When I have got well away from the Madrales dump I pull up the car an' do some very heavy thinkin'. I am checkin' up on the idea that is in my head. I have got a very funny hunch an' I am goin' to play it in a very funny sorta way.
I reckon that I am goin' to take a look around at Paulette's hacienda, an' I reckon I ain't goin' to tell her either. I am just goin' to do a little quiet house-bustin' just to see if I can get my claws on somethin' that I would like very much to find.
I pull the gun outa my pocket an' lay it right by me. I reckon that if anybody else tries anything on me tonight they are goin' to get it where they won't like it.
The moon has come out again. It is a swell night. Drivin' along back on the Sonoyta road I get thinkin' about dames an' what they do when they are in a jam.
Did I tell you that dames get ideas to do things that a guy would never even think of?
You're tellin' me!
CHAPTER 11
PINCH 1
I
DON'T drive up to the Hacienda. When I get to within a quarter of a mile of it I pull off the road an' start drivin' round over the scrub. I make a vvide circle, drivin' the car slow an' keepin' in top gear so as I don't make too much noise, an' I come up two-three hundred yards behind the house.
I stick the car behind a cactus clump an' I start workin' towards the house keepin' well under cover. I work right round the house in a circle but I can't see anybody or hear anythin' at all.
Then I get a hunch. Keepin' well in the scrub, I start workin' along the side of the road that leads from the hacienda to the State road intersection, an' I keep my eyes well skinned. After about five minutes I hear a horse neigh. I work up towards this sound an' I find a black horse tied up to a joshua tree about fifty yards off the road.
It is a good horse an' on it there is a Mexican leather an' wood saddle with silver trimmin's. There is a little silver plate just behind the saddle horn an' on this plate are the initials L.D.
When I see these initials I know that my hunch is right an' that Senor Luis Daredo is stickin' around waitin' for me some-where. Way down on the edge of the road about a hundred yards away there is a patch of scrub an' cactus, an' I reckon I'll find him down there. I start crawlin' that way, an' when I get there I see I am right.
Luis has picked himself a good place. He has picked a place where the road is very bad an' narrow an' full of cart ruts. He is sittin' way back twenty yards off the road behind a big cactus. He is smokin' an' he is nursin' a 30.30 rifle across his knees.
I come up behind him an' I bust him a good one in the ear. He goes over sideways. I pull the Luger on him an' pick up his rifle.
He sits up. He is smilin' a sorta sickly smile an' he is lookin' at the Luger. I reckon he thinks that I am goin' to give him the works.
I sit down on a rock an' look at him.
"You know, Luis," I tell him, "you ain't got no sense, an' I'm surprised at you because Mexicans are about the only people in the world who can keep themselves one jump ahead of a very clever dame like Paulette Benito. An' I'm surprised at you because you didn't tell that guy that smacked me over the head when I was drivin' to Zoni to finish me off pronto, because I reckon it woulda saved a lotta trouble for you guys. When that old battle-axe started tellin' me that somebody had spotted me down at the Casa de Oro as the guy who took in Caldesa Martinguez, an' that she was his mother, I knew that she was talkin' a lotta hooey because I happen to know that Martinguez's mother was dead years before. I knew that you was behind the job all right, an' it's goin' to annoy you plenty before I'm through."
He gets up an' he lights a cigarette.
"Senor Caution," he says, "believe me you got what they call theese wrong ideas. Sabe? I don' know nothin' about some peoples who do sometheeng to you. I am jus' sittin' here waitin' for a gringo who work for me, see? I don' know what the hell you theenk you are talkin'. Sabe?"
"You don't say," I tell him. "Just fancy that now. OK. Well you just listen to my renderin' of this little piece. I reckon that you're stringin' along with Paulette Benito. I reckon that Granworth Aymes wasn't the only guy that she took Rudy Benito for a ride over. I reckon you're number two. I gotta hunch that you two are just waitin' around for Rudy to die off an' then you an' Paulette was goin' to get hitched up. Well, you ain't - savvy?"
I think I will try this guy out. I get up off the rock an' I put my gun in the pocket, an' I make out that I am goin' to get myself a cigarette outa my pocket, an' he tries it. He takes a flyin' kick at my guts an' I am waitin' for him. I do a quick side step, smack up his foot as it shoots at me an' bust him as he goes down.
We mix it, an' I get goin' on this guy. I am rememberin' that old sour-puss of a Mexican dame kickin' me in the face an' throwin' the lantern at me, an' I am also rememberin' just what the guy who came down to the cellar to fix me woulda done if he'd got the chance.
