaneously, he leaned out the window and looked down anxiously. For a moment he could see nothing through the light mist. There had been only one burst of shots. Some of Chief Elwood’s imported deputies, he thought angrily. Tanked up and shooting at the moon because thus far they had been restrained from firing at more exciting targets.

Then, there was a loud explosion, a sheet of flame rushing high into the air. It came from the far side of the gulch, from the string of shacks nearest the village which housed Roche miners. The ancient frame-and-tarpaper shack went up in a solid mass of flame that spoke eloquently of plenty of gasoline cunningly applied.

Charles trembled violently as he drew himself straight behind the steering wheel. He could still vividly see the sheet of flame, though he looked only into the clean mistiness of the night. Sweat streamed from his face and he pounded his doubled fist futilely on the steering wheel.

Why? In the name of God, why? There were other ways to settle such things. Better ways. But not in Kentucky, he thought savagely. Not in the bloody Harlan district. This was the pattern that had been laid down long ago… by his father, and by other rugged individualists like him. An inflexible, tyrannical pattern of force. He couldn’t make them see that times had changed. That the pattern was outmoded. Another striker’s home dynamited. Another sharp wedge driven between those who sought to reconcile viewpoints that had been unreconcilable for decades.

The thought made him physically ill. He must see Brand now. But he had to go to the airport first. The letter in his hip pocket pressed against his sensitized flesh as though it had suddenly taken on measureable thickness. With that in the mail, he would feel better. Then he could go to Brand and try to explain.

There were lights at the small airport, but no one was there. Charles was glad that no one saw him mail the envelope. It seemed better that way. It would be so much safer if no one knew.

He drove away from the airport, down to the main east and west highway running through the bottom of the gulch, then west toward Centerville. The gaunt outlines of dark miners’ shacks on either side of the road were strangely distorted caricatures of misshapen animals crouching there sullenly to spring upon anyone unwary enough to pass them. They did not spring, but sat solidly upon the mountainside, as though they feared the flimsy stilts might break if they moved. They had the strength, Charles thought bitterly, if they but knew it. It would be so simple.

When Charles reached the spot, the flames from the burning house had died down. There was only a mass of glowing embers on the hillside, nothing more. No curious crowds, no sign of any fire-fighting equipment.

He drove on toward the village, a village patrolled by armed men, where miners skulked behind flimsy walls. The roadway was deserted, and the uniform rows of shacks gave way to a pleasing residential section where the road widened into a street with concrete curbs and gutters. These houses were dark, too, except for street lights shining dimly upon their painted exteriors. Here lived the shopkeepers and the policemen, the gamblers and the Rotarians, the pimps and the politicians, the ministers of the gospel and their flocks… all those who prospered and grew fat on the fruits of the miners’ toil, and many of whom were pleased with things as they were.

Not all of them, Charles knew. He had witnessed the hauling into court of honest men and women who had refused to pay off when the strong arm of the law demanded it. He had seen weeping women shoved up the stairs to the filthy ward by fat cops to be locked in a dark and stinking room with nothing between their tender flesh and an iron cot upon which they had to sleep. He had seen men defy the authorities of Centerville, and beaten into unrecognizable pulps before being dragged up the same stairs to lie on a concrete floor until such time as they admitted guilt and were released, more dead than alive in body, and all hope gone from their minds and hearts.

There were few people on the streets when he came to the business section of Centerville, a lone laggard now and then, hurrying past the groups of two or three deputies with guns displayed in open holsters at their hips. Always in groups of two or three. Clinging together for assurance and for safety. The lid was tightly clamped on Centerville, but it was likely to blow off with a mighty roar at any time.

Charles parked his car at the curb in front of the Central Hotel beside three other cars. The lobby and the small bar-dining room were brightly lighted. Two local policemen stood outside the entrance to the dining room. They swung wooden clubs in their hands, their uniform coats were unbuttoned, and one of them was chewing tobacco. A dribble of brown sputum ran down his jaw.

They stood there solidly and watched Charles Roche get out of his car and cross the sidewalk toward them. Their faces betrayed neither animosity nor friendliness, only the surly disinterest he knew so well.

Charles said, “What happened out at the east end of the Roche line about half hour ago?”

The tobacco chewer spat and asked, “Somethin’ happen out there?”

“I heard gunfire, saw an explosion and a house burned.”

The other man said, “You know how it is with them damn Commies, Mr. Roche. Allus makin’ trouble.”

“Was anyone hurt?” Charles asked quietly.

“It’s outside the city limits,” the first man told him. “Some of the deputies went out, I reckon.”

Charles restrained his anger and asked, “Have you seen George Brand around tonight?”

“He don’t show his face much around town at night.”

“I want to see him. Pass the word around where he’ll get hold of it.” Charles started past them into the dining room.

“Mr. Roche…”

He stopped to look back, his hand on the knob. “Yes?”

One of the men said, “Jimmy’s in there. Him… an’ some others. Kinda smoked up, I reckon.”

Charles looked at him, puzzled. “Smoked-up” was a new expression. It smacked of dope… or a new kind of liquor. His muscles contracted, and he asked, “What do you mean?”

“That gasoline,” the man said vaguely, “flings out a pow’ful puff when it’s mixed with enough powder.”

Charles nodded slowly, his eyes hard and grayish in the dim light. He said, “Thanks,” and went in.

There were a number of small tables huddled together at the rear of the dining room, the covers dirty, and eight dirtier men leaning upon them. Three of them had deputies’ badges affixed to their shirts, guns on their hips. Two others Charles recognized as local hangers-on at the City Hall. The others were strangers. All except his brother, who was second from the left. Half of the men had smudged faces and hands.

Standing quietly by the door for a moment, Charles heard their animated conversation. It stopped abruptly when one man, roaring with laughter, looked up and saw him. He stopped with his mouth open and his bleary eyes gazing.

The others turned to see Charles standing there.

“Hello, brother,” Jimmy said mockingly.

Jimmy’s face had a bloated look. His cheeks were round and sallow, his lips bloodless. His white shirt had been blackened, the sleeves rolled up under his armpits. His brows and lashes were singed off and his thick dark hair, the ends burned and crinkly, stood out ludicrously. He was quite drunk.

Charles disregarded the stares of the men seated at the table. He went straight to Jimmy and said, “Let’s go home.”

Jimmy didn’t move. He growled, over his shoulder, “If I had what you’ve got to go home to, that’s where I’d be.”

One of the deputies chortled loudly.

Charles took a step backward, his hands clenched. He asked quietly, “Do any of you know where I might locate George Brand tonight?”

The men whom he faced across the table shook their heads. One of them grunted derisively and said, “That son-of-a-bitch is keeping out of sight tonight.” His grimy face fell forward upon his folded arms.

Jimmy twisted his head and looked up at his brother. “Didn’t Elsa get home from the dance?” he asked drunkenly.

“Of course. What has she to do with it?”

Jimmy’s dark, clouded eyes wavered, and he turned his head away from Charles’ steady gaze. “Nothing,” he growled, “I reckon.” He picked up his drink and poured it down.

There was a moment of heavy silence as the men watched the two brothers with a look of eager anticipation in their bleary eyes. Jimmy pushed his chair back slowly, his hands gripping the edge of the table. He pulled himself up and turned to his brother. He said, surlily, “Get out and leave me alone.”

Charles ignored him. He moved around to the other side of the table and stood rocking back and forth on his heels. After a time he said, “If any of you see Brand, tell him I’m looking for him.”

None of the men said anything. Jimmy eased himself back into his chair. Charles looked toward the door. The two policemen were standing just inside, watching him, and when he started out, they moved aside.

Charles got in his car, started the motor, made a U-turn to drive back and climb to the nine-room house high above the village where Elsa waited for him.

3

IT WAS late in the afternoon three days later when Michael Shayne made the sharp turn on the gravel drive up to the wide veranda of the Moderne Hotel. There had been no signs along the highway warning him of the hill-top turn. There had, in fact, been no advertisement whatever to advise travellers they were approaching the Moderne. Both he and Lucy Hamilton had been watching for a sign for fifty miles or more through eyes salty with the perspiration dripping from their foreheads and brows. They had decided that the Moderne was not catering to tourists. They had seen the huge wooden board, probably lighted on both sides at night, on the north side of the grounds just in time.

A half dozen elderly guests sat rocking in the chairs on the veranda, languidly waving fans. The hotel was a rambling structure, two stories high. To the left, a dozen or more modern cabins sprawled, separated some ten or twelve feet, all baking under the fierce rays of the Kentucky sun. There was not a tree in sight.

Lucy Hamilton touched his arm as the car stopped with the bumper touching the concrete edge of the porch. “It says up there in the electric curlicues on the sign, ‘Centerville’s Finest’. I wonder what the others must be like.”

“Hotter,” Shayne said, turning to grin into her wide and contemplative brown eyes.

“But you said it would be cool here, Michael. For the last hundred miles you’ve been telling me…”

“That it would be cool when the sun goes down.” He reached over and patted her moist hand. “Besides, we can buy a cool drink in Kentucky… I hope.” He pulled his long legs up, unlatched the door, and stepped from the car. He wore a polo shirt and light cotton slacks. He took a sweat-sodden handkerchief from his hip pocket and mopped his face and neck, running it along his hairy bare arms.

Lucy had stopped a hundred miles back and freshened her face with cold water, combed her hair, and applied make-up. She looked cool and girlish in her white linen frock when she got out on the other side and went up the steps with him.

The occupants of the rocking chairs stopped fanning and regarded them listlessly, picked up their fans and turned their faded eyes once more upon the thundering, chugging highway traffic.

Shayne led Lucy into a small, dim lobby. An electric fan turned half-heartedly in the ceiling, ineffectually stirring the stale air exuding from cigar and cigarette butts in tall, open ashtrays, and the smoke rising from fresh ones puffed toward the ceiling by the men who were smoking in the four comfortable chairs. Except for a wall-crank telephone, four slot machines, an ancient cabinet radio and two spittoons, there were no other furnishings.

In the rear, knotty pine separated a small office from the lobby. A wide archway on the right opened onto a large, many-windowed dining room. A heavy chain was stretched across the archway with a cardboard sign hanging in the middle of it which read CLOSED. Dinner 5 to 7.

A portly gentleman with a rosy bald head and a sun-reddened face ending in three chins dozed behind the desk, the right side of his face cradled in a pudgy palm. He wore a wilted white shirt opened at the neck, the sleeves rolled up above his elbows. He opened one eye and looked up, startled, when Shayne said, “Good afternoon. What’s the chance of getting a room?”

He got up slowly and came over to the counter. “Welcome, sir,” he said in a high, squeaky voice. “Only one room left. It’s on the southwest corner and so all-fired hot nobody else’d take it, but I reckon you’re mighty lucky to get that.”

The detective had written “Michael Shayne and…” on the register before he finished speaking. He stopped with pen lifted and said, “Only one room? We want two.”

“This is a large double room,” the clerk assured him. “Bath right across the hall. You and the Missus will be mighty comfortable if you can stand the heat.”

Shayne said, “Miss Hamilton is my secretary. Haven’t you got a couple of singles.”

“Secretary, huh?” He sighed and screwed his eyes up tight to look at Lucy. He shook his head doubtfully and said, “Well, I dunno. There’s a cabin. But I’d have to charge her for the double room and you the full price for the cabin, and I don’t reckon…”

“Wait a minute… how about two cabins,” Shayne interrupted.

“H-m-m. Just driving through?” he asked.

“We might stay a few days,” Shayne told him. “If you have two cabins…”

“Well, now, if you’re stayin’ a while, I reckon so.”

Shayne finished writing in the register, “…Secretary, Miami, Florida.”

The fat man turned it around and read the names aloud. “Shayne, huh? From Miami? Would you be a newspaper man?”

Shayne said, “No. Can we see the cabins?”

“No offence, stranger.” He struck a bell on the desk and a colored man came through a door in the rear. He took two keys from a hook and said to the porter, “Show these folks nine and ten.”

“Just a minute… how about some ice and a drink?” Shayne asked.

“Well, sir, we don’t have any ice and we don’t sell liquor here at the hotel. Plenty of that down in Centerville, though.”

Shayne turned to Lucy and made a grimace of disgust and said, “Come on,” and they followed the porter outside. Shayne got in his car and started the motor. Lucy walked across the grounds behind the Negro while Shayne drove slowly over the baked and rock-covered distance from the hotel to the cabins.

When they reached nine and ten, the porter handed Shayne the key marked “9” and went on to open number ten.

Shayne got out and unlocked the door and was struck by a sickening and sultry blast of heat that had been accumulating all day inside the tightly closed cabin. He hastened to open both windows, looked behind a flowered curtain in one corner and found a concrete-floored shower stall and lavatory and toilet.

He went out to get his bag from the car. The porter had already taken Lucy’s. He glanced over at her cabin to see the windows opened and the door ajar.

Back in number nine, Shayne tossed his bag on the bed, opened it and took out a clean polo shirt and a fresh pair of slacks and clean underwear. He peeled off his sticky clothes and ducked into the shower. The water was lukewarm at first, and he felt slightly nauseated, but it ran cooler after a while. He came out drying himself with a towel which he gloomily estimated might dry the body of a debutante who had been dieting for six months in preparation for her coming out party.

His rangy body was still wet when he put on his clothes, but he felt refreshed and cooler. He hastily ran a comb through his unruly stubble of red hair and went out. He hesitated about closing the door and locking it, decided against it on the chance that it would catch a little more of the evening air.

He walked over to the hotel and appreciated the comparative coolness of the dim lobby when he stepped inside.

The clerk looked up and said, “I reckon it’s almighty hot out there.”

“It might help,” said Shayne, “if you’d leave the windows open so your guests wouldn’t be roasted before they could get to them.”

He chuckled. “It don’t help. We tried it. When it gets hot in Kentucky, it gets by god hot.”

Shayne went to the telephone and read the hand-printed sign pasted on it, LIFT RECEIVER BEFORE TURNING CRANK.

Shayne lifted the receiver and turned the crank. When the Centerville operator answered, he asked for number 340. She said, “Thank you,” in a sweet southern drawl, and rang the number.

Shayne leaned against the wall with the receiver to his ear and massaged his left earlobe. His gray eyes were half-closed, his wide mouth relaxed. He glanced over at the fat clerk. He was leaning on the counter with his mouth open, as though he expected to eavesdrop through it instead of his ears.

A soft, slurred feminine voice spoke in Shayne’s ear, “Yessuh?”

“I want to speak to Mr. Charles Roche.”

“Mistuh Charles Roche, did you-all say?”

“That’s right. Is he in?”

“Jest a minute,” the Negress said doubtfully.

While Shayne waited, he glanced again at the clerk. His mouth was open a little wider, and a faint wheeze came from him as if he were about to snore. His eyes were nearly closed.

Presently a man’s voice came over the wire. “Who is this calling?” His tone was gruff and slightly irritable.

“Mr. Roche?”

“What do you want with him?”

“I’d like to speak to him personally,” Shayne said gently.

“Would, eh?” the voice said. “What about?”

“I prefer to tell Mr. Roche that.”

“Where you calling from?” The tone was curt now, and definitely irritable.

“Is Mr. Roche there?” Shayne asked.

“No. Give me your name and…”

“I’ll call back.” Shayne banged up the receiver and mopped his face. He stood for a moment rubbing his angular jaw, then felt in his pocket for some coins. His hand came out clutching several, and he walked slowly along the four slot machines looking at the combinations showing. He selected the half-dollar machine, inserted the fifty-cent piece and pulled the handle.

The screen door opened and a man stepped inside as the tumblers whirred and the cylinders revolved. The first cylinder to stop showed a lemon, and he turned to the quarter machine. He fed it twice without getting a paying combination, and glanced aside with a shrug of his wide shoulders at the newcomer who was silently watching him.

He was a tall, bony-faced man with leathery skin and white bushy brows. He wore a sweat-streaked gray cotton shirt, and denim trousers held up by faded suspenders. He met Shayne’s gaze and said, “That’s the price of a meal you’ve wasted, Mister.”

“Or a couple of drinks,” Shayne agreed. He turned to the dime machine. It absorbed four dimes, giving him three lemons in succession, then gently slid off a five-pay combination after hesitating on it for an instant.

Shayne knew, then, what he was bucking. He tightened his wide mouth and moved on to the nickel machine. Lemons showed on one or more of the cylinders, two pulls out of three, and twice more a paying combination slid off just before clicking into place.

Stepping back with his hands empty, he said disgustedly, “Gimmicked to hell and gone. I’ve never seen worse in Juarez or Tia Juana.”

“What did you expect?” asked the gaunt-faced man. “This is Centerville.” He spoke without rancor. Flatly. As though being in Centerville, Kentucky, explained everything. This was the first time Shayne had heard those three words, “This is Centerville,” spoken, but it wasn’t the last time he was to hear them, always with that flat assumption of dogmatic acceptance. He was to discover that it explained so many things which could not otherwise be explained.

He shrugged and admitted, “One generally expects to get a little play from his money, even from these one-armed bandits. Thirty or forty per cent return, at least. It’s just good business. To have them pay off a little would encourage the suckers,” he went on irritably. “The people who gimmick these things so tight are just cutting their own throats.”

The shabby man said, “Folks play ’em anyhow. Here in Centerville, they do. Some play ’em for fun… and some play ’em hopin’.” He trudged over to the desk and bought a package of rough-cut from the three-chinned clerk. He leaned both elbows on the counter and talked to him in a low voice while Shayne strolled to the screen doors and onto the porch where he watched and listened to the heavy traffic on highway 90.

The noise was deafening. Coal trucks, one after the other, chugged up the steep hill, back-firing like small cannons exploding when they started down the hill on the other side. Cars honking, swerving in and out, struggling to pass before they lost momentum. Of all the places in the world, he decided, the Moderne had picked the noisiest spot for a hotel.

He couldn’t hear what the men in the lobby were saying. He realized that they were discussing him, but he didn’t care. He was wondering whether Lucy would be able to sleep tonight, with the heavy trucks shaking the very earth, the horns, the backfiring and the chugging.

Walking to the end of the porch, he saw Lucy standing in front of her cabin, looking around. He long-legged it across the rocky grounds, calling to her and waving. When he reached her he took both her hands and pushed her away at arm’s length. She had changed into a blue summer frock with short sleeves falling in soft folds over her upper arms, the bodice accentuating her slim waist and hips, then falling into graceful widening gores around the calves of her shapely legs. Her lips were freshly rouged, her face glowing and unpowdered.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she said. “I tried to powder, but it just stuck in cakes, so I wiped it off.”

Shayne’s eyes twinkled. He said, “You don’t need powder.”

“Have I kept you waiting?”

“Not long. How’s your cabin?”

“Hot as hell… when I left.” She chuckled, looking up at him.

“Such language,” Shayne chided. “So was mine.”

“Did you phone Mr. Roche?” She tucked her arm in his and they walked over to the car which was parked in front of number nine.

“I called, but he wasn’t in.” Shayne frowned. He didn’t tell her about the obtrusive manner in which some man had tried to find out what his business was with Roche.

They got in the car. Shayne backed around and headed toward the highway. It was easy to edge into the traffic on this side. The sun was sinking beyond the range of mountains, but the heat was stifling, giving no sign whatever of abating. The main highway was jammed with traffic, cars stalled trying to get up the hill without momentum.

When they came to a turn-off at the foot of the hill, Shayne said, “I’m going to take this road. It must be the old one leading into Centerville.”

“Are… you sure, Michael?” She laid her hand lightly on his bare arm.

“Pretty sure.”

The old road was free of traffic. It curved to the left continuously, and they could see the lights coming on in the village below. Dark came quickly to the canyon when the sun went down.

The whiplash of a shot jarred the evening silence as they rounded a curve in the old, crooked road. Then, two more. The sound of a racing motor followed almost immediately. There was another sharp curve ahead, and before they made it they heard a crashing noise as if two cars had hit in a head-on collision.

Lucy grabbed Shayne’s arm tightly. He put on the brakes and slowed. His gray eyes were troubled and the trenches in his face were taut. He didn’t say anything.

“Was that… a backfire,” Lucy gasped, “or…?”

“It wasn’t a backfire,” said Shayne harshly. “Get down low and stay there.” He eased around the curve, ready to step on the brake, or the accelerator, as circumstances required.

A heavy car was parked on the gravel shoulder and on the wrong side of the road two hundred yards ahead of them. The left front wheel was not more than a foot from the crumbling edge of a steep cliff. The figure of a man was outlined in the middle of the pavement beside the car. He was waving to two cars approaching from the opposite direction. Shayne watched, surprised, as they sped past him, not offering to stop and give aid at the scene of an accident.

He slowed his car a little more. Lucy was leaning out her window, looking over the edge of the embankment. “There’s a car over the side there, Michael,” she cried. “I can see a man pulling somebody out…”

They were close enough now for Shayne to see a large silver star on the blouse of the man in the middle of the road. He wore a wide hat and riding breeches and puttees, and a cartridge belt supporting an empty holster on his right hip. He was waving a revolver at Shayne, and now the detective saw why the other two cars had not stopped to help. The armed man was waving him on, instead of signalling for help.

Lucy Hamilton saw none of this. She was still leaning out the window, watching the wreckage on the slope below them. She cried out, “Stop, Mike! There’s a man… beating another man over the head with a gun… or a blackjack. It’s horrible! He’ll kill him. Aren’t you going to stop and help him?” She jerked around, her face white, her dark eyes frantic.

Shayne, his gaze glued on the sliver star before him, sped up. They were directly opposite the precariously hanging car. Shayne caught a glimpse of a black and white streamer pasted on the windshield as they raced by. It read: “SPECIAL POLICE.”

A scream came through the open windows of the car as they went past. A high-pitched wail of pain and of panicky pleading.

Shayne stepped on the gas. His mouth was tight, his teeth clenched, the muscles in his jaws working in unison with his teeth grinding together.

Lucy collapsed against him, sobbing out her fright and her failure to understand.

“That was an officer in the road,” he said gently. “He didn’t want us to stop. It would have been unhealthy for us to stick our noses into a private affair.”

“You mean… you would’ve stopped if you hadn’t had me along,” Lucy stammered.

“Maybe,” said Shayne harshly. “Maybe not.”

“But that was an officer down there beating that man. He had on a hat just like that one who waved you on. I’ll bet they deliberately rammed his car and forced it off the side.”

“Maybe. This is Centerville.” He didn’t know he was going to say the three words. They sounded ominous.

“But… what kind of a place is this? Where policemen do things like that right out in the open.”

“Maybe some desperate character,” Shayne muttered. “An escaped prisoner… or a murderer.” He knew he was just saying words for Lucy’s benefit. Cops didn’t beat men to death. Not even a murderer or a desperate criminal. Normally, they welcomed an audience to witness their triumphs.

The thing that stuck in Shayne’s mind was the man with the revolver who calmly directed traffic, his gun in his hand, of course… This is Centerville… while his fellow officer went down to capture a man. Not dead or alive, but dead.

Lucy shuddered and shrank back against the seat. “You didn’t see it the way I did,” she moaned. “The one who was being beaten and kicked wasn’t trying to fight back. He just cried out, begging for help. I can still hear him screaming, Michael. It’s terrible… when a man screams like that.”

Shayne reached over to pat her hand. “We’re almost in town,” he said.

The winding side road joined the main highway which stretched out into a level street leading into the heart of Centerville. It was well past sundown in the mountain-shrouded valley, and there were plenty of parking places on the main street.

Shayne stopped in front of a dingy sign that read: “POOL & WHISKEY.” He got out of the car and said, “Sit here, and I’ll see what goes in this joint.”

He went into a narrow room with a strip of a bar occupying the front portion and spreading out beyond with enough room for a pool table. The air was putrid with the smell of liquor. There was no window, and as he passed the half-dozen men standing at the bar, the stench of their unwashed bodies was stifling. They wore grimy overalls, and their faces were smeared with coaldust. All six of them turned sullen faces toward him, but no one said anything.

The bartender was dark-featured and low-browed. He came slowly toward Shayne when he stopped at the end of the bar. “Any tables?” Shayne asked.

“This ain’t no eatin’ place,” he answered in a surly voice.

“Any place for a lady to sit and have a drink?” Shayne persisted.

The bartender wiped the counter with a dirty bar-rag. “Can’t she stand up, Mister?”

One of the men snickered. They were all watching Shayne.

He said, “She could, but I don’t think she’d like the way this place stinks.”

“Maybe you don’t like it either,” the bartender suggested.

There was animosity in the atmosphere about him, an indefinable sense of sinister emotion. Shayne stood rigid and savored it with twitching nostrils. It wasn’t as much directed at him as a person, but at what he stood for. Something alien. A person from outside their own tight orbit.

Shayne grinned suddenly and said, “It suits me fine. I’ll have a drink, anyhow.”

“Beer?”

“Hell, no. A slug of brandy if you’ve got it.”

“No brandy.”

“Whiskey, then,” Shayne said impatiently. “A double shot of Old Granddad.”

“We don’t sell it here, Mister. It ain’t allowed.”

Shayne looked at the row of sealed bottles behind the bar, then down the counter at shot-glasses in front of the customers. He asked, “Are these men drinking beer out of one-ounce glasses?”

“Outta their own bottles,” the bartender explained apathetically. “You wanta buy a bottle, I’ll loan you a glass.”

Shayne’s brow furrowed. “You mean I can’t buy a drink and pay for it and walk out. What is this?”

“This here,” the man beside him said gruffly, “is Centerville. They figure a man drinks more iffen he buys a whole bottle. That a-way they sell more whiskey.” He didn’t sound bitter. He was merely explaining a fact.

Shayne said, “All right. Where’s a place I can go and take a lady to buy a bottle and have a drink?”

“Try the Eustis Restaurant,” the man in the middle of the row said. “That’s about the best…”

“That son-of-a-bitch Hank Bellow and his old woman,” said the man next to Shayne flatly, “is working right with ’em, I’m tellin’ you. They turned in Pete Jonas t’other day.”

“Pete shouldn’t’ve flashed that roll,” the man at the end of the line put in. “Ain’t a place in town won’t phone the cops once a man’s through spendin’ an’ got some left. Hank ain’t no worse’n any t’others.”

There was a general mutter of agreement. Shayne was puzzled as to the exact meaning they were trying to convey, but he did gather that it was the consensus that the Eustis Restaurant was as good as any in Centerville. He got directions for finding it, and went out.

Three uniformed deputies were in a group in front of his car, gawking at the Florida license plate and at Lucy. They all watched him silently as he crossed the sidewalk and got behind the steering wheel.

Lucy said, “You took long enough. Was the cognac good?”

Shayne said, “Fair,” and started the motor. “How long have those monkeys been standing there?” He backed away from the curb.

“They came up right after you went in. Just stood there and stared at the car and the license plate and me. I couldn’t hear what they said. They were talking low.” Lucy put her hand on his arm. “Let’s get out of here, Michael. There’s something terribly wrong about this town. I can feel it all around me. Those men back on the road…”

“They’ve been having a local strike here and have sworn in a bunch of special deputies,” Shayne interrupted soothingly, “that’s all.” But he knew it wasn’t all. He knew it went a great deal deeper than that. There were hatreds of long standing stalking the streets of Centerville, perhaps for a hundred years, handed down from father to son, pent up in their untutored minds, and now, with the new order of things, ready to come to the surface with disastrous explosiveness.

Shayne was not ignorant of the situation. He had kept in touch with the labor crises all over the country. But he had no acquaintance with the people themselves. He had been too busy with thieves and bums and murderers, and the bigoted wealthy men and women whom they murdered and stole from. He knew he had a lot to learn here in the Kentucky mountains.

“I haven’t talked to Roche yet,” he went on quietly to Lucy as he turned onto a roughly paved sidestreet. “Chances are I’ll turn the case down and we can clear out after I do. But I do have to see him. I’ve already cashed his check.”

He stopped near the end of the block in front of the Eustis Restaurant. Here, there was no bar, but an array of bottles on the shelves behind the quick-lunch stand. Square tables occupied the center of the spacious restaurant with a row of booths along the right-hand wall. A dozen slot machines were located strategically near the entrance… and exit… and a brightly lighted jukebox was playing a mournful tune.

Shayne led Lucy toward a vacant table in the rear. When the waiter came Shayne said, “Bring us a bottle of the best brandy you have, two glasses of ice, a bottle of soda, and two glasses of ice water.”

When the waiter went away Shayne said to Lucy, “I’ll try to get Roche again. Must be half an hour since I called.” He strolled to the cigar stand to get change for a dollar by purchasing a copy of the afternoon Centerville Gazette.

He glanced casually at the front page while waiting for his change. He didn’t look up when the clerk said, “Here you are, suh,” but held his palm out, felt the coins drop into it, put them in his pocket and turned slowly back to the table.

Lucy looked up to see the bleak expression in his eyes. “Michael! What’s the matter? You didn’t even go to the phone booth.”

Shayne shook his red head slowly and sat down. “No, Lucy. I guess I won’t have to bother, about that… now.” He laid the paper on the table and ran a knobby forefinger along the headline sweeping across the page. There were two lines in inch-high type:

PROCOMMUNIST LABOR AGITATOR ARRESTED IN MURDER

They bent their heads together, leaning over the paper, and read:

“Mr. Charles Roche, heir to the Roche Mining Properties was fatally shot early this morning…”

4

“CHARLES ROCHE… murdered!” Lucy cried out.

Shayne said, “S-h-h.” He looked around, troubled, but the noise appeared to have drowned out her words. Someone had selected a boogy-woogy record and the rasping sound filled the room. He put his mouth close to her ear and said, “I cashed his check for five grand in Miami. I wonder if it had time to clear through his bank?”

“What?”

“The check,” he said impatiently. “If he was killed before it went through, they won’t honor it.”

She looked into his eyes, horrified. “Michael Shayne! You sit here worrying about a check when your client has been murdered!”

“Somebody has to pay for this trip,” he told her harshly. “A man’s bank account is immediately frozen on his death, and you have to monkey around with court orders to get a clearance.”

“It seems to me,” said Lucy icily, “that you wouldn’t have any right to keep it, since you got here too late to do him any good.”

“But I’ve already cashed it,” he remonstrated in her ear.

She drew away from him, her brown eyes misty. “I want to read about it,” she told him.

Shayne put his arm around her. Her body stiffened.

“Don’t be like that, Angel. Let’s read it together.”

Lucy slowly relaxed, and they bent over the front page spread out on the table. Her left cheek rested lightly against the short sleeve of his polo shirt, and they continued the story:

“Charles Roche’s body was discovered at 6:00 A.M. near the intersection of Twelfth Street and Magnolia Avenue by Raoul J. King, a truck farmer from Lynn Acres, who was driving into Centerville with a load of produce. The body was lying in a clump of weeds on the right-hand side of Magnolia Avenue, about a hundred feet from Twelfth Street where Mr. Roche’s car was parked.

“‘I just happened to notice something lying there as I drove past,’ Mr. King told a Gazette reporter. ‘It was good sunup and I thinks to myself, by golly, if that don’t look like a man lying there. I stopped my truck and got out and looked, and sure enough it was. Whole back of his head was blown off and I sure knew he was dead, without touching him. I left him right like that and ran back to my truck and told the first policeman I came to. I didn’t know it was Mr. Roche till later.’

“Officer Harold Dixon turned in the alarm and hurried to investigate. He was soon joined by Police Chief Henry Elwood and other members of Centerville’s efficient force. Chief Elwood assumed personal charge of the investigation into the murder of one of our city’s most respected citizens, and issued the following statement to the press at 10:00 o’clock this morning:

“‘Charles Roche was shot once behind the right ear with a .44 caliber Colt’s revolver. A similar weapon was found on the ground near his body, and we are satisfied it is the death weapon. From the position of the body and evidence found on the scene of the crime, we believe Mr. Roche was walking back toward his parked car along the edge of the pavement when someone came up from behind and fired the fatal shot.

“‘Death was practically instantaneous, states Coroner M. Peter Tombs, and probably occurred between three and five o’clock this morning. His wallet was intact with a fairly large sum of money in it, which would make it appear that robbery was not the motive. We believe we know the identity of the perpetrator of this foul deed, and expect an arrest to follow shortly.’

“The above statement was all Chief Elwood was prepared to give out at the time, and he refused to say more when pressed by representatives of the Gazette to name his suspect.

“From sources close to Mr. Roche, we learn that he has received several threatening letters during the past weeks, and that at least one of these communications has been turned over to the authorities by his grief-stricken wife.

“We have also learned that the last person to have seen Mr. Roche alive was his wife. This was a little before 2:00 A.M. when Mr. Roche left his home on Mountaincrest Drive after telling Mrs. Roche he had an appointment to meet the labor agitator, George Brand, at his home at 610 Magnolia Avenue, not more than a hundred feet from the point where Roche’s body was found.

“‘I begged him not to go see that man,’ Mrs. Roche related to a Gazette reporter between quiet sobs early this morning. ‘I warned him that it was dangerous and reminded him of the threatening letters he had recently received which I am sure were sent by Brand or some member of the subversive group who are responsible for this terrible strike.

“‘But Charles insisted he had to go, and he scoffed at the idea of any personal danger. He was so fearless, and he had a foolish idea that if he and the labor leader could sit down together quietly, they might be able to settle the strike by compromise.

“‘I could say nothing to dissuade him, though I pleaded with him to think of me if he refused to consider his personal safety. I think, now, that I had an awful premonition of what was to come. I remember I stood in the door and watched his car disappear down the drive until I couldn’t see for the tears. I didn’t go to bed. I stayed up all night waiting for him to come home. Somehow when the telephone rang at six-thirty, I knew before I answered it what the terrible message would be.’

“At this point in her recital, Mrs. Elsa Roche (nee Maywell of Boston) became hysterical and her physician forbade further questioning and ordered her to bed with a sedative.

“From another source, your reporter learns that this courageous woman did not sit idly during those long hours of waiting, and that her presentiment of danger upon her husband’s departure must have been very very real, indeed.

“At four o’clock this morning, unable to endure the strain of anxiety longer, she aroused Mr. Seth Gerald, General Manager of Roche Mining Properties, from his sleep by a telephone call which sent him out seeking to avert the tragedy which may or may not have already occurred. Mr. Gerald’s story follows, verbatim, as given in a signed statement in Chief Elwood’s office early this morning:

“‘It was five minutes after four when the telephone wakened me. I am a light sleeper, and I answered it at once. It was Mrs. Roche and she sounded terribly worried and distraught. She told me that Charles had left home almost two hours previously to keep a secret appointment with Brand to seek some compromise settlement of the unauthorized mine strike which George Brand has fomented here, and she begged me to see if everything was all right.

“‘I assured her over the telephone as best I could, and promised to go to Brand’s home immediately and see whether things were all right. Frankly, I was worried myself, and I lost no time dressing and getting in my car, for I certainly wouldn’t trust George Brand any further than I would any other racketeer who seeks to overthrow the American way of life and substitute a Totalitarian rule of force.

