It had never been hard for me to believe he'd arranged Mike's murder. The fact that he did it would automatically make it all right.
"Well," he said, dusting ashes all over the table. "Got everything fixed for tonight, have you? No chance of any slip-ups? You'll wind this thing right on up so it'll stay wound?"
"I'm not doing anything," I said. "I've done all I'm going to."
"Don't think we'd better leave it that way, Lou. 'Member I told you I didn't like the idea? Well, I still don't. That damned crazy Elmer sees her again no telling what'll happen. You take the money yourself, boy. I've got it all ready, ten thousand in small bills, and-"
"No," I said.
"— pay her off. Then bust her around a little, and run her across the county line."
"Mr. Conway," I said.
"That's the way to do it," he chuckled, his big pale jowls jouncing. "Pay her, bust her and chase her… You say something?"
I went through it again, real slowly, dealing it out a word at a time. Miss Lakeland insisted on seeing Elmer one more time before she left. She insisted on his bringing the dough, and she didn't want any witnesses along. Those were her terms, and if Conway wanted her to leave quietly he'd have to meet 'em. We could have her pinched, of course, but she was bound to talk if we did and it wouldn't be pretty talk.
Conway nodded irritably. "Understand all that. Can't have a lot of dirty publicity. But I don't see-"
"I'll tell you what you don't see, Mr. Conway," I said. "You don't see that you've got a hell of a lot of gall."
"Huh?" His mouth dropped open. "Wha-at?"
"I'm sorry," I said. "Stop and think a minute. How would it look if it got around that an officer of the law had made a blackmail payoff-that is, if she was willing to accept it from me? How do you think I feel being mixed up in a dirty affair of this kind? Now, Elmer got into this trouble and he came to me-"
"Only smart thing he ever did."
"— and I came to you. And you asked me to see what could be done about getting her out of town quietly. I did it. That's all I'm going to do. I don't see how you can ask me to do anything more."
"Well, uh"-he cleared his throat-"maybe not, boy. Reckon you're right. But you will see that she leaves after she gets the money?"
"I'll see to that," I said. "If she's not gone within an hour, I'll move her along myself."
He got up, fidgeting around nervously, so I walked him to the door to get rid of him. I couldn't take him much longer. It would have been bad enough if I hadn't known what he'd done to Mike.
I kept my hands in my pockets, pretending like I didn't see him when he started to shake hands. He opened the screen, then hesitated a moment.
"Better not go off anywhere," he said. "I'm sending Elmer over as soon as I can locate him. Want you to give him a good talking-to; see that he's got everything down straight. Make him know what's what, understand?"
"Yes, sir," I said. "It's mighty nice of you to let me talk to him."
"That's all right. No trouble at all," he said; and the screen slammed behind him.
A couple hours later Elmer showed up.
He was big and flabby-looking like his old man, and he tried to be as overbearing but he didn't quite have the guts for it. Some of our Central City boys had flattened him a few times, and it had done him a world of good. His blotched face was glistening with sweat; his breath would have tested a hundred and eighty proof.
"Getting started pretty early in the day, aren't you?" I said.
"So what?"
"Not a thing," I said. "I've tried to do you a favor. If you ball it up, it's your headache."
He grunted and crossed his legs. "I dunno, Lou," he frowned. "Dunno about all this. What if the old man never cools off? What'll me and Joyce do when the ten thousand runs out?"
"Well, Elmer," I said. "I guess there's some misunderstanding. I understood that you were sure your father would come around in time. If that isn't the case, maybe I'd better tell Miss Lakeland and-"
"No, Lou! Don't do that!.. Hell, he'll get over it. He always gets over the things I do. But-"
"Why don't you do this?" I said. "Don't let your ten thousand run out. Buy you some kind of business; you and Joyce can run it together. When it's going good, get in touch with your Dad. He'll see that you've made a darned smart move, and you won't have any trouble squaring things."
Elmer brightened a little-doggoned little. Working wasn't Elmer's idea of a good solution to any problem.
"Don't let me talk you into it," I said. "I think Miss Lakeland has been mighty badly misjudged-she convinced me and I'm not easy to convince. I've stuck my neck out a mile to give you and her a fresh start together, but if you don't want to go-"
"Why'd you do it, Lou? Why'd you do all this for me and her?"
"Maybe money," I said, smiling. "I don't make very much. Maybe I figured you'd do something for me in a money way."
His face turned a few shades redder. "Well… I could give you a little something out of the ten thousand, I guess."
"Oh, I wouldn't take any of that!" You're damned right I wouldn't. "I figured a man like you must have a little dough of his own. What do you do for your cigarettes and gas and whiskey? Does your Dad buy 'em for you?"
"Like hell!" He sat up and jerked out a roll of bills. "I got plenty of money."
He started to peel off a few bills-they were all twenties, it looked like-and then he caught my eye. I gave him a grin. It told him, plain as day, that I expected him to act like a cheapskate."
"Aw, hell," he said, and he wadded the roll together and tossed the whole thing to me. "See you tonight," he said, hoisting himself up.
"At ten o'clock," I nodded.
There were twenty-five twenties in the roll. Five hundred dollars. Now that I had it, it was welcome; I could always use a little extra money. But I hadn't planned on touching Elmer. I'd only done it to shut him up about my motives in helping him.
I didn't feel much like cooking, so I ate dinner in town. Coming home again I listened to the radio a while, read the Sunday papers and went to sleep.
Yes, maybe I was taking things pretty calmly, but I'd gone through the deal so often in my mind that I'd gotten used to it. Joyce and Elmer were going to die. Joyce had asked for it. The Conways had asked for it. I wasn't any more cold-blooded than the dame who'd have me in hell to get her own way. I wasn't any more cold-blooded than the guy who'd had Mike knocked from an eight-story building.
Elmer hadn't done it, of course; probably he didn't even know anything about it. But I had to get to the old man through him. It was the only way I could, and it was the way it should be. I'd be doing to him what he'd done to Dad.
… It was eight o'clock when I waked up-eight of the dark, moonless night I'd been waiting for. I gulped a cup of coffee, eased the car down the alley and headed for Derrick Road.
6
Here in the oil country you see quite a few places like the old Branch house. They were ranch houses or homesteads at one time; but wells were drilled around 'em, right up to their doorsteps sometimes, and everything nearby became a mess of oil and sulphur water and red sun-baked drilling mud. The grease-black grass dies. The creeks and springs disappear. And then the oil is gone and the houses stand black and abandoned, lost and lonely looking behind the pest growths of sunflowers and sage and Johnson grass.
The Branch place stood back from Derrick Road a few hundred feet, at the end of a lane so overgrown with weeds that I almost missed it. I turned into the lane, killed the motor after a few yards and got out.