At the moment I was on the outside, looking in. I was like a member of a theatre audience. The curtain was up; the actors and actresses were on the stage, the plot was beginning to unfold, but I had no part in it. Somehow I had to get up on to that stage and join in the action.
It seemed to me that it was time to have a straight talk with myself, to examine my conscience and find out just how far I would go for a share in that money. This was between me and me, and if I couldn’t be frank with myself, I couldn’t be frank with anyone.
Everything depended, of course, on the share I was going to get. The bigger the share, the bigger the risk I would be prepared to take. How much could I grab without causing too much opposition? Half? A quarter?
I remembered one of Solly’s many sales slogans: Always ask for twice as much as you expect: you may surprise yourself and get it.
Then I would go for half: three hundred and fifty grand.
I lay staring up at the ceiling as I tried to visualize what it would mean to have all that money. The most money I had ever earned in a year was four thousand bucks, and that was in the hey-day of the boom and I had sweated my guts out to earn it.
Three hundred and fifty thousand!
It set my heart hammering to think of all that money. It would change my life. How far would I go, how much would I risk to put my hands on that much money?
A word jumped into my mind and I flinched from it. Then I remembered I was being frank with myself.
Murder?
Would I commit murder for such a sum?
It was one thing to lie on this bed and contemplate murdering Dester for that money, but another thing to do it. Even if I could screw up enough guts to do it, there was the risk.
If he were murdered, the first person the police would suspect would be Helen. I had a fair idea how a policeman’s mind would work on a set up like this. He would reason Helen wanted to get rid of her husband to get the insurance money. He’d figure she was unlikely to do the actual killing herself. He would look around for the other man, and he would spot me.
Then there was the insurance company to think of. They wouldn’t pay out all that dough without a fight. Their own dicks were tougher, smarter and a lot more dangerous than the police.
No, murder was too risky: straightforward murder that is, but how about murder by remote control? As Helen was planning it? It was easy enough. Dester had only to take the car out when he was full of liquor or walk into a stream of fast-moving traffic and that would be that. That seemed better to me, but suppose he didn’t take the car out or walk across a street when he was plastered? How long had I got before the premium was due? That was the vital point.
Helen must know that time was pressing. Wouldn’t it be the smart thing for me to do to wait for her to get rid of Dester, keep clear of it, and then move in and make her part with half?
That brought me back to the guy who had fallen out of a window. Was this something in her past that I could hook her with? Then I suddenly thought of Solly. He had contacts in New York. He might be able to get me the dope if I could persuade him to take the trip.
I looked at my watch. It was just after seven o’clock. I couldn’t imagine that Dester would be going out this night. The sooner I talked to Solly the better. I picked up the telephone and called his apartment.
There was a delay before he answered.
‘I want to talk to you, Jack,’ I said. ‘Can you meet me at Sam’s bar in half an hour?’
‘Not tonight I can’t. I’ve got me a heavy date. What’s biting you?’
‘Nothing’s biting me, but plenty will bite you if you don’t hustle over to Sam’s bar.’
There was a pause while he wrestled with himself, then I heard him heave a sigh.
‘Well, okay, if you snap it up I can still keep my date. I don’t have to meet her for another hour.’
‘Sam’s bar in twenty minutes or faster,’ I said and hung up.
I changed into my suit and started down the drive at a fast clip. I would have liked to borrow one of the cars, but I wasn’t going to ask permission, and I knew it would be unsafe if I didn’t ask permission.
Solly was impatiently waiting for me as I came into the bar. I took him to the end booth against the wall where we could talk without being overheard and told the waiter to bring us a couple of highballs.
‘What’s this about?’ he asked as soon as the waiter had put the drinks in front of us and had moved away.
‘Yeah. Now listen: you remember what you said about Mrs. Dester? About a guy who threw himself out of a window because of her?’
Solly grimaced. ‘Yeah, but what’s that got to do with me? Look, if you’ve brought me here...’
‘Take it easy,’ I said, patting his arm. ‘Who told you about this guy?’
‘Search me,’ Solly said, shrugging. ‘People tell me things all the time. I wouldn’t know.’
‘Was it true?’
‘I guess so. What are you getting so excited about? What’s Mrs. Dester to do with this proposition of yours?’
‘Do you know for certain this guy fell out of a window?’
He stared at me. ‘Does anyone know anything for certain? What is all this about?’
I sat back, drank some of the highball while I looked at him. ‘How would you like to pick up five hundred bucks?’ I asked.
He scratched the side of his beaky nose with a dirty fingernail. ‘Are you kidding?’
‘This isn’t the time to kid. There’s five C’s waiting for you if you’re prepared to make yourself useful.’
‘Is this some racket?’ Solly asked, his eyes hard. ‘Now look, you...’
‘I know, I know. Let me do the talking, will you? I’m offering you the chance to get in on something on the ground floor, but you must be prepared to gamble with me and you must also be prepared to do some preliminary work before you cash in.’
‘I don’t think I like the sound of this,’ he said slowly. ‘You can’t lay your hands on five bucks let alone five hundred. What the hell gives? Look, I’m passing up a good date because I thought you meant business.’
‘I know,’ I interrupted. ‘Coming from me it sounds nuts, but it isn’t anything like as nutty as it sounds. The point is how much do you want to know about it?’
He shifted impatiently.
‘How much do I want to know? I want to know the whole works, of course.’
I stared at him. ‘Sure you do?’
‘What are you getting at?’
‘I want some information about Helen Dester,’ I said, lowering my voice. ‘I think you can get this information. When I’ve got it, I’ll be in a position to pay you five hundred, but not before.’ I paused to stare at him again. ‘Now do you want to know the whole works?’
He started to say something, then the nickel dropped and his hatchet face tightened. ‘Now wait a minute. That kind of racket is dynamite. A blackmailer.’
‘Shut up, pea brain! Who’s talking about blackmail?’ I said, keeping my voice down. ‘I’m offering you five hundred dollars to dig into Helen Dester’s past and to turn over to me what you find. I didn’t say anything about blackmail.’
‘I’ve had one run in with the cops, Glyn,’ he said, ‘I can’t risk another.’
‘Who’s talking about the cops?’ I said curtly. ‘But if that’s the way you feel I can get someone else to do the job.’
He studied me, then shrugged. ‘Okay, I could use five C’s. Just what do I do to earn it?’
‘I want the complete dope on the guy who fell out of the window, and when I say complete, I mean complete. Who he was, why he fell out, the coroner’s verdict, who was with him when he fell out and how he figured in Helen’s life. Get it? I want the works. Then I want a detailed picture of Helen’s background. You’ll have to go to New York and dig, but you won’t be wasting your time.’