“‘In fact I have repeatedly warned Charles that the only way to deal with radicals like Brand is with a machine gun, but he was young and had certain idealistic beliefs which led him to assume that a rat like Brand might respond to reason and logic more quickly than to the mailed fist.

“‘So I must admit I felt he had foolishly taken his life in his hands by going alone and unarmed to meet his most vicious enemy secretly at that hour of the morning, though I could not possibly foresee the tragic result of that unfortunate meeting.

“‘I drove directly from my home at 1812 Hawthorne Road to the shack George Brand is known to be occupying on Magnolia Avenue. It was not yet daylight, and the house was dark. The garage door was closed and there was no automobile in sight. I don’t know what impelled me to go up to the door and knock, since everything appeared to be in order, but I did, leaving my car parked outside with the engine running.

“‘I knocked loudly and received no response, and naturally I assumed that Brand was either absent or in such a drunken stupor that it was impossible to rouse him. There was a light across the street in Mrs. Cornell’s house and I could hear her radio. I went over to ask her if she had observed a light in Brand’s home, and she said she had not.

“‘I then got in my car and drove on to the corner of Twelfth Street, and there I saw an automobile parked under a cypress at the intersection. Ordinarily I wouldn’t have paid any attention to this, but I was still worried about Charles, and I pulled up beside it to investigate. I recognized it at once as Charles’ car. There was no one in it and no key in the ignition. The motor felt cold when I put my hand on the hood, and I assumed that Charles had left it there inconspicuously when he came to keep his appointment with Brand more than two hours previously.

“‘I looked at my watch and it was then exactly four-eighteen. I was more worried than ever, and I didn’t know what to do. I decided that Charles must have walked from his car to Brand’s house to keep his appointment and they had driven away together in Brand’s car so they would be less likely to be seen, since both of them, in a sense, must have wanted to keep their meeting a secret.

“‘I realize now that at the very moment I stood there, undecided, Charles’ body must have been stiffening in the roadside ditch less than a hundred feet away, but I had no intimation of the fact at the time. I did consider whether I should wait for Charles to return, but after carefully studying all the factors involved, came to the conclusion that it would only be embarrassing to both of us were I to do so.

“‘I then drove directly to the Roche home which I found brilliantly lighted and where I was met at the door by Mrs. Roche who was still fully dressed and in a state of nerves bordering on hysteria. To reassure her as much as possible, I lied by saying I had been to the Brand house and there was no sign of her husband in the vicinity, and told her I was sure Charles must have thought better of his foolhardy errand and had probably gone down to the city for a drink and had been inveigled into a late card game by some of the boys.

“‘She was visibly calmer when I left the house a few minutes before five o’clock, and promised me faithfully that she would go to bed and try to get some rest.

“‘I drove straight home and went to bed. At six o’clock I was awakened by the telephone, and was told the dreadful news.

“‘In the death of Charles Roche, Centerville has lost one of its finest young citizens, and the person or persons responsible for this outrage against everything we hold dear to our hearts must be hunted down ruthlessly and exterminated without mercy, as one would grind a rattlesnake under heel. I hereby offer the authorities every facility of the Roche Mining Properties to further this crusade, and a personal reward of one thousand dollars for the arrest and conviction of Charles Roche’s murderer.

“‘I wish to say one thing more. I realize I am under oath and I state with all solemnity and with full knowledge of the possible consequences, that in my personal opinion George Brand murdered Mr. Roche in cold blood after rejecting whatever compromise proposal for settlement of the present strike Charles offered.

“‘I call upon all you right-thinking citizens of Centerville who have followed this man’s subversive leadership to your ruination to cast aside the shackles with which he has enslaved you, and proclaim yourselves free men again. George Brand stands before you with blood streaming from his hands. The blood of one of the kindest and fairest of employers, the son of the beloved John Roche who pioneered to build this community into what it is today, who provided jobs for you that your children might be fed and who led the fight for every labor reform which he felt would better your condition.

“‘Call off this costly and bloody strike now! You cannot possibly win. Our company is prepared to remain shut down for years, if forced to do so to win. We will not deal with murderers and those who seek to wreck our American system. Pick up your tools and return to work, and the day our production reaches normal again, you may come to me with your grievances and they will receive my fair and impartial attention as always. Those workers who do not heed this call are openly allying themselves with traitors to our country who are leading you to your own destruction. Roche Workers… Stand up and be counted! Do you condone coldblooded murder?

“‘If not: Return to work tomorrow.’”

Lucy drew in a deep breath and said, “Whew!” She looked at Shayne when they reached the end of Mr. Gerald’s impassioned plea.

Shayne’s bushy red brows were drawn low and his face was bleak. He nodded slowly and said, “This guy George Brand is drawn and quartered. I feel sorry as hell for him if he didn’t kill Roche.”

The waiter brought their bottle of brandy, glasses, ice and soda. Shayne poured a little brandy in his glass, tasted it straight and puckered his wide mouth. He added more brandy, then ice cubes and a generous dash of soda, and fixed a glass for Lucy.

“That letter you had from Mr. Roche, Michael,” she asked hesitantly, “does it… is there anything in it that gives you a clue?”

“It was pretty vague. The most important thing in it was his indication that he didn’t trust someone… or anyone close to him. Let’s see what they’ve actually got on Brand.”

He took a long sip from his glass, pulled the paper toward them, and they continued to read the story covering the entire front page of the Centerville Gazette:

“Chief Elwood refused any direct comment at the time when Seth Gerald flatly accused George Brand of the murder. He stated, ‘We are checking up on the fellow, and if enough evidence is produced against him, you may be sure he won’t escape justice. But I intend this to be handled in a legal manner.’

“The investigation was proceeding methodically and with a thoroughness that is characteristic of Chief Elwood. Brand had been awakened at seven o’clock and professed to be surprised at the news of Mr. Roche’s death. He emphatically denied having had an appointment with Roche, and denied having seen him for several days. He admitted, under questioning, that he was the owner of a Colt .44, but when asked to produce it, claimed that it must have been stolen from the bureau drawer where it was usually kept. He stated that he had not seen the revolver for several days, and supposed that anyone might have walked in his unlocked house and stolen it during that period.

“Confronted with the death weapon, and under severe grilling by Chief Elwood, Brand reluctantly conceded that it might be his property, but insisted it was impossible to positively identify it.

“Brand’s story of his movements during the night is simple, and, if verified, provides him with a foolproof alibi for the time of the crime. His verbatim statement follows, as taken down by an official stenographer at his home this morning:

“‘I am deeply shocked by this news and make this statement of my own free will. I had met Mr. Charles Roche several times, and I feel that our cause has lost a friend. I considered him an honorable gentleman and had great hopes that when he assumed management of the Roche Mines in a few days we would be able to reach an agreement which would permit all the miners to go back to work at a living wage.

“‘Thus, anyone with the brains of a lizard can see that my union and I stood to lose more by his death than anyone else in Centerville, and I certainly would have been the last man on earth to harm him.

“‘We held a meeting of the Steering Committee at the Union Hall last night. This broke up about midnight, and I went down to Bert’s Place with some of the boys for a sandwich. Most of them drifted away about one o’clock, and Joseph Margule suggested that he and I go on to a friendly game at Jethro Home’s place.

“‘We took a dozen bottles of beer with us, and drove out in my car. Home lives about three miles east, just off the highway. When we arrived at one-thirty, we found Jim Place and Dave Burroughs and Home playing pennyante in the kitchen. Place left the game soon after we arrived, and the other four of us stayed and played poker until slightly after five o’clock. I dropped Burroughs and Margule off at their houses and drove on home myself, arriving at exactly five-twenty. I know the time because it was daylight, and Mrs. Cornell, my neighbor across the street, had just stepped out on her porch. She waved to me and said something about me being out mighty late, and I looked at my watch. I told her it was just five-twenty, and asked what she was doing up so early. She said something about having a headache and couldn’t sleep. Then I put my car in the garage and went to bed.’

“We understand that Chief Elwood is interrogating the men whom Brand claimed as witnesses to his alibi, and no charge has been placed against him at noon today as we go to press. It is, however, worthy of note that all these men are members of Brand’s so-called ‘Union’ and thus under the domination of his absolute dictatorship. Under these circumstances one might not blame Chief Elwood if he views Brand’s ‘alibis’ with the suspicion we feel they deserve. This paper is being held for the press until the very last moment to bring its readers the latest development in the Roche case.

“The deceased was born in Centerville, Kentucky, in 1918. He was an honor graduate of Centerville High School, and attended Duke University where he was president of the graduating class of 1940. He was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the United States Army in 1941, and served in various theatres of the war, rising to the rank of Major before being demobilized in 1945.

“Married almost immediately thereafter to Miss Elsa Maywell of Boston, the young couple returned to Centerville after a honeymoon trip through the west, and settled in the gracious home on Mountaincrest Drive which was their wedding gift from the groom’s father and which has been a center of social life in Centerville since their occupancy.

“Immediately after his return, Charles Roche was appointed on the Board of Directors of the Roche Mining Properties, and plunged into the serious business of learning to manage the vast interests left to him in trust upon the death of his father, John Roche, in 1943. He was to have taken over the general managership when he reached the age of thirty, at which time the trusteeship would have ended.

“He leaves a widow, Mrs. Elsa Maywell Roche, and a brother, James L., of this city.”

There was a puzzled frown between Lucy Hamilton’s misty brown eyes. “What a shame, Michael. If we could have been just a day earlier getting here… maybe…”

“That jalopy of mine doesn’t fly,” he said sourly.

She looked around at his hard-set jaw and brooding eyes. “What… does the headline mean, Michael? Who has been arrested?”

Shayne said, “Scramble up ‘Pro-Communist Labor Agitator’. There may be a couple of letters missing, but it probably spells out George Brand. The actual arrest probably came just in time for them to jerk out the headline and substitute this one.” He emptied his glass of brandy and soda and mixed another.

“But what about Brand’s alibi? How can they get around the testimony of three witnesses? Four, actually, if they count the woman with the headache who saw him drive up at five-twenty.”

Shayne said, “If I’ve read the signs in this town right, those witnesses will be made of pretty tough stuff if they stick to their stories in the face of the grilling they’ll get from the police. And that noble speech of Seth Gerald’s will probably line the citizenry up on his side,” he ended disgustedly.

“But… what motive did Brand have? He was leading the strike, and he said right out loud he was hoping they would be able to reach a settlement as soon as Charles Roche took over the management.”

“What else would he say? Whether it’s true or not?”

“Well… you can see that Mr. Roche was trying to reach a settlement,” she pointed out. “Why else would he be going to see Brand?”

“Maybe to tell him he’d changed his mind about settling, and was prepared to fight it out to the end… by starving every miner. In that case, Brand might have lost his head and shot him. Look at it this way. Charles Roche was evidently schooled by Seth Gerald, after his father’s death, for his future management of the mines. Charles had been out of touch for several years when he was overseas. You read what Gerald thinks.”

Lucy nodded her brown head slowly, twirling her full glass around. “It looks as though public opinion will be solidly against them, and they’ll have to give up the strike to repudiate the leadership of a murderer,” she acknowledged.

“Yeh. That’s what’ll happen,” Shayne said, scowling. “Good God, you can’t stand up against that sort of propaganda. But killers sometimes fail to consider the possible consequences.”

“Michael!” Lucy turned quickly toward him. “You’re not going to side against the miners in their strike! You’ve seen the awful hovels they live in… and read the statistics on annual income. You don’t blame them… surely… for wanting enough money to buy food… while the mine owners live in the lap of luxury!”

“I’m not blaming them, Angel.” He was silent for a moment, then added, “I just don’t see where I come in.”

“You can find out who murdered Mr. Roche. I know you can. You’ve got to earn that five thousand dollars.”

“He hired me to prevent his murder,” Shayne told her grimly.

“It’s not your fault we were too late for that. Now… it’s your job to find out…”

“And what if that proves to be a certain George Brand?” He turned toward her and grinned.

“It… won’t be. I just know it won’t. I’ll bet it’s that Gerald man. He’s probably been stealing money from the firm… and… well, he was right there on the scene about the time it happened.” She was thinking hard as she spoke, a frown puckering her smooth brow, “He could have done it,” she ended on a note of triumph.

Shayne laughed heartily and poured himself a straight drink. “We’ll have dinner. Then I’ll pay my respects to Mrs. Elsa Maywell Roche and see what’s what.”

5

THE Eustis Restaurant was beginning to fill up with evening diners. Most of the customers were young couples, the men in shirt sleeves, the women wearing simple cotton dresses; with a sprinkling here and there of overalled men who were obviously miners, scrubbed as clean as yellow soap could get them. Some of them were with their wives and families. Most of the children were tow-headed and pale, snub-nosed, their mouths open, suggestive of adenoids.

Shayne sat back and tried to enjoy the bad brandy as he watched the people about him and listened to snatches of their conversation. Many had brought their own bottles or flasks, and there was a lot of quiet drinking, but there was little conviviality. There was an atmosphere of somberness and preternatural gravity. Even the tunes they selected on the jukebox were mournful ditties, and the men and women who fed coins into the slot machines had no hint of enjoyment or hope in their expressions as they pulled the bandit’s arm.

It wasn’t a natural dourness, Shayne decided, nor yet an assumed solemnity, but more an ingrained listlessness and an apathetic acceptance of the unpleasant verities of life. He supposed this was a normal condition of life in Centerville, not directly attributable to the mine strike nor to the shadow of tragedy hanging over the town as the result of Roche’s murder and the arrest of George Brand.

That, he thought, was the explanation. Violent death was not an uncommon occurrence to these people. They were inured to these tragic happenings. This was Centerville. They had been born and reared beneath the shadow of tragedy, and scarcely realized that it was perceptibly darker today than yesterday.

The waiter brought them a dim carbon of a typed menu, and he and Lucy ordered the dollar steak dinner. The entree was preceded by a watery tomato soup, and accompanied by a limp lettuce and tomato salad. The steak was thin and tough and inundated with pale gravy. Carrots, mushy from over-cooking, and unseasoned mashed potatoes were served in thick white little dishes.

Lucy struggled with her steak with a dull knife, amputated a portion, and began to chew. She chuckled and said, “I’ll bet the patrons of the Eustis have strong teeth.”

Shayne sampled everything before him, pushing a forkful of mashed potatoes around in the white gravy before putting it in his mouth. “I was assured the Eustis was as good as any restaurant here,” he told her and made a wry face.

After a few minutes they pushed their half-filled plates away. Shayne poured himself half an inch of brandy in his empty water glass, raised his bushy brows inquiringly at Lucy before setting the bottle down.

Lucy shuddered. “Not for me. What are we going to tell Mrs. Roche, Michael?”

“I am going to tell her as little as possible and find out as much as possible.”

Lucy frowned at his emphasis on the personal pronoun. “You’re not going to leave me out there in that cabin to sweat it out while you visit a charming widow… alone.”

“I do better with widows,” Shayne said, “if not accompanied by a lovely young secretary,” and grinned at her.

“No,” said Lucy flatly.

“You’re going to stay right here at this table with this bottle in plain sight. You’re going to look as desolate as you feel, because I’ve deserted you. You’re going to feed quantities of silver into the slot machines and nickels in the jukebox. You’ll have a host of friends when I come back… men who’ll be anxious to cheer you up in your loneliness and drink your liquor.” He was looking straight into her surprised eyes, a crooked grin on his wide mouth. “You’ll pick up more damned stuff about Centerville in the course of an hour than I could get in two weeks,” he ended gravely. The crooked smile was gone. His gaze brooded around the dining room.

“All right for you,” Lucy flared angrily. “Go on… and I don’t care if you never come back.”

Shayne drank the brandy in his glass and stood up. His face was grim as he stalked to the cashier’s desk without looking back. Those close to their table had heard Lucy’s angry outburst and were whispering among themselves, their eyes upon the flushed and bewildered girl he had left behind. Shayne looked back. Lucy was sitting stiffly erect, the half-filled bottle of brandy in front of her where he had placed it.

Shayne paid the bill and indicated Lucy with a jerk of his head. “The lady,” he told the cashier, “isn’t quite ready to leave yet. “

The cashier nodded understandingly, and Shayne went out. Darkness brought little relief from the sweltering heat. It was as though the sun’s burning rays lingered, pocketed there in the narrow gap between the two mountains and held by a roof of darkness, as though a heavy lid had been clamped upon it to prevent its escape.

A middle-aged couple were entering the restaurant. Shayne addressed the man and asked, “Could you direct me to the Charles Roche home on Mountaincrest Drive?”

They stopped, looked him over curiously, gave him the directions in a polite southern drawl, and went inside. Shayne got in his car and turned to the right around the first corner. He drove two blocks and turned to the left on a winding road, a sixteen-foot strip of macadam, which climbed steeply upward. The motor labored in second gear and the air grew cooler as he left the floor of the gulch. There were only a few residences here on the higher slope, and he passed two intersecting roads. He had been told he couldn’t miss the Roche house, that Mountaincrest Drive formed a dead end there. He kept pushing the car up until he reached the dead end in a wide gravelled circle in front of a one-story house blazing with lights from every window.

Two cars were parked in the driveway. One a new convertible Cadillac coupe, cream in color; the other a 1946 Buick. Both had Kentucky licenses.

Shayne parked behind them and got out. He walked up five concrete steps and across a wide verandah to twin french doors. The glass was heavily curtained, but enough light came through to outline an electric button. He pressed it, took off his hat, and the air was cool upon his damp red hair.

The door opened and a bulky Negress looked out at him. She looked surprised, started to close the door, but stopped when she saw Shayne’s face. She said, “Yessuh?” and he recognized the voice that had first answered the telephone.

He said, “I’d like to see Mrs. Roche.”

She hesitated, then asked, “Whut did you say y’all’s name wuz?”

“Shayne.” Shayne spread his wide mouth in an engaging smile. “Tell Mrs. Roche I’m an old friend of her husband’s just passing through Centerville, and when I heard the sad news, I had to come up and pay my respects.”

“Yessuh,” she said, “I’ll tell Miz Roche,” and stepped back, leaving the door slightly ajar. Shayne could hear the sound of low voices inside. Presently a tall, pleasant-faced man came to the door. He was in his forties, his hair graying at the temples, and he was immaculately groomed in a dark blue business suit. He wore a white shirt and a black bow tie. Shayne thought he must be the local undertaker and was prepared to speak in a grave and sympathetic tone.

The man stepped out on the porch and closed the door firmly behind him. When Shayne heard his voice, he knew the man was not a local undertaker. It was an incisive voice, pleasant enough, but aloof. The voice of an educated man and one accustomed to issuing orders. “Mr. Shayne, did the maid say? Mrs. Roche doesn’t recall anyone bearing that name.”

“She probably never heard it,” Shayne told him. “That is, perhaps Charlie never spoke of me. I met him five years ago in Miami.”

The man stiffened slightly. Immediately and intuitively Shayne felt he had made a mistake in using the familiar form for Charles Roche’s first name. He had an instant hunch that the dead man was one who was always called Charles even by his most intimate friends.

The man’s voice was more austere when he said, “In that case I don’t believe it is necessary to disturb Mrs. Roche at this time. I will be glad to give her your name and your expressions of condolence.”

“I would like to give them to her myself,” Shayne said evenly.

“I’m afraid that’s impossible.” The tall man was courteously dismissing him. “She is prostrated with grief and I cannot allow her to be imposed upon by strangers.”

Shayne was sure he recognized the rolling smoothness of the phrases from the news story in the Gazette. He said, “You’re making a mistake, Mr. Gerald. I’m quite sure Mrs. Roche will wish to see me when you tell her I had a letter from her husband three days ago.”

The general manager of the Roche Mining Properties raised his black brows. “Indeed? I fail to see why that should interest her particularly.”

“Enclosing his personal check for five thousand dollars,” Shayne continued, “and prophesying his death very shortly.” His vision was keener now, more adjusted to the dim light coming through the curtains, and he could discern the expressions on Gerald’s face better.

“Ah.” Seth Gerald sucked in his breath and his dark eyes were reflective. He took a step nearer Shayne and looked at him with more interest than he had shown before. “Did you say the name was Shayne?”

“Michael Shayne.”

“From Miami?”

Shayne detected a faint tremor of uneasiness in the flowing voice. “From Miami,” he said.

“I see.” Seth Gerald moved aside and stood drumming his fingertips on the verandah’s low concrete enclosure. “I’ve heard the name, if I recall correctly.”

Shayne didn’t say anything. He put his hat back on his head and took out a pack of cigarettes. He lit one and puffed on it.

After a time, Gerald asked, “Exactly how much did Mr. Roche confide in his communication?”

“Enough to bring me up here as fast as I could come by car.”

“Would not the check have produced the same result?” Gerald’s tone was suave, but Shayne got the impression that he bared his upper teeth to ask the question.

Shayne said, “No,” and puffed on his cigarette.

“What do you want of Elsa… Mrs. Roche… now?”

“To decide whether to return the five grand retainer or keep it,” Shayne said bluntly.

“Indeed? And on what will your decision depend?”

“Several things.”

Seth Gerald stopped drumming on the concrete and strutted a few steps toward Shayne. He said, “Shall we stop fencing? As I understand it, you are a private detective from Miami who was called here by a letter from Mr. Roche written several days ago.”

“That’s correct.”

“And you arrived too late to be of any aid. Charles had discussed with me the advisability of calling in a private detective when he received those threatening letters, but I don’t recall that your name was mentioned. I don’t believe you need to bother Mrs. Roche with this matter, Mr. Shayne. I appreciate the ethics which caused you to consider returning the money, but I’m confident I can speak for Mrs. Roche in asking you to keep the money, since it was not your fault that you arrived too late to prevent what he feared. I feel quite certain Charles would wish it.”

Shayne was not more than a couple of inches taller than Seth Gerald’s six feet. They were standing close together. Shayne lowered his eyes to look into Gerald’s through a cloud of cigarette smoke. He said, “You’re missing the point completely. If I keep Roche’s retainer, I’ll feel morally bound to find his murderer.”

Seth Gerald took a short turn on the verandah, came back to face Shayne and asked, “Have you read the Centerville Gazette?”

“That’s why I’m here.”

“Perhaps you don’t fully understand the last-minute headline,” said Gerald stiffly. “The case against George Brand is complete.”

“What about his alibi?”

Gerald dismissed the question with an eloquent shrug. “Contemplating murder, Brand naturally prepared an alibi in advance. You can trust Chief Elwood not to be misled.”

Shayne took a final drag on his cigarette and spun it over the concrete enclosure at his right. “This has been very interesting, Gerald. But not informative. I’ll have a talk with Mrs. Roche now.” He went to the double doors and turned a knob.

Seth Gerald was quick. His hand gripped Shayne’s arm and he said harshly, “You can’t force yourself on a grieving widow.”

Shayne shook his hand off and pushed the door open. “Can’t I?” he growled, and put a number twelve shoe over the threshold.

Gerald grabbed him again before he reached the wide arch leading into the softly lighted and enormous living room which John Roche had designed for the wife of his eldest son. He snapped, “I warn you, Shayne…” then let his hand fall to his side when Shayne kept going.

A young man was leaning over a cabinet radio. He was thin and colorless and his eyes were murky. He wore fawn-colored slacks and a tan sports shirt with the tail hanging out.

Elsa Roche was relaxed in a deep chair, her small feet resting on an upholstered footstool matching the chair. She held a cocktail in her left hand and a long jewelled cigarette holder in the other. Black hair was brushed smoothly back from her low forehead, outlining the widow’s peak centering it. She wore a sheer black dress with a sweetheart neckline that revealed the beginning contours of youthfully pointed breasts. Long black lashes were lowered to half-close her eyes, and she did not raise them when Shayne entered the room.

Gerald said in a tone evidently intended to warn Elsa Roche, “This man is a private detective whom Charles engaged to come here… by letter… some three days ago. He insisted upon coming in, even though I assured him the need for his services no longer existed.”

The young man at the radio turned his head and looked at Shayne just as Shayne glanced in his direction. His dark hair was plastered down except where singed ends curled up. Shayne stared at him for an instant, noting the lack of eyebrows and lashes, and the puffy pallor of his skin.

Turning back to Elsa, he said, “The name is Shayne. I have accepted a retainer from your late husband and feel obligated to look into his murder.”

She said, “A private detective?” and made it sound like a ridiculous occupation. She did not change her position, but looked far up into Shayne’s face.

“Michael Shayne? The private eye in Miami who’s always grabbing headlines?” the young man asked.

Shayne said, “You have the advantage of me.”

“I’m Jimmy Roche.” He straightened his body and took a step toward Shayne. “So Charles got up enough gumption to write you. What did he say?”

“Quite a lot,” Shayne told him, turning his attention again to Elsa Roche. Her dainty left hand was curled into a tight fist and a large diamond glittered on the third finger above a yellow gold band set with tiny stones. She had set her cocktail glass down and was holding the long jewelled holder in her right hand. The cigarette had fallen from it, and there was the smell of the rug burning.

Shayne stepped forward and put his toe on the glowing cigarette. “Pardon me,” he said. “This looks like a pretty good rug.”

Elsa Roche ignored his act and his words. She continued to look up at him. Her gray-green eyes showed nothing of the emotion which had caused her to double her fist and let the cigarette fall from the holder unnoticed. She asked, “Did Charles mention any one he was particularly afraid of?”

“Letters from clients are privileged communications, Mrs. Roche. The fewer people in Centerville who know what your husband said, the better chance I’ll have to find his murderer.”

“This is all quite beside the point,” Seth Gerald said impatiently. He moved to stand closer to Shayne. Jimmy Roche came over to join them, and they made a semi-circle in front of Elsa’s chair. “Charles’ murderer is behind bars right now,” Gerald went on, “and we don’t want any…”

“Get Mr. Shayne a drink, Seth darling,” she interrupted. She spoke lazily, but an electrical current seemed to flow into the room.

“Cognac,” Jimmy suggested, “that’s what Shayne drinks.” He turned aside and called, “Emma! Bring a bottle of Hennessey and a glass. Straight?”

Shayne said, “Thanks. With ice water on the side, if you have it.”

Jimmy said, “Sure,” and walked toward a door in the rear of the room, opened it, and went out to give further orders.

Shayne went over to a chair and sat down. Seth Gerald moved slowly around the room for a moment, then seated himself across from Shayne. Elsa Roche sat up straight, then leaned forward to clasp her hands around a crossed knee and commanded:

“Come sit beside me, Seth darling, and stop being so tragic. I don’t think the case is any too strong against Brand, and if Mr. Shayne has, or can get enough evidence to help hang him, why shouldn’t we have it?”

“He hasn’t said he has any. What can he have?” asked Gerald crossly. “He just arrived in Centerville.”

Jimmy Roche returned to the room and went over to lean against the radio cabinet. “Those threatening letters,” he interposed, “if Charles sent them to Shayne and if they’re signed by Brand… that ought to be enough to hang him.” He spoke excitedly, but his eyes were clouded and dull.

Elsa flashed a scornful glance at her brother-in-law, then said to Gerald, “I told you to come over and sit beside me, darling.”

He picked up his highball glass from the end table beside his chair and drew an occasional chair close to her. He asked Shayne, “Did Charles send you those letters?”

Shayne said, “What Charles sent or said to me is private.”

The Negro maid came in with a tray holding a bottle of cognac, an empty glass, and another clinking with ice water. She looked inquiringly at her mistress, then placed the tray on the table at Shayne’s right.

Shayne said, “Thanks, Emma,” and she said, “Yessuh,” and went away. He poured three inches in the bottom of the empty glass and said, “This will help to wash the taste of some execrable Portuguese brandy out of my mouth… Centerville’s finest, I understand.” He drank half the contents and settled back with a sigh of pleasure.

“Charles never showed those letters to anybody,” Jimmy said, breaking the silence of a full minute.

Gerald frowned at Jimmy Roche and his smooth voice roughened a trifle when he asked, “Did Charles send you those letters, Shayne?”

Shayne studied the glowing end of a freshly lit cigarette and said, “I understand they’ve been turned over to the police.”

“Only one of them,” Elsa said throatily. “The only one Charles showed me. He was very secretive about the others.” She picked up her cocktail glass and took a long drink.

“Was it signed by Brand?” Shayne asked casually.

“It was not signed at all,” she said shortly, slid down in the chair and toed the footstool over to rest her feet.

“I’ve told Mr. Shayne that even though his services aren’t needed here,” Gerald said silkily, “I feel sure you would want him to keep the check Charles sent him as a retainer… to cover the expense of his trip up here, if nothing else. I’m sure you agree.”

“Of course,” she said listlessly. “If he hasn’t any further evidence against Brand he may as well go back to Miami.”

Shayne tossed off the rest of his drink, set the glass down on the tray, asked, “And if I could prove George Brand is being railroaded for a crime committed by someone else? What then?” He cast a quick glance at the three faces, leaned his head back, and watched a cloud of smoke roll toward the ceiling.

The silence in the room was thicker than the clouds of smoke Shayne puffed toward the gold and rose ceiling. A dead silence. Shayne saw them looking at each other; Gerald’s black eyes disturbed; Elsa’s fringed with her long lashes, green and inscrutable; Jimmy’s naked and dull.

The faint laboring of a car beginning the steep climb below sounded through the quiet, growing louder as it came nearer. Gerald and Elsa bent tensely forward. Jimmy uncrossed his ankles and stood up straight. The car stopped in front of the house, and there were firm, confident footsteps on the concrete steps. The doorbell rang.

Shayne heard Emma’s flat shuffling feet carrying her weighty body through the hall, and turned to get a glimpse of her as she passed the archway leading into the living room. The front door opened.

Shayne poured himself another drink of cognac, drank half of it, chased it with ice water, and waited.

6

THE man who came in was short and bulky, bull-necked and swarthy. His feet were small, and he took short steps, but there was aggression in his whole manner and an air of triumphant excitement which he tried decorously to hide by the solemnity of his light brown eyes and a drooping black mustache.

“Mrs. Roche,” he said gravely, and crossed the room with both hands outstretched. “I can’t express my sorrow of your bereavement. Believe me, my dear. Your husband’s death is a great loss to the state of Kentucky and the mining industry. You must try to forget your personal grief and think of their loss. He was a forward-thinking man… the type of new blood we needed. The entire South is mourning his loss tonight.”

Elsa lifted her right hand languidly and said, “Thank you, Mr. Persona,” and he took it gently between his stubby short fingers and fat palm, turning aside to say to Seth Gerald:

“And I want to congratulate you on behalf of AMOK. It’s a wonderful triumph. A smashing victory. I confess I’ve been worried. We’ve watched developments with deep concern, and some of us feared… but that’s beside the point now. The strike is broken. All’s well that ends well, eh?” He was chafing Elsa’s hand between his palms. She drew it away and looked angrily at its redness.

“I’m afraid I don’t quite understand,” said Gerald stiffly.

“Don’t you know?” His tone was incredulous. He drew his stocky body to its full height of five feet six. “Good God, man, haven’t you heard? The strike is broken. The men have just announced they’re going back to work tomorrow. The news was all over town as I drove through.”

Shayne stretched his legs out comfortably and sipped cognac between long drags on his cigarette. His eyes were very bright, his features relaxed, his wide mouth upquirked at the corners.

Mr. Persona turned gracefully on his small feet to address Elsa Roche. He was apparently too absorbed in his own triumph to notice Seth Gerald’s silent consternation. He said, “You will forgive me, Mrs. Roche. What I’m saying can’t possibly lessen your personal grief, but in the years to come it may be a consolation to realize your husband did not die in vain. The repercussions of this fiasco will be felt throughout the country… the whole world. People who have been cold will be warm.

“Besides,” he continued, “think of the lasting effect upon our national economy. There will be international reverberations, I assure you. The miners have been taught a drastic lesson. In the future they’ll think twice before following the arrogant and stupid leadership of a man like George Brand. I consider the victory largely due to your excellent handling of the situation,” he continued, turning on the ball of one foot to face Seth Gerald. “Your appeal to the miners in the local paper was a masterly stroke. It caught them off balance.”

Persona turned again on the ball of his foot. He saw Michael Shayne, and for the first time seemed to realize the presence of a stranger in the room.

Gerald said, “What I did seemed the obvious thing to do.” He saw, then, that Persona had turned and was looking at Shayne. He said, “This is Michael Shayne… Mr. Persona, Mr. Shayne.”

Shayne didn’t get up. He nodded and said, “How do you do, Mr. Persona.”

“Shayne is a private detective,” said Seth Gerald.

Mr. Persona went over to Shayne and extended his hand. Shayne took it and felt a rock-crusher grip on his knobby fingers.

“Mr. Shayne is a private detective who just drove up from Florida,” Gerald continued smoothly. “Perhaps you’ve heard, Shayne, that Mr. Persona runs AMOK.”

“So?” Shayne’s bushy red brows rose a trifle. He studied the swarthy man curiously, and added, “Often?”

Both Gerald and Persona looked puzzled. Then, Seth Gerald chuckled. He said, “I think I see what you mean. A sort of joke. A-M-O-K.” He spaced the four letters carefully. “Associated Mine Operators of Kentucky. Mr. Persona is the chairman of the Board, with headquarters in Lexington.”

“It seems to me that right now murder runs AMOK,” said Shayne gravely.

Persona glanced inquiringly from Shayne to Gerald. Jimmy Roche strolled up to join them.

“Jokes,” said Persona, “are definitely out of place and in bad taste in so serious a situation.” He had apparently missed the play on the word. “Bringing in strikebreakers won’t be necessary now, for at least a year. You mark my words.”

“Mr. Shayne is not here to bring in strikebreakers,” Gerald interposed hastily. “He came to Centerville in response to a personal letter from Charles who had a premonition of being murdered. Unfortunately Mr. Shayne arrived too late to prevent it.”

“Or fortunately?” Shayne looked at the three men in rapid succession, then turned his eyes upon Elsa Roche. Her lids were closed, and she appeared to be in a stupor.

“What do you mean by such a statement?” Persona’s swarthy face was darkly red.

“It seems that Roche’s death was a lucky thing for AMOK. If this local labor disturbance was as important to the entire industry as you say, it might have been disastrous had Charles Roche lived to take over the management of the Roche Mining Industries.”

“And just what do you mean by that?” Persona’s voice was ugly and challenging.

“Perhaps I don’t fully understand the situation,” Shayne admitted, “but I gather that Charles Roche was soon to take over active management of the property previously held in trust for him under the terms of his father’s will. Is that correct, Gerald?”

“Perfectly correct,” Gerald said stiffly. “On his thirtieth birthday. Tomorrow, in fact. The terms of his father’s will are common knowledge.”

“And Charles was something of a liberal?” Shayne was deliberately goading them all now. “Not quite so averse to seeking a compromise settlement of the strike as the present management. In fact, it looks as though he was anticipating taking over control and was anxious to have a conference with George Brand beforehand to arrange terms of a settlement.” He spread out both his big hands and looked up at Persona.

