"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."