I said: “Most women don’t feel that way.”
She said: “I’ve lost more money playing high low Jack than most women have ever held in their hands. What good is it; you can’t eat it, can you? It won’t cover you when you’re cold.”
“It will buy what it takes, won’t it?”
She grinned and said: “Hell! You can only eat one meal at a time and sleep in one bed. It’s nothing to worship.”
I thought that if Crandall had the same notion, Wendel would maybe have been spared a lot of grief.
I stalled until nine and then drove around to the corner where I was to meet Wendell. He and Lester were waiting on the corner and I pulled into the curb and said:
“Climb in.”
They did, with Wendel in the middle. He started to cry before I’d even gotten the car away from the curb. He said:
“I’ll say now, Connell, that I’m disappointed in you. Free told me you were a good man but I think you’ve mismanaged this affair most lamentably.”
“Did you do better?” I asked.
He admitted he hadn’t.
“I walk in here on a set-up that’s damned near perfect and you expect me to crack it. I’ve got the whole damned town against me and you expect me to perform a miracle.”
“I can’t understand your antagonizing the police the way you have. I can’t understand that at all.”
“They haven’t put me on any plane, mister.”
“I don’t understand your idea in taking a position in that roadhouse. Your friend told me of that.”
“I met your wife there.”
He shut up for a moment, said in an altered voice: “How... how did she look?”
“Okey, as far as I could see.”
“Who was she with?”
“Her lawyer.”
“No one else?”
I couldn’t see any sense in telling him she’d been with her lawyer as well as two hoodlums and their tramp women. But I knew what he was thinking of and I said:
“Now look! I thought the same as you’re thinking when I started out on this. I figured boy friend, the same as you do. But I’ve seen her several times, twice out there, and she’s always been with either her guards or her lawyer. And the lawyer’s no boy friend of hers. So get that out of your craw. It’s something else. Now did you meet any sixteen-year-old kids while you and Joey were painting the town?” He stared at me. We were parked by that time and I could watch his face. He said: “Why of course not. We were in bars and gambling places. Naturally I didn’t meet any children in those sort of places.”
“They start young sometimes. A gal can fool you on age. Put it this way; were you out with any woman?”
He said stiffly: “I was not. I was here to effect a reconciliation with my wife. Naturally I would not be with any other woman. That sort of casual affair doesn’t appeal to me, anyway. Even before my marriage.”
I said: “You know it’s statutory rape if the girl’s under sixteen. Even if she’s willing. You’ve got that straight? Don’t lie to me, Wendel, I’ve got to know.”
He looked at me as though I was crazy and said: “I haven’t the faintest idea of what you’re talking about. Please explain.”
I said: “I thought it was a frame but I had to make sure.” I went on and told him of what Crandall had said and his face got redder and redder and he swore in a school-boyish way. But very sincerely. I kept on with the explaining, showing him the spot he was on. I finished with:
“Now get it. If you contest the suit, Crandall will get this father of the girl, whoever she is, to swear out a warrant charging you with this mythical assault. You’ll be picked up on the charge at once, if you’re in the state. They could extradite you on it, if they wanted to, but I doubt if they would. They’ll be satisfied to have you away. If you fight it, the judge has got two strikes called on you before you open your mouth; Crandall tells me the judge knows the girl they’ve got working with them. Of course the judge thinks she’s a sweet innocent kid. You’re going to get stuck with that robbing settlement if the thing goes through. There’s no way out of it.”
“But... but won’t my wife’s action come up long before any criminal charge could be brought against me and carried to trial?”
“Not in this town. I don’t say Crandall can influence the judge; I don’t think he can. But he sure as hell can get a criminal case speeded up if he wants to pull a few strings. Christ, man! I guess you don’t realize the influence a man like that carries in this sort of town. Look at it this way. He’s in with the decent people and he’s in with the crooks. Suppose some reputable person makes a slip. Crandall has his underworld element to tell him of the slip, as well as his decent friends and the things he learns through his own practice. He’s got people like that foul; they’ll jump when he speaks. He’s been here for years. A situation like that snowballs; I’m willing to bet he knows as much about the private life of this town as the town does. He can bring pressure to bear in a thousand different ways. It’s a form of blackmail; but he keeps in the clear all the time.”
“But this is a pure and simple frame-up.”
Lester made one of the few wise remarks I ever heard him make. He said gravely: “Pure frame-up perhaps, but surely not a simple one. It seems very complicated to me.”
Wendell ignored him, said to me: “Isn’t there anything I can do?”
“D’ya think you can straighten this if you can talk with your wife?”
“I can try at least. I don’t understand her action; I’ve done nothing to warrant it. If I can talk with her I think I can convince her of that.”
He looked down on the floor-board then, said in a sick sort of way: “I’ll tell you, Connell. If she really wants to divorce me I won’t stand in her way. I’ll give her any settlement she asks for if it’s possible for me to do it. But there’s a mistake here; there must be.”
“D’ya want this blood-sucker of a Crandall to get the settlement she’s asking for? I’m telling you; the man isn’t in it like this for a straight fee. That doesn’t make sense. There’s big money in it for him or he wouldn’t be fooling around. Hell, man, there’s a murder in it. Why I don’t know, but there’s a tie-up. Would a supposedly reputable lawyer fool with murder for a divorce case fee? Use your head on this. I’m not bucking your wife’s settlement. You’re not. It’s Crandall; he’s back of it.”
“I know all that. Why tell me that?”
“I don’t want you going soft on me.”
He put his dignified air back on and said: “My personal feelings are, after all, my own affair and concern.”
I cracked it at him then. I’d been wanting to do it all the time, but he was such a straight-laced bird I’d been afraid to speak. I said: “It’s my concern if it puts my neck in a noose. Don’t forget that, mister. Now if you want to take a chance, we’ll try and talk with your wife.”
“Where can we see her?”
“At Crandall’s place.”
He looked bewildered, stuttered: “B-b-ut the guards! I’ve told you that.”
I laughed and said: “We’re going in the side way or the guards aren’t. I don’t know just how and won’t, until I you’ve got the guts.”
He said very simply: “I want to see her.”
Chapter Fifteen
The three of us drove out to the Three C Club and I parked in the shadow beyond it and sent Lester in to see what he could see. He came out, giggling, and said:
“She’s in there with Crandall and the two guards. And Joey’s there.”