1956 - There's Always a Price Tag (13 page)

'He's returning on Wednesday, you say?'

'I didn't say Wednesday. I don't really know when he will be back. He's pretty busy right now. I've just seen him off from San Francisco. He's on his way to New York. He might be back on Wednesday, he might not.'

'New York?' The fat man's eyebrows lifted. 'Perhaps I had better introduce myself. I'm Hammerstock.' He showed his dead white bridgework in another of his false smiles. 'Hammerstock and Judd, Wines and Spirits. I came about Mr. Dester's account.'

I knew that he must be one of the biggest creditors, if not the biggest, and probably the most troublesome. If I could handle him, I should be able to handle any of them.

'Mr. Dester's account?' I said, looking puzzled. 'What about it?'

'It's been owing too long.' Hammerstock fumbled in his pocket. 'We have written to Mr. Dester time and again.'

'Mr. Dester has been far too busy recently to bother with small accounts,' I said, walking over to the table and taking a cigarette from the box. 'What's the trouble? Is your firm short of money?'

He turned a deep shade of purple.

'Short of money? I'll have you understand.'

'Okay, okay, then what's the excitement about? The deal Mr. Dester is handling right now has taken up all his time. That's why he's engaged me to look after his private affairs. I'll let you have a cheque if you'll tell me what we owe you and I'll tell Mr. Dester you're anxious for him to settle the account.'

'Is Mr. Dester handling a deal?' Hammerstock asked, looking at me with sudden interest.

'I'll say he is. Now he has left the Pacific, he's in demand. After all, he is the greatest producer in Hollywood, and he'll probably be the greatest factor in commercial television before long. It's a matter of arranging terms.'

'Commercial television?'

'Yeah, but that wouldn't interest you. What is this account worth?'

'Four thousand dollars.'

Well, that jolted me. I had expected it to be big, but not that big. How anyone could have swallowed four thousand dollars’ worth of whisky and still have kept alive beat me.

'It's been outstanding for over a year,' Hammerstock went on, producing the account.

'Leave it on the table. I'll tell him.' I lit my cigarette and looked thoughtfully at Hammerstock. 'You know it suddenly occurs to me that Mr. Dester might not like you coming here. Some of these big shots get mad at the drop of a hat. I take it you are still interested in keeping his account, or maybe you're not?'

Hammerstock's eyes grew round; before he could say anything, I went on, 'The idea behind this new scheme on which he is working is to open up television studios right here in Hollywood. Between you and me, and it's not to go further, a powerful combine, of which Mr. Dester is to be the chief in charge of production, is buying up one of the major film companies and taking over their studios. The deal's about ready to go through and when it does, Mr. Dester will be entertaining on a far more elaborate scale than before. His account will be pretty big for the firm who supplies him with liquor.'

Hammerstock gulped.

'Why, I didn't know.' He began to put the account in his pocket, but I reached out and took it from him.

'I may as well settle this right away,' I said. 'It's not big. I guess I can let you have it in cash.'

If he took the money I was sunk, but I have had enough experience of human nature to know it was unlikely.

His eyes nearly fell out of his head when I pulled out my roll of money: it looked big enough to choke a horse with. He grabbed back the account and said he was happy to wait. He hadn't known the position.

There had been so many rumours flying around. He saw now he had no business to have come out here.

He had been out of line listening to rumours. He was only too pleased to allow Mr. Dester what credit he liked. He would take it as a personal favour if I didn't mention to Mr. Dester he had called. He hoped that this little incident wouldn't prejudice me against the firm.

He would have gone on and on if I hadn't firmly eased him out of the room, into the hall to the front door.

I said I wouldn't mention his call to Mr. Dester, but I would ask him to draw a cheque so the account could be settled. Hammerstock said he wouldn't hear of it. I was not to say anything about the account.

Mr. Dester could settle it in his own time.

When I closed the door after him, I leaned against it and laughed. I was still laughing when Helen came to the head of the stairs and stared down at me.

chapter seven

H
elen came down the stairs, her eyes bright and a half smile on her lips. She moved across the hall to me.

