“Well, we did it. We got to the Snug-Rest and waited there. We had a few drinks. Then Allred showed up. He told us to get our luggage together, because we had to move. Then when we were packed and had the luggage in the car, he suddenly told Lola to climb in the luggage compartment.
“I knew what was up right then. I guess he knew I was wise. He shoved a gun in my ribs, and when his wife tried to grab his arm, he socked her one right in the face. It gave her a bloody nose.
“Then at the point of the gun, he made her get in the luggage compartment. Then he slammed down the lid on the turtleback and told me to get in the car and start driving. I knew that he had me over a barrel. I drove the car. But, believe me, I was intending to drive it off the road and take a chance on a smashup. But Allred was wise. He wouldn’t let me get up any speed. He said, ‘Put it in low gear and keep it in low gear.’ ”
“What did you do?” Tragg asked.
“Well, you know how it is when you’re driving a car in low gear. You have lots of control over the car and it’s surprising what you can do to a passenger who isn’t looking for surprises. We rounded a curve and I stepped on the throttle and the car shot ahead with all the power of the motor in low gear. Allred was thrown back against the cushions. He tried to brace himself, to push himself forward and push the gun forward so it would still be pointing at me; and then I slammed on the brakes.
“Stopping the car that way, right at the time Allred was pushing himself forward, slammed his body forward. His head hit against the windshield. I gave him an elbow on the face and the minute his head hit the windshield, I grabbed the gun and slammed the barrel down on his head hard.
“Allred went out like a light. He slumped down in the corner of the car over against the door on the right-hand side.
“I started to put him out of the car right then. But if I did that I was afraid he’d regain consciousness and tell some story to officers that would get me pinched for stealing the car. I just wanted to get away from Allred and wanted to get out of the whole mess. I decided to leave Allred in the car and get out and walk. However, I didn’t want to do that until I was near a town or some place — and that’s where I remembered this man Overbrook.”
“What about Overbrook?” Tragg asked.
“I hadn’t met him, but there had been some correspondence with him that I’d seen in the office. He and Allred had been in a mining deal and, I guess, Allred had trimmed him. But that’s neither here nor there. I knew from the correspondence I’d seen that Overbrook had an isolated little ranch up in the mountains and that the road turned off within a few miles of where we had stopped. I got the idea of carrying on my pretense of amnesia. I knew that if it came to a showdown and I had to appeal for help, Overbrook would stand with me against Allred.
“Well, gentlemen, that was all there was to it. I came to the turn-off within a mile, took the dirt road, drove up to within a quarter of a mile of Overbrook’s place, and swung off the road.”
“What about Mrs. Allred?”
Fleetwood grinned and said, “Believe you me, Mrs. Allred had had all she wanted. She’d managed to work the catch on the inside of the lid of the luggage compartment, probably by using a jack handle. Anyway, she’d managed to get the lid unlatched. The minute I stopped the car, she raised the lid of the luggage compartment, jumped to the ground, and ran like a deer.”
“What happened?”
“I called to her and said, ‘It’s all right, Lola.’ ”
“What did she do?”
“She kept right on going.”
“Then what?” Mason asked. “Was Allred dead?”
“No, but he was still unconscious. He was breathing, a deep, heavy breathing. You could hear it all over the car as soon as the motor was stopped.”
“You had Allred’s gun?”
“Yes.”
“Why were you so afraid of Allred? If you had the gun, why didn’t you simply leave the car on the pavement, get out and start walking and...”
“And where would I have walked?” Fleetwood asked. “It was a cold, misty night with a nasty drizzle. Everything was wet, and up in the mountains it was cold. I wanted a place to sleep and I didn’t intend to be wandering around on the highway. And I didn’t want to dump Allred out in the rain. I wanted to leave him the car so he could recover consciousness and drive himself home. I just wanted to get clean away from him, but I thought it would be swell under the circumstances if I could keep on with that amnesia gag. I had a girl friend, this Bernice Archer, and — well, I thought amnesia would be a pretty slick thing all the way along the line.”
“Hadn’t you been making a play for Patricia Faxon?” Mason asked.
“It depends on what you mean by a play. She is a pretty swell dish. I looked her over pretty carefully, and tried to find out if she wanted to play.”
“Did she?”
“No.”
“Didn’t it go farther than that?”
Fleetwood said, “I’m no tin angel. I probably would have thrown Bernice Archer overboard and married Patricia if Patricia had given me the green light. I thought for a while she was going to do that, but she didn’t. Patricia has dough of her own, and her mother is lousy with the stuff. The man who marries Pat Faxon doesn’t need to worry about work, and if he knows a little something about mining investments, he can cut himself quite a piece of cake. However, that’s neither here nor there. I’m giving it to you gentlemen straight. Bernice Archer was my girl. She still is. She’s a sweet kid.”
“You’ve seen her since you’ve been here?” Mason asked.
“Of course, I’ve seen her,” Fleetwood said. “She came to me first thing when she knew I was here. She was with me for nearly an hour. She’s a sweet kid.”
“And did you tell her this story?” Mason asked.
“No,” Fleetwood said. “I kept on with the amnesia gag. I thought it was the best way out of a lot of things.”
“Did you fool her?”
“I don’t know. You never can be too certain about Bernice that way. She pretended to be fooled.”
“You didn’t tell her anything at all about what had happened up there?”
“Certainly not. I told her I couldn’t remember a thing that had happened from the time I was struck on the head there at Allred’s house until I recovered consciousness just as I was being taken to the police station.”
“All right,” Tragg said impatiently, “never mind about your love affairs. Tell me the details of what happened. Mrs. Allred jumped out of the baggage compartment. Was the lid of the baggage compartment still up?”
“No. It slammed down when she jumped out. She didn’t push it up far enough for it to remain in an upright position.”
“And that blood in the baggage compartment?”
“The blood must have come from her bloody nose,” Fleetwood said. “That’s the only way I can account for it.”
“So what did you do?”
“I’d got out of the car. I’d left Allred in it. Allred was still unconscious, but he was beginning to stir around a little bit and show signs of regaining consciousness.
“I knew I was within a short distance of Overbrook’s house. I got out and listened. I could hear a dog barking and it sounded pretty close. I walked around the car and when I got in front of the car, I took the gun by the barrel and threw it just as far as I could throw it out into the darkness. I made a pretty good job of it. It seemed quite a while before I heard it hit the ground. Then I started walking toward the sound of the barking dog. I guess it was about three or four hundred yards before I came to the house. I knocked on the door. After a while Overbrook got up and wanted to know what I wanted. I told him that I guessed I’d been in an automobile accident or something because I found myself walking along the road with no idea of where I was or how I’d got there.