I said of course no tricks, and hung up. I finished my drink, called Von Ballin of the Telegram. He said the sheriffs people didn’t seem to have any ideas about Lou Harger — or give a damn. He was a little sore that I still wouldn’t let him use my story. I could tell from the way he talked that he hadn’t got the doings over near Gray Lake.
I called Ohls, couldn’t reach him.
I mixed myself another drink, swallowed half of it and began to feel it too much. I put my hat on, changed my mind about the other half of my drink, went down to my car. The early evening traffic was thick with householders riding home to dinner. I wasn’t sure whether two cars tailed me or just one. At any rate nobody tried to catch up and throw a pineapple in my lap.
The house was a square two-storied place of old red brick, with beautiful grounds and a red brick wall with a white stone coping around them. A shiny black limousine was parked under the porte-cochere at the side. I followed a red-flagged walk up over two terraces, and a pale wisp of a man in a cutaway coat let me into a wide, silent hall with dark old furniture and a glimpse of garden at the end. He led me along that and along another hall at right angles and ushered me softly into a paneled study that was dimly lit against the gathering dusk. He went away, leaving me alone.
The end of the room was mostly open french windows, through which a brass-colored sky showed behind a line of quiet trees. In front of the trees a sprinkler swung slowly on a patch of velvety lawn that was already dark. There were large dim oils on the walls, a huge black desk with books across one end, a lot of deep lounging chairs, a heavy soft rug that went from wall to wall. There was a faint smell of good cigars and beyond that somewhere a smell of garden flowers and moist earth. The door opened and a youngish man in nose-glasses came in, gave me a slight formal nod, looked around vaguely, and said that Mr. Dorr would be there in a moment. He went out again, and I lit a cigarette.
In a little while the door opened again and Beasley came in, walked past me with a grin and sat down just inside the windows. Then Dorr came in and behind him Miss Glenn.
Dorr had his black cat in his arms and two lovely red scratches, shiny with collodion, down his right cheek. Miss Glenn had on the same clothes I had seen on her in the morning. She looked dark and drawn and spiritless, and she went past me as though she had never seen me before.
Dorr squeezed himself into the high-backed chair behind the desk and put the cat down in front of him. The cat strolled over to one corner of the desk and began to lick its chest with a long, sweeping, businesslike motion.
Dorr said: «Well, well. Here we are,» and chuckled pleasantly.
The man in the cutaway came in with a tray of cocktails, passed them around, put the tray with the shaker down on a low table beside Miss Glenn. He went out again, closing the door as if he was afraid he might crack it.
We all drank and looked very solemn.
I said: «We’re all here but two. I guess we have a quorum.»
Dorr said: «What’s that?» sharply and put his head to one side.
I said: «Lou Harger’s in the morgue and Canales is dodging cops. Otherwise we’re all here. All the interested parties.»
Miss Glenn made an abrupt movement, then relaxed suddenly and picked at the arm of her chair.
Dorr took two swallows of his cocktail, put the glass aside and folded his small neat hands on the desk. His face looked a little sinister.
«The money,» he said coldly. «I’ll take charge of it now.»
I said: «Not now or any other time. I didn’t bring it.»
Dorr stared at me and his face got a little red. I looked at Beasley. Beasley had a cigarette in his mouth and his hands in his pockets and the back of his head against the back of his chair. He looked half asleep.
Dorr said softly, meditatively: «Holding out, huh?»
«Yes,» I said grimly. «While I have it I’m fairly safe. You overplayed your hand when you let me get my paws on it. I’d be a fool not to hold what advantage it gives me.»
Dorr said: «Safe?» with a gently sinister intonation.
I laughed. «Not safe from a frame,» I said. «But the last one didn’t click so well… Not safe from being gun-walked again. But that’s going to be harder next time too… But fairly safe from being shot in the back and having you sue my estate for the dough.»
Dorr stroked the cat and looked at me under his eyebrows.
«Let’s get a couple of more important things straightened out,» I said. «Who takes the rap for Lou Harger?»
«What makes you so sure you don’t?» Dorr asked nastily.
«My alibi’s been polished up. I didn’t know how good it was until I knew how close Lou’s death could be timed. I’m clear now… regardless of who turns in what gun with what fairy tale… And the lads that were sent to scotch my alibi ran into some trouble.»
Dorr said: «That so?» without any apparent emotion.
«A thug named Andrews and a Mexican calling himself Luis Cadena. I daresay you’ve heard of them.»
«I don’t know such people,» Dorr said sharply.
«Then it won’t upset you to hear Andrews got very dead, and the law has Cadena.»
«Certainly not,» Dorr said. «They were from Canales. Canales had Harger killed.»
I said: «So that’s your new idea. I think it’s lousy.»
I leaned over and slipped my empty glass under my chair. Miss Glenn turned her head towards me and spoke very gravely, as if it was very important to the future of the race for me to believe what she said: «Of course — of course Canales had Lou killed… At least, the men he sent after us killed Lou.»
I nodded politely. «What for? A packet of money they didn’t get? They wouldn’t have killed him. They’d have brought him in, brought both of you in. You arranged for that kill, and the taxi stunt was to sidetrack me, not to fool Canales’ boys.»
She put her hand out quickly. Her eyes were shimmering. I went ahead.
«I wasn’t very bright, but I didn’t figure on anything so flossy. Who the hell would? Canales had no motive to gun Lou, unless it got back the money he had been gypped out of. Supposing he could know that quick he had been gypped.»
Dorr was licking his lips and quivering his chins and looking from one of us to the other with his small tight eyes. Miss Glenn said drearily: «Lou knew all about the play. He planned it with the croupier, Pina. Pina wanted some getaway money, wanted to move on to Havana. Of course Canales would have got wise, but not too soon, if I hadn’t got noisy and tough. I got Lou killed — but not the way you mean.»
I dropped an inch of ash off a cigarette I had forgotten all about. «All right,» I said grimly. «Canales takes the rap… And I suppose you two chiselers think that’s all I care about… Where was Lou going to be when Canales was supposed to find out he’d been gypped?»
«He was going to be gone,» Miss Glenn said tonelessly. «A damn long way off. And I was going to be gone with him.»
I said: «Nerts! You seem to forget I know why Lou was killed.»
Beasley sat up in his chair and moved his right hand rather delicately towards his left shoulder. «This wise guy bother you, chief?»
Dorr said: «Not yet. Let him rant.»
I moved so that I faced a little more towards Beasley. The sky had gone dark outside and the sprinkler had been turned off. A damp feeling came slowly into the room. Dorr opened a cedarwood box and put a long brown cigar in his mouth, bit the end off with a dry snap of his false teeth. There was the harsh noise of a match striking, then the slow, rather labored puffing of his breath in the cigar.
He said slowly, through a cloud of smoke: «Let’s forget all this and make a deal about that money… Manny Tinnen hung himself in his cell this afternoon.»