“Yes,” Bascom said quietly. “Have another drink.”
“I will. Hey, Tod. You trying to get me drunk?”
“Now who could do that to an oldtimer like you?”
Shayne widened the slit in the door. Both men were barely three feet apart. Hat Raymond was filling his glass and Tod Bascom was glaring with hatred down at the old bent back.
“You could,” Raymond chuckled, “if you put your mind to it. You don’t fool me none, Tod. You’d like to see me dead so Effie could have all that money to herself. I’ve known about you a long time. I thought that Shayne could spot you but he didn’t.” The old man was performing beautifully as Shayne had instructed him.
“What are you talking about?” Tod Bascom looked incredulous.
“You damn well know. And I’m warning you now to stop it. Don’t try to lay me out. It won’t work. For your information, you’re wasting your time. I made Effie my heir, sure. But she isn’t any more. I changed the will again, when you two were gone for a few days. So if you kill me it will be for nothing. What do you think of that?”
“What?”
From where he stood, Shayne could see the blood rise in the younger man’s face. Bascom mottled like magic. His hands clenched and he swallowed hoarsely. Before Hat Raymond or Shayne could divine his intention, he had rushed forward and smashed the old man’s glass aside.
Hat Raymond lurched erect and swung a hard fist.
Bascom shoved him back against the divan and whipped out a cold looking, black .38. “You old buzzard,” he screamed. “I’ll kill you whether you’re bluffing or not.”
“Go ahead,” cried Hat Raymond. “Shoot and you’ll fry in the chair for nothing. I have no heir now I tell you! All the money is going into a cancer research organization right here in Florida.”
Tod Bascom shook himself. “Smart, aren’t you? Well, you’ll change that will again — or else.”
“Or else what?”
“Or else I’ll make you wish you had. You don’t think I married Effie because I loved her, did you? She was just a sleeping partner to me until I found out she was going to be an heiress. I know what she means to you — so you hear me out. I intend to kill her if you force me to.”
“Why, you ornery—”
Mike Shayne didn’t wait for Hat Raymond to do something rash. He swept the door back, burst into the room and leveled his .45 at Tod Bascom.
“Drop it, Tod.”
Bascom cried out in fright, turned and brought his own gun up. Shayne’s eyes went cold. There was no time to play it nice.
But he had not reckoned with the old man. Hat Raymond had carved a livelihood out of Florida when it was a swamp, had molded a career with his fists. With a whoop that sounded like a Seminole on the warpath, he swooped down on his granddaughter’s husband in a flying tackle. The .38 flew out of Bascom’s hand.
Hat Raymond lay there panting lustily, hugging Tod’s knees. Bascom kicked him off viciously and tried to dodge around Shayne.
Without waste motion, Shayne brought up a left hook and jarred Bascom to his heels. A follow-up right hand crunched on the smooth jaw. Bascom fell heavily, sending a vase crashing.
“Shayne,” Raymond moaned. “I was right. It was him!”
“You okay?” Shayne reached for him. “There’s still Effie to consider.”
“Effie? What’s Effie got to do with it?”
Effie Raymond said quietly from the doorway, “Stand still all of you. Don’t try anything foolish, Mr. Shayne. This shotgun will blast you to bits.”
Hat Raymond cursed and stared at his granddaughter, unbelievingly.
She saw the look and her eyes blazed. “Yes, you old buzzard,” she cried. “Me too. The granddaughter you forgot about for ten years and then tried to buy off with an inheritance. Well, it isn’t enough. You broke Mother’s heart. You killed her. And nothing’s enough to make up for the misery until you’re dead and we collect the money.”
VI
Michael Shayne bit his lip, and very carefully dropped his gun to the floor.
“Effie!” Raymond boomed. “Don’t talk like that!”
She was tight-lipped, watching them intently from the landing. Shayne studied her. The shotgun was awesome, poking at them like that in her inexperienced, and obviously nervous hands.
“What do you think, Grandpa?” Effie said harshly. “I wanted Tod to marry me. I knew I was just another girl to him. Look at me. Who’d want me without money? I’m plain! Plain! You always told me I was homely. How many years did I hear that until Mother died? And then you forgot about me until this year. Your conscience began to bother you about Mother and me as you were nearing the end of your life. You wrote and told me about the will. I saw my chance.”
Hat Raymond suddenly looked his age. He raised a protesting, gnarled hand. “Effie — don’t! Your mother would—”
“To hell with you,” she broke in. “Leave Mother out of it — it’s too late now. So you changed your will again. Well, you’ll change it right back. You’ll change it right now or I’m going to blast you to pieces. Come on, you’ll write that letter—”
Mike Shayne was watching Effie Bascom very carefully. He had seen the same thing so many times. A helpless, defenseless young girl, pushed to the extremes of stress and anger both, suddenly pointing a gun with every intention of using the weapon. Effie was very dangerous right now.
“Effie,” Shayne said quietly. “Use your head. You can’t do it this way. You need a lawyer. You can’t force it like this.”
Her eyes swung to him madly. “You knew all along, didn’t you? Sitting here all afternoon, pretending. You knew! How did you know?”
Shayne shrugged. “I should have heard you drive up. I didn’t. You had leaves clinging all over your clothes. I knew you had parked and come through the vegetation on foot. You, or more than likely, Tod slugged your grandfather, after pretending to have left for Tampa. I just happened along at the right time. You couldn’t know that Hat had phoned me already. So you and Tod hid at a safe distance when I drove up and pretended to arrive a little later. It would have been easy. Hat could have died from a head blow and people might have believed he fell down accidentally. After all, he’s over ninety.”
She nodded, watching her husband groan awake. “And that call from your secretary?” Effie asked.
Shayne smiled. “I learned you and Tod were married last week. Which meant he married you only after he came down here with you and heard from Hat’s lips personally about the will you were heir to. He only married you for money, girl!”
“Damnation,” Hat Raymond muttered. “I was right. My own kin — You were right, Shayne.” He turned to Effie. “You’re no flesh and blood of mine, acting like this.”
Shayne restrained him with a headshake, turned to the distraught girl, and said, “Effie, put that shotgun down. Murder won’t solve anything. Be sensible.”
Hat Raymond shook his head. “Stubborn — just like her mother.” But there was grudging admiration in his old eyes.
Tod Bascom was swaying to a standing position. Shayne guaged the distance. There wasn’t going, to be another chance.
“Effie,” he said. “Listen to me.”
She ignored him. “You all right, Tod?” Her eyes swung back to Shayne. “Well?”
“Listen to reason.” Shayne spoke slowly. “Old Hat here would straighten out all this and make you his legal heir without fuss if you’ll just—”
Tod Bascom suddenly came to life. “Effie,” he blurted wildly. “Don’t be crazy, honey. Don’t shoot! Even if we try to say you were pushed into killing Grandpa, you’ll lose all the money. I’ll — we’ll go to the chair. Shayne’s a witness. For God’s sakes, Effie, think of me!”