Dames Don’t Care (21 page)

After which he gives me a wire that has come through from the 'G' Office in New York.

An' when I read it do I get a kick or do I?

I told you that I sent a wire to the New York 'G' Office before I went inta Mexico. In this wire I sent 'em a list of the clothes that Henrietta was wearin' on the night of the 12th January when she went into New York to see Granworth, an' I asked the New York Office to check up with the maid Marie Dubuinet and the night watchman an' ask 'em if they could identify these clothes as bein' Henrietta's. Well, here is the reply:

Reference your wire. The maid Marie Dubuinet now employed by Mrs John Viaford, New York, definitely identified clothes as being part of outfit packed by her for Mrs Henrietta Aymes when proceeding to Hartford, Connecticut stop. James Fargal night watchman at Cotton's Wharf identified hat and fur coat as being those worn by the woman who got out of the car which afterwards drove over wharf edge with Granworth Aynzes in driving seat stop. Both these identifications absolutely positive.

So there you are, an' I reckon that I have now got Henrietta placed in this job all right, an' I guess that when I have told this sweet dame just what I am goin' to tell her within the next few hours then maybe she is goin' to get such a surprise that she will not be quite certain as to whether she is standin' on her arm or her elbow.

It is now twelve o'clock an' Metts an' I go into a huddle an' we work out just what we're goin' to do now. Metts asks me if I was serious when I said that he could get a lawyer for Paulette next mornin', an' I say I do not mind if she has twenty-five lawyers because I reckon that when I'm through with her she won't even need one of 'em.

I then have a drink with him after which I go down an' get into the car an' start off for the Hacienda Altmira. It is a swell night an' while I am drivin' along I get to thinkin' what a lot has happened since the first time I was on this road. Life's a funny thing whichever way you look at it or even if you don't look at it.

Pretty soon at the end of the main street I come to the Hot Dog dump. I get out, go inside an' get myself a cup of coffee. The two swell wise-crackin' dames in their white coats are still issuin out the eats an' the old dame they call 'Hot Dog Annie,, just as high as she was on the first night I saw her, is sittin down at a table eatin' a hot dog with the tears runnin' down her face.

The redheaded dame looks at me with glowin' eyes.

''Gee, Mr Caution,'' she says, ''we was tickled silly when we heard you was a 'G' man. We remembered the first night you came in here an' started pullin' a lotta stuff on us that you came from Magdalena in Mexico. Gee, it must be a swell job bein' a 'G' man."

I drink my coffee.

"It ain't so bad, honey," I say, "an' then again it ain't so good. But you be careful or else I might get after you."

I give her a naughty look.

"Yeah?" she says, "I reckon I wouldn't mind. I guess it wouldn't be so bad bein' pinched by a guy like you."

"That's as may be, honey," I say, "but the sorta pinch I got in mind for you is one that you do with your fingers! I'll be seem' you."

I finish my coffee an' I go on my way. Drivin' along the desert road I get to thinkin' about Henrietta. I wonder how she has liked stickin' around the Hacienda under the supervision of Periera. I remember how she went for me the last time I saw her down at the police station when I got the description of her clothes from her an' when I wouldn't let her smoke. I reckon I ain't goin' so good with Henrietta, which makes me grin a bit more. Another thing is I think that before I'm through with her tonight she's goin' to hate me worse than I was poison. Still I have had dames dislike me before now.

Pretty soon the Hacienda comes in sight. The neon lights outside are twinklin', but there is only a few cars around. It looks like they are havin' an off night. I park the car an' walk in the front entrance an' standin' by a hat room on the right talkin' to the dame who checks in the hats is Periera. He grins when he sees me.

"Buenos noches, Senor Caution," he says. "I am ver' glad to see you some more. Everytheeng has been very quiet around here, and the Senora Aymes - eef you want to see her you find her up een the card room."

"That's swell," I tell him. "You're a good guy, Periera, an' I reckon you've been useful to me. Maybe I'll find some way of makin' it up to you."

"They are all up there, senor," he says, "Fernandez, and Maloney-the whole lot of them. But don't you pay for any drinks. Anytheeng you have here is, what you call, on the house."

I go into the dance room. There are not many people there an' the band is sittin' around lookin' like bands always do when there ain't nobody to listen to 'em. I walk across the floor an' I start goin' up the steps that lead to the balcony.