'So you were successful. I thought I had better leave him to you as you were so confident.'

'Did you hear him beg me not to send him a cheque?'

'The others may not be so easy.'

'I'll handle them. Come into the lounge. There's still things to do.'

As she walked with me to the lounge, she asked. 'Did you get the money?'

'I've raised five thousand six hundred. It's not as much as I want, but with any luck, it'll do.'

I went over to the liquor cabinet and made two drinks, then I sat down opposite her.

'How far do you trust your nerve?' I asked.

'What do you mean?'

'Look, what we are planning to do will need pretty good nerves. Sooner or later we will have to take him out of the freezer and plant him somewhere. I won't be able to do that on my own. You will have to help me. It's not going to be easy. When his body is found and the murder hunt is on, the first person the police will suspect will be you. They'll suspect you because you come into the insurance money. You may come in for some tough questioning. Some smart dick may try to jump a surprise on you. If you keep your nerve you will be all right. We're going to fix this so that they will be convinced you couldn't have killed him although you had the motive. But while they are being convinced, you may have a rough time.'

'My nerve is all right,' she said quietly. 'You don't have to worry about me.'

'I guess that's right, but you may as well know what's ahead of us. We may get into a jam that looks bad. I'm not saying we will but we may. That's the time when a steady nerve pays dividends. If we get in a panic, lose our heads, we might easily throw our hands in before we need to. You mustn't forget we can go to the limit because if things go wrong we have always the letter to keep us out of real trouble.'

She looked at me, her green eyes searching.

'Is your nerve so very good?'

'I can stand up to anything with three-quarters of a million as an incentive. What we've got to keep clear in our minds is that we haven't killed him. At the worst, we can get ten years in jail for fraud. If we remember that they can't panic us. Okay. Now we've got to take care of the next step. Is there anyone who will want to know where Dester is? Has he any friends?'

'No. At one time, of course, there were always people here, but when he began to drink, they dropped him.'

'What about Burnett?'

'He's Erle's attorney. They never meet. Erle writes or telephones him. Burnett doesn't approve of him.'

'So there is no one? You're absolutely sure? No relations who could suddenly appear and ask questions?'

'There is no one.'

This seemed too good to be true, but I had to take her word. It had been the one thing that really bothered me.

'We've got to be careful. This guy Hammerstock will spread the rumour that Dester is handling a big deal. We want him to do that, but at the same time we don't want the rumour checked. Burnett might hear about it and make inquiries. We've got to have a tale for him. When the showdown comes, we've got to be able to convince the police that we didn't start the rumour. We've got to convince Burnett that the reason why we didn't contradict the rumour was because it gave us time to raise money to meet Dester's debts. You'll have to see Burnett and tell him there's no truth in the rumour that Dester is going into television.'

She nodded. 'But he will want to know where he is.'

'Yes. I've got that angle taken care of. How do you get on with Burnett?'

She smiled. 'Very well. He likes me.'

I could understand that.

'Here's what you do: call him on Monday and ask him over. Tell him Dester has had an attack of D.T.'s, and you've persuaded him to take a cure. As soon as you can arrange it, he is going into a sanatorium. Tell Burnett there is a rumour going around that Dester is going into television. You must tell him there is no truth in the rumour, but as Dester is up to his eyes in debt, you are not contradicting the rumour as it is holding off his creditors. You feel sure that if he comes through the cure, he will get back into the money and will be able to pay off his debts. You are keeping his going into a sanatorium a secret.'

She was listening intently, her eyes staring into mine.

'He will want to know where he is going.'

'You can tell him. There is a sanatorium for alcoholics just outside Santa Barbara,' I said. 'I'll get you the name. It'll be in the telephone book.'

'He might check up.'

I smiled.

