He says yes an' pulls it outa his pocket. I take it off him.
"OK," I say. "Now I'm lockin' you in here an' leavin' you in here. Just take a word of advice an' stick around until I come for you again, otherwise I am goin' to get very tough with you. I'll be seem' you."
I step out on to the balcony, pull the door shut an' lock it. I reckon I am pretty safe in leavin' Periera there. I don't think he will try anythin' because he is not the sorta guy who would. He is frightened sick. Then I gumshoe along the balcony, keepin' my gun ready in case Fernandez comes through the hatch.
When I get to it I climb through. I find myself in a little room that would be right above the passage that leads from the front entrance to the dance floor. There is a lantern burnin' on the floor an' by the light from it I can see in the corner of the room a flight of iron steps curvin' down towards some place underneath on the left.
I slip along down these steps an' at the bottom I find myself in a long stone passage. I do a bit of thinkin' an' I come to the conclusion that this passage runs underground from the main room of the Hacienda along underneath the adobe wall that is at the rear end of the garage. I reckon this passage was originally a sorta cellar in the house. Anyhow it makes a pretty swell hide-out.
I go along the passage until I come to a wooden door at the end. There is a light comin' from underneath it. I kick this door open, step into the room on the other side quick. I am in' a stone cellar There is a couple of electric lights fixed up, and in the opposite corner I can see Fernandez packin' up some papers in the suitcase stuck against the wall. On the left hand side of the cellar are two big printin' presses an' packed against the wall on the other side are a lotta boxes an' on shelves above 'em are bottles, brushes, an' stencil plates.
So I am dead right.
"Well, Fernandez," I say.
He spins around. I show him the gun.
"Take it easy, big boy," I tell him, "because gettin' excited certainly ain't goin' to get you nowhere now, an' you know so far as you are concerned it woulda been a lot easier for you an' Periera if you'd aimed a little bit better that night when you took a shot at me when I was drivin' back to Palm Springs. I knew it was you all along, but I thought at the time that you might like to think that I thought maybe it was Henrietta who was doin' the shootin'.
I walk over to him.
"Go an' get yourself against the wall on the other side an' reach for the ceilin'," I tell him, "an' I wouldn't move if I was you. If I see one twitch outa you I'm goin' to give it to you the same as you gave it to Sagers, you lousy heel."
He starts walkin' over but keeps his hands up.
"Say what the hell do you mean, Caution?" he says. "You can't get away with this stuff. You can't.
"You shut your head an' do what I tellya, Fernandez," I say, "otherwise I'm goin' to execute you here an' now, which is a thing which I would not like to do because I would hate to do the electric chair outa a good customer, an' the day they fry you I'm goin' to give myself a big highball just to celebrate. Turn your face to the wall, keep your hands up an' stay quiet, otherwise I'll blast your spine in."
He does what I tell him. I look inta the case he has been packin' up. You never saw such a lotta stuff in your life. It is fulla stock an' share certificates, United States dollar bonds, United States gold certificates, 1000 dollar bills, an' what will you. I take some of this stuff out, walk over to where the electric light is an' look at it carefully.
The whole durn lot is counterfeit.
"So that's the way it is, Fernandez," I tell him. "I thought I was guessin' right. I reckon that you an' Periera are bigger mugs than I thought you were. I knew when I told you that phoney stuff tonight about my takin' you to New York in the mornin' as material witnesses that you'd have to clean this stuff up so that nobody would find it while you was away. I reckoned if I came back here I'd find you at it. Well, I was right.
"I suppose now you're goin' to tell me that this ain't a counterfeitin' joint, an' even if it was, you wouldn't know anythin' about it. Well, it was a swell idea too. I reckon it was durn easy to work off some of this phoney stuff on clients up in the card room when they'd had too much liquor to tell the difference between a bad bill an' a good one. It was a swell idea, but it ain't goin' to be so swell for you. Come on, let's get goin'."
I take him up the stairs, push him through the hatch an' along the balcony. I unlock Periera's room an' I shove him inside. I go in after him an' close the door behind me.
Periera is sittin at the desk lookin' as scared as hell. I frisk Fernandez an' take a gun off him that he has got on his hip. Then I tell him to go an' sit down alongside Periera. He calls me a nasty name.
"I oughta had more sense," he says. "I oughta have known that all that stuff you said about us goin' to New York as witnesses was a lotta baloney."
"You're dead right, Fernandez," I tell him. "You oughta have had a lot more sense. You guys are the fall guys all right.
I put on a nice little act up here tonight in front of you arrestin' Henrietta for killin' Granworth Aymes an' counterfeitin', an' you fell for it. You thought that the big idea of framin' this poor dame for the jobs you've been doin' had come off. You musta thought I was a mug.
"You guys thought you'd get away with the whole works. Well you didn't. You made your mistake an' you're goin' to pay plenty for it."
I stand there lookin' at 'em. Periera is holdin' his head between his hands. He looks as if he is finished, but Fernandez has got his hands in his pockets. He is tiltin' his chair back, grinnin'.
"If you ain't the finest pair of lousy heels in the world, I'm a Dutchman," I say. "But you know you guys can still learn somethin'. I never yet knew a crook who didn't get too clever an' catch himself out, an' that don't only go for you neither. Your pal Langdon Burdell, Marie Dubuinet-the maid at the apartment-an' that wharf watchman guy-James Fargal, are all as big saps as you are. They've blown the works good an' plenty. Maybe you'll like to know how. Well, I'll tell you.
"You remember when I had you two guys down at the police station at Palm Springs just before I went away, the day I pulled that big act about gruellin' Henrietta about the clothes she was wearin'? You remember, Fernandez, I showed you a list of the clothes an' I told you that I was goin' to send it through to New York an' that if Marie Dubuinet an' the watchman identified them clothes then that would show me that it was Henrietta who was in the car with Granworth? You remember that?
"Well, I just didn't tell you guys one thing. I just didn't tell you that I altered that list. It wasn't the list of clothes I got from Henrietta. She was wearin' a black Persian coat an' hat on that night, but in the list I showed you-the one I sent through to New York - I altered it. I made out she was wearin' a brown leather hat an' a fawn nius quash coat.
"An' the sap maid Marie Dubuinet an' the sap night watchman, both of 'em fell for the little trap I set for 'em. They both say they identify the list as being the clothes that Henrietta was wearin' that night. Well that told me all I wanted to know. It told me that she wasn't the dame in the car with Aymes, it showed me that the dame in the car was your little playmate Paulette Benito, an' it also showed me that the whole darn lot of you was in on this job, an' how do you like that?"
They don't say nothin'.
"I reckon I have met some lousy heels since I've been kickin' around in the Federal Service," I tell 'em, "an' I reckon I've met some thugs who wouldn't stop at anythin' at all, but I just think that you bunch of guys, with the big idea you've been tryin' to pull, are just about the top of the list. You make me sick."
Periera gives a moan. He starts cryin'. He is also sweatin' considerable. I reckon he is just ripe for me to fix him. I go over to the side table an' I pour out a shot of bourbon. I take it back an' I give it to him.