“Hell, I bet Lenny didn’t even mind. He had all he needed and somebody running the show better than he could besides. A guy like Lenny isn’t a smart operator in real estate like he was supposed to be. Hell no, somebody was directing every move he made.
“The catch was Harlan. What happened, Gardiner, did she want a larger cut? If she did it was a sure bet that she was sealing her own death warrant. Anybody who put the pressure on and could prove it had to go. That’s why she wrote the letter to Minnow.
“Bob was catching up to you fast and that tore it. You knew he’d connect her up to Servo and through her... you. Bob Minnow made one mistake, I think. I’m willing to bet that you or somebody you put up to it slipped him the tailor-made idea that somebody in the bank was behind Servo. The money man. Hell, it would be logical enough if the bank’s books showed the error.”
Gardiner turned his head and looked at me. The ridges of his cheekbones stood out prominently.
“The frame came when you sent Johnny handling the books he had no business using and his girl backed you up because she had a passion for your partner.”
“Nice motive for murder, revenge. The public liked it, didn’t they? Lindsey liked it too. It was so logical the insurance investigators and the feds liked it too.”
“Your fingerprints...” he croaked.
“Were on the gun,” I finished for him. “The gun that killed Minnow was a stolen gun that you planted under the cashier’s desk until it had the prints on it. After that you switched back and kept it until you needed it for the murder.
“That was a pretty job. Well arranged. Orderly. Minnow did come to his office when he had the verification of his suspicions and he had the letter with him. Who actually shot him, Gardiner? I don’t think you did. Servo is my choice. Tucker made it easy to get in and Servo did the job with your direction and approval. It would have turned out fine if Minnow hadn’t photostated the letter first. But you wouldn’t have known that, would you?
“The papers would have had another murder right after that if Harlan hadn’t tucked a copy of that photograph where it was likely to be found. She was out of the organization now because she couldn’t expose you without exposing herself to be part of a murder ring, but she could stay alive by keeping that photograph. It was a stalemate.”
I pulled a crumpled butt out of my pocket and lit it. The smoke tasted good and I kept it down in my lungs a long time before letting it go. I looked at the ceiling, then at Gardiner. He got up, tottered across the room to a portable bar and poured himself a stiff shot.
“About then was when Troy came into the picture. She recognized Harlan and cut herself in. She not only wanted money, she wanted the source, or so she thought. Lenny must have had a great time with that girl trying to keep her under wraps. If he had been real smart he would have loaded her with dough and shipped her off. He wouldn’t be dead now.” I grinned at his back, “But you don’t know about that, do you? You see, it was Troy who killed Lenny.”
His hand trembled and he lost control of the glass. It slipped out of his fingers, bounced off the carpet and rolled across the floor. I waited while he poured himself another one.
“That brings it up to me. In one way, all those things that happened five years ago were simple. Until tonight you really had me going in circles. Everybody wanted me dead.
“I really must have scared the hell out of you when I walked in there that day. I made a big mistake myself in thinking I could get away with it. You must have known something was screwballed when I didn’t haul off on you right away. Johnny was a key. As long as he stayed on the run the heat stayed off you. And you made sure he stayed on the run.
“I’m going to make a guess. Let’s see how close I come. Johnny was yellow. Two people told me that and I saw it myself. He must have been if a guy like Eddie Packman could throw a scare into him so bad that when he came back Eddie wanted to take him on barehanded. But Johnny was in the war and he came back with lots of medals so he had a reason to be scared. Let’s say he lost all his courage where it counted and he had none left to spend at home. It isn’t hard to throw a scare into a mental cripple, especially if the woman he loves suddenly shows up to be a louse.”
Gardiner gave me that look again so I knew I was right.
“So after five years I come back. I get spotted and you know about it and being the kind of a guy you are you try to argue Servo into killing me right there. Servo played it cagey and wanted to wait until he saw what I was up to, but you didn’t wait. You got hold of a rifle, followed me to the library, picked out a good gun platform and waited until I came out.
“That was an easy shot too. I should have known right there. You left the imprints of your elbows and knees in the gravel and I was looking for a short guy, almost like Eddie Packman. I should have been looking for a guy who knew so little about shooting he didn’t know how to hold a rifle and muffed an easy target.”
He was motionless except for a slight twitching of his nostrils, staring out into the dead of night. I grinned, watching it sink in. His hand was a rigid white claw around the glass.
“Then there was that little episode outside the Ship ’n Shore. That kept me guessing too. I wasn’t trying to work under cover so it must have been pretty easy for you to keep check on me. Maybe somebody called you from the place, or maybe you were behind me all the way. I don’t know. But I do know this.
“Before I went out that night I stopped in a barbershop. It’s the place in town where the wheels gather to talk shop over a shave. A barber named Looth Tooth who had a brilliant memory and a gift of gab thought I was going out on a date with my old girl... Vera West. You must have come in right after me and he mentioned it to you.”
I stopped and looked at him. The rigidity in his spine had slackened and the glass in his hand seemed to balance normally between his fingers. I cursed the bastard in my mind because I wanted to see his soul age and crawl before my eyes. I wanted to see his guts twist and fear turn his eyeballs into hard little marbles and he wasn’t doing any of those things. He just stared at the night and I thought I saw him smile.
“Vera, she was another key. She was another one who could spill the beans if she wanted to take the chance of dying for her trouble. You knew I didn’t know the score, but Vera did. You didn’t shoot at me out there that night... you thought I had Vera in the car and were trying to get her.
“Gardiner, you should have left the guns to the pros. They’re much better at it. Hell, it was you who was messing things up in your hurry to get rid of me. You sent Lenny and Eddie out to the whore house to see what I was doing with the dame in the first place. Maybe you thought she was a contact between me and Vera. Man, you just didn’t know. That woman didn’t have a thing to do with anything except give me an excuse to lay those two bastards out. She sure came up with some choice morsel after that though.”
He was smiling. Damn it, the son of a bitch was smiling! It wasn’t on his face so much as it was in back of his eyes. He was standing there laughing at me without hardly moving a muscle. I damn near choked trying to speak when I wanted to rip him inside out instead.
“But let’s not forget Logan. He was right with me on digging out the dirt. I think he had the whole story at one time there, but he was too drunk to do anything about it. He must have put a lot of things together including Looth Tooth. He was tanked up to his ears when your insurance boys met him. By some accident, or maybe careful planning, you happened to sit in on their conference. Logan had an envelope in his pocket. It had a lot of information about George Wilson.”