'He won't have a chance to do that. We'll have to take this one step at a time. First, you have to fix Burnett. We'll see how he reacts. This plan has got to be flexible. We only move forward when we know each step we take will be safe. If Burnett seems convinced and not likely to ask too many questions then bring me into it. Tell him Dester has taken a fancy to me. I started off as his chauffeur, and now he has turned his private affairs over to me. He gets me to handle his mail, his taxes and uses me as a buffer between himself and his creditors. Then call me in and introduce me.'

'Must we bring Burnett into this?'

'Yes. If we don't, he'll be the first to make trouble. The police will want to talk to him and he has to know the background. He's got to accept me. When the showdown comes, it's essential we have him behind us.'

'All right: I'll call him on Monday. But suppose the police find out Erle hasn't been to the sanatorium? They're certain to check.'

'Don't worry about that. You can leave me to fix it. There is one more thing. Tomorrow you must get a servant. There's an agency on 35th Street that provide staff at short notice. Call them up tomorrow and ask them to send a girl who can help you run this place.'

She stared at me.

'I can run it myself. I don't want anyone.'

'Use your brains. Can you imagine what the police will think if they find out that you and I are living under this roof on our own? They'll know we're lovers and that's something they've just not got to know. When they start their investigation they will find you and a servant and Dester sleep here, and I sleep in the apartment over the garage. I come over during the day when the servant is about. We never close a door. We never have a chance of making love. Do you understand? We must do it or we're heading for trouble.'

'I don't like it, Glyn. It's dangerous.'

'Not half so dangerous as not having her. When she arrives you must take her into your confidence. You must tell her Dester isn't well. He's in his room and he mustn't be disturbed. You are hoping to get him away for a change in a day or so. On Wednesday, he'll go to the sanatorium, providing I am satisfied we can go ahead. She must see him get into the car so she will swear she did see him leave the house.'

'You mean you're going to let her see his dead body?' Helen said, her voice shooting up.

'No. For the love of mike, don't be so goddamn dumb. She'll see me come down the stairs wearing his hat and coat. We'll fix it so the light is bad. She'll see a man come down. With any luck she will never have seen Dester so she won't know the difference.'

'It's too dangerous.'

'It's not dangerous at all. I'm fixing it. Don't keep raising objections. Get the girl. That's all I want you to do. I'll do the rest of it.'

'I hope you know what you are doing,' she said uneasily. 'If she's in the house how are we to get him out of the deep-freeze?'

'That's something I'll have to work out. One thing at a time.'

'She could look in the deep-freeze.'

'Yes, she could do that, but she won't. I'll fix something about that tomorrow before she comes. Right now I've got a lot of thinking to do. I've had a tough day. You'd better get some sleep.'

'Are you sleeping here?'

'No. We're going to start right now as we will have to go on.'

'You're leaving me alone here?'

I moved to the door. 'You don't have to worry about him. He won't get up and bother you in the night.'

I went into the hall, opened the front door and walked out into the cool, dark night.

As soon as I got into the apartment above the garage and had locked myself in, I undressed and got into bed. I lit a cigarette and began to grapple with my main problem: the foolproof, safe murder plan.

Sooner or later I would have to get his body out of the freezer, and put him somewhere where the police would find him. Having a servant in the house would complicate things, but I knew we had to have her. It would be quite an achievement to get the body away from the house to some place without anyone seeing me, even if they didn't see the body which could be hidden under a pile of rugs at the back of the Buick. It couldn't be the Rolls: that was too well-known.

At least I had time to concoct a plan. I had also to fake an alibi while I was planting his body, and the alibi had to stand up.

I had to think for Helen. I had to make sure she was also covered. I didn't kid myself that she would accept the situation if she slipped up and was caught. She would pull me in too. I was sure of that.

So I wrestled with the problem.

* * *

Soon after nine o'clock the next morning, I went over to the house and up the stairs to Dester's bedroom. As I reached the door, Helen appeared in the doorway of her room. She was still in her nightdress, over which she wore her oyster-coloured wrap.

I was tempted to dally: she looked pretty good in that getup, but there was work to do. I pushed the temptation behind me.