I fired.
I caught him in the shoulder, and the slug spun him around, and then his own gun went off into the air, and he crumpled to the pavement alongside his bike, the headlight still peering wakefully into the darkness. I didn’t even look at him. I slid over behind the wheel. I didn’t put the top up. I threw the car into gear and started off again. My hands were shaking. My foot was trembling on the gas pedal. The rain whipped the windshield, poured steadily into the car. I almost missed Handy’s log cabin. My foot leaped to the brake pedal, and the wheels screeched and skidded, and I held the wheel tightly until the car side whipped to a stop. I backed up and climbed out, leaving the motor running. I was drenched. I went to the door of Handy’s cabin. This time, all the lights were out. I banged on the door with the butt of the .38.
‘Who is it?’ Handy called from inside.
‘Colby! Open this goddamn door!’
‘Just a minute, just a minute.’
I waited. I rapped again to hurry him up. I was ready to shoot the door off its hinges when suddenly it opened. Handy was in pajamas and robe. I didn’t bother with polite cordialities.
‘Where’s Ann Grafton?’ I said, and then I shoved the gun into his belly.
‘Are you out of your mind?’ Handy said. ‘Banging on the door at this hour of the morning! Waving a gun around as if...’
I pushed him into the room and slammed the door behind me.
‘Where’s Ann?’ I said.
‘I don’t know where the hell she—’
‘Two men have been shot with this gun, Handy. One is dead, and the other’s lying wounded in the middle of the highway. Do you want to be number three?’
‘Don’t threaten me, Colby,’ Handy said calmly. ‘Guns don’t scare me.’
What does, Handy? Look, I’m nervous. I’m overwrought. I’m tense. I’m soaking wet. This is liable to explode with no effort at all. Where s Ann?’
‘I don’t know,’ and he started to turn his back on me.
I spun him around. ‘You do know, you spineless bastard! You’ve known from the beginning. Where is she?’
Indignation flared in Handy’s eyes. ‘Don’t say that again, Colby.’
‘Say what, Handy? I said a lot of things.’
‘You know what I mean.’
‘The spineless part? Is that what troubles you?’
‘I warned you not to...’
‘What the hell are you, if not spineless? When’s the last time you stood up straight? When’s the last time...?’
‘Don’t go bucking a machine, Colby! Only a fool bucks a machine.’
‘What machine? A sheriff and a couple of deputies? A hick state trooper on a motor bike? A couple who run a whorehouse? Is this your big machine?’
‘What difference does it make how big the machine is, if it runs the town?’
‘Are they what you’re afraid of? Somebody told me you used to have spunk. Said you used to be a fighter. What the hell happened to you? Did you get too interested in the big payoff?’
‘It’s not that. I don’t need the money. I—’
‘All right, Handy, listen to me. I know a girl named Lois was killed. I know she was buried by Barter and Hezekiah. I know Ann was taken on a train to Davistown this morning, and I’m pretty damn sure I know why/
‘They’ll let her go,’ Handy said. They said they’d let her go.’
‘Will they? A cop friend of mine went out to that motel early tonight. From what Hezekiah said, they tumbled to him. They’re probably holding him, too. Do you really think they’ll let him and Ann go? Damnit, Handy, they’re trying to cover a murder!’
‘I... I don’t know what to think.’
‘Where is she?’
‘I don’t know.’ He paused. ‘You saw Hezekiah tonight?’
‘For the last time. He’s dead. A man named Johnny Simms killed him. He killed him because he found out about Lois. He was going to marry that girl, Handy.’
‘How’d this get so complicated?’ Handy asked.
I didn’t answer.
‘How’d it get so complicated?’ he asked again. ‘It was simple. It was... well, what harm were we doing? Who were we hurting?’ He looked into my eyes. ‘Who was I hurting, Colby?’
‘Yourself,’ I answered.
Handy lowered his head and his eyes.
‘Where is she, Handy?’ I asked.
He heaved a great sigh. ‘At Joe Carlisle’s place,’ he said. ‘In Davistown.’
‘Where?’
He hesitated for a long time, and then he stood erect, with his shoulders back, and he said, ‘I’ll take you there. Let me dress.’
‘Throw on a coat,’ I said. There may not be time for you to -
‘All right,’ he answered.
‘Get a blanket, too,’ I said. ‘My front seat is a little damp.’
Handy went into the other room. When he returned, he had taken off the robe and put on an English-cut raincoat. He was carrying a plaid blanket over his arm. We went outside. The rain had let up a little. I put up the top, spread the blanket over the soaked leather seat, and then pulled away from the cabin.
‘A man’s got to do the right thing eventually,’ Handy said.
‘If he’s a man,’ I answered. ‘Which way?’
‘Straight through Sullivan’s Corners. I’ll show you from there.’
‘Is it a long drive?’
‘About a half-hour. Be careful in Sullivan’s Corners. We wouldn’t want to run into Planett.’
‘Planett is out of commission. So’s Fred. The machine is breaking down, Handy.’
‘I didn’t know that,’ he said. He paused. ‘I offered to take you to Davistown before I knew that, Colby.’
‘Yes.’
‘I was only reminding myself,’ he said.
We drove through Sullivan’s Corners.
‘Straight ahead,’ Handy said, ‘to the next stop light. Then make a right. That road leads into Davistown.’
The stop light was red when we got to it. We didn’t stop. I made the right turn, and then pushed down on the accelerator.
‘What happened at the motel?’ I asked.
‘It’s complicated.’
‘We’ve got a half-hour.’
‘All right. You know it’s a brothel?’
‘Yes.’
‘It’s a good business. It was good even before Stephanie married Barter. I mean, it was steady. Nothing high-tone, you understand. Then Stephanie imported quality. Quality meant higher prices. A million-dollar business is nothing to laugh at.
‘No, it isn’t.’
‘A business like that needs protection. You know. You’re a cop.’
‘Yes.’
‘We’ve got a State’s Attorney who’s a crusader. If you want to keep something like this away from state law, you make sure the local law is in your pocket. Stephanie made sure of that. I don’t know which of us she reached first. Probably Fred, probably on a small scale. Planett must have been an easy mark, too. Me... I don’t suppose I gave her much trouble, either.’
‘Go on.’
‘You have to understand Stephanie. She’s a strange girl. She wants things. She wants luxury. Prostitution is all she knows, and she’s built it into a tremendous operation. She’d have succeeded in any business, do you know that? Anything she went into. She happened to choose prostitution. Or, actually, from what I gather about her background, it chose her. She needed capital, she got it. She married Barter who’s pretty well-off, owns a good deal of property at the Point. And, of course, he had the business already and she had ideas about what she could do to that business, how she could make it really pay. She succeeded, too. You have to hand it to her.’
‘I want to know what happened on the night of June 3rd,’ I said.
‘I’m getting to that. It doesn’t make sense, unless you know Stephanie. She’s a strange girl, I told you. I’ve never known her not to keep her word, not to stick to a bargain. She married Barter, and she was damn good-looking when she did, you can believe me. Life hadn’t been exactly gentle with her, but a beautiful girl doesn’t take the hard knocks as badly. She was a beauty. Still is, for that matter, but there was this freshness about her then. Mike Barter had got himself a prize. Of course, Stephanie had got what she wanted, too. That was their bargain. No love involved, you understand. But a bargain. Stephanie keeps a bargain. And she expects the other person to keep it too. She was Barter’s wife. She performed the way a wife should. She entertained, she went to bed with him, she was true to him. She was a wife. And maybe that’s love, too, I don’t know. Maybe that’s what love adds up to.’