“That would have been a crushing blow to your organization, wouldn’t it? You say the entire south was watching the result of this strike,” Shayne went on placidly. “Wouldn’t you have had a rash of strikes immediately if the Roche miners had been successful?”

“That’s true in a sense,” said Gerald impatiently. “But it isn’t true that Charles was arranging a settlement. That’s a barefaced lie on Brand’s part to build up his defense by proving lack of motive. Charles was as determined as I that we should never give in to the miners’ demands. Isn’t that true, Elsa?”

They all turned toward her. Elsa Roche opened her eyes wide and stared at them. “What? Oh, I guess so,” she answered listlessly. “Charles didn’t discuss business with me much, but I’m sure he was killed by that man, because he positively told him there’d be no change in policy after he took charge.”

“How can you be so positive, Mrs. Roche?” Shayne asked mildly.

“I heard… he told me,” she said evasively. “Come on over here and sit beside me, Seth.” She sank back and closed her eyes again.

“It’s perfectly obvious,” Persona snorted. “What other motive could Brand have had?”

“The fact remains,” Shayne said coldly, “that his death, in effect, brought the strike to an end.”

“It was already breaking up,” Gerald said shortly. “The men were trickling back to work.” He turned away, walked over to Elsa’s chair and looked down at her for a moment. She did not open her eyes.

Shayne lit a cigarette and observed the two through a cloud of smoke. He said, sharply, “May I take it, Mrs. Roche, that you are satisfied to let things stand as they are?”

She said listlessly, “I don’t know what you mean.” Her eyes remained closed.

Shayne stood up and stalked to her chair. “If George Brand is innocent,” he said brutally, “are you willing to let him be railroaded for your husband’s murder as an effective means of preventing future strikes in the Kentucky coal mines?”

“That’s an absurd question,” Seth Gerald broke in before she could answer. “There isn’t any question of Brand’s innocence, and if there is, he will receive a fair trial. Certainly Mrs. Roche wants her husband’s murderer brought to justice, but I’m quite sure she doesn’t think Centerville needs any outside help in dealing with a local problem.”

“I’d like to hear the lady say it herself,” Shayne insisted grimly.

Elsa Roche sat up and exclaimed wildly, “I don’t know! It’s all mixed up. I… oh God… I don’t know, I tell you!” She covered her face with her hands and began to sob hysterically.

Jimmy Roche had gone back to the cabinet radio and was leaning upon it. He rushed to Elsa and dropped on his knees beside her chair. “Take it easy,” he muttered. “I’ll throw that brute out. He has no right to come here and say such things to upset you.” He put his arm around her.

Shayne grinned slowly, went back to his chair and poured a slug of cognac in his glass.

“I think you’ve caused quite enough trouble, Shayne,” Gerald said, crossing to stand a few feet in front of the detective. “If Jimmy needs any help to throw you out, he won’t have to look far. Eh, Persona?”

“I’ll say not,” the heavy man bristled indignantly. “We have ways of dealing with troublemakers like you.”

Elsa’s uncontrollable sobs were loud in the room. Shayne took a sip of cognac from the glass and remained solidly in the chair. “That sounds like a warning,” he mused.

“Take it any way you want.” Persona was standing over him, his big hands clenching and unclenching angrily. “If you want to stay healthy I advise you to get out of Centerville. Fast.”

“And I second that advice,” said Seth Gerald coldly.

Jimmy Roche had pulled Elsa to her feet. She was clinging to him, her face snuggled against his neck, still weeping loudly. He picked her up and carried her from the room.

Shayne got up, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. A muscle twitched in his deeply trenched right cheek. “I’m not very good at taking advice,” he told the two men slowly. “I’ve found out what I wanted to know when I came here tonight. Remember?” He addressed Seth Gerald directly.

“I told you,” he went on casually, “I was trying to decide whether to keep the five grand retainer from Roche, or return it. I explained that my decision would depend upon a number of things.”

“And I told you to keep it,” said Gerald bitterly. “Call it a windfall and let it go at that.” His black eyes were turned toward the door through which Jimmy Roche had carried Elsa.

“I’ll keep it,” said Shayne decisively. “And I’ll earn it.”

Persona’s eyes appeared light in his swarthy face. He stood by, shifting them from Shayne to Gerald. He broke in smoothly, “As a special investigator to help build up the case against Brand, why not employ Shayne? AMOK is vitally interested in seeing that Brand doesn’t escape the law. In fact, I hurried here tonight to offer all our resources to see that justice is done.” He rubbed his sweaty palms together, and white teeth showed beneath his black mustache.

Turning to Shayne, he said, “I’ll be happy to retain you on behalf of AMOK. Would a further five thousand dollar fee interest you? Contingent, of course, on the conviction of Brand.”

“Suppose George Brand isn’t guilty.” Shayne crushed out a cigarette in the ashtray and didn’t look at. Persona.

The swarthy man shrugged. “In that case, AMOK would scarcely be interested in retaining you, Mr. Shayne. You can see that our primary interest is in the conviction of Brand.” He dug a long black cigar from his inside coat pocket, lit it, and moved solidly to and fro on his small feet, puffing, turning every three steps, then stopping once more before Shayne.

“Let’s be realistic about this thing. I believe I recognize in you a man who knows a business proposition when he sees one.”

Shayne didn’t look up. His cigarette was out, but he kept squashing the burnt end against the bottom of the ashtray. After a time he muttered, “Are you willing to put that offer in writing?” His right hand clasped the cognac glass, but he didn’t lift it. He saw Persona’s short thick body stiffen.

“Isn’t my word good enough for you?” the swarthy man said indignantly.

“No. Let us be realistic, Mr. Persona. I do know a business proposition when I hear one.”

Persona’s white teeth showed again. “Very well. I’m perfectly willing to put the proposition in writing.” He whipped around, taking a fountain pen from his pocket, and sat down at an elaborately-carved desk across the room. Seth Gerald followed him, opened a drawer, and drew out a sheet of plain note paper. Gerald looked over his shoulder as he wrote:

“The Associated Mine Operators of the state of Kentucky hereby retains Michael Shayne to obtain evidence against George Brand for the murder of Charles Roche. In the event of Brand’s conviction on this charge, Associated Mine Operators of Kentucky agrees to pay said Michael Shayne the sum of five thousand dollars ($5,000.00).”

Persona signed his name and wrote underneath it, “Chairman of the Board,” and carried it across to Shayne.

Shayne read it carefully, folded it, and nodded his red head. “It’s exactly what I want.” He placed the folded paper in his wallet. “Now. I want to ask you one question, Mr. Persona. What do you suggest in case I uncover evidence exonerating George Brand?”

Seth Gerald stood beside Persona in front of Shayne’s chair, his arms folded, and for the first time since Shayne had seen him he appeared relaxed, though his black eyes glanced occasionally toward the door through which Jimmy had carried Elsa Roche.

Persona studied the end of his glowing cigar, flipped a half-inch of ashes on the rug, and said slowly, “We are not worried about that, Shayne. The man is guilty.”

“If you believed that you wouldn’t be offering me five grand just to prove it,” Shayne told him quietly.

“It’s worth that to make certain Brand is convicted,” said Persona. “Isn’t that true, Seth?”

“True enough,” Gerald admitted, “but I still don’t see the need of dragging Shayne into it. Chief Elwood assures me he has Brand dead to rights.”

Shayne relaxed a little farther in his chair, leaned his head back against the cushion, and said, “It’s because you don’t see the need of it, Gerald, that you’re just the manager of a coal mine instead of holding an important position such as Persona holds. You don’t have the wider vision such a job requires. Isn’t that correct, Persona?”

“Well… I wouldn’t like…”

“You see, Gerald,” Shayne interrupted in a bantering tone, “This five-grand offer from AMOK is in the nature of insurance. You might call it a bribe to induce me to suppress any evidence of Brand’s innocence if I should run across any such unpleasant thing, to put it crudely, in the course of my investigation. Isn’t that the way you look at it, Persona?”

Mr. Persona’s attitude was that of a man completely satisfied and self-assured. “I prefer to stand behind the offer just as it is written. Not a word has been said about suppressing evidence.”

Seth Gerald turned away and was pacing slowly up and down the room, his brow furrowed, his head bent.

Shayne said with grating harshness, “Naturally not. It’s strictly a business proposition. A nice, gentlemanly deal that will bear the fullest scrutiny if it’s ever made public. Frankly, I hope the guy is guilty as hell and I collect your fee, but I warn you that Charles Roche is still my client, even though he is dead. Now if you’ll tell me how to get to Twelfth and Magnolia, I’ll go to work.”

Gerald stopped near them and said, “The police have already gone over Brand’s house with a fine-toothed comb. You won’t find anything there.”

“But I might find Mrs. Cornell at home… just across the street,” said Shayne quietly. “I want to hear her story about last night when a headache kept her from sleeping.”

“What’s that about Mrs. Cornell?” said a hoarse voice behind them. “She hasn’t anything to do with this.”

The three men turned to see Jimmy Roche standing in the doorway, swaying slightly.

Shayne said evenly, “Perhaps not. But I wondered if she might be the attraction that drew your brother to that vicinity… instead of George Brand.” He was trying a shot in the dark.

Jimmy Roche’s face was terrible to look upon. His naked eyes glared drunkenly and his outthrust chin accentuated the puffiness of his cheeks. His hair was tousled, slanting across his forehead. He caught the doorjamb with both hands and leaned against it.

“I hear,” said Shayne, “that Mrs. Cornell is a very attractive woman.”

Elsa Roche pushed past Jimmy. Her gray-green eyes were molten with anger and some super-induced emotion. She screamed, “You lie about Charles. He never looked at that woman. He never looked at any woman but me.” She stood there swaying, her hands tightly clasped.

Gerald was on his way to Elsa. Persona held his half-smoked cigar stiffly in the air and didn’t move. Jimmy Roche let go the doorjamb and fell to his knees, pulled himself up again and hung on.

Shayne said, “If you’ll tell me how to find her house, I’ll run along and pay her a visit.”

Seth Gerald had reached Elsa and was holding her up. He said, “You can get directions from anyone in the village. Turn left at the second intersection and right on the third street. That’s Twelfth. Magnolia Avenue is the second street down. Her house and Brand’s are east of the corner.”

Shayne was standing in the archway. He glanced swiftly at the occupants of the room, said, “Thanks,” and went out to his car.

7

THERE were only two houses on the block of Magnolia Avenue beyond Twelfth Street. They were near the center of the block, opposite each other. It was impossible to see a house number, but there were lights in the house on the left-hand side as he approached. Shayne drew up before it and stopped.

The cottage was small, the approach darkened by a spreading eucalyptus tree as he went up the planked walk toward a tannish glow from the shaded upper glass of the front door. He could hear loud dance music from a radio inside, through windows that were open with the shades drawn low. He went up four wooden steps and across the narrow porch. He rapped on the door, and it opened almost immediately, swinging far back to outline the woman standing there.

Shayne saw her face first. Her eyes were elongated and blue, her brows and lashes light brown beneath a mass of taffy-colored hair wound in thick braids around her head. She wore a playsuit, blue-striped, with the neck cut round and low. A separate skirt had three buttons buttoned at the top and it flared open to reveal panties of the same material. The skirt reached almost to her knees. She was tall, at least five-feet-nine, slim-waisted and full-breasted. Her legs were firm and extraordinarily long.

Shayne said, “Pardon the intrusion. I’m looking for Mrs. Ann Cornell.”

“I’m Ann Cornell.” She was not perturbed or curious. The corners of her mouth were lifted and there was a hint of amusement in her eyes.

Shayne took off his hat and said, “I’m Michael Shayne. I’d like to talk to you.”

“Talk?” She turned and led the way to a comfortable chair. “Please sit here,” she said, and went over to take a chair opposite him, buttoning the rest of the buttons on her skirt as she went.

“Yes. I’d like to have a talk with you,” he repeated.

“I thought that was what you said. I’ll turn down the radio.”

Shayne looked around the small room. The walls and ceiling were of pine panelling, painted a light gray. The wide rough boards of the floor were stained a dark brown with cotton rugs here and there. The furnishings and drapes were cheap, the colors blending to give the room a pleasant atmosphere.

When the radio was turned low, she said, “I’m sorry if I’m supposed to recognize your name. Michael Shayne?”

“There’s no reason why you should,” he told her. “Unless you’ve heard Roche mention me.”

“Jimmy?” She caught her lower lip between her teeth, frowned and shook her head. “Are you a friend of his? I supposed you were another newspaper reporter.”

There was a moment of silence between them. Then Shayne said, “I may as well begin by telling you I’m a detective… retained by the mine operators to look into Charles Roche’s murder.”

“To help hang it on George Brand,” she said placidly.

“If he’s guilty.”

“They don’t care whether he’s guilty or not,” she said unemotionally. She took a cigarette from a pack on the end table beside her.

Shayne got up and lit it for her, lit one for himself, and said, “Is he?”

She looked up at him, moving her head slowly. “I don’t know. If he killed Charles Roche he’s a bigger fool than I thought.” She sounded convincing, and her eyes were candid.

“You knew Brand well?”

“Quite well. He’s been living alone in that house across the street several months.”

Shayne returned to his chair, sat down, and crossed one knobby knee over the other. “And you were… neighborly?” he resumed.

Ann Cornell smiled. Her whole face lighted when she smiled. A healthy, youthful expression of real mirth. “He liked my corn,” she said. “Would you like to try some?”

“Corn?” Shayne asked, puzzled. Immediately he smiled and said, “I almost forgot this is Kentucky. I could use a whiff after the brandy I sampled at the Eustis Restaurant tonight.”

She lifted her voice to call, “Angus!”

Shayne had been hearing sounds coming from the rear of the cottage, running water and the clatter of dishes. These noises ceased at her call, and there was a shuffling of feet on the bare floor of the rear hall.

The figure of a man appeared in the living room doorway. He was short and slight, with sleek black hair and a thin, peaked face. His sleeves were rolled up on thin arms and his hands were red and dripping. He was enveloped in a long white apron that reached to the tops of carefully polished black shoes. His eyes were small and very bright, a look of hope or of expectancy burning in them. His gaze slid over Shayne and settled on Ann Cornell.

She said, “Bring in the jug, Angus. And two glasses.”

The glow in his eyes died. He wet his thin and colorless lips with the tip of his tongue, nodded, and made an abrupt about-face.

Ann Cornell was watching Shayne. She chuckled at the expression on his face and said, “Angus is a handy little guy to have around.”

“He looks as though he’d be more at home on Third Avenue than in Centerville.”

“He likes it here,” she assured him carelessly. “Don’t you Angus?” she demanded as the little man came back carrying a gallon jug half filled with colorless liquid in one hand and two glasses in the other.

“Don’t I what?”

“Like it in Centerville better than Third Avenue where Mr. Shayne thinks you belong.”

He slanted his eyes at Shayne as he passed him, and venom showed in them. “Sure I like it here.” His voice was dry and low. He set the jug and glasses on the table beside Ann and shuffled out, muttering, “I gotta finish up them dishes now.”

“Angus is a real fancy cook,” she told Shayne complacently, pulling the corncob stopper from the bottle. “And it’s nice to have a man around the house.”

“Must be expensive, though… keeping a hophead happy.”

“How’d you know that?” She looked honestly surprised and puzzled.

“Eyes… skin. Everything.” Shayne waved a big hand. “Old friend of yours?”

“He drifted into town a few months ago. Hitch-hiking home from the Derby.” She poured white liquid into the glasses and said in a matter-of-fact tone, “If you’re one of those damyankees who has to mix gingerale with good liquor, you’ll have to go out and get some.”

“I’ll take it straight.” He got up, went over and picked up one of the glasses, sniffed the pungent odor, and his belly muscles contracted in sharp protest. But he nodded and smiled, resettled himself in his chair and took a preliminary sip. It was like liquid fire in his throat.

Shayne set the glass aside and watched Ann Cornell take a swallow from her glass. She had, he realized, the faculty of making a man feel at peace and at home with her emotional placidity and the absence of affectation. She certainly was not beautiful, and she employed none of the artifices with which so many women try to conceal their lack of beauty. She gave off an aura of sensuality in a healthy, animal sort of way; but she was also able to make a man feel completely at ease with her, just sitting and talking, and perhaps drinking. She could easily become a habit with a man. One that would be difficult to break away from.

She must be about thirty, he decided. Old enough for any man, and young enough for any man.

Angus came to the door. He had taken off his apron and was rolling his sleeves down on moist forearms. He hesitated diffidently in the entrance and looked at Ann Cornell with question marks in his shoe-button eyes.

She said, “Come in and sit awhile, Angus, if you’re done with the dishes.” She took a big gulp of corn and added, as though it were a casual afterthought, “Mr. Shayne is a detective from the city.”

Angus was sidling across the room toward a chair in one corner. His hands hung open and lax at his sides. When she spoke, they closed into tight, quivering fists. His back was toward Shayne, and it stiffened as he hesitated a moment before seating himself. Shayne glanced swiftly from him to Ann and surprised a look of innocent pleasure on her face. The same look with which a two-year-old might contemplate the death throes of a butterfly whose wings have just been pulled off.

“From Miami,” Shayne corrected. “I haven’t been around the Main Stem for fifteen years.”

Ann Cornell laughed softly and emptied her glass. She frowned at Shayne’s glass and asked, “Don’t you like my corn?”

Shayne picked up his glass, drew in a deep breath, and took two long swallows in quick succession. Fire kindled in his stomach and spread over his body. When he could speak, he said, “It’s damn good liquor. George Brand must have been a frequent visitor.”

“He dropped in right often,” she said, indicated the jug of corn and added, “Help yourself.”

Shayne grinned and said, “I’m supposed to be working on a murder case.”

He was watching Angus out of the corner of his eye as he spoke. The little man sat stiffly erect with his hands folded tightly in his lap. His left eyelid was twitching and sweat stood on his forehead, but he looked steadily at the floor and gave no evidence of interest in what was being said.

Ann Cornell asked, “What do you want from me?”

“Everything that happened last night.”

“I told Chief Elwood everything I know. My radio was on loud all night. I keep it loud so I can hear when I have to go to some other room. I didn’t hear any shot. I didn’t see anybody around until Seth Gerald knocked on my door about four o’clock to ask if I’d seen Mr. Roche or Brand. It was about an hour later when I saw Brand drive up to his house… just like he said in the paper.”

“How much did you see and hear, Angus?” Shayne shot the question at the rigid figure.

Angus jerked his head up. His eyelid stopped twitching. He looked shocked and stupid, and had difficulty getting his head turned to look at Ann Cornell.

“He didn’t hear anything,” she said to Shayne, and for the first time he detected emotion in her voice. “He was in his room… asleep.”

“Loaded?” Shayne asked casually.

“To the gills.”

Angus got to his feet unsteadily. His thin face was twisted and his body was trembling violently. Tears streamed from his little black eyes. He jerked out spasmodically, “You don’t hafta… I’m goin’ in an’ lay down.” He relaxed suddenly, and his short thin legs became rubbery as he placed one highly-polished shoe before the other until he disappeared through the door.

Ann Cornell watched him, an amused smile on her full, un-rouged lips. “He gets touchy as hell with strangers. Almost time for him to have a shot,” she added softly, like a young mother announcing that it was nearly time for her baby to have his bottle.

“He’s jealous,” Shayne warned her. He was leaning forward, his gray eyes very bright. “One of these days he’ll blow up higher than a kite.”

“Angus jealous?” She threw her head back and laughed heartily. “Just about like a stray pup. Say, in this hot weather a gal needs somebody to wash dishes and clean up.” She stopped laughing and stared at the strange expression in Shayne’s eyes. “God,” she breathed, “you don’t think I sleep with the guy, do you?”

Shayne settled back, tugging at his left earlobe with right thumb and forefinger. “I guess you can handle him, at that,” he muttered. He picked up the glass of corn and drained it, turned it around in his hand for a moment, set it down with a thump and said:

“About last night. If you did know anything you didn’t tell the police, how much would I have to pay for it.”

“Look, none of this is any good,” she said wearily. “If I swore in court that Brand was in bed with me when it happened, they’d still convict him.”

“Was he?” Shayne asked lazily.

“No.” Her voice was quiet, without emphasis.

“If Brand is telling the truth…”

“No one will ever know what the truth is,” she interrupted casually. “Charles Roche is dead, and whoever killed him isn’t going to talk.”

“You don’t believe it was Brand?” Shayne got up with his glass in his hand, went over and poured a couple of inches into it from the jug.

“Of course it wasn’t. Nobody believes that. But they’ll stretch him for it.” Her voice was getting thick.

“What about the three witnesses who claim they were playing poker with him?” He was standing before her, looking down at her thickly coiled braids.

“Them?” She didn’t look at him. “How long do you think they’ll stick to their stories. Just about this long.” She snapped her fingers contemptuously. “After Elwood gets to work on them.” She lifted her eyes and added, “This is Centerville, Mister.”

Shayne took a couple of steps backward, felt for his chair, and sank into it. “Was Roche making a deal with Brand to end the strike?” he asked.

She nodded. “But no one will ever be able to prove it.”

“You sound very sure.”

The calm, indifferent, and casual manner she had maintained during their conversation left her. Her full upper lip curled back and her blue eyes flashed angrily. “Brand boasted about it to me, and Jimmy suspected his brother was going to give in, too. That worried Jimmy. That horrible old man should have left control in Jimmy’s hands… if he wanted the world kept safe for capitalism.” She spat the words out, leaning tensely forward.

Shayne sat very still, kept his eyes half-closed, his face expressionless. He said, “I take it Jimmy Roche likes your corn, too.”

“That… and other things.”

“But you were in sympathy with the strikers?” Shayne probed.

“Look, Mister… I take care of number one. That’s all I’ve got to worry about. Anybody fool enough to dig coal for a few lousy bucks a day is welcome to do it.”

“Did you know the men are going back to work tomorrow?”

“I hadn’t heard, but it was in the cards. George Brand is the only man with enough guts to come in here and stir ’em up. With him out of the picture, what else would they do?” Ann Cornell tipped her glass and drank from it as though it contained only water, then lolled back in her chair.

“So, Roche’s death actually broke the strike?” mused Shayne.

“In more ways than one, brother. Hanging it on Brand was the way to speed things up. Charles Roche was their only chance to win, and Brand knew it. That’s why he’s the last man on earth to’ve killed Charles.” She spoke slowly. The natural up-curve of her full mouth drooped and her deep blue eyes were dull.

Shayne said, “You’re a smart woman, Mrs. Cornell.”

Her mouth twisted ironically and her gaze brooded across the room, then she twitched her shoulders impatiently, emptied her glass and said, “I’ve lived in Centerville all my life. I’ve seen other labor organizers come… and go. This time they had a chance. George Brand had the guts, and he had Charles Roche convinced.”

“Who did kill Charles Roche?” Shayne asked abruptly.

“What d’you care?” she said dully. “Doesn’t Brand suit you for a fall guy?”

Shayne made an impatient gesture. “Maybe I don’t like the idea of a fall guy.”

“You’re working for the mine operators,” she accused.

“That doesn’t mean I’ve sold out to them,” Shayne growled. He got up and poured more into her glass, went back and sat down and muttered, “Roche had been receiving threatening letters.”

She nodded slowly. “Jimmy told me about ’em.”

“What did he tell you?”

“Not much. All he knew, I guess,” she said carelessly. “I don’t think he saw one, but he seemed to think they had something to do with the strike… and Charles wanting to give the men a union contract.”

“You’ve seen a lot of Jimmy?”

“All of ’em,” she said thickly. “Him… and others. Ask around town and they’ll tell you Ann Cornell don’t play favourites. They tell a lot of goddam lies about me, too.” She didn’t sound bitter. Just passive and weary and drunk.

“What about Charles?” Shayne demanded bluntly. “Did he ever drink out of your jug?”

“I wouldn’t tell you… if he had. Every married man comes here is plenty safe.”

“Charles wouldn’t have,” Shayne suggested, as though he argued the point with himself. “Not married to that hot little sketch I met tonight. She’d keep a man busy.”

“I expect you’re right.” She was not drunk enough to be trapped. “You’re not drinking much,” she complained.

“I’m working,” Shayne reminded her again. He drained his glass and set it down. “I guess I’d better get at it.” He stood up. He had tossed his hat on the floor beside his chair, and stooped over to pick it up. His head reeled dizzily. Straightening slowly, he asked, “What proof is that stuff I’ve been drinking?”

She giggled. “I don’t know exactly. Lafe Heddon don’t bother with any of them gadgets when he runs off a batch. Three times through the coils and whatever comes out the last time is what you get in one of Lafe’s jugs.” She had grown careless of her grammar. She giggled again and said, “’Nother short one’ll take the edge off what you’ve got.”

“Not for me.” Shayne shook his head angrily, then asked, “If you saw Brand had a chance… would you help me clear him?”

She said, “Don’t be a fool. No need for you to waste any effort on Brand. You can figure his chances by the men going back to work. They’d stay out if he had a nigger’s chance.”

Shayne hesitated, studying her face. “You don’t look like a girl who’d scare easy.”

“I don’t.” She was looking up at him, trying to focus her eyes on his. When she succeeded, she held his gaze levelly and said, “I know what you’re up against in this town.”

“But the police would give you protection if…”

“The police?” She laughed. “Are you joking? Those crummy bastards! If I knew anything to help Brand I’d forget it. If you run across anything, you’d better forget it, too.”

Shayne said, “I’m not very good at taking advice. Thanks for the drinks.” He turned and stalked through the door.

He got in his car, started the motor and turned on the headlights. As he pulled onto the pavement, lights showed in the rear-view mirror from a car behind him. They appeared to come from a car waiting at the intersection where Charles Roche had left his car parked last night while he kept a date with death.

The car gained on him slowly as he drove straight ahead, down the slope toward the east-west highway through Centerville. He vividly recalled the incident on the highway earlier as he and Lucy were driving into town. A car deliberately forced off the road and over a cliff and an armed deputy waving all traffic on while his buddy beat the driver to death. It wasn’t a pretty picture to remember, but his mind dwelt upon it as he watched the queer maneuvers of the car behind him.

It had speeded up to a distance of two hundred feet back, and appeared to slow deliberately to follow him at that distance. As though it were stalking him. It couldn’t be an ordinary tail. No cop would be fool enough to hope to follow so close and remain unobserved.

The road began to twist around the side of the hill and there was a steep embankment on his right. At this precise instant the car behind him picked up speed. Shayne’s perceptions sharpened, and he instinctively edged toward the center of the pavement.

The other car was coming up fast and a horn sounded impatiently. Shayne pulled further to the left to let it pass on his right between his car and the steep embankment which was so remindful of the scene of the accident that afternoon.

He grinned sourly when the pursuing car slowed suddenly, and did not accept the challenge. The horn blew steadily, but Shayne held to the left-hand side until the road flattened out on both sides, then edged slowly to his rightful place. In a moment the other car rushed past. There were two men in the front seat of the heavy sedan, and Shayne’s headlights picked out the two letters, “P D” above the license plate in the rear.

He wondered why they hadn’t stopped to arrest him for taking the right-of-way and refusing to let them pass on the left. He had never known cops to pass up that sort of an insult before. They evidently had orders not to arrest him. He wondered what orders they did have… and who had given them during the short time that had elapsed since he visited Charles Roche’s widow.

He debated savagely with himself as he drove on toward the Eustis Restaurant. The smart thing would be to get out of town at once. But the more his mind dwelt upon every single angle of the case, the greater the challenge became.

His mouth was grim and his eyes bleak when he parked in front of the restaurant and went in.

8

TWO men were seated at the table with Lucy Hamilton. One was a balding, wiry, middle-aged man in his shirtsleeves with bright red and yellow suspenders. The other was younger and heavier, wearing a seersucker suit. He was holding Lucy’s left hand, leaning close and talking rapidly. Two gold teeth showed beneath his short upper lip as he talked.

Lucy’s face was flushed, and she nodded continually, her brown eyes glowing as though she listened to pearls of great wisdom. The brandy bottle was practically empty. She didn’t look up when Shayne threaded his way between the tables. The bald man glared with open hostility when the tall redhead stopped beside her and laid his hand on her shoulder.

Lucy was startled. She drew away from the heavy man when she saw Shayne, and said vivaciously, “I’ve been having such a good time, Michael. These gentlemen have been telling me all about Centerville, and it’s simply fascinating.” She put her hand on the bald man’s forearm. “This is Mr. Rexard… Mr. Shayne. And this is Titus, Michael. He’s a state representative and very important.”

Shayne nodded and said, “It was kind of you to entertain Miss Hamilton while I was gone.” He seated himself between Lucy and Rexard, looked at the depleted bottle with raised brows. “I’m afraid you haven’t been very hospitable, Lucy. Shouldn’t we order another bottle?”

“Well, if you promise not to drink too much,” she said hesitantly. “They’ve been telling me the most awful things, Michael. About how the police are in cahoots with most everybody in town. I think it’s just terrible, Titus, the way you say they do. Tell Mr. Shayne about it.”

He cleared his throat, flashed his gold teeth and drawled, “Miss Lucy forgot to say my name is Tatum, Mr. Shayne. I’ve been telling her how they work things in Centerville, seeing you all are strangers and mighty nice people. A man’s got to walk a pretty straight line to stay out of trouble hereabouts.”

“The police just run the town the way they want to,” Lucy put in indignantly. “It doesn’t matter whether you get drunk or not, if you’re a stranger and in a place like this and take a few drinks and they think you’ve got any money, they arrest you when you go out and put you in jail for drunkenness. Then you have to pay a fine and the judge splits it with the proprietor for tipping them off about you.”

Rexard looked worried. “It’s not so good to say it right out loud like that, Miss Lucy.” He glanced nervously around them. “You can’t get any proof that they pay for the tipoff. It just happens that a policeman’s always waiting outside to grab a man after he’s had a few drinks and shows a roll. The Eustis isn’t any worse than other places.”

Shayne listened soberly and thoughtfully, then beckoned a waitress, ordered another bottle of brandy and said, “What happens if a man is arrested when he isn’t actually drunk?”

Both Tatum and Rexard laughed jeeringly. “If a cop says a man’s drunk, he’s drunk,” said Rexard.

“And if you don’t plead guilty,” Tatum contributed, “you get thirty days in jail.”

“But they have to have some proof,” Shayne argued. “You could demand an examination by a doctor.”

“In Centerville?” Titus Tatum’s gold teeth showed to the gum line in a hoarse laugh. “Argue with them and you get beat up,” he explained simply. “It don’t pay. Safest thing is to keep your mouth shut and pay.”

“It’s just like the Gestapo in Hitler’s Germany,” Lucy said. “Some men stay in jail here three months without being allowed to see a lawyer and not knowing what they’re charged with. Isn’t that what you said, Titus?”

“A man hasn’t got much chance once he’s locked up,” he admitted cautiously. “The City Hall gang has things pretty much their own way… have for thirty years. Run the slot machines and liquor business and all. It’s a losing game to try and buck ’em. Smart folks just keep their mouths shut and stay out of trouble.”

“So… you be smart, Michael.” Lucy squeezed his arm, then continued excitedly, “Have you heard the big news? About the end of the strike? The miners are going back to work tomorrow.”

The waiter brought a bottle of brandy. Shayne said to Lucy, “I heard about it,” opened the bottle and poured some in four glasses. He asked Rexard, “Do you live here?”

“Dry cleaning business,” Rexard told him. “I say it’s a shame for the miners to give up that way, but I reckon the poor devils didn’t have a chance. George Brand certainly let ’em down when he killed young Roche.”

“Do you think he did?”

“It makes no difference whether he did or didn’t,” Rexard said gloomily. “Strike’s broken, and there won’t be another one for years.”

“Do you know, Michael, there’ve been five men killed in Centerville in the past month? Counting Mr. Roche last night and that man on the highway this afternoon. But that was an accident, I guess.” Something in her voice warned Shayne that it was important for him not to comment upon it.

Shayne took a sip of brandy and said casually, “An accident on the highway?”

“Just about sundown,” Titus Tatum said. “Not more’n a mile west of town.”

“This side of the Moderne Hotel,” Lucy said. “Titus was telling me about it.”

“That’s right,” said Tatum. “Car went out of control over the side, I reckon. They found him with his head bashed in.”

“A couple of special deputies found him,” Lucy interposed, her voice vibrating with anger and warning.

“Fellow by the name of Margule,” said Rexard.

Shayne said, “Margule? Wasn’t that one of the men who played poker with Brand last night?”

“That Brand claims was playing poker,” Rexard agreed unemotionally. “It’s tough on Brand having it happen… right on top of them saying Jethro Home has skipped town.”

“That leaves only one other witness for Brand,” Shayne said slowly.

“Yep. Dave Burroughs. I’d hate to be in Dave’s shoes right now. Wasn’t so bad when he had two others to back him up.” The heavy congressman spoke in a heavy voice.

“Were there any witnesses to Margule’s accident?” Shayne asked casually.

“If there were I reckon they’re not talking,” said Rexard.

There were lines of tension in Shayne’s gaunt face. He took a sip of brandy. It went down easier now that the way had been paved by Ann Cornell’s corn. He looked slowly around the restaurant. It was well-filled now. There was a small cleared place in the center where a few couples were dancing to a hillbilly tune from the juke-box. A lot of men and some women were lined up at the slot machines, feeding coins into the machines and pulling cranks and waiting apathetically for the cylinders to stop so they could deposit another coin.

He wondered what their attitude toward the ending of the strike was… what they thought about the highway accident that had removed one of George Brand’s witnesses from the jurisdiction of the court while a second one of the trio had unaccountably disappeared. What did these people think about a police force and a judge and a small army of special deputies who acted wholly outside the law?

If the group gathered in the restaurant was representative of Centerville’s citizenry, Shayne decided that they didn’t think about things like that. Over a period of years they had probably ceased to resent being pushed around by the local authorities. Those who could, he surmised, catered to the police and tried to get in on the graft. Those not lucky enough to do that tried to avoid trouble by being passive and staying out of their way.

Lucy and Titus Tatum pushed their chairs back and got up to dance. Shayne poured more brandy in Rexard’s glass and jerked his head towards Titus.

“One of your local politicians?”

“Titus isn’t as bad as some,” Rexard told him. “Knows which side his bread is buttered on and doesn’t cause any trouble.” He hesitated, then added, “Nobody gets elected here without backing from the city hall bunch.” He accepted a cigarette from Shayne’s extended pack and confided, “Miss Lucy says you all are just driving through.”

“We might stay over a few days,” Shayne told him. “Depends on several things.”

“She didn’t say what your business might be,” Rexard probed.

“Didn’t she?” Shayne scowled into his glass for a moment, then watched the couples who were dancing.

Rexard turned in his chair, grinned broadly, said, “That Titus. He’s quite a chaser. Seems like he took a shine to Miss Lucy soon’s he saw her sitting here alone. But you needn’t make nothing out of that,” he went on hastily. “He’s a gentleman, if I do say so.”

