Kerman sat on the edge of the table.
‘Be careful you don’t hurt him,’ he said.
‘Not a chance,’ I said. ‘He hasn’t got any feelings. Have you, you heel?’
Louis made no effort to get up so I went over to him, picked the camera up, and holding it by its tripod, slammed it down on his chest. He gave a gurgling scream as the camera flew off the head of the tripod and went whizzing across the room. One of the tripod’s legs came off. I threw the other bits away, took the leg in both hands and hit him with it as he tried to get up.
Kerman slid off the table
‘Do you think he wants his camera?’ he asked.
‘He won’t want anything when I’m through with him,’ I said breathlessly, and bashed Louis again.
Kerman went over and stamped on the camera until it was in small pieces.
‘I don’t see why you should have all the fun,’ he said.
We drew off to recover our breath.
Louis cowered on the floor, his hands covering his face, scarcely breathing. He looked like a man waiting for a bomb to drop on him.
While I was getting my second wind I examined the prints he had been working on. They weren’t nice pictures. They confirmed Nedick’s theory that Louis was a blackmailer.
As nothing more happened to him, Louis began to crawl to his feet, but when I turned, he flopped back on to the floor again. He had as much spine as a plate of porridge.
‘Why’d you kill Benny?’ I asked, standing over to him.
The small eyes twitched. Breath made a rattling sound in the long scraggy throat.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ The voice came in a whisper: like an echo in a tunnel.
‘I kicked the white smock. It was a good kick. It moved the weedy figure about three yards.
‘Why did you kill Benny?’ I repeated.
He didn’t say anything. He groaned instead.
I kicked him again.
‘Maybe he thinks we’re fooling,’ Kerman said, coming over to watch. ‘Some guys need an awful lot of persuasion before they talk.’
‘This one won’t,’ I said, reached down and pulled Louis to his feet. His legs were rubbery and he started to fall, but I managed to keep him upright long enough for Kerman to take a sock at him. He went flying across the room and smashed through the grey painted backcloth.
Kerman said, ‘Hey! Do you see what I see?’
He reached under the table and produced a blow-lamp.
‘Now that is something,’ I said. ‘Get it going.’
I ripped the rest of the backcloth out of its frame, collected Louis and dragged him back to the middle of the studio by his ankles.
There was a property couch at the back of the studio. I pushed that alongside Louis.
‘Let’s get him on here,’ I said.
Kerman gave the blow-lamp a few quick pumps until the flame began to roar out of the spout, then he came over and caught hold of Louis. We got him on the couch and I sat on his chest.
Fever sweat had broken out on his face. He glared up at me, his eyes wild with panic.
‘I’m not going to waste a lot of time on you,’ I said. ‘We’re here to find out what happened to Benny, and we’re going to find out. I know you, Thayler and Anita Gay are all hooked up together, and I know Benny came here yesterday. If you don t talk you’re in for a bad time. Benny was a pal of mine. I don’t care two hoots what happens to you. You’ll talk or you’ll get hurt. Now, why did you kill Benny?’
‘I don’t know Benny. I swear it!’ Louis gasped.
‘He doesn’t even know Benny,’ I said to Kerman.
‘This is just the thing to help his memory,’ Kerman said, picking up the blow-lamp.
‘Do you want to get burned?’ I asked Louis.
‘I don’t know him!’ Louis squealed, and began to struggle. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about!’
‘You’ll change your ideas in a second, you louse,’ Kerman said, and played the flame on Louis’s shoes.
After a few moments of this Louis suddenly stiffened, arching his chest, his eyes bulging and sweat jumping out of his face like a squeezed sponge. I had trouble in keeping him down, and the noise he made started my head aching again.
‘Why did you kill Benny?’ I asked, signalling Kerman to lay off. The studio stank of burned leather.
‘I didn’t... I swear I know nothing about it,’ Louis groaned. The muscles of his legs were twitching and his head rolled on the padded back of the couch.
‘Give him a good dose this time,’ I said savagely.
Kerman gave him a good dose. Louis screamed so loud I had to cram his beret in his mouth.
‘Does it matter if I lame him for life?’ Kerman asked.
‘Not to me, but hold it until I see if he’s changed his mind. The smell’s bothering me.’
‘We ought to have brought a bottle of Scotch with us,’ Kerman said. ‘I’ve got a weak stomach.’
I took the beret out of Louis’s mouth.
“Why did you kill Benny?’ I asked.
‘It was Thayler,’ he said so faintly I could scarcely hear him.
