"Look, Paulette," I say. "You can take a pull at yourself an' don't talk hooey. I don't give a durn about your takin' a shot at me. An' I ain't takin' you back as a material witness or anything else like that, so don't start tellin' yourself what you're goin' to do to me, because you're takin' yourself for a ride, honeybunch, an' I'd hate to see you disappointed."
"I see," she says. "Then if I'm not a material witness, an' you're forgetting about the shooting, may I be so curious as to ask just for what you are taking me somewhere for?"
"OK, honey," I tell her. "Here it is. I'm takin' you back to Palm Springs just because I wanta take you there, an' when I get you there I'm chargin' you with first-degree murder."
I give her another cigarette over my shoulder.
"I'm chargin' you with the murder of Granworth Aymes on the night of the 12th January," I tell her, "an' how do you like that?"
CHAPTER 12
IT Is eleven o'clock at night when I pull the car up outside Metts' house in Palm Springs.
Paulette seemsta have settled down a bit. She has also got the idea that she is gain' to make a big sap outa me before she is through.
I stuck around at Yuma for a coupla hours because I wanted to telephone through to Metts an' tell him one or two things so that he wouldn't be too surprised when I showed up an' I also had a spot of business to do over the 'phone with the Mexican authorities at Mexicali an' another spot with the New York Office. I stuck around there for a bit so's Paulette could get her hair done, an' also so that we shouldn't arrive at Metts' place at Palm Springs before night because I have got an idea that I don't want anybody to see Paulette. I am goin' to keep her nice an secret for a bit.
I hand her over to Metts in his sittin' room.
"This is Paulette Benito," I tell him, "an' I am chargin' her with first-degree murder of Granworth Aymes. I'd be glad if you'd book her on that an' hold her pendin' extradition to the State of New York. I think that maybe two or three days in the lock-up here would do this dame a quite lotta good. It might sorta get her mind nice an' peaceful so's she feels like talkin'."
"That's OK by me," says Metts.
He rings the bell an' tells a cop to get through to the Police Office an' have a sergeant take Paulette along an' book her. He says that she is to be held incommunicado pendin' further instructions.
Paulette just stands there. She is lookin' fine. She has got her hair done very nice like I told you at Yuma, an' she has got a swell suit on an' ruffles. She looks like she would have to take two bites to eat a lump of butter.
She smiles at me an' Metts.
"Very well," she says. "You have it your own way now, Lemmy, but believe me I'm going to make the Federal Service too hot to hold you before I'm through with you. And I insist on a lawyer. I'm entitled to one and I'm going to have one. Any objections, or are you going to twist the legal constitution of the United States to suit yourself?"
"That's OK by me, Paulette," I tell her. "Mr Metts here will get a good lawyer sent around to you in the morning. An' then what? I reckon you an' him can have a great time together while you tell him how you didn't kill Granworth. But you ain't goin' to be sprung. You ain't goin' to get no bail or get outside the lock-up until I say so, so you can bite on that an' like it."
She smiles at me. She shows her little white teeth an' I don't reckon I have ever seen such pretty teeth except maybe Henrietta's.
The copper comes in to take her.
"Au revoir, Lemmy," she says. "What a cheap fiatfoot you are! You didn't really think that I'd fallen for you, did you?"
"Me - I never think at all where dames are concerned," I crack back at her. "I just let them do the thinkin'. Well, so long, Paulette. Don't do anything that you wouldn't like your mother to know about."
The copper takes her away.
I tell Metts just as much of the works as I want him to know, an' I tell him just how I am goin' to play this thing from now on. Metts is a good guy, an' he has got brains, an' he sees that what I am doin' is the only way to play this job. So he cuts in an' says I can rely on him the whole durn way.
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.