When I have walked up a few steps I remember that this is the place where I found Sagers' silver shirt tassel. I stop for a minute and look around.

You remember I told you that this balcony runs right round the wall of the Hacienda Altmira. It is about eighteen to twenty feet off the ground. At the top of the stone steps where I'm standin' is the card room. Next to it way down the balcony is the room where Henrietta took Maloney after Fernandez had socked him one. Farther down in the corner is another room an' there are two more rooms leadin' off the balcony on my right-hand side.

I go up the stairs an' inta the card room. There are about twelve people in there. Fernandez an' Maloney an' four other guys are playin' poker at the centre table, an' the rest of 'em includin' Henrietta are standin' around watchin'.

When I go in Henrietta looks up. She sees me an' I give her a grin. Her face freezes an' she turns her back on me.

"Well, well, well, Henrietta," I say to her, "you don't meanta say you ain't goin' to say good-evenin' to your old friend Lemmy?"

"I've told you what I think of you," she says, "and I'll thank you not to talk to me. I hate the sight of cheap policemen."

"That's OK by me, baby," I tell her. "Maybe before I'm through with you you're goin' to hate the sight of 'em some more, an' if I was you, Henrietta," I go on, "I wouldn't get too fresh because I can make things plenty tough for you."

There is a sorta silence. The guys playin' poker have stopped. Everybody is lookin' at Henrietta an' me.

Maloney gets up.

"Say listen, Caution," he says. "I reckon you've got your job to do, but there's two ways of doin' it, an' even if you are a Federal Agent you don't have to get rough with Mrs Aymes."

"You don't say," I tell him. "OK. Well, if you want it that way, you have it. Fernandez," I say, turnin' to him where he is sittin' shufflin' the cards through his hands an' grinnin', "I guess you can do somethin' for me. Downstairs outside you will find a coupla State policemen. Bring 'em up here, will you?"

"OK," says Fernandez.

He gets up an' he goes outa the room. Maloney looks serious.

"What's the matter, Caution?" he says. "You goin' to make a pinch?"

"Well, what do you think, Maloney?" I tell him. "That's my business, makin' pinches. What do you think I've been kickin' around here for gain' into this an' that if I wasn't goin' to pinch somebody sometime?"

He don't say nothin', but he looks very serious. I give myself a cigarette an' while I am lightin' it the door opens. Fernandez an' Periera come in, an' behind 'em are two State cops, the guys who have been waitin' downstairs for me like I fixed with Metts. There is a helluva lotta atmosphere in this room. Everybody is waitin' for somethin' to break. There is a little sorta smile about Fernandez' face as he sits down at the table again an' starts runnin' the cards through his fingers. I turn around to Henrietta.

"Mrs Henrietta Aymes," I tell her, "I am a Federal Agent an' I'm arrestin' you on a charge of murderin' your husband - Granworth Aymes - on the night of January 12th last at Cotton's Wharf, New York City. I'm also arrestin' you on a charge of causin' to be made an' attemptin' to circulate two hundred thousand dollars' worth of counterfeit Registered United States Dollar Bonds, an' I am handin' you over to the Chief of Police here at Palm Springs to be booked on those charges an' held pendin' extradition for trial in the State of New York."

I turn around to the cops.

"OK, boys," I say. "Take her away."

Henrietta don't say a thing. She is as white as death an' I can see her lips tremblin'. Maloney steps forward an' takes her by the arm. Then he turns to me.

"Say, this is tough, Caution," he says. "This ain't so good. I thought...

"Impossible," I tell him, "you ain't got anythin' to think with. But if you want to be the little hero you can go back to Palm Springs with Henrietta."

"Thanks," he says, "I'd like to do that."

He goes out with Henrietta an' the cops go after 'em. I turn around to Periera.

"I wanta talk to you an' Fernandez," I say, "so I reckon you'd better close this dump down an' get these people outa here, an' you two go back to your office where we can sorta discuss things over."

Periera an' Fernandez an' the other guys go outa the room. After a minute downstairs I can hear people packin' up an' clearin' out. I go over to the sideboard an' I give myself a shot of bourbon. I stick around for about ten minutes, an' then Periera comes back an' says everything is OK. He says would I like to go along to his office, we can talk easier there. I follow after him along the balcony, an' we go into his room. Fernandez is sittin' at the table drinkin' a highball an' smokin' a cigarette. He looks up as we go in.

