The light was a naked bulb suspended from a long thin wire. It hung motionless in the center of the room, a feeble sun that assailed my eyes when I opened them. I blinked. My head ached, and my leg throbbed, and I remembered the snake bite, and I could feel crusted dried blood on my face and on my trouser leg. I was sitting in a chair. I tried to get out of the chair, but my hands were tied behind it, and my legs were tied to the chair legs.
A girl was sitting opposite me.
The girl was a pretty brunette. Her eyes were wide with concern.
‘Thank God,’ she whispered.
I blinked at her.
‘I thought you were dead,’ she said.
I blinked again. The girl was tied, too. She wore a white cotton dress and straw pumps with lucite heels. She was very pretty, a big girl, a big girl tied in a small chair, the light hanging motionless over her head.
‘Are you all right?’ she asked.
I tried to talk but nothing came to my mouth. I cleared my throat. ‘Yes, I’m fine,’ I said.
‘I’m Ann,’ the girl said.
It sounded like a vaudeville routine. ‘Are you all right?’ ‘Yes, I’m fine.’ ‘How do you do; I’m Katz.’
‘How do you do; I’m Katz,’ I said.
The girl looked puzzled. ‘Aren’t... aren’t you Tony Mitchell?’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I got bit by a snake.’
‘It wasn’t poisonous,’ the girl said. ‘They were talking about it. One of them said it was better this way, and then another said there weren’t any poisonous snakes in the area.’
‘My head hurts,’ I said.
‘You look awful.’
‘Thank you.’
‘Is Phil all right?’
‘Phil?’
‘Yes. Don’t you...?’
‘Phil,’ I said. ‘Jesus, are you Ann?’
‘Yes, I told you...’
‘Forgive me.’
‘It’s all right. I was afraid you were dead. You were bleeding so badly when they carried you in.’
Who carried me in?’
‘A short fat man, and a tall—’
‘Barter and Hezekiah,’ I grinned. ‘It sounds like a law firm.’
‘Is Phil all right?’
‘He’s fine. I’m Katz. Forgive me, I’m dizzy. My head hurts. I’m supposed to call him. He’s worried about you.’
‘I’m fine,’ Ann said.
‘Not again, please.’
‘Not what again?’
‘Nothing. Where are we?’
‘In Davistown.’
‘Where in Davistown?’
‘Somebody’s apartment. A man they call Joe.’
‘Joe Carlisle?’
‘I don’t know. They didn’t say his last name.’
‘How’d you get here?’
‘By train. And by taxi.’
‘When?’
‘This morning.’
‘What time is it now, anyway?’
‘It’s almost midnight.’
‘I’m supposed to call Phil.’ I paused. ‘They brought you here this morning, huh?’
‘Yes. When my dress dried.’
‘When your what?’
‘My dress.’
‘That’s what I thought you said.’ I blinked. ‘Maybe you better start with when they took you out of the cabin.’
‘I was fast asleep,’ Ann said. ‘They came in, two of them, the short one and... Barter, is that his name?’
‘Yes.’
‘Barter and the blonde. Stephanie.’
‘Go ahead.’
‘They took me out of bed, and then a truck came out of the woods. The tall one, Hezekiah, was driving it. They put me into the back of the truck. That’s how I got the blood on my dress. Somewhere in the truck.’
‘Where’d they take you?’
‘To Hezekiah’s place. He lives on a road somewhere near the motel. It wasn’t a very long trip.’
‘Then what?’
‘They made a phone call. Stephanie made it. To this man, Joe. They told him to get over to Hez’s place right away. When she got off the phone, Barter said “Good. When he gets here, you go back to the motel, get some clothes and some luggage, and get into that cabin.”I guess he meant the cabin they’d taken me from.’
‘Yes, yes.’
‘Joe arrived about a half-hour later, and he and Stephanie drove off in the Cadillac. They had me tied in the bedroom. Barter and Hezekiah left, too, but Hez had trouble starting his car. It’s a very old car.’
‘They left the truck at Hez’s place?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did you see anything else in the truck?’
‘No. Was there anything else?’
‘I don’t know. Go ahead, what happened next?’
‘They came for me early the next morning. Stephanie saw the blood on my dress, and she washed it out. We waited until it dried before we left.’
‘Where’d you go?’
‘To Sullivan’s Corners. Stephanie drove us in the Cadillac’
‘Us?’
‘The redhead and me. Blanche. She looked like a slut.’
‘She was.’
‘She had on the most horrible purple dress. Stephanie was dressed garishly, too. A bright red dress. We made quite an interesting trio.’
‘I’ll bet you did. What happened then?’
‘We stopped for coffee in town. Blanche had a gun. She was carrying a white stole over her arm, covering the gun. They said they’d shoot me if I spoke to anyone.’
‘So you kept quiet?’
‘I kept quiet. Was that wrong?’
‘That was very right. Then what?’
‘Then we went to the train station. We walked right down the main street. I guess we attracted quite a bit of attention. Stephanie bought two tickets to Davistown. The redhead and I got on the train when it pulled in. She still had the gun in her hand, under the stole.’
‘What time was this?’
‘About nine-thirty or so.’
‘Go ahead.’
‘When we got to Davistown, we took a cab here. This man Joe tied me up. Blanche said she was going back to Sullivan’s Corners.’
‘Have you got any idea why you’re here?’
‘No,’ Ann said. ‘But they haven’t harmed me in any way. I mean, except for Joe’s hands...’ Ann paused. ‘He’s got hands,’ she said.
‘It’s the company he keeps,’ I told her. ‘Did you happen to run into a girl named Lois?’
‘No.’
‘I didn’t think so.’ I paused, thinking, ‘How’d you know who I was?’
‘There was a phone call earlier tonight. Joe took it. I heard him say ‘Who?’ and then he said, ‘Tony Mitchell? No, I don’t know any Tony Mitchell.’ When they brought you in... well, Phil’s described you so many times.’
‘I see. That phone call accounts for the knock on the head. They knew who I was the second time around.’
‘What’s going on, Tony? Do you know?’
‘I’ve got an idea,’ I said. ‘I just hope that Phil gets the same idea.’
‘Do you think—?’
The door opened. Stephanie Barter and her husband came into the room. A tall thin man was behind them. He had blue eyes and brown hair, and he was grinning.
‘How’s your head, Detective Mitchell?’ Stephanie asked.
‘Still on my shoulders, thanks,’ I said.
‘Hez should have hit you harder,’ Barter said. ‘We didn’t know you were a cop when he hit you. We didn’t find that out until we went through your wallet.’
‘And now that you know?’
‘It depends on how much you know, Mitchell.’
‘I don’t know anything. I came here to help a friend find his girl. I’ve found her.’
‘You also found a lot of trouble.’
‘None that I can see. Let us go, and then you can go back to your damn whorehouse.’
‘I don’t like profanity,’ Stephanie said.
‘The hell with that. I don’t like getting hit on the head by—’
‘Watch the way you talk,’ the tall thin man said.