‘I think he’s going to talk,’ I said. ‘But keep the lamp handy in case his memory goes.’ I stood up. ‘What happened?’ I asked Louis.
It took a little time to get it out of him, and Kerman had to burn him once or twice when he seemed reluctant to go into details, but we finally got it out of him.
Benny had called at the shop a little after five o’clock the previous evening. Obviously from what Louis said, Benny had no idea he was walking into trouble. He had shown Louis Anita’s photograph and had asked him what he knew about her.
‘Thayler was there,’ Louis said, sweat running down his face. ‘He was listening behind the curtain. He came out with a gun. I searched Benny and found out where he was from. Anita had told Thayler about Universal Services. Thayler sapped Benny and took him away in his car. I don’t know what happened to him. I swear that’s all I know.’
That was when Kerman gave him the lamp again.
‘Where’s Thayler now?’ I asked.
Louis said something but I couldn’t hear.
‘I think this punk could do with a drink,’ I said.
‘I know I could,’ Kerman grumbled and began to look around the studio. After a while he discovered a bottle of Scotch and some glasses in a cupboard. He poured three drinks, gave me one, set one on the table for himself and threw the third in Louis’s face.
‘Where’s Thayler now?’ I asked, after I had taken a drink. It wasn’t bad whisky: not good, but drinkable.
‘He’s gone to see Anita,’ Louis managed to get out.
‘When did he go?’
‘He caught the ten o’clock plane last night.’
‘You’ll have to speak up,’ I said. ‘You asked for this, and you’ve got it. Did you know he tied Benny’s hand and feet and threw him in the Indian Basin?’
The thin, pain-ridden face blanched.
‘No...’
I was inclined to believe him.
I said, ‘Thayler and Anita were married, weren’t they?’
He nodded.
‘Did you know she married a guy called Cerf about two months ago?’
His eyes shifted, but as soon as he said he didn’t know Cerf, Kerman reached for the lamp, and he howled out, ‘Yes, I knew. It was Thayler’s idea. Thayler said she could make a lot of money out of Cerf.’
‘Was she scared of Thayler?’
He looked blank.
‘She hadn’t any need to be.’
‘They quarrelled and parted, didn’t they?’
‘That was nothing. They were always quarrelling. When she met Cerf she came here and asked Thayler what she was to do. He told her to marry the guy and get as much out of him as she could. He said he’d keep his mouth shut if she paid him a cut.’
‘What do you know about Gail Bolus?’
He licked his dry lip, shaking his head.
‘Only she worked with Thayler before he met Anita. I never met her.’
‘Is she in this racket?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘This isn’t Thayler’s first trip to Orchid City, is it?’
He hesitated, but as soon as Kerman made a move he said hurriedly, ‘No. He went out there two nights ago. He got worried when Anita called him on long distance and told him she was being watched. He went to see her, but he didn’t contact her.’
‘He came back here?’
‘Yes. He was nervous. He said the girl who had been watching Anita had been shot. He thought he was better out of the way. He was worried he didn’t find Anita.’
‘Didn’t he tell her he was coming?’
‘No. He had this call from her and she asked him to come, but he had a job to do. Then when she hung up he changed his mind, and decided to go and find out what was happening.’
‘Is he coming back here?’
‘Yes’
‘When?’
‘He didn’t say.’
‘Anita was shot last night.’
He flinched, and his small eyes receded in their sockets.
‘Shot? Is she dead?’
‘Yeah. There was a Colt .45 found near her. What gun did Thayler use?’
‘I don’t know. A big gun. I don’t know anything about guns.’
I shrugged and moved away from him.
‘I can’t think of anything else, can you?’ I asked Kerman.
Kerman shook his head.
‘What shall we do with the rat?’
‘I’ll fix him. Give me those photographs on the desk.’
Kerman picked up the prints, glanced at them, grimaced, and handed them to me.
‘Here, write your name on the back of these,’ I said to Louis.
As Kerman reached for the blow-lamp, Louis hurriedly scrawled his name on the back of each print. I took them from him, slipped them into an envelope I found on the table, scribbled D.D.C. Dunnigan’s name on the envelope and put it in my pocket.
‘I’m handing these to Police Headquarters,’ I told Louis. ‘They’ve been waiting to get their hooks into you.’ I turned to Kerman. ‘Come on, let’s get out of here.’
Kerman stood over Louis.
‘Benny was a pal of mine,’ he said, in a low, flat voice. ‘Here’s something to remember him by,’ and he shoved the flame of the blow-lamp in Louis’s face.