"Well, Mr Caution," he says, "it's turned out the way I thought it was going to turn out. I always knew she done it. Have a drink?"

I tell him yes. Periera hands me a cigarette an' lights it for me.

"I reckon I have played it the only way I could play it," I tell 'em. "It's stickin' outa foot to me that this dame Henrietta was the woman who got outa that car, started it up again an' sent it over the edge of the wharf, but I wasn't certain of that till tonight. I got a wire from New York tonight that tells me that the maid Marie Dubuinet an' the night watchman on Cotton's Wharf identified them clothes she was wearin'. That's good enough for me an' it ties the job up."

"An' you reckon she done the counterfeitin'?" asked Fernandez.

"No," I say, "she didn't do it, but she got somebody else to do it for her. Who that is I don't know, but maybe when I talk to her tomorrow mornin' down at the jail, she'll feel inclined to do a little real talkin'. Maybe she can make it a bit easier for herself."

Fernandez gets up an' pours himself out another highball. This guy is lookin' pretty well pleased with himself.

"I'm surely sorry for that dame," he says. "I reckon that she has got herself inta a bad jam, an' one that'll take a lotta brains to get her out of."

"You're tellin' me," I say, "but you never know where you are with dames. Say listen, Fernandez," I go on, "what was the big idea in you callin' yourself Fernandez an' comm' out here after Aymes died?"

He looks up an' grins.

"I hadta do something," he says, "an' I'd met Periera here, before, when I was out here a year ago drivin' Aymes. An' I call myself Fernandez because it don't sorta hurt so much as my real name - Termiglo."

He gives me a fresh sorta look.

"Anything else you'd like to know?" he says.

"Yeah," I tell him. "The night Aymes died you wasn't on duty, was you?"

He stubs out his cigarette.

"No, I wasn't," he said. "I was just stickin' around. So what?"

"Oh, nothin'," I tell him, "but I thought that maybe you could let me know where you was. I suppose you musta spent the evenin' somewhere an' I suppose that somebody musta seen you."

He laughs.

"Sure," he says. "If you gotta know I took Henrietta's maid, Marie, to the movies. I didn't know I hadta have an alibi."

"You don't have to have an alibi, Fernandez," I tell him. "I just sorta wanta know where everybody was on that evenin', that's all."

He looks at Periera sorta quick. I walk over to the side table an' give myself a drink. I am just imbibin' this liquor when the telephone bell rings. Fernandez picks up the receiver an' then looks at me.

"It's for you," he says. "Metts, the Palm Springs Chief of Police, wants you."

"Say listen, Lemmy," says Metts. "There's a marriage threatenin' around here an' I wanta know what I oughta do about it. I suppose it's OK?"

"What are you talkin' about, Metts," I ask him. "Who's goin' to marry who an' why, an' what's it got to do with me? I thought that maybe somebody else had got committin' some crime or something. Who is it that's goin' screwy an' wantin' to get hitched up?"

"It's Henrietta an' Maloney," he says. "When they got back here Maloney says that you have pinched Henrietta for killin' Aymes an' on a counterfeitin' charge as well, an' that you're a heel. He says that she's broke - she ain't got any dough at all, an' that you're framin' her. He says that he reckons the best thing he can do is to get married to her so's there'll be somebody to look after her an' get her a lawyer an' generally hang around. He says that he's talked it over with her an' she's so het up that she's prepared to agree to anything.

"Well, what could I say. They both been resident here an' they're entitled to marry, so I rang up the Justice an' he's comm' around here in about half an hour to tie 'em up. After a bit I sorta got the idea that maybe you oughta know something about this an' so I called through."

"Thanks a lot, Metts," I say. "Don't you worry about it. I'm comm' back right now, an' I reckon I'm goin' to stop this marriage pronto. Say, what the hell does Maloney think he's doin' usin' your police office as a marriage bureau?

"Don't you say anything until I get around. Just stall 'em an' play 'em along, but don't you let any marriages take place around there. Got me?"

He says he gets me, an' scrams.

I put the telephone down.

"Fernandez," I say, "I often been wonderin' why you was so keen to get yourself hitched up to Henrietta an' then suddenly shied off. I suppose it was because you thought that she'd had a hand in this counterfeitin'?"