Shayne wasn’t particularly concerned with Lucy and the Centerville Lothario. She knew when to be naive and when to get tough. He said abruptly to Rexard, “I don’t quite understand the situation here about the miners. Aren’t they affiliated with John L. Lewis’ United Mine Workers?”

“Not in Centerville. Some mines in Kentucky are organized, but not hereabouts. Organizers from outside don’t last long.”

“What happens to them?”

Rexard lifted his skinny shoulders. “Lots of things. Car runs over a cliff, maybe. Like Joe Margule this afternoon…”

“You mean they get rubbed out?” Shayne interrupted sharply, turning his gaze from the dance floor to his bald-headed companion.

Rexard moved uneasily and looked cautiously around. “For God’s sake Mr. Shayne,” he said in a low voice, “don’t say things like that out loud. It’s not healthy in Centerville. We leave well enough alone here. The mine owners don’t like union organizers, so they don’t last long.”

“George Brand lasted.”

“That’s right.”

“How?”

Rexard twirled his glass, said hesitantly, “I reckon he’s tough. Lots of people have wondered the same thing since the Roche strike started, but the management just didn’t seem to worry much.”

“But suppose Brand’s union had won?”

“They didn’t.”

“From what I hear, they might have if Charles Roche had lived a few more days,” Shayne said.

“He didn’t.”

“Was it known publicly that Roche intended to compromise with Brand and end the strike as soon as he took over control of the mine?”

“There was talk,” Rexard told him, keeping his voice low. “It wasn’t something Roche would print in the paper, I reckon.”

“What sort of woman is Ann Cornell?” Shayne asked abruptly. The music had stopped and Lucy and Tatum were feeding the slot machines. Lucy was plucking coins from Tatum’s palm, her brown eyes shining and her laughter floating across the room.

Rexard said, “Ann Cornell sets out a tasty drink of corn,” and grinned at Shayne.

“From Lafe Heddon’s still?” Shayne asked, and turned his full attention to Rexard.

The bald man narrowed his eyes. “You do get around… for a stranger.”

“It’s my business,” the detective told him cheerfully, “to get around.”

“That so?” Rexard drawled. There was fleeting suspicion in his expression. “I don’t believe you’ve said what your business is.”

“I don’t believe I have.” Shayne poured brandy into their glasses. “Aside from a drink of Lafe’s corn, what does Mrs. Cornell offer a man?”

“I wouldn’t know. I’m married and my wife’s a Methodist.”

“She must stand in with the police,” Shayne mused, “to get by the way she does. Mrs. Cornell, that is,” he added, grinning.

“She doesn’t run any house,” Rexard said with emphasis. “Maybe some men drop in for a drink, and it might be Hank Elwood likes a shot of corn as well as another. And it might be the Methodist ladies look the other way when Ann Cornell comes down the street, but that doesn’t bother her none.”

“Could Charles Roche have been visiting her instead of Brand when he left his car parked at the corner last night?”

“I wouldn’t know about that,” said Rexard blandly. “This is mighty nice drinking liquor. Imported, isn’t it?” He took a long drink, then studied the label on the bottle.

Lucy and Titus Tatum came back to the table. “We’ve been having fun,” she said gaily. “Titus promised me all he won at the slot machine, but he lost three dollars.”

“Maybe I might have better luck.” Shayne pushed his chair back and lurched to his feet, grabbing Lucy’s arm for support. He steadied himself and grinned foolishly. “That brandy sure goes to a man’s head,” he said in a loud voice. “Le’s get some change an’ try my luck.” Still holding Lucy’s arm he led her on a circuitous route, staggering around the tables, to the cashier. He got his billfold out and extracted a fifty-dollar bill. “Take out for the las’ bottle an’ gimme ’bout five bucks in change for the slot machines.”

“Sh-h-h,” Lucy whispered. “Don’t talk so loud… you sound drunk, Michael,” she added anxiously. “And don’t waste five dollars on those machines. Titus says…”

“Plenty more where that comes from,” he bragged, shaking his wallet at her. “Gotta have a high ol’ time thish evenin’.” He pulled her along with him toward a group of three machines that were idle, handed her a handful of silver and said, “You drop it in and I’ll pull the crank. That way, maybe we’ll be lucky.”

“You’re not drunk,” she accused. “Why…?”

“Act as though I am,” he said quietly, swaying against the machine and jerking the handle. “Think you could handle Titus if I get locked up in the hoosegow?”

“I could handle him with my little finger,” she assured him disdainfully. “But Mr. Rexard might be harder. He practically propositioned me while you were out. Offered to drive me back to the hotel and tuck me in if you didn’t show up soon.”

Shayne muttered, “By God, it’s going to pay off! Three dimes. The syndicate should be told about this.” He laughed drunkenly and turned to wave at the two men sitting at his table watching him.

Lucy put one of the dimes back and leaned close to him. In a frightened voice she said, “Do you realize… when they told me about that accident on the highway this afternoon…”

“You didn’t mention our having seen that so-called accident?” Shayne interrupted soberly and swiftly.

“Of course I didn’t,” she snapped. “But the more I think…”

“Then stop thinking about it.” He kept the machine clattering steadily. “I’m going to the men’s room after a time. I’ll be pretty drunk when I come out. You get up and come to the machines with me again and bring your purse with you. I’ll have a batch of stuff to put in it. Then we’ll get into an argument and I’ll stagger out alone. Pretend you’re disgusted with me and play along with those two birds as long as you want to. Then go back to your cabin and lock yourself in and stay there. If I haven’t turned up by tomorrow afternoon, find Seth Gerald of the Roche Mines and tell him I’m in jail. Go to the governor if you have to, but.…”

“Michael! I’m frightened. Remember that man on the highway this afternoon. Those were officers… and they murdered him in cold blood just to ruin Brand’s alibi. They might…”

“I’m tougher than these birds they’re used to pushing around,” Shayne growled close to her ear.

“But when the police find out you’re a detective working to free Brand…” She shuddered, leaning close against his arm.

“I’ve fixed that,” he told her. “Among the things I’ll give you will be a piece of paper signed by the man who runs AMOK showing I’ve been retained by the mine operators to look into Brand’s guilt. Keep hold of it, and don’t worry about me.”

“You think you’ll have a chance to see Brand in jail?”

“It looks like a good chance… and the only chance.”

“But if you represent the mine owners, wouldn’t they just let you go in and talk to him?”

“They might. But I want to get to Brand before he finds out I’ve gone over to AMOK.” He patted her cheek and asked loudly, “Any more dimes?”

“Just one.” Lucy put the coin in. Shayne pulled the lever and turned away without waiting for the cylinders to stop. Lucy waited until it stopped on a lemon, and followed him back to their table.

Shayne drew a chair out for her and asked Rexard thickly, “Which way to the li’l boy’s room?”

Rexard chuckled and gave him directions, then watched anxiously as Shayne lurched toward the rear, narrowly avoiding a collision with an elderly couple.

Inside the wash room, Shayne went through his wallet, removing all the money except a hundred and fifty dollars, and all business cards and other identification. He put the agreement signed by Persona with the other things. He withdrew the letter from Charles Roche which was in his hip pocket. After reading it carefully once more, he tore it into tiny pieces and flushed it down the drain.

When he made certain there was nothing left in his pockets or wallet to identify him, he slid the small pack of banknotes and papers in his trousers pocket and went back to the dining room.

Titus Tatum was holding Lucy’s hand and flashing his gold teeth when Shayne approached the table. He dropped her hand hastily, but not quickly enough to prevent Shayne from standing over him with doubled fists and protesting drunkenly, “Thatsh my girl, see? Keep your han’s off her.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Michael!” Lucy sprang up and grabbed his arm. “Sit down and have another drink,” she begged.

Shayne shook her hand from his arm. “Don’ wan’ ’nother drink. Wanna win shome money. Lotsha money.” He caught Lucy’s hand and almost fell as he pulled her to a deserted machine in a corner.

Her handbag was suspended from her left shoulder by a leather strap. The flap was down, but the catch was released. She stayed close behind him, facing the machine, while Shayne turned slightly, slipped the packet from his pocket, turned again and placed them in her purse which she held open with her left hand while her right hand deposited a coin. Shayne pulled the crank and muttered, “Good work, Angel, I’ll see you…”

Shayne glanced up and saw a man coming through the doorway.

Mr. Persona was alone. He stood just inside the door for a moment, a broad smile on his thick mouth and triumphant gleam in his light eyes as though he expected the people to rise and pay him due homage before making an entrance.

Shayne said, “Put a nickel in the slot… quick. And take a look at the short, dark man standing at the door.”

Lucy put the coin in and glanced at the man. “Who…?”

“That’s Persona,” he told her as the machine clattered. “Big-shot in the Mine Owners of Kentucky and the man who’s retained me to convict Brand.” The machine stopped. “Put in another nickel and watch where he goes.”

“He’s going to the rear,” she reported. “Titus is getting up and waving… he’s going to our table,” she went on in a low, excited voice.

Shayne said grimly, “I’m going to stagger out and I’ll keep my back turned. When you go to the table try to keep my name out of the conversation. Is he looking this way?”

“No… his back is turned. They’re all talking together.”

“Good. Listen, Angel. I’m going to ease out. Get back there and turn on your charm. Get him talking about strikes and murders. Get him liquored up if you can. Get the lowdown on Seth Gerald. And… watch your step.” He turned and swayed the few steps to the door, glancing aside to see a look of hostility on the cashier’s face.

Outside, he stood swaying, irresolutely, staggered a few steps in one direction, turned and staggered back, wondering how long he was going to have to wait before a cop arrested him.

The local tipoff service was evidently working perfectly. Two men came toward him purposefully, both in uniform and both swinging nightsticks.

Shayne grinned foolishly, squinting first one eye and then the other, then both, as though straining for focus.

They were big, burly men, fat paunches straining their belts. Each took a firm hold on one of Shayne’s arms. One of them said, “Seems like you don’t know which way to go, fella. Come ’long an’ we’ll show you. Fact is, we’ll give you a little ride.”

Shayne jerked his arms and protested angrily. “Don’ wanna ride. My girl…”

The policeman on his right slapped him across the mouth. “We don’t like drunk bastards in Centerville. Get movin’.”

Shayne licked his lip and tasted blood. He gritted his teeth and let his legs go limp. They caught him up and dragged him to the police car and dumped him in the back on the floor, got in the front seat together and drove away.

9

THE Centerville police station was only a few blocks from the Eustis Restaurant. It was an ugly stucco building housing the city offices, with the jail on the second floor. An entrance from a side street led directly into a small, drab room with a scarred desk and straight chairs around the walk. There was no one in the room when the officers dragged Shayne in and shoved him into a chair where he pretended complete grogginess.

An open door on the left revealed a large, comfortably furnished room, brightly lighted, and with the sound of an electric fan whirring. One of the officers said, “Gantry must be in with the chief. Wonder what’s goin’ on in there?” He sauntered through the doorway, leaving the other to guard Shayne.

Shayne’s head, lolling against the wall, was turned directly toward the lighted room. He could see only a small segment of it… part of a large desk with a man sitting behind it. He was a big man with heavy jowls bulging from his jawbone, and in the bright overhead light he appeared to have no eyebrows or lashes. A roll of flesh hung over his protuberant eyes which were wide open, unblinking and expressionless as he stared straight before him at someone whom Shayne could not see on the other side of the desk. There was a murmur of voices, but no words were distinguishable to him.

The policeman who stood guard over Shayne got out a plug of tobacco and gnawed off a portion. A narrow wooden stairway led down into the room from the floor above, and there was the shuffle of descending footsteps and the soft whimpering sound of agony or of fear from a human being.

Shayne didn’t turn his head to betray his interest, but by shifting his eyes to the side and slightly upward, he saw three men. Two of them were in their shirtsleeves, but wore uniform trousers and visored caps. They were supporting a man who was bleeding at the nose and mouth and was making a whimpering noise by gasping in short breaths and exhaling between clenched teeth. His shirt was half torn from his torso and soggy with blood. He cringed between the two policemen, staring stupidly with glazed eyes.

Shayne’s guard chewed rhythmically and watched with professional interest as the trio reached the bottom of the stairs and started toward the side office. “You gonna be long, Gantry?” he demanded impatiently. “We got a drunk here to be booked.”

The man on the right of the bleeding prisoner said, “It won’t take long. Dave, here, has decided to make a statement to the chief.” Gantry was a tall, slender, alert young man with a mop of damp and disheveled blond hair. In spite of his wilted appearance, he seemed well pleased with himself. His companion was shorter and heavier, with a flat brutal face and loose, thick lips. He laughed coarsely and jerked the whimpering man forward and said:

“Dave decided he warn’t as tough as he figured.” They went into the brightly lighted room and lined up in front of Chief Henry Elwood’s desk.

The chief looked at the bleeding man with his lidless, naked eyes and asked, “Have you decided to come clean, Burroughs?” His voice was friendly and considerate and his thick lips spread, making a deep trench between his jowls and mouth.

“I’ll say… anything… you say,” Dave Burroughs gasped. “Let… me outta here. I can’t… stand any more.”

“We don’t want you to say anything but the truth,” Elwood said. “What happened to you? Why’re you appearing here in that condition?”

“I… had an… accident,” Burroughs said weakly.

“Too bad. We’ll get a doctor and have you fixed up soon’s you sign this statement.” The chief’s beefy hand reached for a document, pulled it closer, and he read rapidly:

“I, David Burroughs, make the following statement under oath, of my own free will and to clear my conscience of perjury:

“The affidavit I signed and swore to this morning is a lie. I was bribed to make it by George Brand who got me and Jethro Home and Joe Margule all together yesterday and fixed up what he wanted us to say. He paid us each twenty dollars, but we didn’t know why he wanted an alibi for last night, and when we made those affidavits this morning we didn’t know he had murdered Charles Roche.

“All three of us did play poker with him at Home’s last night, but Brand left the game about three o’clock. None of us saw him after that, which I now swear is the truth because we all stayed on together until five-thirty.

“I do not want to get mixed up in a murder. That is why I am telling the truth now. I realize that I perjured myself and that I am liable for the full penalty of the law.

“I have not been mistreated or coerced in any way to induce me to sign this statement, and any marks on my body are the result of my drunkenness and an accident.

“I am filled with remorse because I swore to false testimony.

“This is the truth, so help me God.”

Shayne watched Chief Elwood, fascinated by the monotone of his voice and by the continuous wriggling of a fleshy protuberance in the center of his chin. His lips scarcely moved. When he finished reading, the fat roll covering his eyes raised slowly.

“We want the truth this time, Burroughs,” he said. “This is your last chance. You’ll be taken care of if you sign this. You won’t have to appear at Brand’s trial.”

“I’ll… sign.” Dave Burroughs fell forward, his elbows resting on the desk. The two officers supported his body while he took a pen in his right hand and signed the document. Then they half carried Burroughs through a door at the other end of the room.

Chief Elwood looked at the policeman who had helped bring Shayne in. He asked, “What’s the charge against the man outside?”

“Drunk and disorderly.”

“Let Gantry handle him.” Chief Elwood swiveled in his chair and got up. He went out the door through which Burroughs had been carried.

Gantry returned and joined the waiting policeman. Together they sauntered into the smaller room where Shayne sat, talking in low, pleased tones. Gantry seated himself at the desk and looked bored. He said, “Drunk and disorderly, eh?”

“And creating a public disturbance,” his companion said.

Shayne’s guard hauled him to his feet by his shoulders and thrust him forward.

“Maybe I was drunk,” Shayne said belligerently, “but I didn’t bother anybody.”

Gantry was writing in a ledger and didn’t look up. “Name and address?” he asked. Shayne noted that he had sleeked his blond hair back, and his face looked clean.

“John Smith. New York,” Shayne said.

“Go over him. Find out his real name.” Gantry’s voice was clipped and official, and he still appeared pleased with himself.

One of the men held Shayne’s arms while the other removed his wallet and tossed it on the desk. He felt deeper into that pocket, then in the other, while Gantry searched the wallet.

“John Smith is as good as any,” Gantry said. He counted the money and put it in an envelope. “Throw him in the bull-pen.”

“I want a receipt for that money,” Shayne muttered. “I got a right to…”

The officers hustled him to the stairway and up to a musty, dim-lit corridor, past the iron bars on one side to a heavy, barred door. An old man was asleep in a chair propped against the wall beside the door. He was snoring loudly and stunk of old sweat and beer.

One of the men prodded him with a toe and said, “Wake up, Pop. We got another customer for you.”

The old man snorted and rocked forward, hoisted himself to his feet, squinted at Shayne through bleary eyes and turned to unlock the massive door with an iron key attached to a chain around his waist.

As the door swung open, Shayne heard voices chanting, “Fresh meat coming up,” and the humid sweat of unwashed bodies, the foul odor of urine, the stench of intestinal excretions in clogged toilets mingled with stale cigarette smoke and the sickening smell of some cheap disinfectant caused him to recoil and stagger back.

The two policemen hurled him forward, and the door clanged shut. Shayne found himself in a narrow corridor lined with iron-barred cells on each side. The feeble light in the hall penetrated only a little distance into the darkness. Each cell had two iron bunks, one above the other, with no mattresses or bedding. The first two cells were empty.

Someone struck a match in the third cell and Shayne moved toward the light. Voices were yelling, “Who is it? Has he got any cigarettes? How about a drink? If he’s a punk, send ’im down this way.”

Shayne stopped beside the doorway of the third cell and shouted, “Shut the hell up. I’ve got cigarettes enough for myself, and none of you know me.”

The shouting voices beyond subsided, grumbling and weary and disinterested. A voice inside the cell asked in a low whisper, “How about the butts, if you’re gonna smoke?”

“Sure.” He groped his way inside and sat on the lower iron bunk beside its occupant. He put a cigarette in his mouth, struck a match, and held it until light flickered over his companion’s face, then lit his cigarette. The man was young, with a thin face and defiant eyes.

Shayne asked, “How do you stand this stink?”

“Ain’t you never been in jail?” the youth asked.

“Not one that smelled like this.” Shayne filled his lungs with smoke and exhaled. The fresh smoke relieved the smell of the stale for a moment, then joined it. He passed the cigarette to the boy beside him and said, “Take a draw.”

“Jeez, thanks.” He took a long draw, said, “Jeez,” again, and passed the cigarette to Shayne. He asked, “What they get you for?”

“Drunk. Only I’m not.”

The young man laughed harshly. “Must of showed some cash.”

“A little. What the hell sort of town is this?”

“New hereabouts?” he countered cautiously.

“From New York,” said Shayne. “Just passing through.”

“This is Centerville, Kentucky, Mister. The hellhole of all creation. You got nothin’ to worry about. They’ll let you loose in the mornin’… with enough jack to get out of town on.”

Shayne puffed leisurely, then asked, “What are you in for?”

“Cut a man up at a dance a coupla weeks ago.”

“How bad?”

“Not too bad. Picked the wrong guy… cousin of Titus Tatum’s. He runs the City Hall gang.”

His indifferent, drawling tone amused Shayne. He asked, “How long you in for?”

“Ain’t been tried yet. Don’t reckon I will be. They’ll turn me out in a week or two. I got folks that’ll get riled up if they don’t. What’s new in town?”

Shayne said, “I suppose you know the strike’s broken.”

“First I heard of it.” The youth jumped up and yelled, “Hey… Brand! You hear that?”

Two or three voices shouted, “Shut up in there! Let a man sleep!”

Another voice, heavily timbred and strong called out, “Do I hear what?”

“Fella here says the strike’s broke!”

“What of it? To hell with the strike,” came an answering chorus, but the voice Shayne knew must be George Brand’s broke in with gruff authority, “Shut up, all of you. I want to hear this.”

Shayne stood up and called back, “I could tell you better if I didn’t have to yell.”

“That’s George Brand,” the young man said in a hoarse whisper. “In for murder.”

“I read about it in the paper.” Shayne moved into the corridor and the heavy voice spoke just ahead of him, “Right down here. I’d like to hear about the strike.”

Shayne walked slowly on until he touched the body of a man. Brand put out his hand and took Shayne’s arm, asked fiercely, “Is that the truth? Have those cowardly fools given up the fight?”

“The news is all over town. Any place we can talk quietly?” He spoke in a whisper.

Brand struck a match before replying. He held it up to look at Shayne’s face. The flickering light illumed his own face as well.

Shayne saw a youngish man with rugged features. There was strength in the solid jaw and firm mouth, intelligence in the cool appraisal of his gray eyes and in the smooth, broad brow.

Brand was studying the detective’s face carefully, but his expression gave no hint of what he was thinking. The match burned out and he dropped it to the concrete floor. His fingers tightened on Shayne’s arm. He said, “Down this way,” quietly, and they went down the corridor to a square room with barred windows through which a little light shone. The stench was stronger here, and Brand explained, “The can’s here at this end. Nobody ever comes close to it unless they have to.” They stopped and leaned against the wall between the two windows.

“I don’t know you, do I?” Brand asked.

“No. I hit town this afternoon.” Shayne hesitated, then added, “Drove up from Miami.”

“Passing through and got picked up by one of the local boys?”

“I got picked up outside the Eustis Restaurant after I’d had dinner and a few drinks.”

“You wanted to talk,” Brand reminded him.

“That’s why I got myself thrown in here,” Shayne told him.

“What’s the lay? Give it to me.”

Shayne gave it to him straight. “I’m a private detective in Miami. A few days ago I had a letter from Charles Roche saying his life was threatened and asking me to come up. He was dead when I got here.”

The end of Brand’s cigarette glowed brightly and he blew smoke toward the ceiling before saying, “So you’re out of a job.”

“Not exactly. He mailed a check as a retainer. I like to earn my money.” Shayne’s eyes were now accustomed to the dim light and Brand’s figure and features were clearer. He was nearly as tall as Shayne, a big-boned man with plenty of flesh, but no fat. A voice accustomed to commanding, and expecting his commands to be obeyed the first time. A voice men would instinctively trust, and which women would instinctively thrill to. His body appeared to be completely relaxed, his left shoulder against the wall, his head back, one ankle crossed over the other.

He was evidently thinking over Shayne’s statement. After a brief silence he said, “Then you’re different from most private operators.”

Shayne skipped that. “Since I got here too late to prevent Roche’s murder, I may stick around and find out who killed him.”

“They’ve got me slated for that. Didn’t you know?”

“I read today’s paper,” Shayne admitted. “Did you kill him?”

“No.”

“It was your gun.”

“Maybe. I was playing poker and I can prove it,” he went on evenly. “They might laugh at one affidavit, but they’ll have a tough time laughing off three.” Brand’s tone was carelessly confident.

The man’s complacency jarred on Shayne. He said angrily, “The way you look at it then… you’re not interested in any help I might be able to give you.”

“What did you say your name was?”

“I didn’t say. It’s John Smith on the police blotter.”

“All right, John Smith. I’ve been around a good many years and I’ve stayed healthy by knowing what the score is. These punks can’t fry me. Maybe you’re on the level and maybe you were sent here by AMOK.”

“What’s AMOK?” Shayne asked through set teeth.

Brand laughed softly. Too softly. “That’s exactly what you’d say if you’re a stinking fink.” His tone was unchanged.

“And that’s what I’d say if I weren’t.”

“That’s right, too,” Brand conceded. “I’ve not nothing to hide and I’m not playing games. My arrest broke the strike and that’s what they wanted. I lose, and that’s that. Whoever bumped Roche was playing a cinch.”

“You’re a cinch to hang,” Shayne told him quietly, “unless you’ve got a card up your sleeve you haven’t shown.”

Brand didn’t answer at once. He got out a cigarette and struck a match. Shayne studied his face closely by the match-glow as he held it to the cigarette. In his brief judgment, he could see no hint of recklessness, but there was audacity in the upcurve of his mouth and two round depressions in his cheeks that showed when he drew on the cigarette, then disappeared. A gambler, perhaps, who would play for high stakes and enjoy it… but only if the odds were weighted in his favor.

Brand tossed the match away, leaned his head against the wall and smoked.

Shayne said quietly, “I got myself thrown into this goddam jail just to talk to you… size you up.”

“You did?” said Brand politely. He lifted his head from the wall and turned toward Shayne. “I’m not worried.”

“Joe Margule had an accident this evening,” Shayne told him in a conversational tone.

“Bad?” Brand lifted his shoulder from the wall.

“Dead,” said Shayne. He lit a fresh cigarette.

Brand had his feet uncrossed. He took a few steps toward one of the windows, whirled and came back to stand stiffly before the detective.

“Jethro Home has vanished,” Shayne went on slowly. “Skipped town, so the rumor goes.”

The silence was as thick as the stench in the room. Brand puffed rapidly on his cigarette, then went back to lean against the wall again, closer to Shayne this time.

“I was afraid of Jeth,” he said evenly, almost confidentially. “If they showed him a lot of money… but I couldn’t pick the men I’d be with when somebody blew a hole in Roche’s head.”

“But it knocks hell out of your alibi,” Shayne reminded him. He matched Brand’s casualness in both action and tone.

“I don’t know,” Brand said. “They all signed affidavits. They’ll stand up, even with Home and Margule out of the picture.”

“Not now,” Shayne said.

Brand let the back of his head roll along the wall and turned his eyes toward Shayne. The muscles in the detective’s gaunt face were working and his eyes were bleak in the dim light as he looked levelly at Brand. “Maybe… until about ten minutes ago. Now, you haven’t got an alibi left. I just heard Dave Burroughs swear he perjured himself in that affidavit. I heard Elwood read the statement he signed. Burroughs was half dead from… from an accident of some kind.” Shayne was lolling with his right shoulder against the wall, half-facing Brand. He watched narrowly in the dim light for some reaction.

Brand didn’t move for a time, but the deep drags he took on the cigarette lighted his face now and again. He appeared to be thinking hard. Presently he said, “I’ve got friends up north. The NUWJ will have a lawyer down here tomorrow. They can’t get away with… with murder and torture.”

“This,” said Shayne harshly, “is Centerville.” He stopped, feeling a sense of shock at the three words from his own lips. All of a sudden they had a fatalistic sound. Heretofore, he had only thought them strange, somewhat fascinating, ominous or dangerous, perhaps, but for the first time he realized their real meaning. He swiftly went over his experiences since arriving in the village, added them to the information Lucy Hamilton had told him, and he felt sorry as hell for George Brand.

He put a hand on Brand’s arm and said, “I don’t think a Yankee lawyer will get very far in this town… even with a habeas corpus, or anything else. My bet is that this is the only chance you’ll have to do any talking. To me. Right now.”

“Maybe you’re right.” Brand’s voice was heavy, thick.

“Maybe the name Michael Shayne means more to you than John Smith,” he said.

“Maybe… it… does.” Brand was standing erect, his arms folded across his chest, his head high, his chin jutting.

Shayne straightened his long lanky body and looked down a couple of inches into Brand’s eyes. He said, “If you didn’t kill Roche you’re a fool not to give me anything that will help prove it.”

Brand met his gaze levelly in the dim light. “I’ve got the proof when the right time comes. I’ll talk to my lawyer. You understand how it is,” he went on strongly, swiftly, completely sure of himself. “With my alibi shot, I’ve got one ace in the hole. Maybe you’re all right, but I’m not taking any chance with my life.”

Shayne turned away abruptly and said, “I’ve wasted a night in this stinking jail for nothing,” and was making his way toward the cell block when he heard the outer door opening.

“John Smith. Front and center,” a voice called out.

“Coming,” Shayne said gruffly, and went toward the rectangle of light.

Gantry stood in the doorway. He looked fresh and clean and ready for a night of excitement in Centerville. The hunchbacked jailor, dirty and smelling of fresh beer, stood aside, the big key hanging on the chain around his waist.

Shayne’s rugged red brows lifted quizzically when Gantry said in a curiously servile voice, “This way. There’s a lady waiting to see you.”

Shayne followed him. He tried to stir up a feeling of animosity toward Lucy Hamilton for interfering when he had specifically told her not to try to get him out of jail until tomorrow.

He followed Gantry’s youthful and springy steps, and wished he could be thirty again, but he forgot Gantry when they entered the room and Elsa Roche was standing there, holding out both her hands to greet him.

10

HER small dark face was strained, her gray-green eyes, red-rimmed and swollen, were intent upon his face. She looked sober and frightened. She caught both of his hands and gripped them with surprising strength. Her short upper lip quivered when she tried to speak. “I… had to… see you,” she managed to say.

“I didn’t expect you to be here,” Shayne said. “How the devil did you find out I was here?”

They were alone in a small private office. Shayne released her hands when Gantry came through the doorway and said, “I’ll get your stuff, Mr. Smith,” then retreated down the corridor.

Elsa Roche took a compact from her purse, opened it, and turned aside to peer into the mirror. “It was difficult to find you.” She had control of her voice now, and it was almost flippant. “I called around at the different hotels and learned you were registered at the Moderne but weren’t in yet. Then I called the police station to ask them to watch out for you around town and have you call me at once. I talked to Sergeant Gantry, and when I described you he laughed and said he’d just booked a man named John Smith who answered your description. I thought it might be you, so I came down to see.”

They heard Gantry’s footsteps coming toward them in the corridor. He came in and handed Shayne a sealed envelope.

Shayne opened it and examined the contents, nodded and said, “Thanks, sergeant,” gravely. “Do I just walk out of here?”

Gantry smiled thinly and glanced at Mrs. Roche. “Suppose we say you’re paroled in her custody. That what you want, Mrs. Roche?”

She snapped her compact shut. “It was all a stupid mistake in the first place,” she said arrogantly. “You can see for yourself Mr. Smith isn’t drunk.”

“I admit he’s sobered up fast,” Gantry agreed.

“So just cross off that ridiculous charge against him.” She stepped forward and took Shayne’s arm confidently. “My car is outside the main entrance.”

Gantry preceded them down the wide hallway and opened a door leading out onto the front entrance of the city hall. The Buick which Shayne had seen at the Roche house stood at the bottom of a flight of wide concrete steps. Elsa clung to Shayne’s arm as they descended. He opened the left-hand door for her to get in. She started the motor and waited for him to get in, then put the car in gear and drove to Centerville’s main street without speaking.

Shayne lounged back on the cushions, lit a cigarette, and waited for her to start talking. She drove competently and with grave intensity, turning left on the main street and following it through the outskirts of town onto the eastward highway. When they were beyond the city limits she said, “I hope you don’t mind being kidnaped.”

“Have you ever visited the city jail?” Shayne countered.

“No.”

“If you had, you’d know that being kidnaped is a pleasure.”

“Jimmy and Seth discussed you thoroughly after you left tonight,” she confided. “They seemed to think you were quite notorious in your profession.”

“I’ve got a good publicity man.”

They had left the village far behind. The highway was dark and deserted, winding through a wooded valley, the headlights glowing upon a stream on one side and a mountain slope on the other. Elsa drove purposefully, sitting erect and watching the road carefully. Presently she slowed and turned off onto a dirt road leading down a gentle incline to a flat wooded grove in a bend of the river. She parked between two overspreading trees on the bank of the stream, cut off the motor and headlights and leaned forward with both hands clasped on the steering wheel.

Shayne meditatively puffed on his cigarette and listened to the sound of the river and the chirping crickets and wondered how Lucy was getting along with her two Kentucky cavaliers.

“Did you see George in jail?” Elsa asked suddenly.

“Didn’t you guess that was why I got myself locked up?”

“Yes. I guessed that.”

“I talked to him,” Shayne said quietly.

“How is he?”

Shayne thought he detected eagerness or anxiety in her tone. He turned quickly to look at her. She was leaning farther forward, her chin on her hands, her eyes staring straight ahead. He said, “Seems well enough. Quite cheerful, in fact. He’s not worrying about the murder charge. I got the impression he has a couple of aces up his sleeve.”

“Does he know… about the men he was trusting to give him an alibi?” Anxiety was definitely in her voice now.

“I told him that angle was shot. It didn’t seem to perturb him very much. He’s…” Shayne paused, groping for the right words to describe George Brand’s attitude. “… very sure of himself. Not vain, but with the certitude of a man who knows exactly the odds against him and how to beat them.”

She said, “I know,” in a stifled voice. She raised her head suddenly and beat one doubled fist against the steering wheel. “I’m frightened, Mr. Shayne. I don’t know what to do. I had to talk to someone. From the things Jimmy and Seth said about you I gathered…” She hesitated, turning toward him.

“What,” asked Shayne, “did you gather?”

“That you’re tough and hardboiled, but basically honest. Seth and Mr. Persona had an argument about it after you left. Seth doesn’t trust you.”

“Doesn’t trust me to give my all for AMOK,” he amplified.

“Yes. He insists it would be safer to get you out of town.”

“Do the police take orders from Seth Gerald?”

“Why I… not exactly orders, but…”

“I understand,” Shayne interrupted grimly. “I noticed the way they scratched the charge against me on your say-so. Did Gerald make a phone call after I left?”

“I don’t… know,” she faltered. “I went to my room while he and Mr. Persona were still arguing.”

“Why are you frightened?” Shayne demanded.

“Because… it’s all so… terrible. This hatred… and burning… and killing. I want to do what’s right. You must believe me. I do. But I don’t know what to do or who to tell.”

“That’s why you kidnaped me and brought me here,” he reminded her.

“I can’t tell you… if Mr. Persona is right about you.”

“You mean if I’m the sort of guy to sell out for his five grand. I’m not.”

“I want to believe you,” she declared. “Things are all mixed up. I’ve been an awful damned fool, Mr. Shayne.”

“In what way?”

“You can’t imagine the… the mess I’m in. If I say a word, Jimmy threatens to come right out and accuse me of having taken George Brand as my lover. And that would make things look worse for him, don’t you see? Jimmy says it would provide the one thing they need to convict George… a motive.”

“Was he your lover?” Shayne demanded harshly.

“No. There was nothing… really. Just that I was bored with Charles. He was always too busy to take me out, and he didn’t think it was right for us to go dancing while the men were on strike and hungry, and he disapproved of my drinking, too.” Her voice trailed off listlessly.

“And you enjoyed playing with fire,” Shayne said brutally.

Elsa Roche shivered. “I… what do you mean?”

“The world is full of women like you. Too rich and too bored and too dumb. You were attracted to George Brand just as a debutante might be attracted to her chauffeur.”

“No!” she cried. “That’s not true. You’ve no right to talk to me like that.” She turned the ignition key and pressed the button to start the motor.

Shayne said, “Hold it,” and took the key from the ignition. “How far did this affair with Brand go? How many people knew about it?” Shayne demanded.

“It’s none of your business,” she snapped. “Give me that key.”

“Okay,” said Shayne lazily. “It’s your funeral… and Brand’s.” He replaced the key in the ignition.

Elsa laid her face on her hands that were clasped together on the wheel. Her body slumped wearily. “Nobody actually knows… about George and me… except Jimmy. But I think Seth has suspected… for some time.”

