Nina who kept glancing at me expectantly, saw by my sudden change of expression that I had an idea.
She began to speak, then remembering the microphone, she stopped. I put the radio on again.
‘I think I’ve got it,’ I said. ‘There is only one way to work it. I’ve got to trick him. I think I have an idea how I can do it, but everything depends on whether or not the money is in a left luggage station or a safe deposit. If it’s in the house, then I’m sunk, but I can’t believe it is in the house.’
‘What are you planning to do, Harry?’
‘Give me a moment.’
I went to my desk and taking a sheet of paper, I wrote out the following: NEWS FLASH.
We interrupt this programme to bring to you the latest development in the Malroux kidnapping.
The Palm City police have reason to believe that the ransom money has been lodged in a safe deposit or at a left luggage station.
A special search warrant has been obtained from the State Governor, and beginning at nine o’clock tomorrow morning, teams of detectives are to search all parcels and luggage in left luggage stations and all newly opened safe deposits.
Anyone who has rented a safe since the beginning of the month is asked to call at the nearest police station with the key of the safe.
The search will cover a radius of a hundred miles of Palm City. District Attorney Meadows feels confident that, by this extensive operation, the ransom money will be found.
I gave the sheet of paper to Nina who read it. She stared blankly at me.
‘I don’t understand, Harry.’
‘It’s my job to feed the local TV and radio stations with news of the kidnapping. They’ll broadcast this without question. I’m hoping when O’Reilly hears of this, he’ll stampede. He could lead me to the place where he has hidden the money.’
‘But you don’t know he’ll be listening in.’
‘He’ll be listening in all right. I’m going to tell him to listen in.’ I moved to the telephone, then paused. ‘They’ve probably tapped the line by now. I’ll have to use an outside line. If it got back to Meadows, he would stop it.’ I started for the door. ‘I’ll go to the drug store at the corner. I’ll be right back.’
‘Shall I come with you, Harry?’
‘Better not. You wait here for me.’
By now it was dark. I left the bungalow and strolled down the path to the gate. As I opened the gate, I glanced to right and left. The police car was parked about fifty yards up the road. The drug store was the other way. I didn’t have to pass the car. I set off, walking at a normal pace. I heard the car start up. I knew it was crawling after me, but I didn’t look back. My one fear now was that they would arrest me before I could put my plan into operation. If they did that, I was really sunk.
I went into the drug store and shut myself in a booth. I called the local TV station. I got through to Fred Hickson, the P.R.O. and my opposite number.
‘Fred,’ I said, ‘I have an important announcement for you. The D.A. wants it broadcast and put on TV
at eleven tonight. Can you do it?’
‘Sure: let’s have it,’ Hickson said.
I read the News Flash to him and he took it down.
‘That’s okay,’ he said. ‘We’ll interrupt both programmes at eleven o’clock. The D.A. certainly means business, doesn’t he?’
‘He sure does,’ I said. ‘Well, thanks, Fred — so long,’ and I hung up.
I looked at my watch. It was half past nine. I telephoned Malroux’s residence. After a delay, the butler answered.
‘This is police headquarters,’ I said. ‘We want to talk to O’Reilly. Is he there?’
‘I believe he is in his room,’ the butler said. ‘If you will hold on I will connect you.’
There was a clicking on the line, then O’Reilly said, ‘Hello! Who is it?’
Speaking slowly and distinctly so he couldn’t miss a word, I said, ‘Hello, sucker, how’s your conscience acting tonight?’
There was a sudden silence. I could imagine him at the other end of the line, his face hardening and his hand tightening on the receiver.
‘Who’s this?’ he demanded, a snarl in his voice.
‘The other sucker,’ I said.
‘Is that you, Barber?’
‘Yes. I’m tipping you off. The D.A. has at last come up with a bright idea. If you’re interested, and you’d better be interested, listen to the TV programme, local network, at eleven tonight for a news flash.
Got it? The local station at eleven tonight. See you in the gas chamber,’ and I hung up before he could say anything.
As I came out of the booth I saw a big man with a red face and with cop written all over him come into the store.
I knew sooner or later the axe would fall, but when I saw him my blood ran cold.
He came straight up to me.
‘Mr. Barber?’
‘That’s right.’
‘You’re wanted at headquarters. We have a car right here.’
‘Why, sure,’ I said, and as we walked together from the store to the waiting car, I thought of Nina.
The detective and I got in the back of the car. The other detective who had been waiting by the car, slid under the driving wheel.
‘What’s it all about?’ I asked as the car shot away. ‘Has something come up?’
‘I wouldn’t know,’ the detective said in a bored flat voice. ‘They just told me to fetch you, and I’m fetching you.’
There was nothing now I could do. I had played a King and now everything depended on whether O’Reilly held the Ace or only the Queen. If he held the Ace, I was sunk.
II
Renick was working at his desk. The one light in the room came from his green shaded lamp. It made a pool of hard light on his blotter.
The two detectives shepherded me into the office as if they were handling something fragile, then as soon as I was safely delivered, they stepped back into the passage and closed the door.
I walked to a chair and sat down, glad of the heavy shadows in the room.
Renick was smoking. He tossed his pack of cigarettes and his lighter into my lap. There was a short silence as I lit a cigarette.
‘What’s up?’ I asked as I put the lighter and the cigarettes on the desk. ‘I was just going to bed,’
‘Let’s cut out the bluff, Harry,’ he said quietly. ‘You’re in bad trouble and you must know it.’
‘Am I under arrest?’
‘Not yet. I thought I’d have a talk with you first. This is off the record. I could lose my job handling it this way, but I’ve known you, come rain, come sunshine for the past twenty years. You and Nina are real people to me so I’m giving you a break. I want you to tell me the truth. If you’re in the kind of trouble I think you are, I’m handing you over to Reiger. I’m not going to work on you. Let’s have the truth and it’s strictly off the record: did you kill Odette Malroux?’
I looked directly at him.
‘No, but I don’t expect you to believe me.’
‘There are no microphones in this office, and no witnesses. I’m asking you, not as a police officer, but as your friend.’
‘The answer is still the same: I didn’t kill her.’
He leaned forward to crush out his cigarette. The white light from the desk lamp lit up his face. He looked as if he hadn’t had any sleep for a couple of days.
‘Well, at least that’s something,’ he said. ‘You’re mixed up in this business, aren’t you?’
‘I certainly am. I’m in such a jam, even having you as a friend, isn’t going to do me any good.’
He lit another cigarette.
‘Suppose you tell me the whole story.’
‘Sure — how did you get on to me, John?’
‘Tim Cowley told me he had seen you at the bus stop on the night of the murder with a redhead, wearing a blue and white dress. I kept checking on you, and everything I turned up pointed to you.’