Alburg jumped up as though his chair had been wired. “Had what?” he shouted.
“Pipe down,” Mason said. “She had Claremont’s gun.”
Alburg put his head in his hands. “That does it! Now we’re in a jam right. Then Tom did kill him.”
“It sure looks like it,” Mason said.
“Oh, what a mess! And what the hell, I’m in it right with Tom and Dixie.”
“Damned if you aren’t,” Mason said. “And you might as well include me while you’re taking inventory.”
“Oh, what a mess!” Morris said.
“Never mind feeling sorry for yourself now, Morris. There isn’t time for that. How about Fayette? Did you kill him?”
“No, no, of course not. Me, I don’t kill anyone!”
“You say the police found the gun on you?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know that was the gun that killed Fayette?”
“The police said so.”
“When?”
“About fifteen minutes ago. That’s why I’m here. They wanted a ballistics test. When they got it, they booked me and then let me call you.”
“How long have you had that gun?”
“That’s just it. I only had it — since the shooting.”
“Tell me the whole story.”
“Where do I start?” Alburg asked.
“Start at the beginning, and be sure it is the beginning.”
“I’ve already told you about Tom Sedgwick...”
“Never mind him. Tell me about Dixie, all about her.”
“Tom and Dixie...”
“Are they married?”
“That’s one of those things, Mr. Mason. Tom had been married. There was difficulty over the divorce. You can’t blame him and Dixie...”
Mason said, “Don’t be a fool. The last thing I’m interested in right now is their morals. If they’re married they can’t testify one against the other. If they’re not—”
“They’re not.”
“All right then, tell me about Dixie; about when she came back.”
“Well, I haven’t heard anything from Tom or Dixie. I’m scared stiff I will! A cop killing, Mr. Mason! You know what that is. Then all of a sudden Dixie walks into the place. I have to grab a table. My knees go no good. She gives me a cold eye as a tip-off that I am to treat her as a stranger. Then she says she wants a job.”
“What did you do?”
“I gave her a job. I had to. Tom was broke and sick. He’s hot. The police didn’t know about Dixie.”
“Dixie Dayton’s not her real name?”
“Dixie, yes, her first name. The other, no, of course not.”
“And her Social Security number was faked?”
“Yes.”
“What about the fur coat?”
“I am terribly sorry about that. She leaves that with me, and I wrap it up and store it in a closet. I don’t think about moths. I think about me. She is hot and I am scared. I keep it back out of the way where no one can see it. She comes back. She wants her coat. I bring it out... Well. You saw it.”
“What did she say?”
“She says nothing. She starts wearing it. She cries like hell when she thinks I don’t see her.”
“Why did she come back here?”
“I tell you, Tom has the T.B. They are up in Seattle. In the winter it rains and it’s cold. Tom could take it no more. Dixie says they had to come back. They might beat the rap here, but he’d have died sure like hell if he’d stayed up there. Dixie has ideas. When she gets one you can’t talk her out of it. My doctor tells me Seattle is damp in winter but people up there live long as hell. Dixie thinks Tom dies if he stays another winter. Maybe she’s right. Maybe she’s wrong. She thinks she’s right. I don’t know.
“Dixie thinks everything is fixed, she can come back, no one knows. Tom she has hid — but good. Dixie’s smart as hell, one smart woman — the best!”
“She wasn’t clever enough to keep from having...”
“Oh, sure, Fayette. He knew about Dixie. The police didn’t. Fayette must have kept a watch on my place — the police, no — Fayette, yes.”
“Just who is Fayette?” Mason asked.
“Fayette,” Alburg said, “handled the payoff. I don’t know him from a lamp post. The name I know, nothing else. Dixie comes out to wait on customers. She sees him sitting there at a table by himself. She damn near falls over... Fayette would kill. He’d told Tom if Tom ever come back, or ever got a subpoena for a grand jury, it’s curtains, and...”
“So Dixie ran out the back.”
Alburg nodded. “Sure. She thought they’d torture her to make her tell where Tom was.”
“I’m damned if I get it,” Mason said. “If there was a payoff there must have been hundreds of boobies paying off, and...”
“But there’s only one cop murder, Mr. Mason. I can’t prove nothing. Dixie can’t prove nothing. But we both think Fayette kills that cop. If Tom comes back and maybe gets a good lawyer... What the hell?”
“All right,” Mason said, “go on and tell me what happened.”
“What happened?” Alburg exclaimed. “Everything happened. First, I am sitting pretty, then the roof caves in. Dixie says no one knows Tom is back. No one is ever going to find where he is. Then they walk in on her. She runs out; she almost gets killed. The cops come in. The cops don’t know Tom is my half-brother, but they know there is something. They don’t know who Dixie is, but they’re going to find out. I start getting under cover. There’s a bar where I have a friend. He’d protect me every time. Dixie knows that place. She calls me up. I tell her to stay under cover. I’m under cover. It’s hell.”
“Go on,” Mason said.
“Then some woman calls the place. She tells the cashier, who I can trust, that she has to get a message to me. The cashier is smart. She says give her the message. So the girl tells her to have me call a certain number and ask for Mildred.”
“You did?”
“Sure. I go to a pay station. I call the number. I say, ‘Who the hell’s Mildred?’ ”
“And what happened?”
“I’m thinking it’s a trap. Maybe cops are coming in the door. I am at a pay station where I can get out quick.”
“Go ahead.”
“This girl Mildred, she wants to talk. I tell her forget it. I’ve got no time to talk. Quick, what do we do?
“She says, ‘Don’t be a dumbbell. You’re hot. Dixie’s hot. I know who killed the cop.’
“I think it’s a trap. I say, ‘Yes. You are smart. Who killed the cop?’ She says, ‘George Fayette.’ I ask her how she knows. What’s it to her? She says Fayette sold her out. He two-times with another woman. She won’t stand for it. To hell with Fayette. If I meet her at the Keymont Hotel she tells me the story. She gives me the evidence. What the hell would you do?”
“What would I have done?” Mason said. “I’d have telephoned my lawyer quick.”
“Not that quick,” Alburg said. “I have been at the phone long enough. I don’t want them to trace the call. I say, ‘All right. You stay at that number. I’ll call you back.’ So what do I do? A while ago a waitress tries to blackmail me. I get a smart detective. He gets the whole proposition on tape recording. That waitress she is out of luck quick, like that. So I say to myself, ‘I will be smart. I will get a sound recording. I will get Mr. Mason.’ ”
Mason frowned. “Suppose it had been a police trap?”
“What the hell? I have to take a chance. I’m hot. I can’t go back to my restaurant. The restaurant is my business. If I don’t go back I lose my business. I have to do something. One thing else you don’t know. That Dixie can take a look at a number and flash, like that, it’s in her mind. When Dixie works for me I never need a telephone book. I show her a number once. She remembers it. Always for numbers that girl is smart. Anything with figures.”