Shayne groaned and said, “You’d better give it to me straight if I’m going to help any. Your nasty-natured little brother-in-law is perfectly correct in saying it would practically tie a knot around Brand’s neck if it’s proven that you and he were playing around together.”

“We weren’t… not that way. I’ve been with him exactly twice,” she went on with forced calm. “Both times I slipped away from a country club dance… where I’d gone with other people… and met him out beyond the parking lot and we drove to a roadside place and had a few drinks. And that’s absolutely all.”

“It’s enough,” Shayne muttered, “if anyone saw you.”

“But I’m sure no one recognized us.”

“Don’t worry. If this comes out you’ll find a dozen people who saw you together. Did your husband suspect?”

“No. Charles was a lamb. He wanted me to go out and have a good time.”

“But not clandestinely… with the man who was leading a strike against him.”

“No,” she admitted in a small voice. “I guess not. But I think Charles really liked George. I’m sure he admired him. He had agreed to his terms on ending the strike.”

“Are you positive?”

“Of course I’m positive. Charles showed me a copy of the agreement he’d signed… postdated on the day he was thirty and took control of the mines.”

“How many other people knew about that agreement?”

“No one. I’m sure Charles told no one. He made me swear I wouldn’t tell.”

“I suppose you realize how important this is as evidence in Brand’s favor. If it could be proved, it would absolutely kill the murder charge against him.”

“That’s what I thought. Except… Jimmy and Seth both said no one would ever believe me if I came out now and told it in George’s defense. On account of the way a lawyer would twist the other things around… to make it appear I was in love with him and just making it up about the agreement to save him.”

Shayne nodded thoughtfully. “We’d have to produce the agreement signed by your husband. Where is it?”

“That’s the trouble,” Elsa faltered. “Jimmy and Seth went through all his papers at home. They didn’t find it. I only saw the one copy… a few days ago. I think,” she went on faintly, “he was honestly afraid to let any of the others know about it before his birthday when he would be legally in control. You know. Because he was afraid they might…”

“Murder him before his birthday to prevent him from settling the strike?” Shayne supplied harshly when she hesitated.

“Yes. That’s it exactly.” She was sitting erect, and she turned her body to face him squarely, and continued earnestly, “You don’t know how fanatical they are, Mr. Shayne. You can’t imagine how they hate unions. They’ll spend hundreds of thousands to prevent the workers from getting a few thousands additional in their pay envelopes. I don’t understand it. I just can’t.”

Shayne was thoughtfully silent for a moment. It was too dark to see her expression, but she sounded sincere. He was puzzled, and tried to figure whether the drunken, hard-boiled woman he had met at the Roche house was the real Elsa Roche, or the woman who now sat beside him pleading for the miners. He frowned into the darkness and said:

“It isn’t the first few thousands. It’s the opening wedge they’re afraid of. Once the workers get power, they demand more and more of the profits.”

“But Charles insisted they deserve it. He planned all sorts of changes when he got control.”

“Your late husband evidently wasn’t cut out for the role of an economic royalist,” he told her grimly. “Let’s go back to last night.”

“One thing I don’t understand, Mr. Shayne… is why George was out playing poker instead of at home to meet Charles. Charles said they had an appointment to discuss the agreement, and it certainly was terribly important to George. It meant the end of the strike to him. Everything he had been righting for.”

“Perhaps there was a mix-up about the time?” he suggested.

“I don’t think so. Charles seemed very sure they were to meet at George’s house last night.”

Shayne shook his red head angrily, then tried to get things straightened out in his mind by speaking his thoughts aloud. “Your husband discreetly parked his car up at the corner and walked down Magnolia Avenue to Brand’s house. Finding it dark and unoccupied… if Brand is telling the truth… Charles must have been surprised. What would he have done then?”

“I don’t… know.”

“Suppose the house across the street had been lighted at that hour. Ann Cornell was up when Seth Gerald got there, and a little after five when Brand drove up. Mightn’t your husband have gone across to inquire whether she knew anything about Brand’s whereabouts?”

“He might.” Elsa Roche drew in a quick, audible breath, as though this train of thought was frightening to her.

“We might suppose that Mrs. Cornell was entertaining a friend,” Shayne went on slowly. “Someone who might stay in the background, unnoticed by Mr. Roche, when he asked about Brand. Would your husband have hinted to her the importance of his reason for wanting to find Brand?”

“You mean… tell her about the strike agreement? I’m sure he wouldn’t. He didn’t want anyone to know beforehand.”

“But he might have explained the queer hour of his visit by saying it was very important that he see Brand. To any one on the inside listening, it might sound very much as though he was negotiating with the strikers.”

“What are you getting at?” She caught his arm fiercely.

“Some one killed your husband,” he told her calmly. “After he left Brand’s house… or Mrs. Cornell’s… and was walking back to his parked car. Someone who had a reason to. Someone who wasn’t interested in the contents of his wallet.”

“With George’s gun?” she faltered. “They say it was found right there.”

“With Brand’s gun,” Shayne agreed. “His gun lying beside the body is one of the best arguments we have for Brand’s innocence. Certainly he wouldn’t have left it there… unless it was carefully premeditated and Brand realized that a smart lawyer would use it as proof of his innocence if it were found there.”

There was a short silence between them. The rush of the river and the crickets’ songs came faintly through the mist in the valley. Elsa’s hand was still gripping Shayne’s arm tightly. She asked, almost in a whisper, “Who do you think did it?”

He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Someone who wanted the strike broken. Who knew that the one sure way of breaking it was to have Charles murdered and have Brand charged with the crime?”

Her hand fell away from his arm. “Mr. Persona wouldn’t have stopped at murder to break the strike. He hasn’t stopped at murder in trying to break it. Three miners have been killed in the past few weeks.”

“On Persona’s orders?”

“It was all made to look perfectly legal,” she said listlessly. “The law doesn’t call it murder if an officer shoots a man who’s resisting arrest.”

“I wondered who pays the salaries of all these special deputies,” Shayne muttered. “It seems a big outlay for one mine owner.” He paused a moment, then went on, “Another thing that troubles me is this: If Gerald controls the local police department, and AMOK hires the deputies… why wouldn’t it have been much simpler to have put George Brand out of the way long ago, just as they did the three miners. Wouldn’t the strike have fallen to pieces without strong leadership?”

“I don’t know,” she confessed. “It isn’t until lately that I began thinking about such things.”

“Let’s get back to the facts and see where we stand,” he said briskly. “When did you first tell Jimmy Roche and Seth Gerald about the signed agreement?”

“This afternoon. At first I thought I wouldn’t say anything. I thought it would turn up. Then I began brooding. Please try to understand. I’m not in love with George. I’m not really in sympathy with the miners, I’m afraid. I don’t understand anything about the mining business. But I’ve been thinking about Charles all day. He would feel terrible if he knew that his death had been the means of sending the miners back to work at the same old starvation wages. And I do admire George. He was strong and fearless. He believed in what he was doing. It seems terrible that he should pay for a thing I know he didn’t do.”

“You’re basing your belief entirely on the fact that you know Charles had agreed to settle the strike, and that therefore Brand is the one man in Centerville who had every reason to want him to stay alive until his thirtieth birthday at least?” Shayne asked gently.

“Isn’t that reason enough?”

“It is,” Shayne said slowly, “unless Brand happens to actually be in love with you… and has reason to think you feel the same about him.”

“He isn’t.” Her voice sounded smothered. “He knew I was just… bored with life. Besides, he isn’t the sort to… to…”

“To murder a woman’s husband,” said Shayne flatly, “so she would be free to come to him. Perhaps not. But sex does do the damndest things to certain types of people. It makes them forget morals and obligations and loyalty and they don’t give a damn about broken lives.”

“You’ll just have to believe me,” she broke in. “It wasn’t that way. I was a fool to ever speak to him, but I thought it was perfectly harmless.”

“Let’s go back to this afternoon again,” said Shayne patiently. “You told Gerald and Jimmy about the agreement, pointing out that Brand must be innocent. What then?”

Her hands were gripping the wheel again. “I’d been drinking a good deal,” she admitted, “and I guess they thought I was pretty drunk. First, they tried to make me admit I was mistaken. They said no one would believe me if I did tell about it, and that’s when Jimmy threatened to tell about the times I went out with George. They both said no one would believe me after that was made public, and I… decided maybe they were right.”

“And promised to keep your mouth shut?”

“What else could I do?” she exclaimed wildly. “You’re a stranger here. You don’t know how things are in Centerville. Whom could I go to? Chief Elwood?” She laughed derisively. “Or the district attorney? They’d go straight to Seth or Persona and say, ‘Please, what do you want me to do?’ Then you came, and I thought I could at least tell you so you’d know that George isn’t guilty, and maybe you’d look harder for evidence to free him.”

Shayne thought for a time before saying, “There’s one thing in your story that doesn’t add up. If your husband told you he had everything arranged with Brand… even to the extent of showing you this signed agreement, then why in the name of God were you so worried about that meeting last night? Why did you beg him not to go? Why the premonition of disaster? A premonition that kept you awake all night and drove you to telephone Seth Gerald and ask him to go and see if your husband was all right?”

Her body was shaking and she cried out hysterically, “But I didn’t! That reporter just put words in my mouth to make a good story. I wasn’t worried one bit about Charles meeting George.”

“Why did you telephone Gerald?”

“I didn’t! I’m trying to tell you. I went straight to bed after Charles left and went to sleep.”

11

MICHAEL SHAYNE was silent for two full minutes digesting this startling bit of information. “I noticed that discrepancy in the newspaper story this morning,” he said finally, “but I thought it was bad reporting. Or, that you were so upset over the news of your husband’s death that you forgot to mention the phone call and Gerald’s visit.”

“I didn’t know. I hadn’t decided then what I was going to say. You see, I didn’t promise Seth. I was all mixed up at first. All I could think of was that Charles was dead and Seth was… somehow… responsible.”

“You haven’t told this to anyone else?” Shayne asked harshly.

“No. I read Seth’s statement in the paper before I’d decided what I was going to do. Then it seemed too late. Would anyone believe me? Like my story about the strike agreement… it sounds like something I might make up to help George, and if talk got around about me going out with him, don’t you see how it would look?”

“What did happen last night?”

“I went to sleep, as I said. The doorbell wakened me about four-thirty, I guess. I didn’t look at the time. I’d been sound asleep and it startled me. First, I thought Charles must have forgotten his key, and I put on a robe to let him in. But it was Seth. He looked worried and talked fast, and said I had to do something for him and it was terribly important. He said if anyone asked me, I was to say that I’d got worried about Charles meeting Brand and called him at four o’clock. Just as he told the reporters. I asked him what had happened and whether he knew where Charles was, but he insisted that Charles was all right and for me to go back to bed and not worry, but not to forget that I had phoned him.

“He tried to make me promise, but I wouldn’t. I was sleepy and I hardly understood what he was talking about. All I could think was that Seth had got mixed up with some married woman or something and wanted me to make up a story to help him out. Then he went away, and I went back to bed, but I couldn’t sleep after that. I did begin to worry about Charles. Not because he’d gone to see George, but an accident… or something like that. Then when I got the telephone message… I couldn’t think straight. I knew it must have something to do with Seth coming and wanting me to say I’d phoned him, but I didn’t know what. When the reporter came, I just didn’t say anything one way or the other. I’ve been so damned worried and frightened.”

She began sobbing jerkily, staring straight ahead at the mist shrouding the windshield. “I don’t know what to think. There wasn’t anyone I could talk to. My thoughts ran around and around like rats in a trap. I started drinking early this afternoon, but whiskey didn’t help any.”

Shayne put his arm around her shaking shoulders. “That’s all over now,” he soothed her. “You’ve been in a hell of a spot and you’ve done about the best you could. No real damage has been done by your keeping still. From what I’ve seen in Centerville, you wouldn’t have helped George Brand any by speaking up earlier.”

She relaxed against his arm, choking back her sobs. “Do you think Seth… don’t you see what it means? He must have known something was wrong when he came and woke me up that way. He must have known something had happened to Charles and was fixing up a story.”

“Could be,” he agreed. “It could be that he had a premonition that something was wrong when he reached Brand’s house and found it empty… if that’s what he did find.” He paused a moment, then went on reflectively, “He must be telling the truth about that. He went across the street to ask Mrs. Cornell if she’d seen Brand or Roche, then drove up to the intersection and found your husband’s empty car parked there. Is this the car, by the way?”

“Yes. I have a roadster, but it’s in the garage for repairs.”

“Finding Charles’ car there at that hour of the morning,” Shayne went on slowly, “must have been something of a shock to him. Enough, perhaps, to make him realize he might need an explanation for his presence there at that time. We’ve got to remember that he had already announced himself to Mrs. Cornell, so we can’t be sure Gerald knew that something had happened to Charles when he came to your house and woke you up. We can assume he had reason to suspect something was in the wind.”

Elsa Roche had stopped sobbing, and now her breathing was deep and exhaled with long sighs. She said, “I’m sure of it. He acted so worried. I was too sleepy to pay much attention then, but thinking back, I never saw Seth so excited and upset.”

“The question is, how did he come to go to Brand’s house at that time? His asking you to cover up for him proves that he can’t afford to have the real truth known.”

“I thought of that, too,” she murmured. “He says he was awakened by an anonymous telephone call, and that’s one of the reasons why he was worried when he found Charles’ car there. Whoever called him, he says, hinted that Charles and George had had a fight, but he didn’t want to worry me about that, not knowing which one was hurt, or if it was even true. And he realized that his story of an anonymous call would sound weak and suspicious if he couldn’t prove who had called him. That’s why he wanted me to lie about it.”

“It all adds up neatly,” Shayne conceded. “Let’s face it. The anonymous caller could have been the murderer who took that method of getting Gerald on the spot to throw suspicion on him. And Seth Gerald was smart enough to circumvent the plan by using you as a valid excuse for having gone there.”

Elsa Roche’s body stiffened. She raised her head from his arm and said fiercely, “You’re thinking it was George, aren’t you?”

Shayne sighed and let his arm drop to his side. “I’m not thinking very clearly right now. He would fit the bill if he had shot your husband. Getting Gerald involved in the crime would be his best bet.”

“That’s exactly what Seth and Jimmy say. In fact, Seth swears that if I don’t back up his story he’ll come right out and say he recognized George’s voice over the telephone.”

“I’ve been wondering,” said Shayne quietly, “why he didn’t think of that at once. It was the obvious thing.”

“It was because he knew it couldn’t have been George,” she said angrily, “and that he’d be proved a liar for saying so by the men who were playing poker with him. But now that all three of them have gone back on their alibis he could say it was George’s voice and no one could prove differently.”

“And use that point about Brand’s alibi to his own advantage,” Shayne filled in for her. “It would be psychologically correct for him to maintain that he didn’t recognize Brand’s voice at first because the three witnesses proved it couldn’t have been Brand. But now that they’ve repudiated their story, he is sure that’s who it was.”

Elsa Roche slumped again, as though exhausted. She took a pack of cigarettes from her purse, put one between her lips, and Shayne struck a match for her.

He asked, “Does anyone know you came to the jail to see me?”

“No. I pretended to go to bed and they all left before I began telephoning around trying to find you.”

“They will know about it,” Shayne warned her grimly, “if they don’t already.”

“But they couldn’t,” she said weakly.

Shayne cogitated for a moment, then said, “Gerald and Jimmy will know why you wanted to see me… that you’ve spilled all this to me. There’s no use our trying to deny it. We’ll have to play it this way,” he went on briskly. “I’ll take you home and go straight to Gerald to discuss what you’ve told me… as a loyal stooge for AMOK. I’ll tell him I’ve advised you to keep your mouth shut for the present, which I do, and that I’ve gotten your confidence by pretending I believe in Brand’s innocence and promising to help clear him… which I hope I have.”

She laid her hand on his and said quietly, “I have to believe in you. There’s no one else. If I can’t trust you, I’m sunk.”

“You’re not sunk,” he assured her. “But I want you to understand why it’s imperative that I seem to play ball with Gerald and AMOK. Without their backing I wouldn’t last another hour in this town, and you know it.”

“I know.” She shuddered, then cried out violently, “It’s all so horribly wrong. There’s no decency or honesty here. No one dares to speak up. The people here are either crushed into hopeless apathy or have grown smug and acceptive. I don’t know which is worse. I do know I can’t stand much more of Centerville.”

She started the motor, turned on the headlights and backed the car around to drive up the dirt road onto the highway. Shayne sank back and stretched his legs out, lit a cigarette and mulled over the things she had told him while she drove swiftly toward town.

Neither of them spoke for several minutes. Then she asked suddenly and breathlessly, “There’s something I forgot… When Charles wrote you that letter a few days ago, did he mention me?”

“Your husband’s letter is one of the things I have resolved to keep strictly to myself until this affair is ended.”

“But… I have a right to know. It makes so much difference. Don’t you see… Charles may have learned that I had been with George a couple of times… and it might have something to do with… his death.”

Shayne said, “I’m sorry, but I learned long ago that the only way to keep a secret is to keep it.”

“Why is this secret so important?”

“It may be damned important to your husband’s murderer. Don’t you see the spot it puts him in? He doesn’t know how much I know… whether he was named in the letter or not.”

“But… why does that apply to me,” she argued angrily. “What difference could it make if you told me?”

Shayne sighed deeply. “You’ve told me a story tonight, Mrs. Roche. Certain things disagree with the testimony of other people. All of it may be the truth, or part may be the truth, or it may not be the truth at all. I’d be a sorry investigator if I accepted the unsupported word of any person even remotely connected with murder.”

“That means you suspect me, doesn’t it,” she retorted.

“It means that I believe nothing that isn’t corroborated,” he corrected her patiently. “There wouldn’t be the least difficulty making out a circumstantial case against you, as far as that goes. Look at it impersonally. You admit having been out with George Brand on at least two occasions. Suppose your husband learned of this, objected violently, and started out to confront Brand and have a showdown. Plenty of murders have been committed for less reason.”

“But I told you all about George and me. I’ve told you why Charles went to see him.”

“That’s the trouble, Mrs. Roche. I have only your word for any of these things you’ve told me. Suppose Seth Gerald denies everything you’ve said. Which one of you shall I believe?”

“You can tell me this: Did any of those anonymous letters mention George Brand and me?” She was pleading with him now.

“What anonymous letters?” Shayne asked blandly.

“The ones he refused to show me. You practically said he sent those to you.”

“Did I?”

“Didn’t he?”

“I’m sorry,” he said again. “That communication from your husband is my one ace-in-the-hole, and I’m not ready to show it yet. If you really want your husband’s murderer to pay for his crime you’ll have to let me play it my own way.”

She said, “Very well,” in a tone of weary resignation.

An automobile was approaching swiftly from Centerville, its headlights augmented by a powerful searchlight mounted above the windshield. It turned constantly to sweep each side of the highway. Its beams caught the Roche Buick at a distance of some five hundred yards.

“That light! It’s blinding me,” Elsa said.

“Stop the car,” Shayne ordered.

She put on the brakes just as the other car slowed to a stop beside them. Shayne said swiftly, “Don’t say a word except to follow my lead. No matter who it is or what they want.”

They sat quietly while a rear door of the other car slammed shut after a man had gotten out. He approached the left-hand side of the Buick and looked in at Elsa, past her to Shayne. He turned his head and called, “Yep. This is them, Chief.”

Another man got out and the other moved aside. Chief Henry Elwood said, “Evenin’, Mrs. Roche. Sort of late for a widow lady to be out with a stranger, isn’t it?”

“I’m an old friend of her husband’s,” Shayne told him quietly. “Mr. Persona will vouch for me.”

“You better come along with us,” the chief told him. “And you better drive on home, Mrs. Roche, ’less you take it in your head to pull some of the other prisoners out of my jail. I’ll send a man with you to see you find your way home all right.”

Shayne said, “Chief Elwood is right, Elsa. Try to get some sleep and I’ll call you in the morning.” He got out and went around the front of the Buick to the tonneau of the other car. There were two men in the front seat. The rear seat was empty. He got in and the chief followed him inside and slammed the door shut. The car started ahead slowly, continuing away from the village while Mrs. Roche drove on toward Centerville.

Shayne settled back in the darkness and lit a cigarette. The chief smashed the lighted cylinder against his face with a heavy, back-handed blow and said placidly, “You’re going to need your mouth for talkin’, Shamus.”

12

MICHAEL SHAYNE drew in his breath, gritted his teeth, and counted slowly up to twenty-five. Then he said, “I’ve been smoking too much lately, anyhow.”

“I’ve heard,” said the chief, “that you’re a smart cookie. We’ll get along all right if you remember this is my town.”

The blow had reopened the cut on his lip. He got out a handkerchief and dabbed the blood away gently. “Mr. Persona gave me the idea the town belonged to AMOK.”

“Persona,” grunted the chief, “can hire all the special deputies he wants, but I still run Centerville.”

“And Seth Gerald runs you?” Shayne said bitterly.

Shayne felt this blow coming. He turned his face away and Elwood’s heavy palm struck the side of his head. “Keep driving straight ahead,” he rumbled to the driver. “Not too fast. We’ve got lots of time and aren’t going nowhere.”

A bell was ringing dully in Shayne’s left ear. He kept his face averted, looking out the window at the thin mist.

“When did you and Mrs. Roche fix that stunt up?” Elwood demanded.

“What stunt?”

“Getting yourself locked up in my jail long enough to talk to her boy friend.”

The man sitting beside the driver turned half-way around and Shayne could see his profile clearly. It was the larger of the two officers who had arrested him in front of the Eustis Restaurant. Shayne said, “Nobody has to work hard at getting himself locked up in the Centerville jail. I was having a few drinks… tending to my own business…”

“Putting it on that you were drunk as a hooty-owl,” the chief agreed placidly. “Abrams and Gar were dumb enough to pull you in the way you wanted. What’d you get from Brand?”

“Your cops are dumb, all right,” Shayne agreed. “If I were running this town I’d fire a bunch of them and…”

“What you wanta take his lip for, Chief?” the man in the front seat interrupted. “Le’s stop right here an’ I’ll work ’im over good.”

“Shut up, Gar. You caused enough trouble throwin’ him in the can with Brand. I’d like to hear just how a smart Shamus from Miami would run Centerville.”

“I’d fire most of my force and hire somebody to do my thinking for me,” Shayne snarled. “You’re sitting on top of a bomb and the fuse is getting short.”

“It’s been short a good long time,” said Chief Elwood. “What kind of a story did Brand give you?”

“He wouldn’t talk to me,” Shayne grated. “He’d got word I’m working for AMOK and I had all my trouble for nothing.”

“I might believe that… except for the way Mrs. Roche got you loose and brought you out in the country for a talk. That figures like a put-up job.”

“We’re old friends,” Shayne told him wearily.

“She didn’t act like it when you first busted in at Roche’s house this evenin’.”

“You weren’t there.”

“I got ways of knowin’ what goes on in my town. What’d you get out of Ann Cornell?”

“Several drinks of corn.”

Chief Elwood chuckled. “She sets out a tasty drink.”

“Look, let’s try to understand each other,” said Shayne angrily. “We’re both on the same side of the fence. If you’ve talked to Gerald you know I’ve been retained by AMOK to hang Roche’s murder on George Brand. The way I see it, you can use some cooperation.”

“If you’re on our side, why’d you pull that stunt to get in and talk to Brand unbeknownst to any of us?”

“I figured it was my one chance to get to him before it became generally known that I’d hooked up with Persona,” Shayne explained. “Even then it was too late. God knows how many pipelines he’s got out of that jail, but…”

“That’s one of the reasons I don’t believe you,” Elwood interrupted. “You didn’t make your deal with Persona till late this evenin’. You’re the first guy from outside to see him since then, so I know you’re lyin’ when you say he already knew.”

“Then you’d better check your own goddamned cops,” Shayne growled. “Somebody passed him the news fast. Hell, in a set-up like you’ve got here in Centerville, who do you think you can trust? A dumb ape like Gar up there?” He laughed sardonically. “Bribery and corruption have been bywords in Centerville for years. Do you think for one moment your force can be trusted? Any fool ought to know that a crook who’ll take money in his left hand will take it in his right hand, too.”

“Sounds like you know a lot about it,” grunted Elwood.

“I’ve been around other towns run along the same general lines. That’s why I tried to get to Brand secretly without even letting any of your cops know why I wanted to see him. I thought he might do some talking if he thought I was on his side.”

“But he already knew you wasn’t, huh?” Elwood sounded half-convinced.

“He already knew about my meeting with Persona,” Shayne lied. “If I were chief of police, I’d be studying who knew about it and had a chance to pass it on to him inside the jail.”

“Gantry!” Elwood exploded. “He was in my office while Seth was there. And he was up and down the jail half a dozen times.”

“I never did trust that damn Gantry,” Gar observed sourly from the front seat. “Too damn slick and smooth-talkin’.”

“He turned me out in a hurry when Mrs. Roche asked him to,” Shayne tossed in carelessly, recalling the desk sergeant’s apparent pleasure as he dragged the beaten and bleeding Dave Burroughs through the station.

“I’ll take care of Gantry. Now if you’re on the up and up, you’ll tell us what Mrs. Roche had to say.”

This was the payoff, Shayne decided. Gerald must have realized Elsa Roche was in a mood to spill everything to an outsider. But, how much of the truth had Gerald told Elwood? It didn’t really matter, actually. If Elwood didn’t already know, he would go straight to Gerald with the story Shayne told him, and the final effect would be to put Shayne in solid with both of them.

He said, “She told me plenty, Chief. Some of it would be better for you to hear all by yourself.”

“You can talk in front of Gar and Andrews,” Elwood told him. “They know enough to keep their mouths shut.”

“You may be willing to take a chance on them, but I’m not. I haven’t seen a cop in town I’d trust not to sell his own mother out for two-bits.”

“By God, Chief, that’s an insult,” Gar said thickly.

“Shut up,” Elwood snapped. “I dunno but what he’s got somethin’.” He hesitated a moment, then said, “Turn around and go back to town, Andrews.”

The driver slowed, made a U-turn and stepped hard on the accelerator. Shayne got out a cigarette and struck a match. “Maybe I’ll have time to smoke this before you’re ready to hear what Mrs. Roche told me,” he said.

“By God, I like you, Shayne. Yes sir, you and me could get along together. No hard feelings?”

Shayne put the cigarette between his swollen lips, carefully avoiding the cut. “I don’t blame you for going off half-cocked once… just so you don’t make the same mistake twice.” He spoke lightly, but there was an underlying hardness in his voice which the chief heard and recognized.

He reacted to it by saying frankly, “You and me’ll get along just s’long as you play straight with me… and remember this is my town. Anybody gets out of line in Centerville don’t last long.”

“I’ve been hearing that ever since I landed here,” Shayne told him. “And that made me wonder why George Brand lasted as long as he did. Some people take that as proof you’re losing your grip.”

Elwood didn’t rise to take the bait. He said, “I got my ways of handlin’ things. Don’t pay too much attention to what folks say.”

“Your biggest danger,” Shayne said in a tone loud enough to make certain the men in the front seat overheard, “is that you have to depend on a bunch of dumb clucks to do your work for you. Like that pair you sent after me at Ann Cornell’s tonight.”

“It’s the truth. I could tell you… eh? what’s that last you said?”

Shayne chuckled. “Those two dim-wits that tried to pull the same stunt on me that they pulled on Joe Margule on the highway this afternoon. Don’t your boys know any other way of rubbing a man out?”

“My boys had nothing to do with Margule. That was out of the city limits.”

“And I suppose it wasn’t a couple of your men that laid for me at the Cornell house and tried the same stuff?” Shayne jeered.

“It sure wasn’t. I didn’t know you’d been there till Seth dropped in my office and told me.”

“Then,” said Shayne, “Centerville is being moved in on and you’d better get wise to it. Maybe Persona figures the town could do with another chief of police,” he added carelessly.

“Those deputies of his have got strict orders not to pull anything inside the city limits.”

“Are they Persona’s deputies?”

“Sworn in by the sheriff,” Elwood said indifferently. “I guess it’s no secret that AMOK pays their wages.”

“Who ordered them to stay outside the city limits?”

“Me, by God. Who else do you think gives orders here?”

“That,” said Shayne, “is something you might start worrying about.” He leaned back comfortably to give the chief time to figure things out for himself. He still didn’t understand the seeming rift between Seth Gerald and the head of AMOK, but if he could do anything to widen it he wasn’t going to neglect the opportunity. It was evident that Chief Henry Elwood was a self-centered dictator, childishly envious of his position of power in the community and ready to challenge anyone who questioned it. Right now, Shayne was satisfied with the progress he had made and was content to sit back and watch things develop.

They were at the outskirts of the village before Elwood said, “Drop us by my place,” to the driver, “and take Gar on down to the station to relieve Gantry on the desk. Bring Gantry to my place, and if he knows what I want when he gets there, I’ll know who else has been talkin’ out of turn.”

“Jeez, Chief, you know I don’t never say nothin’.” The driver spoke for the first time since Shayne had gotten in the car. His voice sounded frightened or angry, or both.

“Right now I’m not so sure of anything,” Elwood told him. “Been a lot of things goin’ on lately I’ve overlooked. But I’m crackin’ down from now on.”

Neither of the men replied. The car turned to the left on a side street three blocks east of the business section and stopped in front of a rambling old two-story house surrounded by huge oaks.

“This is it,” Elwood grunted, and pulled his bulk up from the seat. Shayne opened the door on his side and got out. The chief led the way up the walk, and the car drove away.

He unlocked the door and ushered Shayne into a lighted hallway and on down to a door opening into a large study on the left. He pulled the cord of a floor lamp, gestured to a comfortable chair and asked amiably, “Bourbon or corn?”

Shayne said regretfully, “You’ll hate me for this, but I’m going to say Bourbon.”

“I don’t go for this home-grown corn so much m’self,” the chief admitted. He rummaged in the pigeonholes of a rolltop desk and pulled out a bottle of Old Dad’s Finest. From a drawer he took two stained and dusty water glasses, blew some of the dust off, and poured liquor into them, set the bottle on the floor between them and settled his heavy body in a chair near Shayne’s.

“Now then. What was it you thought I’d better hear in private?”

Shayne took a sip of whiskey and found it surprisingly good. Some of it got in his cracked lip and burned like fire. “I’ve got five thousand bucks riding on George Brand’s conviction,” he told the chief candidly. “I don’t like anything that looks like it might get in the way of my collecting.”

Chief Henry Elwood understood that sort of talk. He nodded vigorously, his fat jowls waggling.

“It’s too bad one of your men got to Brand first and warned him I’d sold out to AMOK. If I could have got some of the truth out of him we’d know better where we stand.”

“That Gantry. That’s who it was.” His tone was placid, his lips scarcely moving, and the fleshy mound on his chin wiggling. “He’ll never sell me out again.” His protuberant eyes stared past Shayne.

“That’s why I didn’t want to talk in front of the other men. This stuff Mrs. Roche gave me is dynamite.”

“Let’s have it.” His fat, lashless lids rolled half-way down.

“First, she’s prepared to swear that her husband reached an agreement with Brand to settle the strike. To take effect on his thirtieth birthday when he was to take over control from Gerald.”

“I don’t believe it,” the chief rumbled. “Why’d Brand kill him, then?”

“She doesn’t think he did.”

Elwood took a drink from his water glass and snorted, “Everybody knows she’s been layin’ up with that Commie son-of-a-bitch.”

“Except her husband?” Shayne suggested.

“Exceptin’ him, I reckon.”

“I’m telling you what she told me tonight,” Shayne reminded him. “It’s up to us to decide what to believe, and what to do.”

Through an open window they heard a car coming. It slid to a stop in front of the house. Elwood got up and said, “That’ll be Andrews with Gantry. This’ll just take a minute.” He went to the desk, pushed some papers aside, and picked up a .38 revolver with a silencer on the muzzle. Holding the gun flat against his thigh he went out into the hall. Shayne heard him open the front door. A voice that he recognized as the desk sergeant’s spoke from the porch. “You wanted to see me, Chief?”

Elwood didn’t reply. Instead, there was a soft, plopping noise from outside the door. Shayne recognized the sound and half rose from his chair. He held himself grimly in check, his features hard and masklike, and strained to hear the low murmur of voices in the darkness outside.

The front door slammed shut and Shayne settled back in his chair as the chief reentered the room. A faint odor of burned powder came from the silenced revolver which he carelessly laid on his desk.

There was nothing in his manner to indicate that he had just killed a man. He said, “Pour yourself another drink and we’ll finish up our little talk.”

13

SHAYNE poured himself another drink, squinted at the liquor and said, “Suppose you’re mistaken about it being Gantry who tipped Brand off?”

“He’s had that comin’ for a long time. You were tellin’ me about Mrs. Roche.” Elwood picked up his glass and sat down again.

“She admits having been out drinking with George Brand a couple of times, but swears it never went beyond that.”

“Didn’t expect her to admit the truth, did you?”

“What is the truth?”

“How do I know? Maybe she kept her drawers on… maybe she didn’t.” He chuckled obscenely, exercising his jowls, and added, “I’d guess she didn’t.”

“What,” asked Shayne, “has Gerald told you about last night?”

“Didn’t you read the Gazette?”

“Privately, I mean.”

“Just what’s in the paper.”

“What about Mrs. Cornell?”

The chief scowled. “Nobody gets much out of Ann.”

“Was she in love with Brand?”

“Ann ain’t in love with anybody or anything, ’cept maybe a dollar and a jug o’corn.”

“They lived right across from each other.”

“You mean was Ann sleepin’ with ’im? I wouldn’t doubt it. Not if he wanted to spend some money that way.”

“What about Angus?”

“I never could figure where Angus fits. I’ve told Ann time and again… you mean was he one of her men, too?” Chief Elwood looked incredulous. “That little dope? Not a chance. Ann likes her men big an’ tough an’ with money in their jeans.”

“She gave me that impression, too. That’s why I wondered about Angus living there with her.”

“I’ll tell you the way I figure. She kicks him around an’ gets a kick out of it. ’Cause he wears pants, maybe. I’ve seen her keep his dope away from ’im till he was jerkin’ and twitchin’ an’ frothin’ at the mouth. And her sittin’ there laughin’ and badgerin’ him. She don’t go much for any man, see? Figures she’s got a raw deal from ’em all along the line, so she takes it out on a little bastard that’s afraid to talk back.”

Shayne nodded thoughtfully. “A psychologist would probably call it a compensation complex. What I really meant about Angus was, did you get anything about the murder out of him?”

“Naw,” said the chief disgustedly. “Ann and him both claims he slept straight through everything.”

“I’m wondering if he did.”

“You got some reason for thinking different?”

“Somebody,” said Shayne, “telephoned Gerald last night to tell him Roche and Brand were meeting at Brand’s house.”

“Sure. Mrs. Roche phoned him. She got worried about Charles and couldn’t go to sleep…”

“She claims she wasn’t worried at all,” Shayne broke in, “because she knew they had already reached an agreement.”

“Then why’d she phone Seth at four o’clock?” he asked obtusely.

“She didn’t, according to her story. First thing she knew about anything was when Gerald came to the house and woke her up and asked her to say she’d phoned him if the question came up.”

“The hell you say. Why didn’t she tell me that?”

“I don’t say it,” Shayne reminded him patiently. “Mrs. Roche does. If you noticed that newspaper story about her this morning, she doesn’t say anything about it either way. She claims Gerald told her this afternoon it was some anonymous man who phoned him.”

“You think maybe Angus?”

Shayne shrugged and took a drink. “It must have been someone who saw Roche and Brand together. Or someone trying to stir up trouble.” He hesitated, frowning, then added, “Does Mrs. Cornell generally stay up all night playing her radio so loudly she can’t hear a shot in the same block?”

“Says she had a headache and couldn’t sleep.”

“Well, that’s Mrs. Roche’s story… just the way I got it tonight. I thought Gerald had probably told you all about it.”

“Seth wouldn’t tell me anything that might help clear Brand. Right now he’s ridin’ pretty. Keeps control of the mines and the strike is busted with Brand in jail.”

“I wondered about the Roche Mines. Who inherits Charles’ share?”

“Way it was set up by old John Roche,” said Elwood, “fifty-one per cent went to Charles and forty-nine to Jimmy… to be held in trust for both of ’em with Seth stayin’ on as manager until Charles was thirty years old. He was to get his share then, but Jimmy was to keep on gettin’ the income till he was thirty.

“But if Charles died before that, old John fixed it so that only forty-nine per cent was to go to Charles’ heirs, with the rest held in trust for Jimmy till he was thirty. Then Jimmy takes over.”

“And Gerald will continue in complete charge for several more years,” Shayne mused, “instead of losing his job immediately.”

“That’s right,” said Chief Elwood. “Look at it any way you want, Charles’ death was a mighty lucky thing for Seth.”

“And for AMOK,” Shayne reminded him. “Particularly if Mrs. Roche’s story about the strike settlement is true.”

“I reckon all the mine owners in Kentucky’ll feel easier with this strike over. Folks in this state don’t much take to the idea of miners tellin’ ’em how to run their business.”

“Do you think Roche would have compromised with Brand if he had lived?”

“Just between you and me,” said Elwood, “I reckon it’s most likely he would’ve. Charles was pretty close-mouthed, but he brought back some mighty fancy ideas from the war. Yes sir, way I look at it, Brand come mighty close to winnin’. Mighty damn close.”

“According to all this,” said Shayne angrily, “Brand looks like the one man in Centerville who had every reason not to murder Charles Roche.”

“Well sir,” said Elwood comfortably, “it might look that way if he could prove Charles had made a settlement with him. Lackin’ that, all the evidence is against him. It’ll go mighty bad for Brand when it comes out in court he bribed those men to make out an alibi for him beforehand. That’ll look mighty like premeditation to a jury. Then there was his gun, too. Lyin’ right by the body. Looks to me like your fee is already earned.”

“Aren’t you forgetting Mrs. Roche’s testimony?” asked Shayne sharply.

“Who’ll believe her?” Elwood waved a big hand negligently. “Prosecution’ll have a dozen witnesses to swear she was sweet on Brand.”

“Just between the two of us,” said Shayne, “if I’d been in Gerald’s shoes last night and discovered that Roche and Brand had reached an understanding, I’d have done exactly what he did.”

Elwood’s fat, lashless lids rolled up. He stared at Shayne for an instant, then said, “You reckon Seth gunned him to make it look like Brand did it?”

“Don’t you?”

“I’d keep it plumb to m’self if I did. Way things’ve been run here in Centerville for twenty years suits me right down to the ground. That bein’ the case, there’s one piece of evidence you’d better turn over to me right here and now.”

“What’s that? I’ve only been in town a few hours and I’ve told you everything I’ve picked up.”

“That letter Charles wrote you to Miami.”

“I haven’t got it with me.”

“Where is it?”

“In a safe place.”

“You can see how it is,” Chief Elwood said mildly. “Could be there’s something in it wouldn’t look good at Brand’s trial.”

“Could be,” Shayne agreed.

“Could be it’s just what we could use to clinch the case against him. If, f’rinstance, he happened to say in the letter he was afraid Brand or some of the other strikers might kill him on account of he’d decided not to deal with them. Or, if it was proof he knew Brand was chasin’ around after his wife. You can see how important that’d be as evidence.”

“That would be extremely important,” Shayne agreed.

“So you better turn it over to me,” Chief Elwood said in his rumbling monotone. “Just to make certain it don’t get into the wrong hands.”

Shayne shook his red head. “I always play a lone hand.”

Elwood emptied his glass and set it down on the floor beside the whiskey bottle. He placed a palm on each knee and considered Shayne with a level, protuberant gaze. He said, “You can figure what happened to Gantry.”

“I figured you staged that for my special benefit.” Shayne emptied his glass and added curtly, “I’m a lot tougher than Gantry.”

“No man is tougher than a lead slug,” Elwood said slowly.

“But you’ve got better sense than to use one on me.” He stood up suddenly. “That letter is in a safe place… as long as I stay alive. You hope you know what’s in it, but you’re not sure. Killing me might wreck your case against Brand.”

“What do you want, Shayne? You’ve been offered five grand if Brand is convicted.”

“Maybe,” said Shayne lightly, “I’ve got an idea it would be fun to be chief of police in Centerville.”

“Now, by God!” The chief moved swiftly for so big a man. He was beside the desk and had the .38 revolver in his hand while his angry exclamation still vibrated in the room.

Shayne didn’t move. He watched him with a twisted smile on his angular face. “I’m not a punk like Gantry. You can’t dispose of my body by dumping it outside the city limits. That fuse never was as short as it is right now, Elwood.”

The chief’s thick body trembled violently. He breathed hard through set teeth and the mound of flesh on his chin wiggled. He forced his muscles to level the barrel of the gun on Shayne’s mid-section twice, and relaxed his grip both times. “Seth musta been right,” he grated. “He figured your signing up with AMOK was just a dodge.”

“It was Persona’s idea,” Shayne told him.

“Damn Persona. We don’t need his deputies messin’ into things here. Always got along okay in Centerville without outside help.”

“Until George Brand showed up,” Shayne suggested. “When you failed to handle him, Seth Gerald must have felt you were slipping.”

“That’s a lie. It was Seth’s idea from the first. Thought he could handle him and he wanted a strike back at the time it started. I’d of taken care of Brand right away if I’d had my way.” He looked down at the gun in his hand as though surprised and faintly embarrassed to see it there.

“That,” said Shayne, “doesn’t make sense. Why would any mine owner want a strike?”

“Prices were down and there was too much production. All the other mines were shutting down and the men grumbling, and Seth got the bright idea a strike would fix things up. Just a short one. That’d go bust when the men got hungry enough. Be a sort of lesson to all the other miners.” The chief seemed to have forgotten the lethal impulse that had moved him to pick up the gun. He turned it over and over in his hands, sighed, and sat down, resting the weapon on his lap.

“So Gerald actually imported Brand to foment a strike? Like getting hold of a tiger by the tail.”

“I don’t think he actually brought Brand in. But he didn’t mind having him around. Not at first.”

“And after that it was too late,” Shayne summed up thoughtfully. “Brand got such a hold on the men you were afraid to bump him off.”

“I never was afraid to,” said Elwood pugnaciously. “Seth got worried the men never would go back to work if somethin’ happened to Brand. He did have a way with the miners.”

Shayne was beginning to see a lot of things clearly now. Things that had been obscure before. Gerald’s defensive attitude toward Persona, for one thing. He chuckled inwardly as he reviewed the situation. How galling it must have been to Gerald to find himself outsmarted as the strike situation got out of hand. The other mine owners in the state certainly could not have viewed his experiment in labor relations with favor. He had become desperate, Shayne guessed, as the day of Charles Roche’s thirtieth birthday approached and it became more and more apparent that the new owner was preparing to settle with the striking miners on their own terms. Roche’s death… and the accusation of Brand… had become the only possible solution.

Shayne looked down at the seated police chief and said sardonically, “It was a bad spot for you to be in all the way along.”

“Wasn’t much I could do,” Elwood admitted sourly.

“Gerald sounds like a hard man to work with.”

“’Pinionated. ’Pinionated as hell. Dead-set he’s always right.”

“How would it be if you and I put our heads together,” said Shayne slowly, “and hang a murder rap around his neck?”

“’Stead of Brand? There’d be hell to pay. Brand would be a hero and we’d have strikes all over the country.”

“Maybe not. Why not make a deal with Brand?”

“What kind of deal?”

“Put it up to him straight. He’s in one hell of a spot right now and he knows it. Look at it this way.” Shayne sat down and poured himself another drink.

“I’m from the outside looking in,” he went on. “You’re bucking a losing proposition here in Centerville. Maybe you can pull this off. I’m not sure you can, but maybe.”

“No maybe about it,” rumbled Elwood. “Brand hasn’t got a chance.”

“Aren’t you forgetting the evidence that may have been in my letter from Roche?”

“Then there is somethin’…”

“I’m not saying whether there is or not. I’m admitting you may be able to ride this out. But it’s just one wave, Elwood. The tide is rising against you. There’ll be another man… and another… like Brand. You can’t arrange a murder every time and get a conviction every time. You may be able to sit on the bomb another year or so, but the fuse will keep getting shorter. You’ve got this chance to get in solid. Fix things so you’ll stay in the saddle and there’ll be labor peace in Centerville for years to come.”

“What’s your proposition?”

“That you and I throw in together. Jethro Home might be persuaded to come back to testify, and Dave Burroughs might repudiate that statement you got from him this evening if you suggested it. With what I’ve got, we can spring Brand and put a noose around Seth Gerald’s neck at the same time.”

“Why in hell would we do that?” he demanded. “I told you…”

“And I say we could make a compromise deal with Brand before we go through with it. Fix up some sort of settlement with the miners… give them certain concessions that’ll keep them happy for a long time. You’d be their friend… their benefactor. In solid with them.”

A slow grin spread Elwood’s thick lips. “Mr. Persona,” he said slowly, “would be fit to be tied. Any concessions the miners get here would spread all over the state… and fast.”

Shayne said, “To hell with Persona. You’ve got yourself to think of… and Centerville.”

The grin faded from Elwood’s lips. He rolled his bulging eyes up at Shayne. Suspicious eyes. “Where would you come out?” His tone was suspicious. “Isn’t your fee contingent on Brand’s conviction?”

“I like the feel of money,” Shayne told him flatly, “but I’ve already cashed a five-grand check from Charles Roche on this job. And I’ve never helped frame an innocent man, no matter what you may have heard about me. And I don’t think,” he went on grimly, “too much of my chances for ever collecting that fee from AMOK. Not if you’re telling the truth that it wasn’t your men who tried to run me off the road tonight.”

“I swear it wasn’t,” rumbled Elwood.

“Then it was some of Persona’s deputies.”

“I didn’t like what you said awhile ago about taking over my job.”

“Then you’d better throw in with me and make a deal with Brand.”

“Or else?” His expression and his voice were still filled with suspicion. He looked down at the .38 on his lap.

Shayne shrugged. “I don’t like ultimatums.” He emptied his glass and got up. “Why don’t you think it over?”

“And what’ll you be doing?”

“Digging up evidence to hang Seth Gerald. The only way you can stop me is with a bullet.”

He turned and went out the door with long, slow strides, down the hallway and out the front door.

14

THE hands of the big wall clock pointed to eleven when Shayne got back to the Eustis Restaurant. The dinner crowd had thinned somewhat, but there were still couples dancing to the jukebox music and some half dozen tables occupied. He stopped just inside the door, lit a cigarette and looked over the crowd, grinned at the expression of alarm and surprise on the proprietor’s face, and strolled over to the desk. He said mildly:

“Things are going to be different around here from now on. You’ll have to take your profit out of the business and pass up the split fees you’ve been collecting.”

The proprietor swallowed his Adam’s apple and brought it up again. “I don’t know what… you’re talkin’ about,” he stammered.

“The hell you don’t. Next time you phone the cops to come and pick up a drunk, they won’t be in such a hurry to get here.”

“I didn’t… I swear I never did,” he drawled.

“Nuts,” said Shayne. He turned to look back at the table he and Lucy Hamilton had occupied. Rexard was still there, with a man he had not seen before. Turning back to the proprietor, he scowled heavily and demanded, “Where’d my girl go?”

“Your… girl?”

“Yeh. The young lady I was with before your stooges made the mistake of picking me up outside the door. A yokel named Titus Tatum was with her when I left.”

“Oh… her? Why, she and Mr. Tatum went out around half hour ago. You say you got picked up… by the police?” He was perspiring freely, and his glasses slid down on his nose. He pushed them up, and wet his lips with his tongue.

Shayne grinned and said good-naturedly, “Don’t try pulling your stuff on me. Just remember next time not to pick on a bosom friend and pal of Hank Elwood’s.”

He left the proprietor swallowing his Adam’s apple again, and threaded his way between empty tables toward Rexard.

The balding dry-cleaning man looked up with a start, and his jaw dropped laxly. “Mr. Shayne! I sure didn’t expect…”

“To see me back so soon?” Shayne supplied. He drew out a chair and dropped into it. “Where did you think I’d gone?”

“Well… I thought,” sputtered Rexard, “well, hell, the way you was staggering when you went out… I figured the cops’d grab you and throw you in the dink.”

Shayne said grimly, “They did. And right on schedule.”

“You look sorta like they treated you rough,” said Rexard.

“As a matter of fact, they were gentle as lambs,” said Shayne, touching his sore and split lip lightly, “in comparison to some things I’ve observed.” He twitched the corners of his mouth pleasantly. “They handed me this souvenir of Centerville justice before Chief Elwood decided it was all a mistake.” He looked across the table at Rexard’s companion, a thin, middle-aged man, pale and gray. He wore gold-rimmed glasses and a strained smile. “I don’t believe I’ve met your friend,” he added, turning to Rexard.

“Pardon me. I was so taken up with… well, I forgot my manners. Mr. Seveir, meet Mr. Shayne. Mr. Seveir publishes the Gazette,” he explained, turning to Shayne again.

The publisher held out a bony hand. “Stranger in town, Mr. Shayne?” His pale eyes beamed behind his glasses. “The Gazette is always interested in visitors.”

“I’m a stranger,” Shayne admitted, crushing the publisher’s frail fingers in an iron grip, “but I’m getting acquainted fast.” He upquirked the corners of his wide mouth, carefully protecting the slit in his lip. “How would you like to run a story on how the local jail stinks?”

Mr. Seveir chuckled and caressed his aching hand. “I see you must have your little joke, Mr. Shayne.”

“I’m not joking,” Shayne said harshly. “Vomit on the floor, stale urine, clogged toilets, and men sleeping on concrete floors and iron bunks with no bedding, and denied the privilege of calling in a lawyer or friends.” He turned suddenly from Seveir’s bewildered and astonished eyes and asked Rexard, “What became of Lucy Hamilton and Titus Tatum?”

“They went out with Mr. Persona. He runs AMOK. A very important man from Lexington. He dropped in soon after you left.”

“So, she wasn’t concerned about what became of me?”

“I… don’t think she mentioned your name… after you left,” he stammered. “I gathered that… you all had a quarrel,” he ended, staring into Shayne’s cold gray eyes.

“Is Persona spending the night in town?”

“I don’t know.” Rexard glanced at the newspaper man. “You know, Frank?”

Seveir nodded. “He’s at the Moderne. With the strike fizzling out, he’s paying off the special deputies tomorrow.”

“Are your columns open to news?” Shayne asked abruptly, “or do you print what you’re told?”

“The press of the United States is free,” Seveir told him with stiff dignity.

“If I brought you proof that Seth Gerald murdered Charles Roche, would you print it?”

“What!” The exclamation came simultaneously from both men.

Shayne grinned crookedly. “You made several attempts to find out my business tonight,” he said to Rexard. “I’m in Centerville for just one purpose: To smash the town wide open and put a rope around the neck of the man who actually murdered Roche.”

“United States Marshal?” Seveir quavered, and mopped sweat from his face.

Shayne neither denied nor affirmed the conjecture. “Print that in your paper tomorrow,” he told the publisher grimly, “and you can quote me.” He got up and sauntered away from the table to the door, went down the street and found his car parked where he had left it.

He had left the keys with Lucy, but shorting a wire across the ignition switch was easily accomplished, and a few minutes later he was speeding toward the Moderne Hotel.

A light shone in the lobby of the hotel building as he swung past the cottages. He stopped in front of the cabin assigned to him. All the cabins were dark except the one at the end of the row. He turned off the headlights, left the motor idling, and went to the door he had left wide open earlier. It was cooler inside now, and everything seemed to be just as he had left it.

He went outside and crossed to Lucy’s cabin, rapped on the door several times, and receiving no answer he walked on toward the lighted cabin at the end.

The shades were not drawn and the windows were open. Shayne walked cautiously on the rocky ground, crept close enough to a window to look in. Lucy Hamilton reclined on the bed, propped up on one elbow. Mr. Persona sat in the only chair. He had removed his coat and loosened his collar, and his sleek black hair was disheveled. A bottle of whiskey was on the table beside him. He was talking and gesticulating and laughing heartily at his own wit. Lucy was laughing with him, her eyes very bright. Titus Tatum was not with them.

Shayne went back to his car, got in, and backed around, leaving the headlights off until he turned onto the highway. There were no cars on the road driving back to Centerville, and when he reached the heart of the village most of the night-life had died away. Only a few business places were lighted, and an occasional car was parked on the main street. He drove straight through, turned up Magnolia Avenue and parked in front of Ann Cornell’s house which was aglow with light.

He heard no sound from within until he was on the porch. Through the closed door, radio music could be faintly heard. He knocked and waited until Ann Cornell opened the door. She wore a blue flowered cotton dressing gown and blue bedroom slippers. Her face was flushed, and she lifted one hand to brush a strand of damp hair from her face. Her blue eyes held a fixed, drunken stare, but her voice was pleasant and slightly thick when she said, “I wondered when you’d be back.” She swayed a little as she stood aside for him to enter, closed the door firmly, and crossed the floor with careful exactitude to the chair beside the table where the jug of corn liquor stood. There were only about three inches left in the jug.

Shayne sat down, lifted his bushy red brows and asked, “Who’s been drinking your whiskey?”

She looked at the jug and said, “Nobody but me.” She picked up her glass and drank the half-inch of liquor remaining. “Been saving it for you.”

Shayne’s empty glass was on the end-table beside the chair where he had left it. He got up, poured it a quarter full and asked with a frown, “What are you afraid of, Ann?”

“Me?” She opened her eyes wide, then half-closed them. “I’m not afraid of Old Nick himself.”

“You’re afraid to be alone,” Shayne told her. “That’s why you keep a jerk like Angus around. Where is he now?”

“Back room. Sleeping off a load.”

“Like he was last night?” Shayne asked harshly.

She moved uneasily, ran her hand around the low-cut neck of her dressing gown nervously. Her chest and shoulders were firm and creamy where the flesh flowed away from her throat. She said, “Still harping on last night?”

Shayne nodded. “And I’m going to be from now on. Why don’t you get it off your mind? Drinking too much corn isn’t going to help.”

“What?” she asked indifferently.

“The truth.”

“What good’s the truth?” There was more of hysteria in her short laughter than drunkenness. She checked herself, took up the jug and half-filled her glass.

He was still standing beside her, and he bent over her, placing one hand on the arm of her chair, to say, “This is one time in the history of Centerville when the truth is worth something. Look at me, Ann.”

She lifted her head slowly and looked up at his angular face. His cheeks were deeply trenched, his mouth grim. She did not speak.

Shayne said quietly and with deep intensity, his eyes holding hers in a hypnotic gaze, “You know plenty about men. You know these punks in Centerville can’t stop me. You know that deep inside when you look at me. And you’re decent deep inside, Ann. You’ve always been decent and you’re proud of it.” His voice didn’t waver, didn’t rise or fall in tone. Her eyes were fixed on his and were becoming slightly glazed, as though she didn’t see his face, but something far beyond him.

“I’m getting hold of things,” he went on slowly, “and all I need is a hint. You can make it easy for me, or I can do it the tough way. Who was with you last night, Ann? Who saw Roche across the street and phoned Seth Gerald? Was it Angus?”

Speaking the name was a mistake. He knew it as soon as it left his lips. Ann Cornell’s eyes turned aside and the spell was broken. She lifted herself slightly and moved her hand upward toward his face. “Did you say your name was Michael?”

“That’s right.” He took her groping hand in his. It was moist and warm and firm. Her fingers gripped his with the strength of a man’s, and there was a look approaching panic in her eyes.

She said throatily, “None of this is any good, Michael. Drop it. We could have fun, you and me. I knew you’d come back. I wanted to be drunk when you came.” She was pulling his hand down to her lips, parting them to press a finger between them. “Whyn’t you get drunk, too?” Her voice was low and pleading. “There’s plenty liquor. ’Nother jug in the kitchen.”

Shayne straightened up, taking his hand from hers. She leaned back and looked up at him. Her eyes were humid and her breathing was rapid and audible.

Shayne said slowly, “Time is running out, Ann. I have to keep moving. If you won’t give me the truth, I may have to lock Angus up and make him talk.”

“No!” She came to her feet swiftly. “You can’t do that! Jail would kill Angus.”

“Not quite. He’ll just think he’s going to die after about twelve hours without dope. Then he’ll talk. He’ll tell me anything for a shot. Anything I want him to say. He’ll say he saw you shoot Roche if I tell him to.”

“You bastard!” she screamed. “You lousy stinking bastard!” Her face was contorted and she sprang at him with her fingers curved into claws.

He fended her off, flung her back roughly. She fell into the chair, her hips on the edge of the cushion, her feet sprawled out before her. She remained there, her arms clutching the chair arms for support, a stream of obscenity pouring from her lips.

Shayne half-turned from her to pick up the glass he had dropped. She straightened up suddenly and he ducked just in time to dodge the glass flung at his head. It shattered against the opposite wall. Ann Cornell crouched in her chair and startled him with the filth and violence of the epithets she hurled at him.

“Shut up,” Shayne said harshly, “or I’ll have to…”

A slight sound behind him brought him around in time to see Angus slithering across the room, clad only in the bottom half of his red and yellow striped silk pajamas, a six-inch kitchen knife in his hand.

Shayne leaped to one side and swung his left fist in a wide arc as he moved. It connected with the smaller man’s bony chin and Angus dropped to the floor.

Ann Cornell was on Shayne’s back like a wildcat before he could set himself, scratching and biting and screaming shrilly.

He got a hold on one of her arms and jerked her off, clamped a big palm over her mouth, and dragged her across the room toward the door. There was an open hallway and a bathroom at the end of it. He went toward it in long, rapid strides.

Holding her with one arm, he opened the medicine cabinet above the lavatory. He found a large roll of half-inch adhesive tape and a carton of absorbent cotton. He tore off a wad of cotton and forced it between her teeth, taped her lips tightly shut with four strips running from cheek to cheek and four more running from her chin upward.

She was gasping and jerking and writhing, but he worked coldly and methodically, then hoisted her in his arms and carried her into a bedroom where he tossed her in the center of a single bed, spreadeagled her on her back, and with extreme difficulty taped each wrist and ankle securely to the corner posts of the iron bedstead.

He was breathing hard and sweating profusely when he stepped back to survey his handiwork. Her dressing gown had been torn from her in the struggle and she lay nude with arms and legs outstretched.

Shayne wasted only a glance on her voluptuous feminine figure and accouterments before pulling a light spread from the foot of the bed and covering her, while her body writhed and her angry eyes glared venomously.

He lit a cigarette and sat down on the edge of the bed. “You asked for this,” he told her harshly. “I told you I was on my way and nothing could stop me. I’m going to leave you here while I take Angus away and store him in a safe place where he won’t get any dope until he decides to talk. You’ll be all right… I hope.”

He got up and looked down at her implacably. She continued to writhe and strain at the tape binding her. Her eyes rolled in their sockets, exuding such hatred that Shayne felt a chill down his spine.

“I’m sorry, Ann,” he said. “We could have had fun together, but now we never will. Take it easy. The less you fight the less sore you’ll be when you’re free.”

He turned and strode back to the living room where he found Angus still crumpled in the middle of the floor, unconscious. He lifted the light body easily to his shoulder and went out, leaving all the lights burning and the radio playing, and closed the front door firmly behind him.

He dumped Angus in the front seat of his car, went around and got in on the other side, connected the wire behind the switch and drove away, straight through the sleeping village and up the steep mountain slope toward the Moderne Hotel.

15

THE cabin at the end of the row was still lighted when Shayne stopped in front of his own. He shut off the motor and snapped off the headlights, went in and turned on the cabin light and took his suitcase from the bed.

Angus was still unconscious, but he breathed regularly and his color was normal when Shayne carried him inside. He stretched him out on his back on the bed, and gagged and bound him, pulled down the shades, got a flat .45 automatic from his suitcase. He threw a cartridge in the firing chamber and pushed on the safety, and slid it in his hip pocket.

Angus was lying limp, with his eyes closed, when Shayne turned out the light. He locked the door when he went out, then strode down past the row of dark cabins to a point where he could again look through a window into the lighted one.

Persona was sitting on the side of the bed now. His profile was toward the window, and he was leaning over Lucy Hamilton who lay on her back laughing up at him. Persona’s right hand rested on Lucy’s left shoulder, pinioning her to the bed with his weight, but Lucy didn’t seem to mind. Persona had an eager, hopeful look on his flushed face.

It seemed to Shayne that Lucy was shamelessly enjoying herself, and he had a funny feeling in his belly as he crept closer to the window. It was one thing to get a man drunk and try to dig information out of him, but quite another to give every indication of bitchy pleasure in the process. He hadn’t expected her to carry out his suggestion so literally.

As he neared the open window he was able to distinguish Persona’s voice clearly. It was thick with drink and with passion, and he was proclaiming over and over again that Lucy was the most beautiful and the most desirable woman in the world.

Shayne moved swiftly to the door, closing his mind to Persona’s voice, and knocked loudly.

Dead silence inside the cabin followed his knock. Then the creak of bedsprings, and the light went out suddenly. Shayne tried the knob. The door was locked. He pounded on it, and Persona called out, “Who is it?”

“Chief Elwood sent me.” Shayne’s voice was harsh and queer in his own ears.

A key turned in the lock and the door opened a cautious crack. He shouldered it wide and pushed in, reaching for the light switch on the wall and flipping it.

Lucy had swung her legs over the edge of the bed and was sitting primly erect, pushing strands of brown hair back with both hands. Her eyes were lowered and there was a demure smile on her lips.

Persona, shoved back against the wall by Shayne’s entrance, blinked a couple of times before his bleared eyes and blurred mind recognized the intruder. He exclaimed, “Shayne! What the devil does this mean?”

Shayne slammed the door shut and turned the key in the lock, withdrew it and dropped it in his pocket. He didn’t look at Persona. He asked Lucy, “Everything all right?”

“The Marines,” she said matter-of-factly, “landed just in time to save me from a fate worse than being your secretary.”

“What’s this?” Persona demanded thickly. “You know each other? What the devil…?”

Both of them continued to disregard him. Shayne went toward Lucy and asked, “Did you get anything?”

“Nothing much. Mr. Persona,” she continued, her lids lowered, “had other things on his mind.”

“See here!” Persona moved forward and grabbed Shayne’s arm. “Is this some sort of a badger game?”

“She’s my sister,” said Shayne savagely. “What have you been trying to do with her? An innocent, virtuous girl…”

“You must be crazy,” Persona burst out. “It was all her idea. She suggested we ditch Tatum. I can prove it.”

Shayne laughed shortly and shrugged Persona’s hand from his arm. He pointed a long forefinger at Persona and said, “Sit down in that chair and try to sober up enough to understand me. Miss Hamilton is my assistant and she’s been enduring your loathsome pawing in the interest of justice.”

“That’s not strictly true, Michael,” Lucy told him calmly as he seated himself on the bed beside her. “It was nice to be flattered for a change.”

Persona hesitated, staring from Shayne to Lucy, before sitting down in the only chair. He seemed remarkably sobered by Shayne’s entrance. He said, “I thought you were looking for evidence to convict Brand. What have I to do with it?”

“That’s what I’m trying to find out. Why did you have a couple of your deputies try to rub me out after I visited Ann Cornell? What were you afraid I’d learn from her?”

Persona looked astonished and hurt. “There’s some mistake,” he declared. “I certainly didn’t try to have you rubbed out.”

“That’s a lie,” said Shayne flatly. “A couple of your men went for me the same way they took that witness for Brand on the highway near here this afternoon.”

“I know nothing about these matters.”

“You hand out the orders to those deputies,” Shayne charged. “AMOK pays their salaries. You’re as guilty of the death of Joe Margule as the two deputies who ran him off the road and beat him to death. And just as guilty in Charles Roche’s murder, if my guess is right,” he added grimly.

Persona had worked himself up to a high pitch of shocked indignation. “That’s the most preposterous accusation I ever heard. I can’t imagine what you base it on, or why…”

“Right at the moment,” Shayne said wearily, “I’m wondering what you were afraid I’d learn from Ann Cornell. Or from Angus. My guess is that one of them actually saw your deputies kill Roche… acting on your orders, of course.”

“That’s fantastic,” sputtered Persona. “Roche was my friend. A member of the organization I represent.”

“He was a hot-headed liberal who saw justice in the miners’ demands and had made arrangements to give them a union shop and everything else they asked as soon as he took charge of the Roche mines. You couldn’t afford to have that happen, Persona. You admitted this evening that such a settlement would practically wreck the mining business in Kentucky.”

“It certainly would have been a blow to our economy,” Persona admitted. “But I never believed Charles would give in. Not John Roche’s son. This talk of an arrangement to settle the strike is utter nonsense.”

“I don’t think it is,” Shayne told him quietly. “In fact, I think I know where to put my hands on a copy of such an agreement, signed and post-dated by Charles Roche.”

Persona ran a plump hand over his eyes and forehead and over his black hair. “That’s extremely important if you’re correct,” he faltered. “If there is such a document it must be destroyed. If it should be offered as evidence at Brand’s trial…”

“It would smash the case against him,” Shayne finished for him. “On top of that, it would add up to the goddamnedest evidence against you.”

“Against me? I was in Lexington last night. I can prove it.”

“I’m not saying you pulled the trigger. One of your gun-handy deputies would have done the job. But how long do you think it’ll take to break him down and point you out as the one who gave the order if he goes on trial?”

Persona shakily drew together the remnants of his dignity and said, “I swear I issued no such order. I’m not a murderer.”

“You’re a hell of a reasonable facsimile,” snarled Shayne. “Do you know how many men your deputies have killed here in the past month?”

“Those were regrettable incidents. Entirely out of my control. Good God, if I had wanted to use violence to settle this strike, don’t you realize how simple it would have been to dispose of the ringleader?”

“That,” said Shayne, “is one of the big question marks in my mind right now. How Brand managed to stay healthy so long.”

“Because AMOK adheres to the principle of peaceful arbitration of all labor disputes,” said Persona stiffly.

Shayne turned to look at Lucy who sat beside him on the bed. Her eyes were bright and there was an eager, excited expression on her face. He moved his right hand to cover hers, then said to Persona:

“I haven’t time to sit here all night listening to you mouth platitudes we both know you don’t mean. For God’s sake, man, wake up! I’m about ready to hang a murder charge on you and you start making a speech. You had the strongest motive in the world for killing Roche as soon as you learned of that signed agreement.”

“But I tell you I didn’t know of any such agreement.”

“You’ll have a hard time proving that to a jury.”

“I don’t think so,” said Persona confidently. “And even if such a document is produced, I can easily prove it would not have worried me one bit.”

“How?”

“Because I know George Brand had no intention of allowing the strike to be settled in that manner.”

“How can you know a thing like that?”

“Because a man like George Brand doesn’t pass up twenty thousand dollars in cash just to get some benefits for a few miners,” Persona told him.

Shayne stared at him for a moment, picked up the whiskey bottle and tilted it. He let liquor gurgle down his throat, set the bottle aside and said slowly, “Say that over again, Persona.”

“I’ll be glad to. Then you’ll understand the absurdity of the accusations you’ve been making. I told you that AMOK believes in peaceful settlement of all labor disputes. We have large investments and when we see them imperiled by labor unrest we are quite willing to pay a certain price for peace.”

“By bribing some of the head men?”

“I’m a businessman,” Persona said. “I represent a large association of businessmen. I have at my disposal a large fund which I am authorized to use as I see fit to keep labor peace in the coal mines of Kentucky.”

“Are you trying to tell me that Brand was the sort of skunk who’d sell out the miners for personal profit?”

“I’m stating facts,” said Persona, “which will make it quite evident to you that it wasn’t necessary for me to resort to such crude methods as murder to end this strike. Brand and I reached an agreement in my office in Lexington over a month ago. This strike was getting out of hand and it worried me. I felt that Seth Gerald had made a mistake by letting it go as far as he had, and I offered Brand twenty thousand dollars to call it off.”

“And he accepted?” Shayne asked incredulously.

“Of course he accepted. There’s nothing unusual about such an arrangement.” Persona laughed cynically. “Plenty of professional labor agitators feather their nests that way.”

“I know there are crooks in every field,” Shayne tugged at his earlobe and studied Persona’s flat, swarthy face. Then he shook his head angrily. “I don’t believe it of Brand. What proof have you got?”

“There are twenty thousand dollars lying in escrow in a Lexington bank,” Persona assured him. “Waiting to be claimed by Brand, now that the strike is ended.”

“If you did have such an arrangement, why has the strike dragged on so long?”

“That was part of the arrangement.” Mr. Persona was enjoying his triumph. “The longer it ran on and the more money the men lost in wages, the stronger salutary effect on other miners when it is finally broken.”

“But not so good for the Roche mines,” Shayne muttered.

“What profits the industry as a whole,” Persona remarked sententiously, “profits every member of that industry.”

“But Seth Gerald must have been mightily worried,” said Shayne. “You hadn’t told him about this arrangement, I presume.”

“Naturally not. I suppose he was worried, but then I’ve felt all along it was his fault for allowing Brand to get such a hold over the men.”

Shayne fell across the bed on his back, clasped his hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling. “At last,” he said, “something begins to add up.”

“You certainly must admit,” Persona said smugly, “that I had no reason for having a murder committed.”

“No,” said Shayne slowly. “You’re not a murderer, Persona. You’re simply a businessman. In the business of starving old women and small children and squeezing the heart’s blood out of men. It’s so much easier… and more profitable. A good clean murder is so far above your methods that I was a fool to think you had planned one.” He was watching Persona through lids that were almost closed.

“Now, see here Shayne!” Persona got to his feet. His dark face was a mottled red and his chubby short fingers were clenched.

“You can’t talk to me that way. I won’t…”

Shayne came up from the bed in a swift, flowing movement. He slapped Persona with his left hand first, then with his right, then drove his left fist full into his face.

The chairman of the board of AMOK staggered back against the wall and slid down against it to the floor. He sat there with a hand on each side of him to support his weight. Shayne stepped over and drew back a number twelve shoe and kicked him in the face.

Lucy was beside him, clinging to his arm and pleading with him. “Michael… don’t… hit him again!”

“All right,” Shayne said gruffly. “It’s okay, Lucy.” He was unnaturally pale, and his gray eyes were darker than she had ever seen them.

“Are we all through in Centerville now?” she asked, frightened. “Shall I go pack my things and…”

“We’ve just started in Centerville,” he growled. They went out and closed the door. “First we have to visit a naked widow and then I’m going to see about getting myself appointed chief of police. After that, you might go house-hunting. I may be here for a long time.”

16

“DO YOU believe Mr. Persona was telling the truth about Mr. Brand?” Lucy asked in a small awed voice.

“I don’t know,” Shayne muttered. He was driving slowly, hunched over the wheel. “I suppose it’s inevitable that a lot of that sort of thing should go on. The threat of a strike is a terrific weapon in the hands of an unscrupulous man. Better than a loaded gun pointed at a rich man’s belly.” He laughed wearily and mirthlessly.

“A gun just threatens his life,” Lucy mused, “but a strike threatens his profits. I’ve no doubt that plenty of industrialists would be happy to pay off a labor leader willing to take their money.” She was relaxed against the back of the seat. She yawned widely, patting her mouth with the tips of her fingers and added, “I’m dead tired. If you hadn’t come when you did, I think I’d have been sick right in Persona’s fat black face. Do you think Brand is the sort of man who’d take their money?”

“I don’t know. Persona could be lying. It makes a good story and has a damnable aura of plausibility. If he could convince the men that Brand was betraying them he would accomplish his purpose neatly.”

“But he’d need some proof, Michael. The money that he says is in escrow: Couldn’t you check on that?”

“That’s what worries me,” Shayne admitted. “Here’s another possibility.” He was thinking aloud now as the car slid downward around the curving highway toward Centerville. “If Brand is as smart as I think he is, he could be pulling a fast one on Persona. Sitting down in his office and pretending to reach this agreement to defeat the strike. Going through all the motions of having the money put in escrow while having no intention whatsoever of collecting it.”

“What would he gain by that?”

“Two things. First, it would lull AMOK into a sense of false security and prevent them from taking any positive action like trying to import strikebreakers. We know it did have that effect on Persona. Second, it would be a sort of insurance if the strike was honestly unsuccessful. Take the present situation.” Shayne’s tone gained assurance as he expanded a nebulous thought into definite theory.

“Something wholly beyond Brand’s control has come along to smash that strike. Roche’s death couldn’t be foreseen, but it happened at just the right time and in a way to defeat the strikers. What’s wrong, then, with Brand collecting the twenty thousand and later distributing it secretly among the miners… or keeping it to finance another strike? That’s the impression I got of Brand.”

“Did they let you talk to him, Michael?”

“Yeh,” he muttered. “In jail.”

“They just let you go in and…”

“I didn’t get very far with him,” Shayne interrupted. “He’s cagey as hell. One of the things I couldn’t understand was his complete imperturbability. That twenty grand in Lexington might help explain it. He knows he’s lost the strike, but I presume the conditions of escrow are such that he will collect the money.”

Lucy yawned again and let her head roll over to rest against his arm. He patted her hand and said, “You poor kid,” gently, then added harshly, “But it serves you right letting that guy Persona practically crawl on top of you.”

“While you were running around visiting widows, and admitting you left one of them naked,” Lucy retorted. “But that money won’t do Brand much good, will it, if he’s convicted of murder in the meantime.”

Shayne thought for a moment, then said, “I’d guess he’s a fatalist. I’ve seen other innocent men in prison, and none of them ever seem to realize they can possibly be convicted. Simply because they know they’re innocent. It’s a sort of self-anesthesia. They walk right up to the chair believing the switch won’t be pulled.”

Lucy Hamilton shuddered and changed the subject. “How did you manage it… getting in to see him?”

“The Eustis Restaurant obligingly tipped off the cops. They were waiting outside. All I had to do was stagger around a little.”

Lucy’s eyes narrowed. She said, “So that’s what you were up to.”

“Didn’t you get any dope from Persona?”

“Nothing much.” She chuckled quietly. “He doesn’t like Seth Gerald. Thinks he’s incompetent. I think they’d had an argument, but he didn’t tell me what it was about. He didn’t want to talk anything but…”

“Does he think Brand is guilty?” Shayne broke in harshly.

Lucy chuckled again, then said seriously, “I don’t know. I imagine Mr. Persona thinks what he wants to think. He doesn’t care. Mr. Roche’s death ended the strike, and that’s the only thing that matters to Mr. Persona. Now, tell me why you are taking me with you to visit a naked widow. That’s out of character.”

Shayne relaxed for a moment. A grin spread his wide mouth. “I got back in time to protect you tonight. Now it’s your turn. I need protection this time.” He turned left onto Magnolia Avenue.

“You?” Lucy scoffed. “I didn’t suppose   “

“We’re calling on Mrs. Ann Cornell. God has given her the fixed idea that all men are her meat and I hope to save a lot of argument by bringing you along to convince her she’d just be wasting her time on me.” He stopped in front of the lighted house and laid his hand over Lucy’s briefly. “This isn’t going to be very romantic,” he told her, holding his light mood. “She was raving like a maniac when I left her gagged and tied up. You’ll have some new words added to your vocabulary if she goes into the same act when we release her. That is, I hope they’ll be new to you.”

Lucy laughed and said, “Your secretary does lead an interesting life, Michael.” She slid out of the car and they went up the walk together. Shayne opened the front door. A commentator was highlighting dull and stale news over the radio. Shayne took Lucy’s arm and led her back to the bedroom. Ann Cornell was lying on the bed as he had left her, still struggling to free herself. The tape was stretched, but still held, and her contortions had caused the coverlet to slide from her body. Lucy stopped in the doorway with a gasp of astonishment, as though she had not believed him until this moment.

Shayne stepped forward and threw the cover over Ann again, then sat down beside her and said calmly:

“Listen to me. Ann Cornell, this is Miss Hamilton, my secretary, and I’m going into the living room in a moment and leave her here to turn you loose. Raving won’t accomplish anything. Angus is safely hidden away where neither you nor anyone else will find him until he breaks down for the want of dope and tells me what I want to know.”

He paused, looking down steadily into the enraged eyes of the gagged woman. “There’s only one thing you can do for Angus. Give me what I want now. I’ll get it from him later anyway, so you can’t accomplish anything by holding out. Neither Seth Gerald nor Henry Elwood can help you now. You know you hate the whole set-up, and this is your one chance to kick it down on top of them. You can either stay underneath and be crushed, or you can play ball with me and stand on the sidelines when it falls. Think it over while Lucy helps get that adhesive tape off you.” He got up and walked past Lucy into the hallway, closing the door behind him.

Directly across the hall was another bedroom. Shayne went in and turned on the light. Men’s clothing hung from the back of a chair, and there were masculine toilet articles on the dresser. The coat of Angus’s yellow and red-striped pajamas lay on the floor in a heap.

Shayne’s eyes glinted when he saw a rear door beyond the bed. He went to it and found it unlocked. It opened directly onto a wooden stoop at the rear of the house. He stood looking around for a moment, stepped back inside and closed the door.

He went into the living room and poured himself a small shot of corn and sank into a deep chair to do some concentrated thinking while he waited for Lucy to bring Ann out.

She was wearing a pair of gray slacks and a white blouse when she finally entered the living room, followed by Lucy. Her face was sullen and showed streaks of red from the tape, but she appeared sober and self-possessed. She crossed in front of Shayne and flung herself into a chair.

“What have you done to Angus?” she demanded.

“Put him where you can’t find him until he talks.”

“You stinking…” she began, but Shayne stopped her with an upraised hand. “We won’t get anywhere that way. If you want to save Angus a lot of trouble you can tell me the truth about last night. That’s the only way you can help him. I’m wasting time here if you aren’t going to do that.”

Lucy Hamilton stood quietly, looking from one face to the other, a troubled frown between her smooth brows. Then she went to a chair in a corner of the room and sat down, folding her hands in her lap.

“What about last night?” Ann Cornell snapped.

“Everything.”

“What gives you the idea…?”

“Look,” Shayne interrupted wearily and impatiently. “I’m not here to trade confidences with you. Either you talk or you don’t.” He swallowed the small drink of corn in his glass and looked across the room to see Lucy’s brown eyes wide and staring, fixed on Ann Cornell.

“Suppose I do?” Ann’s voice was brittle with anger. “What then?”

“You get Angus. God only knows why you want the twirp. Unless, of course,” he added slowly, “he’s the killer. In that case you’d better keep your mouth shut.”

“Angus wouldn’t hurt a fly,” she snapped.

Shayne looked down at the butcher knife that had fallen from the hophead’s hand when he knocked him down, glancing again at Lucy to see that she, too, was looking at it. She looked up and their eyes met, hers horrified, his bleak. He gave her a crooked grin and turned his attention to Ann Cornell again.

“What’s the deal?” Ann demanded huskily. “I’ve seen what happens in Centerville when people talk out of turn.”

“That’s why I want you and Angus to clear out of town before the blow-off.”

“What’re you getting at?”

“Give me what I want and then take Angus over the state line,” he said flatly.

“How do I know you’ll come through?”

“You don’t, but make up your mind.”

“How do I know you’ll believe the truth when you do hear it?” she muttered.

“I haven’t just been sitting still since I was here earlier this evening. I’ll know if you’re lying.” He settled back and asked, “Was Jimmy Roche here last night?”

“I’m going to spill it,” she said tensely. “I don’t know what it adds up to, but maybe you will. Sure Jimmy was here. He drops in like that often. He likes…”

“I know,” Shayne interrupted with a grin. “He likes your corn. Like Brand and Elwood and a lot of others. All right. Jimmy was here. Angus was in bed?”

“That’s right.” Ann Cornell began talking swiftly, the words crowding each other as though they had been held back too long:

“Jimmy was drunk. He’s always drunk. About three o’clock someone knocked. It was Charles Roche. He asked if I’d seen George Brand’s light on any time lately. I told him I hadn’t noticed, and then Jimmy stuck his nose in. He was at the stinking nasty-drunk stage and wanted to know what Charles wanted with Brand. They argued back and forth and I told ’em to get out. I don’t like rough stuff here.” She paused, her eyes blazing.

Shayne said, “So they went out, still arguing? Did Charles tell his brother he intended to settle the strike with Brand?”

“Not when he was here. Jimmy kept demanding to know if that was what he was going to do, and Charles told Jimmy it wasn’t any of his business. I slammed the door on ’em and turned the radio up loud and poured a big drink. I can’t stomach a man that can’t hold his liquor,” she ended angrily.

“Did Angus hear them arguing?”

“No.” She said it too fast, too emphatically.

Shayne said flatly, “That’s a lie. I told you I’d been around picking up information. If you’re not going to tell the truth I’ll get it from Angus.”

“All right, goddam it. They did wake Angus up with their yelling. What of it? He came out to see what the trouble was and…”

“Like he came out tonight when you threw the glass at me?” Shayne interposed, looking at the knife on the floor again, and involuntarily glancing at Lucy.

Lucy was sitting forward, her hands tightly clasped, listening intently. Her face was strained and weary and pale, but her brown eyes were bright with interest.

“Not like that,” Ann snapped. “He doesn’t generally get excited. I told him it was all right and he went back to his room.”

“And shut the door?”

“Sure. Why shouldn’t he?” A fleeting look of fear came to her eyes.

“No reason. What happened then?” Shayne asked sharply.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“So help me God. Jimmy didn’t come back. I looked out after a little while and saw a light in Brand’s house. I didn’t know who was there… whether Brand was home, or Charles had just gone in to wait for him, or Jimmy and Charles both. I didn’t care. And that’s all I know about it.”

“Did Brand generally go off and leave his door unlocked?”

“Sure. Nobody bothers much to lock their doors around here.”

“Had Jimmy left his car parked in front of your house?”

“No. Mostly fellows park down the street and walk up.” Her upper lip curled away from her teeth. “They don’t mind drinking my corn, but they hate for anybody to see their cars parked outside.”

“So you don’t know whether Jimmy left at once… or a lot later.”

“That’s the God’s truth. I got tight and I wasn’t sleepy. I sort of dozed till daylight and then went to bed.”

“Why didn’t you tell that to the cops yesterday morning?”

“Why should I?” she asked sullenly. “It’s nobody’s business who comes here. I didn’t think Jimmy’d want me to mention it, so I didn’t.”

“What time was it when Angus came back in through the rear door?”

“It was…” Her voice rose shrilly. “I didn’t say…”

“I know he slipped out about the time Roche was getting killed,” Shayne told her indifferently. “What else would you be afraid of? You’re afraid he did it. What did he say about it?”

“Nothing. He won’t tell me anything.”

“Why did he hate George Brand?”

“He had good enough reason…” Her jaw fell open slackly. “Say… who told you that?”

“Never mind. Why did he?”

“George didn’t have any cause to slap him around,” she said angrily.

“And you hate Brand, too, and that’s why you were perfectly willing to let him hang for a murder you have good reason to think Jimmy Roche committed.”

“That’s not so. I don’t know who did it. I don’t give a damn. I hate all of ’em. God, how I hate this stinking town.” Tears began streaming down the red streaks the adhesive had left on her face. Her lips were swollen and trembling. She put her hands over her face and sobbed hysterically.

Shayne got up and beckoned to Lucy. She followed him into the rear hallway and he said, “Ann has a car. Help her pack a couple of bags… one for her and one for Angus… and drive out to the Moderne. Park in front of my cabin. Angus is tied up in there. Give her money if she needs it, and tell her to get out of the state, but not too far. Tell her to phone you at the Moderne where she is. Things’ll be so she can come back in a few days… if she wants to. Then you go to bed and lock the door.” He spoke swiftly and in a low voice.

“What about you, Michael?” Lucy clung to both his arms and looked up into his set face.

“I’ve still got to find a murderer.” He bent to kiss her lips, led her back into the living room and gave her a little shove toward the sobbing woman.

Shayne was in his car and driving away before he realized he didn’t know where Seth Gerald lived. He turned down to the village to find someone from whom he could get directions.

17

THE general manager of the Roche mines lived in a two-story brick house. Light from the corner street light outlined white trimmings around dark green slatted shutters which were closed all across the front, and probably securely latched, Shayne thought, as he went up the concrete walk and steps to the door. Giant trees shrouded the grounds in the night’s misty darkness, and there was no light, no sign of fire or movement within.

He put his knobby forefinger on the button and held it down until a light came on in one of the upper rooms, stepped back and waited until a glow outlined the opaque upper glass of the front door. When he heard a key turning in the lock, he took out his .45 automatic, clicked off the safety catch.

The door opened a couple of inches and Seth Gerald’s precise voice said, “Who’s there?”

Shayne hit the door with his shoulder and came through it with his automatic in front of him. Gerald had a pearl-handled .32 automatic in his hand which he lowered jerkily as the impact shoved him and his brocaded dressing gown backward.

“Shayne!” he exclaimed. “I didn’t expect you.”

“Didn’t you?” His left hand grabbed for the .32. “Better give me that popgun before it goes off and attracts attention.” Shayne dropped the pistol in his pants pocket after taking it from Gerald’s relaxed hand.

Gerald tried to laugh. It came out a dry cackle. He was looking into Shayne’s eyes. They were very bright. His own were sleep-drugged. He brushed a hand across them and said, “I don’t get this at all. What do you mean coming here and threatening me with a gun? There are policemen in Centerville, and…”

“And you own them. That’s why I prefer to hold the guns while we have a talk.”

“Talk? What is there to talk about at this unearthly hour?”

“Murder. Do we have to stand here in the hall?”

Gerald was swiftly recovering his self-possession. He said, “The library is right over here.” He turned to lead the way and added, “I warn you, Shayne, I shall report this to the police. You will be getting out of Centerville faster than you came in.”

Shayne followed him to a small, snug room beyond the living room. Bookshelves lined the spaces between the two windows, and there was a large oak desk in the center. Three leather armchairs were placed at strategic points around it. Seth Gerald snapped on the desk light, augmenting the pale glow from the hall, sat down in the chair behind the desk and waved Shayne to one of the chairs.

Shayne sat down with his legs far apart and slipped the automatic on the cushion between them.

Seth Gerald was leaning laxly forward, his arms folded on the desk, apparently waiting for Shayne to speak. When he didn’t, Gerald said impatiently, “Suppose you say what you have to say and let me go back to bed. I have a thousand and one things to attend to in the morning.”

Shayne let smoke dribble through his nostrils and said, “I’ve been getting around tonight. I think you’ll be interested in my contacts. Mrs. Cornell and Angus, George Brand, Mrs. Roche, and Henry Elwood and Mr. Persona. I’ve learned a lot from each of them, Gerald, and a lot more by putting their stories together.”

“Why come here at this hour of the night to tell me?” Gerald said irritably. “If you’ve learned anything of value it should be turned over to the police.”

“I thought,” said Shayne placidly, “you might want to make a deal.”

“What sort of a deal would I want to make?” His tone was strained and weary.

“That’s for you to decide. After I tell you that practically everything I’ve picked up points to you as Roche’s murderer.”

“That’s preposterous!”

Shayne shrugged and settled deeper in his chair. He recalled that Persona had used exactly the same word in the same tone. He said, “I want to warn you about a couple of things before you get too far out on a limb. In the first place, Ann Cornell and Angus are out of the state. They’ll appear when the time comes, but you can’t get at them until the time does come. And don’t put too much faith in your local police department. Elwood is looking carefully right now at both sides of his bread to see which is buttered thickest. He’s scared as hell, and when a rat gets scared you never know whom he’ll bite. That’s the bad thing about rats,” he ended casually.

“You don’t believe I’m guilty of murder?” Gerald demanded.

“I can make out a hell of a good case against you right now. Have you any proof that you didn’t kill Roche?”

“No absolute proof,” snapped Gerald, “but you certainly haven’t any that I did.”

“Not yet,” Shayne agreed judicially, “but on the surface, it seems right now to stand between you and Jimmy Roche. Did you see Jimmy last night after he phoned you?”

“No. He was…” Seth Gerald paused. Again he ran his hand over his eyes. There was a frown of confusion or anger between them when his hand dropped to the desk again. “I suppose it was bound to come out,” he continued doggedly. “What does Jimmy say?”

“I’m saving him until later. Tell it your way first.”

“I have told it. Just the way it happened, except that it was Jimmy who phoned me to come over and help him prevent Charles and Brand from getting together. I didn’t see any reason for complicating things and mixing him up in it.”

Shayne took a cigarette from the pocket of his polo shirt. “You do look ahead,” he said. “In five years Jimmy will have control of the mines. He doesn’t know or care anything about the mines or the miners. It’s quite possible he may want to keep you on in your soft job when the time comes, and you want to stay on the good side of him.”

Seth Gerald placed his palms on the desk and pushed himself from his chair. “That’s a damned lie.”

Shayne had his gun in hand. “Sit down,” he commanded.

Gerald slowly lowered himself into the chair, his black eyes glittering. “You have the advantage,” he said ironically. “What else do you have to say, Shayne?”

“I suppose you’ll stick to your original story about the Brand house being empty when you got there.”

“It’s the truth.”

“Where was Jimmy Roche?”

“There was a light in his house, so I stopped by on my way up to see Elsa. Jimmy was passed out in his bed. Look here, what do you hope to gain by this? It would only confuse the case against Brand if it comes out.”

Shayne drew on his cigarette, blew out a puff of smoke and said, “You must have got something from Jimmy before you went up to see Mrs. Roche.”

Seth Gerald said wearily, “He muttered something about being tired of Charles arguing with him about what ought to be done about the strike, and left him there waiting for Brand to come home.”

Shayne was thoughtfully silent for a moment, then said flatly, “It still looks like you or Jimmy. Depending on whether Roche was dead before you got there.”

“That’s pure supposition,” Gerald snapped. “Suppose Brand showed up after Jimmy left and before I reached the house? We can presume he lured Roche up the street and murdered him.”

“So you’re going to claim he was dead before you got there,” Shayne said sharply.

“I’m not claiming anything of the sort. I simply don’t know. I’m theorizing to fit the known facts.” Gerald was beginning to perspire profusely. He searched in his robe pockets for a handkerchief but didn’t find one.

“Let’s look at facts the way a jury will,” Shayne suggested. “You’re going to have one hell of a time making anyone believe that Brand was fool enough to kill the man who offered him a signed agreement for settling the strike on Brand’s terms.”

“Charles didn’t… I don’t believe…”

“Charles did and I can prove it,” Shayne interrupted. “When that agreement is produced in court, every vestige of the case against Brand will go up in thin smoke.” He waited tensely to see how Gerald reacted. If he wasn’t worried… if he scoffed at that possibility… it would be strong evidence that he wasn’t afraid the agreement would be produced in court. That he had good reason for knowing it no longer existed.

But Seth Gerald was worried, or else he was thinking as fast as Shayne and putting on a good show to indicate he was. “That would be horrible,” he said. “If you know where such a document is, let me remind you it’s worth a cool five thousand to you to make sure it doesn’t appear in court.”

“There are other considerations besides money.”

“What?” scoffed Gerald. “Don’t tell me that your heart bleeds for the cause of justice. I know something about your reputation.”

“We’ll skip that until a little later. Right now I’m trying to make you understand the seriousness of your situation. If you don’t intend to admit that Roche was dead when you reached him, you’re practically dangling from the end of a rope right now.”

“I don’t see why.” It was apparent that Gerald had thought all this out carefully. “Don’t forget that Jimmy called me in Charles’ presence. Charles knew I was on my way to intervene, so when Brand showed up he probably suggested they go some place else to have their talk. I imagine they disagreed on some of the terms and Brand lost his temper and killed him.”

“You’re disregarding two elements,” said Shayne. “The signed agreement and the fact that you hurried to Mrs. Roche to fix up what amounted to an alibi for Jimmy. A jury will suspect you wouldn’t have done that without damned good reason to think he was going to need an alibi.” He leaned forward to grind out his cigarette.

“No one in this town is going to pay much attention to what Elsa Roche says,” said Gerald contemptuously, “after she’s been flagrantly running around with George Brand.”

Shayne hesitated, his thoughts racing ahead. The most delicate sort of timing was required for what he had in mind. The most carefully wrought intimation to bring the admission he hoped to wring from his host.

He felt his way cautiously. “That may have a certain bearing on the whole case. On the other hand, it isn’t going to be too good for you if it gets around that you and Mrs. Roche weren’t… shall we say… exactly disinterested in each other.”

“That’s a nasty lie,” Gerald snapped.

“Is it?” Shayne grinned widely and relaxed, stretching his long legs out.

Shayne’s grin evidently infuriated Gerald. “What do you mean by such an absurd insinuation?” he burst out. “Where did you pick up a thing like that?”

Shayne looked surprised. “Can’t you guess?”

“I cannot,” said Gerald angrily. He sat stiffly forward, his nostrils flaring with each stertorous breath. “There hasn’t been a breath of scandal about us. Not one breath.”

“I suppose you thought you were being discreet,” Shayne said. “And you relied on the old truism that the husband is always the last to find out about a thing like that. Too bad for you that it didn’t turn out that way in this case. It’s going to look damned bad in court for you when it’s proved that Charles knew what was going on between you and his wife.”

“That can’t be proved because it isn’t true,” said Gerald. “I don’t know what absurd basis you have for your statement, but someone has evidently been feeding you a pack of lies.”

“You forget,” said Shayne blandly, “the anonymous letters Charles Roche has been receiving. The ones he sent me,” he amplified, “not the one he showed his wife and the police.”

“That’s a lie!” Gerald was on his feet swiftly, his face darkly-red, his fists clenched. “There was nothing like that in those letters.”

“You forget that they’re in my possession. I’m prepared to produce them to prove…”

“You’ve made up some forgeries,” Gerald accused. “I don’t know what your object is, but those letters didn’t contain one word about…” He stopped abruptly, a look of shocked horror in his whole expression as he stared at Shayne’s grinning face. He backed away one step, then another.

Shayne said, “Thanks. That’s exactly what I wanted to hear you say, Gerald. I had a hunch you’d written those threatening letters, but I was afraid it would be difficult to prove.”

“I didn’t say…”

“You made it very plain that you know what’s in those letters,” Shayne interrupted swiftly, before Gerald could get his thoughts in order. “The only person who knows that is the man who wrote them. Roche didn’t show them to anyone else.”

Gerald sank into his chair again and mopped his wet face with his palms. “All right,” he said hoarsely, “if you do have those letters you know there’s not one word about Mrs. Roche and me in them.”

“Naturally.” Shayne’s tone gently chided him. “I just wanted to force you to say you wrote them. I felt pretty sure you did,” he added.

“I suppose it was a silly thing to do,” Seth Gerald groaned. “But I was at my wit’s end with the strike, and with Charles full of noble sentiments about the rights of the workers to share in the profits. I thought something like that might bring him to his senses. Good God!” he exclaimed suddenly. “You don’t think for a moment I meant those letters seriously. You can see that I just hoped to frighten some common sense into him.”

“You don’t have to worry about what I think,” Shayne pointed out. “I won’t be a member of the jury that will have to decide whether you meant your threats or not.”

Gerald wet his lips and made two efforts to speak before he succeeded in blurting out, “No one else has seen those letters. No one else suspects what was in them. He vaguely mentioned them as threats against his life. Nothing more than that.”

“That’s right,” Shayne assented. “If he hadn’t mailed them to me before he was murdered you’d be safe right now. I doubt,” he went on generously, “whether any jury would convict you of his murder without the evidence of those letters.”

“You’re bluffing,” blustered Gerald. “I see it all now. You think you can hold me up… blackmail me… with a threat like that. I warn you I’m not easily frightened. Those letters aren’t real evidence against me. Everyone who knows the circumstances will understand my real motive in writing them.”

“Let’s look at it objectively,” said Shayne. “First, we have Charles’ impending birthday when he will assume control of the mines and possibly fire you out of a soft job. Then we have a strike which he is willing to settle at terms which you consider detrimental. Third, we have a series of letters, anonymous, but admittedly written by you, threatening his life if he does not agree to hold out against the strikers. Next, there is his signed agreement with Brand which would have become effective on his birthday. You were on the spot at the approximate time of his death… you hurried from there to his widow and fixed up a lie for her to tell to explain your presence there. Hell!” he exploded, “that’s enough evidence to hang ten men. Just the letters and the fact that he’s dead would be enough. Juries have a funny way of linking two facts like that together.”

“I didn’t do it, Shayne. I swear I didn’t kill him. He was already dead. I saw him there beside the road. I couldn’t do anything for him, but I thought of the mines… and of Jimmy. That’s why I went to Elsa and advised Jimmy to tell Ann Cornell what to say. I swear that’s the truth.”

“Maybe,” said Shayne. “But do you think a jury will believe you?”

“They will if they don’t see the letters.”

“Possibly.”

“What do you want?” Gerald demanded fiercely. “Tear up those letters and keep your mouth shut and let Brand hang as he deserves. He must be guilty. I don’t believe for a moment Jimmy Roche killed his own brother. You’ll only defeat justice if you bring up those letters. And you’ll lose the five thousand Persona offered.”

“I warned you at the beginning,” said Shayne, “that I like money, but there are other considerations that tempt me.”

“What in God’s name do you want?” Gerald demanded again.

“I’ve decided that I’d like to be chief of police of Centerville for about six months.”

“Chief of police!” Gerald’s mouth fell open and he seemed powerless to close it. He stared at Shayne with a queer look in his eyes, then managed to say, “But we’ve got a chief. Henry Elwood…”

“I’ve met Elwood,” Shayne told him grimly. “That’s why I think Centerville needs a new deal. Those are my terms. Make me chief, and I’ll suppress those letters. Otherwise…” He shrugged wide shoulders and got to his feet.

“That’s the most fantastic proposal I ever heard,” gasped Gerald. “Even if I agreed, what makes you think I could arrange a thing like that?”

“I’ve been in company-owned towns before.”

“But I don’t control the police department. The mayor and the city council are the only ones who have authority to make a change like that.”

“And you own the mayor,” said Shayne. “Get him on the phone.”

“But what would I tell him? What possible reason…?”

Shayne said, “I’ll give you plenty of reason.” He was silent for a moment, his rugged red brows drawn together. Then he relaxed, crossed one knobby knee over the other, and said slowly:

“It wouldn’t be the first time a municipality brought in an expert to straighten things out. Only a few people here know my business. You might explain to the mayor that Henry Elwood is a cold-blooded murderer and is locked up in his own jail. You could say that Charles Roche wrote and asked me to come here and do something about the horrible conditions existing in the police force… the frightened, groveling attitude of the common people after years of tyranny. I’ve heard a lot about how things go in communities like this where the majority of the people are poor and down-trodden and don’t dare say anything. I’ve read about returning soldiers who don’t even go to the polls and vote because the big bosses toss their votes into the waste basket if they don’t mark the right names. You’ve got that condition right here in Centerville.”

Seth Gerald’s black eyes were narrowed upon him. Sweat dripped from his face and dropped on his silk robe. When Shayne paused, he demanded, “What do you mean Chief Elwood is a cold-blooded murderer?”

“Do you know a police sergeant named Gantry?”

“Bill Gantry? He’s on the desk at headquarters,” said Gerald. “Sure I know him.”

Shayne said, “Yeh. Handsome young fellow. I have an idea he’d have been a different man if he hadn’t got hooked up with Centerville’s police department.”

“What about Gantry? All I know is he couldn’t go on with his college work after he came back from the war because he has a wife and three children. He took a job on the police force. What about him?” Gerald stood over him. His tone was demanding. He appeared to have regained his poise.

Shayne glanced up at him and asked, “Does he have a telephone?”

“Probably. I’ll look and see.” Gerald turned swiftly and picked up the telephone book, gave Shayne the number, and asked again, “What the hell has Gantry got to do with this?” His hands were trembling, and again he mopped his face with his palms.

Shayne started toward the telephone on the desk. He asked, “How does Gantry’s family stand around here?”

“One of the oldest… the best. His wife’s parents and their parents were considered… well… what people called aristocrats. First settlers and that sort of thing. Used to be rich. I’ve heard he gave away land and properties to poor people so they could get a start. A goddamned fool, if you ask me,” Gerald ended sarcastically.

Shayne was calling central. He gave the number. The phone rang only half a ring before a woman’s voice answered. “Yes? Is this you, Bill?” She was plainly hysterical. Tears were in her voice.

Shayne felt sorry as hell for her. He said, “This isn’t Bill. I called to talk to him in case he got home earlier than I expected.”

“Have you seen him? Where is he?” she asked, and he could hear the hope in her voice. “When did he say he would be home?”

He said, “He asked me to tell you he might not be home for several hours.”

“I’ve been phoning everywhere,” Mrs. Gantry said. “Thank you so much. I feel greatly relieved. You see our baby is very sick. She was taken suddenly, and I wanted Bill to know about it. If you see him, will you please tell him. Who are you…?”

Shayne said gruffly, “I’m a friend of your husband’s,” and slammed the receiver on the hook. He got up pulling his handkerchief out of his pocket. Sweat was dampening his polo shirt and slacks, and they were sticking to his body. He wiped his face and turned to Seth Gerald. His gray eyes were bleak and the muscles in his gaunt face twitched.

“What did she say?” Gerald asked. His face was twitching nervously.

Shayne took time to light a cigarette. His big hands shook as he held the match to it. He walked toward the door taking slow, deliberate strides. He picked up his hat on the way, turned and said:

“Henry Elwood murdered Gantry cold and deliberately on his front porch tonight. I saw him take the gun from his desk and go out. I heard him order Gantry to be brought to his house because he thought Gantry had kept George Brand informed. I heard the shot. Elwood had ordered Andrews to bring Gantry there while I was riding with him after he had ordered me to leave Mrs. Roche’s car.

“I can produce a silenced revolver with Elwood’s fingerprints on it, and ballistics will say it killed Gantry,” Shayne continued. “Andrews witnessed the murder. He will probably be glad to testify if he isn’t scared out. Make me chief and I’ll arrest Elwood and throw him in his own stinking jail. The mayor will get headlines for acting promptly and decisively. If you do as I say you won’t have to hear those letters read in court.”

Gerald was pacing the floor, his hands locked behind his back. He gave no hint of being shocked, or even surprised, that Elwood had murdered Gantry in cold blood. He paused near the door and faced Shayne. “How do I know I can trust you,” he asked bitterly, “if I accede to your fantastic demand?”

“You don’t. Your only assurance is that you might have the power to kick me off the job if I don’t carry out my part of the bargain.”

“The mayor will think I’ve gone starkly insane,” he argued.

“Not if you convince him the people of Centerville are behind you,” grated Shayne. “Think it over, Gerald.”

“We’d better wait until a decent hour tomorrow morning…”

“Get on the phone now,” Shayne commanded. “It’s got to be done fast,” he went on inexorably, “while Elwood’s asleep and before he has a chance to destroy any of the evidence against him.” He turned from the door and sat down.

Gerald went reluctantly to the telephone. Shayne lit a cigarette and listened while he outlined the plan to the mayor of Centerville.

18

IT WAS seven o’clock in the morning when Shayne closed the door of the mayor’s living room, leaving a quorum of the city council, the mayor and the city attorney still in conference after having been aroused from their beds and summoned into extraordinary session. The legality of the procedure had been gravely doubted by the attorney, but they had reached an agreement to take positive action at once and follow it up later with a regular session to confirm Shayne’s authority.

Shayne went on to the porch and stood dragging in deep breaths of the cool morning air, clearing his lungs of the thick cigar and cigarette smoke he had been inhaling for hours. The thing had been absurdly simple, as he had anticipated. One telephone call from the general manager of the Roche mines had set the necessary forces in motion. Seth Gerald had not appeared in the matter after that first telephone call. It had been evident from the beginning of the meeting that Henry Elwood had stepped on many important toes during his tenure, and they were not at all unhappy to have this chance to be rid of him.

Shayne went down the steps and got in his car, glanced at a slip of paper in his hand and drove directly to a two-family dwelling on the east side of Centerville.

A young woman came to the door when he rang the bell. Her hair wasn’t combed and her eyes were dull with sleep. She wore a cotton robe and carried a tiny baby in her arms. She said she was Mrs. Andrews, and looked worried when Shayne demanded to see her husband at once.

She said, “He’s asleep. He was on duty until three o’clock this morning.”

“Wake him up,” Shayne said with such authority that she nodded listlessly, invited him into a small living room, and went back to the bedroom.

Patrolman Andrews came in after a few minutes wearing his pants and an undershirt and yawning widely. He gave a start of surprise when he saw Shayne. “So it’s you,” he said stupidly. “Minna didn’t tell me…”

“It’s me,” Shayne agreed curtly and ungrammatically. “Things have been happening since last night, Andrews. Do you like your job?”

“My job?” Andrews frowned heavily. “Sure. It’s all right.”

“I’m Centerville’s new chief of police. Right now I haven’t anything to prove it except this.” He drew out his automatic and balanced it on his knee. “You can call the mayor to verify it if you wish. I just left his house.”

“I don’t get it. What about Chief Elwood?”

“I’ll be needing a desk sergeant to take Gantry’s place. I’m not promising anything, but a man who plays ball with me from the first won’t be in a bad spot for a promotion.”

“What about the chief?” he asked again. His voice was jerky and high-pitched.

“We’re coming to him right now. Can you find Gantry’s body and bring it in?”

“Gantry’s body? Christ… I don’t know…”

“Don’t give me any of that,” Shayne said harshly. “I saw Elwood shoot Gantry last night, and so did you. You disposed of the body. Now I want you to bring it in.”

“I can’t do that without them findin’ out what happened las’ night.”

“I’ve thought of an out for you so the story’ll look good in court… and you’ll be a hero. You couldn’t be prosecuted for carrying out the chief’s orders. Here’s the idea: We tell about the murder just as it happened. We both saw it and we tell a straight story. You took Gantry’s body out to the car as ordered, but you rebelled at ditching the corpse to cover up Elwood’s crime. So you kept Gantry in the car all night. Your conscience bothered you so much you decided to risk the consequences by bringing it in and telling the truth. Got that?”

“But what about Chief Elwood?” Andrews reiterated. He was shaking with a palsy of fear. “You saw what he did to Gantry las’ night. He’s a mean son-of-a-bitch and a devil on wheels when he gets goin’, and…”

“In the first place, Elwood isn’t chief any more. I’m going out to bring him in. He’ll be locked up, charged with Gantry’s murder, by the time you make your grandstand play. Is it a deal?”

“I dunno,” muttered Andrews. “Don’t seem like it’s possible.” He ran rough fingers through his hair and stared at Shayne. “Reckon I’d better check with the mayor first.”

“Call him right now.” Shayne stood up. “And don’t call anybody else, Andrews,” he added warningly. “If I walk into Elwood’s gun at his house I’ll kill him and then be back to settle with you.” He slid the automatic into his pocket and hurried out to his car, drove swiftly to Chief Elwood’s house and parked.

A tall, gaunt-faced woman came to the door. She wore a long white apron over her house dress, and when he asked to see Chief Elwood she shook her head decidedly and said, “Chief’s jest a-settin’ to ’is breakfast. I wouldn’ no-way bother ’im till he’s done eatin’.”

“Neither would I,” agreed Shayne pleasantly. “I’ll wait in his office down the hall, and you can tell him not to short his breakfast on my account.”

“He wouldn’ do that nohow,” she assured him, stepping back reluctantly to let him enter.

He followed her down the hall and went into the study where he and Elwood had talked the preceding night. The woman kept on to the kitchen.

Shayne went over to the desk and found the silenced revolver lying where Elwood had placed it. He carefully folded a newspaper into a cornucopia around the death weapon, tightening the small end over the silencer, and laid it on a chair near the door where he could pick it up upon leaving.

The smell of fresh coffee and fried bacon was strong in the house, making Shayne’s stomach muscles gnaw with hunger. He found the whiskey bottle on the desk, took a long drink from it to kill the butterflies in his stomach and prepare him for what was coming.

He felt extraordinarily good after the second drink. A bit lightheaded from loss of sleep and too much mental exertion, but alert and strong, sure of himself, now that he had things pretty well under control, and eager to get on with the job.

He heard Elwood coming down the hall toward the study. He knew there was a good chance that there had been a leak and the chief might be prepared for what was coming. He set the whiskey bottle down and turned casually, his hand going to his hip and resting on the corrugated butt of the heavy gun in his pocket. He thumbed the safety off and waited.

Henry Elwood was in his shirt sleeves. A small badge that read “Chief” was pinned to his blue suspenders. His face wore a stubble of gray beard and an uncertain smile when he saw Shayne. Both his hands were in sight and empty.

He said, “Early, ain’t you?”

“A little, maybe,” Shayne admitted. He relaxed and took his hand off his gun.

“I been thinkin’ over your proposition,” Elwood said forthrightly, “and I don’t like it. I’m satisfied with things just like they are, and I reckon I’ll make out like always ’thout any help.”

Shayne said, “It’s too bad you feel that way.” He stepped close and fingered the badge.

“Solid gold,” Elwood assured him. “I ordered it from a place in New York m’self. City paid the bill, of course.”

“Of course,” Shayne echoed. He deftly loosened the clasp and pulled it off before the chief could protest, stepped back and held it against his chest admiringly. “It’s mighty pretty. Must make a man feel like something special when he wears it.”

“It does at that,” chuckled the ex-chief of the Centerville police force.

Shayne pinned it on his own shirt and took his gun from his hip pocket. With his left hand he drew out a pair of handcuffs. With one swift movement he snapped one of the rings on Elwood’s right wrist.

Elwood’s protruding eyes looked at Shayne’s gaunt face and glinting eyes. “What in hell you think you’re doin’?” he bellowed.

Shayne slugged him between the eyes with the barrel of his .45. Elwood staggered back against the wall, stunned and half-blinded by the blood streaming into his eyes.

Shayne jerked him forward and secured the other cuff, shoved him out into the hall, picking up the paper-wrapped revolver on the way. He got Elwood in the car before he recovered enough to realize what was happening. Before he started the motor, the ex-chief began to mutter oaths. Shayne hit him hard with his left fist, hurling him against the car door, then drove directly to police headquarters.

Two patrolmen were going up to the side entrance to report for duty. Shayne hadn’t seen either of them before. They stared at him in uncomprehending astonishment when he stepped from the car and ordered briskly, “Bring this prisoner inside.”

The chief’s gold badge was glittering on Shayne’s chest and he held his automatic in his hand. The patrolmen stopped in their tracks, their astonished eyes staring from Shayne to the portly, hand-cuffed man in the car, his body slumped against the door, his face scarcely recognizable with blood and tears streaming over eyes and jowls.

“But… isn’t that… the chief?” One of the men stammered.

Shayne raised his gun and ordered, “Bring this prisoner in,” again.

The men reacted to the badge and the gun and the tone of authority in Shayne’s command. They went to the car and laboriously supported the heavy, stunned man from the front seat. Shayne went up the steps ahead of them and on into the room where he found the officer named Gar still sitting at the desk from which he had relieved Gantry the night before.

Shayne said, “Book this man for murder. He’s out and I’m in. The faster you birds get that through your heads the better we’ll all get along.”

Gar’s bleary eyes were popping. “Looka here… you can’t do nothin’ like this. The chief…”

A car had stopped outside and a tall, distinguished appearing man got out. He came up the steps spryly and entered the room.

“Looka here, Mayor,” Gar said, “can you tell me what’s goin’ on around here?”

The mayor looked over at Elwood. He was slumped in a straight chair, his head lolling on his shoulder. Turning to the gaping members of the police force who had gathered for day duty, he quietly explained the new order of things in Centerville, appealed to them for co-operation.

When he finished his brief speech he held out his hand to Shayne and said, “Good luck to you. If there is any insubordination, just call on me.”

When the mayor went out Shayne waved his hand negligently and said, “Lock him up,” to the two men guarding Elwood. “Then get some hot water and plenty of lye and a scrub brush and put him to work scrubbing that stinking hole up there. Kick him in the rump every time he slows up, and keep him at it until the job’s finished.”

Shayne said to Gar, “Bring the records on every prisoner to my office at once. No one is to go out on assignment until I talk to them,” he added, looking at the day officers who immediately snapped to attention.

He turned and strode into the large office previously occupied by Elwood, picked up the telephone and called Lucy Hamilton at the Moderne Hotel to tell her it was time his secretary got on the job.

19

SHAYNE worked straight through the day, forgetting the lunch hour. Twice during the morning he sent out for containers of black coffee, and surprised Lucy Hamilton by drinking cupfuls without the addition of cognac. At two o’clock he had sandwiches and more coffee sent in while he dug into past records of the men under him. He suspended some, shifted the assignments of others, calling them in one by one to size them up and get an idea of their personalities and inquire into their particular duties.

He then attacked with enthusiasm the charges on file against the thirty-five prisoners and ordered eighteen of them released immediately. Each of the released prisoners had been brought into his office where he explained privately why they were being released and the sort of new deal he was inaugurating in Centerville. Of the remaining seventeen prisoners, he ordered that twelve should be brought to trial at once and faced by their accusers and either sentenced or released.

Only five of the entire number were charged with crimes serious enough to require grand jury action. After a long conference with the city attorney, it was agreed that a special jury should be called within one week to consider those cases.

By four o’clock he had completed most of the preliminaries necessary to a complete reorganization of the department, and he settled back to dictate a memorandum to each officer remaining on active duty.

Lucy Hamilton sat across from him with her stenographer’s pad, glancing up at his face each time he hesitated. Overnight, he had become a new sort of man. There was a ruthless, driving efficiency about him which she had never known the easy-going detective to manifest before. He was displaying an amazing talent for grasping details and organizing them, for making rapid and definite decisions that sounded right. He appeared happier than she had ever seen him.

As for herself, Lucy was still befuddled. After recovering from her anxiety upon receiving his telephone message to hurry to the police station, she was immediately confounded to find him directing the affairs of the department. She hadn’t asked questions, for there hadn’t been time. She knew Henry Elwood was locked in his own jail charged with murder, but she didn’t know any of the circumstances. She didn’t know what had been done about George Brand or any of the other persons involved in the Roche murder. All she knew was that Shayne was in the driver’s seat and was getting as much accomplished as possible while he remained there. She had a queer feeling that none of this was real and that she would wake up after a time and find herself back in Miami, but in the meantime Shayne kept on dictating his blunt memorandums and she continued to take shorthand notes.

There was a discreet knock on the door. Shayne stopped dictating to call, “Yeh?”

A patrolman stuck his head in and said, “There’s a man here who insists on seeing you, Chief. Says it’s important.”

“Send him in,” said Shayne.

A quietly dressed man with hard features entered. His pinstriped blue suit was well cut, his shoes highly polished, his manner that of a self-assured and aggressive person. He wore a stiff straw hat with a red and white band. He removed it when he saw Lucy.

He said to Shayne, “Your stupid man outside says I’ll have to get permission from you to see my client.”

“Who is your client?”

The stranger pulled up a straight chair and sat down. “George Brand. You can’t deny an attorney access to his client.” He took a card from his breast pocket and flipped it in front of Shayne.

Shayne read aloud, “Myron J. Stanger, Washington, D. C. Chief Counsel representing NUWJ. What do the initials stand for?”

“National Union for Workers’ Justice. I imagine you’ve heard of us.”

Shayne leaned back, studying the card. He asked, “Are you from Washington?”

“Our headquarters are there. I travel a great deal, but I happened to be in the office yesterday morning when we read of this outrageous affair in the morning paper. I came at once.”

“Do you know your client personally?”

“It happens that I do know George Brand. Most favorably, I assure you. I’ve represented him on other occasions when his zeal got him into difficulties with the law.”

Shayne said affably, “I’m glad Brand has a competent attorney. Lucy, will you get that bottle out of the top drawer of the file? Did you drive down, Mr. Stanger?”

The attorney showed mild surprise at this display of cordiality. It was evident that he had come to Centerville with a far different concept of the reception he would receive from the authorities. He thawed visibly and produced a pipe and tobacco pouch. “Yes, I drove. Left Washington before noon and went straight through to Lexington last night.”

Lucy brought the bottle of whiskey and set it on the desk, went to the water cooler and brought two drinking cups. Shayne stripped the foil from the top of the bottle and twisted the cork.

“You must have gotten a late start this morning,” he suggested as he poured liquor into the two cups.

“I had business in Lexington that held me up until ten-thirty.” Stanger accepted a cup and lifted it gravely. He still appeared a little puzzled and slightly on the defensive, but he wasn’t to be outdone in politeness.

Shayne said, “Bottoms up,” and they both drank.

“That’s good whiskey,” said Stanger. He set the cup down and tamped tobacco in his pipe.

“Are you staying in town?” Shayne asked.

“For a few days. As long as it takes to get this absurd charge against Brand quashed. I’m staying at the Central Hotel.”

“I doubt that you’ll have to be here long. I’ve been getting together what evidence I could, and right now I don’t mind admitting to you frankly that I hardly feel there’s enough evidence to justify our holding Brand.”

Stanger brightened perceptibly, lit his pipe, and relaxed. “I had a feeling,” he said cautiously, “that it was a put-up job to railroad Brand from the beginning. From what I know of the situation here in Centerville I had the impression…” He paused, looking hard into Shayne’s twinkling gray eyes.

“We’re not as bad as a lot of people think. Let’s have another snort and then I’ll send you up to talk with Brand.”

Stanger pulled on his pipe, exuded a cloud of smoke, smiled and said, “Another one never does any harm.”

Shayne poured the drinks and shoved the bottle toward Lucy. “Put it away, please.” He got up and went to the water cooler saying, “Think I’ll have a chaser with this one.” He emptied the whiskey in the drain, took a drink of water, and went back to his chair.

Stanger had downed his drink and was smacking his lips. He said, “Thanks. I’ll go up and see Brand now.”

Shayne went to the door and opened it. “Andrews!” he roared at the newly installed desk sergeant.

Andrews came trotting. Shayne stepped back and pointed at Stanger’s back and said. “This drunken bum has an idea he wants to talk with George Brand. Book him for drunkenness and lock him up so they can talk as long as they like.”

Stanger sprang up and faced them, an unpleasant smile on his face. “I wondered what the catch was. I can prove I’m not drunk, you know, and…”

“Smell his breath, Andrews,” Shayne ordered, “and get him out of here.”

The labor attorney shrugged phlegmatically as though this was all in a day’s work to him, and followed Andrews out.

Lucy was standing at one of the windows looking out when Shayne closed the door and turned toward her. Her back was stiff and her hands clenched into tight fists. Two spots of color flamed in her cheeks when she whirled around and said:

“I wondered what was happening. I wondered and wondered how you got yourself appointed chief of police.” She spat the words out as though they tasted bad. “Now it’s all clear. You’re in it with them to frame George Brand for a murder he didn’t commit. I hate you, Mike Shayne. I loathe you.” Tears were rolling down her cheeks.

Shayne went over and caught her elbows in his palms. “Save it for later,” he said gently. “Right now, I need you.”

“Why do you do things like that, Michael?” She leaned against him. “Why do you pretend to be something else and make me l-love you and then… suddenly… ruin everything?”

“In this case,” he told her, “Stanger gets a good long talk with his client without any interference. Wipe away your tears and come on. We’ve got things to do while they’re conferring.” He kissed both her cheeks and pushed her toward the door, grabbed his hat and followed her.

20

WHEN they were seated in Shayne’s car, he delayed starting the motor while he explained briefly how he had bluffed Seth Gerald into forcing his appointment as chief of police.

“But you haven’t got those letters threatening Charles Roche’s life,” she protested. “You haven’t even seen them.”

Shayne grinned and turned on the ignition. “Gerald doesn’t know that. That’s why I’m working fast. I’ll hold my job just so long as George Brand stays in jail charged with murder. If I released him the whole thing would blow up in my face. The more I get done before that happens, the better it’ll be for Centerville.”

“Do you think Gerald did kill Roche?”

“Right now it looks more like Jimmy. But as long as Gerald thinks I have those threatening letters to spring on him, he’s going to be well satisfied to have all the suspicion rest on Brand.”

“What does Jimmy say?”

“I’ve avoided pushing him into a corner where he’ll have to say anything. Unless Gerald has spilled it, he doesn’t even know I have any idea he was at Brand’s place that night. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to get Ann Cornell and her hophead out of town quietly. Jimmy doesn’t know whether they’ve talked or not. I don’t want him to know. As long as I keep everything quiet and appear to be building up the case against Brand, I’ll have a free hand with the police department.” He was driving slowly, and as he reached the main street he turned to the right.

“I’ve never known you to be like this, Michael. You’ve always accepted police corruption with a shrug. Won’t the whole thing just go right back into the same old groove when you leave?”

Shayne stopped in front of the Central Hotel. His gaunt face was serious and his eyes bleak when he said, “Something happened to me, Lucy, about the third time I was told, “This is Centerville.’ As though this was Germany, or Turkey. Not Centerville, U.S.A. Not the United States at all. Those three words answer every question here. They say there isn’t any justice, there isn’t any hope, there isn’t any future. No one tries to do anything because they accept the fact that nothing can be done.”

His doubled fist struck the steering wheel in a surge of anger. “Maybe something can be done. George Brand pointed the way. For a little while these people began to believe in something.”

He gritted his teeth and was silent for a while. “I’ve always liked things tough,” he resumed. “This is the toughest setup I ever walked into. It’s not that I’m burning up to reform the world, but I’ll be goddamned if I’ll admit this thing is bigger than I am. Let’s go,” he ended abruptly.

Lucy followed him into the hotel lobby, away from groups of people huddled on the sidewalks talking together and turning to stare at Shayne’s tall, lanky figure. The hotel management was glad to cooperate when he asked for a key to Myron J. Stanger’s room. Every eye in the lobby followed them to the elevator, and they saw the idlers get up from their chairs and converge upon the manager’s desk just before they got in the elevator to go up.

It was evident that the Washington attorney had stopped at the hotel only long enough to deposit his things before hurrying to seek an interview with his client. There was a Gladstone and a worn pigskin bag on the floor, and a strapped briefcase on the bed.

Shayne went straight to the briefcase and unstrapped it, found it locked, and got out his keyring. The lock came open easily and he dumped the contents on the bed. He said to Lucy, “See if his bags are locked.”

He went swiftly through the documents from the briefcase while Lucy tried the locks on the bags and told him they were locked. Shayne turned from the bed, unlocked both bags with practiced ease, opened the Gladstone and said to Lucy, “You go to work on that one. Don’t worry about messing his stuff up. If we find what we want he won’t have any kick coming. If we don’t, we’re sunk anyhow.”

“What do you want?” Lucy asked helplessly as she knelt beside the pigskin bag and began lifting out underwear and socks.

“Money,” Shayne told her. “A wad of cash… and an agreement signed by Charles Roche setting forth the terms on which the strike was to have been settled if he’d lived.”

“Oh! Do you think it will be here?”

“I want it if it is,” he said impatiently. He had finished one side of the Gladstone and turned to the other. “Stanger and I have different ideas about the use for that document,” he went on, exactly as though Lucy knew all about everything. “I don’t… hold it!” he exclaimed. “I think this is what we want.”

He tossed aside a pair of folded pajamas, emptying the suitcase, and dug with his finger nails at the edge of a fine slit in the inner cloth lining of the bag. He ripped it open and drew out a flat typewritten document with a thin packet of bills inside.

Lucy looked over his shoulder as he riffled through the bills. There were twenty of them, all of thousand-dollar denomination. He wadded them carelessly in his pocket and read swiftly through the first page of the agreement, noted the inked initials at the bottom, “G.B.” and “C.R.” and turned to the next page to verify the signatures and date.

He said, “This is what we need. Pick up the phone and call Mr. Seveir at the Gazette office. Tell him to be in my office in ten minutes.”

Shayne was waiting at the hotel room door when Lucy hung up the receiver. They went out and down to the car.

Mr. Seveir made no pretence that he wasn’t worried and frightened when he faced Centerville’s new chief of police across his desk a quarter of an hour later. He took off his gold-rimmed glasses and polished them nervously and admitted, “Frankly, Mr. Shayne, the town is so full of rumors that I disregarded all of them in today’s edition. Some people say you’ve released all the prisoners and have fired several from our police force. Others say you’ve arrested both Chief Elwood and the mayor and are torturing them frightfully. If you care to give me a statement…”

“That’s what I called you here for. First, I want to know what the facilities are in Centerville for getting dispatches out of town. Are there any press bureaus here? The AP or any of those?”

“None of the large press associations have offices here. The Gazette is a member of the Associated Press and we put anything on the wire that seems of more than local importance.”

“How fast?” Shayne leaned back and regarded the nervous publisher through a cloud of cigarette smoke. “If an important story breaks here,” he amended, “how long a period would elapse before it hit the front pages throughout the country?”

“Depending on the timing, of course. It would go over the teletype immediately and be picked up in other cities at once. You realize, of course, that the afternoon editions of most dailies are already set up by noon and the presses running. An afternoon release would make the early morning editions.”

Shayne nodded and drummed his fingertips on the desk. “I presume your teletype apparatus is the only wire medium for a message to go out after the regular telegraph office closes at night.”

“That’s correct. Since we have no railroad here, there is no all night telegraph office. The lack of a railroad is one of Centerville’s greatest economic handicaps in getting out coal, and the Gazette believes…”

“Where is the closest railroad?” Shayne interrupted absently.

“Slag Junction. That’s a forty-mile haul by truck, and you can readily understand why wages in the mines have to remain low to meet that increased cost.”

Shayne turned in his chair and called, “Lucy.”

She appeared immediately from an inner office and he said, “Get the railroad depot at Slag Junction on the telephone. I want a record of all telegraph messages filed at the station night before last. They won’t want to give them to you, but tell them this is official business.”

He turned back to Seveir. “Who owns the Gazette?”

“I’m the owner,” Seveir told him.

“No stockholders? No mortgages?” Shayne persisted.

“I built up the Gazette from a small weekly paper, Mr. Shayne. I really don’t see…”

“Who tells you what not to print?” Shayne interrupted grimly.

“I told you last night,” the publisher began, but Shayne interrupted him again:

“And I offered you a first-hand story on conditions in the local jail but you didn’t take me up. And I gave you a direct quotation to print in your paper today, but it isn’t in the edition I saw. Why not? Who told you to kill the story?”

“The Gazette’s editorial policy is my own,” said Seveir stiffly. “I have to consider what’s best for the community as a whole.”

“And what’s pleasing to your advertisers?”

“A paper like the Gazette is dependent on the good will of its subscribers and advertisers, Mr. Shayne. I wouldn’t remain in business long if I failed to recognize the duty I owe to the best interests of Centerville.”

“Meaning the mine operators… and the Roche mines particularly. I understand that, Seveir. I wanted to hear you say it out loud so we’d have a basis for further discussion.” He passed the two typewritten sheets he had taken from Stanger’s Gladstone across to Seveir just as Lucy hurried in with a slip of paper.

Lucy’s face was glowing with excitement. Disregarding the visitor, she exclaimed, “Michael! How on earth did you know?” She laid the paper before him and pointed to the second item. “There were only two wires night before last. This is the one you wanted, isn’t it?”

Shayne read the brief message and the name signed to it. He said quietly, “That’s it, Lucy. We’re ready to go now. Wait a moment.” He stopped her as she turned away. “I have a hunch I’m going to need you to draw up a little agreement between Mr. Seveir and myself.” He looked across at the perspiring publisher who was intent upon the agreement Charles Roche had prepared and signed before his death.

“This is extraordinary,” sputtered Seveir. “A damnable betrayal of his class. Heaven knows what the consequences would be now if this thing were made public. It’s absolutely subversive.”

Shayne leaned back and studied the publisher with narrowed eyes. “I take it you wouldn’t want to publish a full text of that agreement in tomorrow’s Gazette. Along with proof that Mr. Persona, chairman of the board of AMOK, had a secret agreement with George Brand to pay out a slush fund of twenty thousand dollars in the event the strike was defeated.”

“I wouldn’t touch a thing like that,” declared Seveir, pushing the document away from him in horror. “There’s no telling what repercussions might follow. The confidence of the people would be undermined. The whole structure of our society…”

“How would you like to take a long vacation, Mr. Seveir?”

“A vacation?” he faltered. “I don’t believe I understand.”

“A trip around the world. Freedom from care for a while. Forget the newspaper business and the underpinning of society. You must have promised yourself such a vacation for a long time. Hasn’t your wife urged you to do something like that?” Shayne spoke casually with an underlying tone of concern, as for an old friend.

Mr. Seveir moved his thin lips nervously before he replied, “Why yes. For a good many years I’ve been promising her… but… I don’t understand, Mr. Shayne.” Perspiration stood out on his forehead, and his glasses were misted over. He took out a snowy white linen handkerchief, unhooked his glasses, wiped them carefully, then mopped his brow.

Shayne leaned forward and propped his elbows on the desk. “How much does the Gazette net you in a year?”

Seveir’s thin hands shook as he replaced his glasses. “I don’t see why I’m required to reveal my…”

“How much?” Shayne said harshly.

“Our gross earnings were slightly over twenty-five thousand last year,” said Seveir proudly. “But with salaries and overhead and taxes…”

Shayne settled back again while Seveir tried to figure what he had left after overhead and taxes were computed. He said, “I’ll make you a proposition. This is flat and final and requires an immediate yes or no. I’ll preface my offer by explaining that hell is about to break loose in Centerville. The strike you’ve just seen won’t be a patch on what’s coming. You can’t do one damned thing to prevent it by staying here and running the Gazette. Here’s my proposition:

“I’ll lease the paper from you for six months. The entire plant, good-will, staff and everything. I’ll pay you a net rental of a thousand dollars a month for six months. One-half down in cash when you sign the agreement and the balance in monthly installments. You can have a good time on a grand a month, Seveir. You can do all the things you’ve been promising yourself and your wife for so many years.”

“But I’m not ready to retire. Not for years yet.”

“Six months,” Shayne pressed him. “You get your paper back then. Along with a decent town.” He was digging in his pocket and brought out the wad of thousand-dollar bills. He counted off three of them before Seveir’s fascinated eyes, and pushed them across the table. “You’ve got just one minute to think it over. Then the offer will be withdrawn and won’t be made again.”

As though hypnotized by the sight of so much money, the publisher touched the bills tentatively with his fingertips. He wet his thin lips and tried to say something, then took off his glasses to polish them again.

Shayne turned to Lucy and said, “Draw up a simple memorandum for us to sign. Make it in the form of a letter from Mr. Seveir to me, setting forth the terms I’ve just mentioned. Type it in triplicate.”

He turned back to the publisher and said quietly, “I don’t believe you like a lot of things you’ve been forced to do to show a profit here in Centerville. I don’t blame you for riding with the tide, but that tide is turning, Seveir. All you have to do is step aside and get paid for it. That shouldn’t be a difficult decision. Frankly, Centerville isn’t going to be a safe place during the next few months. I’ll put that agreement signed by Roche before the miners if I have to distribute handbills. They’re going to be angry, and they aren’t going to be pleased with a local paper that refuses to print the news.”

“I’ll step aside.” Seveir’s voice was brittle. “If you can give the miners an even break, it’s more than I’ve dared do.”

Lucy re-entered the room with a brief typed memorandum. She gave each man a copy and Shayne said, “Now send a wire to Timothy Rourke in Miami: ‘Come on first plane. Have just leased daily paper for six months. Need you to manage campaign guaranteed to undermine quote civilized unquote society. Heads will roll tomorrow and mine among them if you not here to help. Mike Shayne, Chief of Police, Centerville, Kentucky.’”

He grinned widely as he finished, and Lucy Hamilton laughed outright. “Tim will never believe it,” she declared. “He’ll be sure it’s just a drunken hoax.”

“He’ll call me the minute he gets it,” Shayne assured her, “collect.” He glanced over his copy of the memorandum while Lucy went to file the telegram.

Mr. Seveir’s hand trembled when he took his fountain pen from his pocket and unscrewed the top, but he signed his name to both copies of the document with a firm hand. Still dazed and unbelieving, and with three thousand dollars in his pocket and six months vacation beckoning to him, he went from the office.

Lucy came in and perched herself on a corner of Shayne’s desk. “All right, master-mind,” she said sweetly. “Tell me what you intend to do with a six-months lease on the Centerville Gazette.”

Shayne chuckled and said, “Just keep your eyes open and you’ll see the fireworks.”

“Well, from what I’ve seen and heard of things around here you’ll last about thirty minutes after Tim’s first issue hits the street with that strike agreement story.”

“Things are going to be different,” he reminded her. “I’m chief of police now. Even AMOK’s hired gunmen are going to find it tough if Persona tries to bring them in again.”

“How long do you expect to hold the job after that agreement is printed? Seth Gerald put you in and he can yank you out just as fast,” she argued.

“Not as long as he thinks he might be accused of murder by doing so. He’s stuck with me as long as Brand stays in jail waiting conviction. I can delay his trial for months… long enough to get the miners aroused when they learn how they’ve been sold down the river.”

“But how can you hold Brand in jail?” Lucy faltered. “You said all along that existence of this agreement signed by Roche would be all the evidence needed to clear him.”

Shayne looked at her in astonishment. “Good Lord, Lucy! Have you forgot that telegram?”

“The one from George Brand? How did you manage to guess that, Michael? That it had been sent from Slag Junction?”

“I knew it had to be something like that as soon as Stanger said he left Washington before noon to drive down… after reading about the case in the paper. Hell, it couldn’t have been in a Washington paper before noon. Not even a flash about Roche’s murder, much less the news of Brand’s arrest which didn’t happen until noon. You heard what Seveir said about the timing of dispatches to hit different editions.”

“Oh… I see,” said Lucy thoughtfully. “I realize now how you knew Brand must have managed to inform Stanger that he was in trouble. And I even see how you guessed that the important business that delayed Stanger in Lexington was to get that money out of escrow. But what does it all mean?”

He looked at her curiously, then lifted the slip of paper she had laid on his desk. “Here’s the telegram that was sent from the railroad station at Slag Junction at four-ten yesterday morning.” He read it aloud to her:

“MYRON J. STANGER,

NATIONAL UNION FOR WORKERS JUSTICE,

CHASE BUILDING,

WASHINGTON, D. C.

COME AT ONCE PER AGREEMENT. USE POWER OF ATTORNEY LEXINGTON BANK TOMORROW AS INSTRUCTED. SEE ME BEFORE TALKING TO ANYONE.

BRAND.”

He flipped the sheet of paper away. “Don’t you realize what that means, Lucy?”

“Well… it certainly looks as though Brand knew he was going to need a lawyer at four o’clock yesterday morning,” she told him.

“Two hours before Roche’s body was discovered. Not only that, but his reference to the Lexington bank shows that he knew the strike would end within a few hours and the twenty thousand in escrow would be available to Stanger. The only way he could possibly know those things was because he had killed Roche and thus ended any hope of a strike settlement favorable to the miners.”

“Michael! Do you mean Brand actually did… murder Mr. Roche?” Her brown eyes were startled, her voice filled with astonishment. “But his alibi… those three men who swore he was playing cards with them?”

“That’s one of the more curious aspects of the case,” Shayne admitted. “We were so damned disgusted with the Gestapo methods of the authorities here in seeking to tear down Brand’s alibi that we didn’t realize it might be false and that they were actually getting the truth out of those poor devils who were lying for Brand. Their methods were so revolting, it was impossible for us to believe they could accomplish anything worthwhile. But it’s perfectly evident now that Margule and Home and Burroughs were lying… for a price.”

“But what about Brand’s own gun? Would a man leave his gun beside the body of his victim, knowing it could be traced to him?”

“A man like Brand would do exactly that,” Shayne told her with certainty. “In fact, that was a part of the plan. A necessary part, to assure the end of the strike and collection of the twenty thousand dollar bribe which was a great deal more important to Brand than a square deal for the men he was pretending to represent. Look at it from his viewpoint. He had to kill Roche before his thirtieth birthday in order to keep the strike settlement from going through. But the mere killing of Roche wasn’t enough. To positively assure the end of the strike immediately, Brand had to also fix it so he would be charged with the crime. He felt safe enough with that signed agreement already in Stanger’s possession. It would seem positive proof that he didn’t commit the crime so long as no one knew about the bribe. And Persona certainly wasn’t going to mention it to anybody. The agreement with Roche was Brand’s life insurance, but he couldn’t afford to have it turn up at once… not until the miners were convinced of his guilt and that their cause was lost.

“As soon as they returned to work, the twenty thousand dollars was Brand’s… and Stanger would produce the agreement later and get him released. Maybe there was more between Brand and Elsa Roche than she admits, too. That could have been a contributing factor in his decision. Though I imagine the twenty grand was inducement enough.”

“What about that money, Michael? Whom does it belong to? You’ve already given part of it to Mr. Seveir.”

Shayne grinned crookedly. “I imagine the courts are going to have a lot of fun trying to decide ownership. In the meantime, I don’t see any reason I shouldn’t be using it to help finance the campaign to wake the miners up to the truth. If I have to repay it later, don’t forget that I’ve already collected one five thousand dollar fee, and AMOK will owe me another five when Brand is convicted.”

“But as soon as you publish this agreement between Brand and Charles Roche in the Gazette,” protested Lucy, “and offer that telegram of Brand’s in evidence, his conviction will be assured and you’ll no longer have any hold over Seth Gerald. He’ll have you removed as police chief and…”

“Maybe he will,” Shayne said grimly. “But I don’t have to make the clinching evidence against Brand public at once. I’ll keep Gerald on the hot-seat as long as possible, and with Tim Rourke running the Gazette we’ll whip up public opinion against Gerald and Persona and the bloody methods of AMOK to a point where the whole state will be aroused.”

“Can’t you do anything about Mr. Persona, Mike? Does he get off scot-free?”

“I think I can break Persona and his anti-labor organization by printing all the vicious details of his private arrangement with Brand and by pointing out in the Gazette that half a dozen deaths are directly attributable to him. We may not be able to convict him of any specific crime, but stripping him of power will serve the purposes of justice just as well.”

Lucy Hamilton sighed and shook her head. “It’s the most awful betrayal I ever heard of. How are the miners going to feel when they learn their trusted leader cold-bloodedly sold them out for cash?”

“I hope they feel like hell. I hope it causes a stink that spreads across the state and throws the white light of suspicion on every other double-crossing labor leader who may be doing the same thing. That’ll be the Gazette’s job… and Tim Rourke’s going to love it. Have you started looking for a house for the three of us… as I suggested last night?”

“I didn’t dream you were serious.”

“Find something that’s available for six months. Maybe the Roche house on the hill, for I’ve a hunch the sultry widow will be going back to Boston where she belongs. Or the house George Brand has been occupying. He won’t be needing it… and Ann Cornell lives right across the street. You might do worse than get acquainted with that gal and take some lessons from her. Cooking and things like that,” he added hastily as he caught a flash of fire from Lucy’s eyes as she swung off the edge of his desk and stood upright.

“From what I saw of her, I bet I can cook rings around Mrs. Cornell right now.” Lucy turned and went swiftly out of the office with flaming cheeks and with Shayne’s chuckle echoing after her.

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