I bust this Luis like hell. I close both his eyes an' crack some teeth out. I twist his nose till it looks like it is as tender as mine is, an' generally I give him more short arm stuff than I have ever issued any guy with for a helluva long time.
Then I chuck him in the cactus. He is all washed up an' he don't even care that a cactus spine is stickin' in his leg. He just ain't got any interest in life at all. I go over an' take a look at him an' it looks to me like I won't have any more trouble with him for quite a little while. So I go back to where his horse is, take off the bridle, the bellyband an' the stirrup leathers, an' I come back an' I make a nice job of Luis. I tie him up so neat that I think it will take him about a coupla years to get outa this tie-up.
I take a knife off him which he has got an' his rifle an' I chuck 'em in a hole an' bury 'em. I take his pants off him an' bury 'em too. I do this because I reckon that even if he managed to get outa this tie-up he wouldn't be much good without pants - it would sort of affect his morale.
Then I go back to the Hacienda. I work round the back an' I bust in through a window that is easy. I reckon that Paulette an' the Mexican jane will be sleepin' upstairs, but I am still careful not to make any noise. The light is good an' I can see plenty. I am in a sorta kitchen at the back an' I get outa this an' gumshoe along the passage openin' doors an' lookin' in as I pass rooms. One is a bedroom that ain't bein' used an' one is a sorta storeroom.
After a bit I get into the room where I was talkin' with Paulette before I went to Zoni, an' I look around. I am lookin' for somethin' that looks like a safe or a place where papers would be kept.
After a bit I find it. It is a wall safe behind a picture on the wall. It is let into the wall an' it has got a combination lock. I don't worry about the lock because after all the wall is only wood. So I get back to the kitchen an' get myself a canopener an' a strong carvin' knife that I find there an' I start diggin' around the hinges of this safe until I have burst them off. After about a quarter of an hour I fix it. I get the safe open.
Inside there are two-three boxes with some jewellery in them an' a lotta papers. I leave the boxes an' I take the papers over to the veranda an' I start lookin' through 'em. After a bit I find what I want. It is a share transfer authorising the transfer of some shares in a railway company from Rudy Benito to Granworth Aymes. It is witnessed by Paulette.
I look through this pretty carefully, then I stick it in my pocket. I take the rest of the papers back to the safe an' I put 'em back like they was before an' fix the safe as well as I can, an' I put the picture back in front of it.
I am pretty pleased with the night's work one way an' another I reckon I'll get this job cleaned up pretty soon. I look out over the mesa. It is near time that dawn was breakin' an' there's that peculiar sorta half light that comes between night an' mornin'.
On the table there is a box of cigarettes. I take one out an' light it. Then I go over to the sideboard. I give myself a drink.
I have just sunk half the liquor when a light is snapped on.
I turn around an' standin' in the doorway I see Paulette.
She is wearin' a very swell blue silk dressin' robe. Her ash-blonde hair is down an' is tied up with a ribbon. She stands there smilin' a funny sorta little smile, an' in her hand she has got a.38 Colt.
I finish the drink.
"Well, well, well, Paulette," I say. "Just fancy seein' you again so soon."
She comes into the room. She is still holdin' the gun on me. "So you're back, Mr 'G' man," she says very quiet, still smilin'. "Why don't you knock on the door when you want to come into a place?"
I take a drag on the cigarette.
"I'll tell you why, baby," I tell her. "I came back here because I had a big idea I might take a look around an' find somethin' I wanted, but I am sorry you interrupted me first. But there is just one little thing I'd like to know, Paulette. Why don't you put that gun away?"
She laughs.
"Maybe you'd like me to, Lemmy," she says. "I expect you would. You know I think you've had enough luck for tonight. Maybe it's time you had a little bad luck."
"You're tellin' me," I tell her. "Listen, Paulette," I say, "ain't you the mug? The worst thing about you dames is that you always overplay your hand. You're the sorta woman who would come in on a poker game with a pair of two's just hopin' that the other guys would think you'd gotta full house, but you made a big mistake tonight. You shouldn't have 'phoned through to Daredo.
"When some guy bumps me over the head on the road to Zoni, an' takes me off to some place to give me the works, I was wise that that was the telephone call you put through to Daredo, an' why? Well, there can only be one reason an' that reason was that you thought it would be pretty dangerous for yourself if I got as far as Zoni an' saw Rudy. So you fixed with Luis Daredo to get me before I got there.
"By the time I have got to Zoni an' seen Rudy, Luis' pals have wised him up that I have got away, so knowin' that I'll take this road back to get on to the main State road, he sits behind a clump of cactus way down from the house an' waits for me with a rifle.
"Well, it just didn't work. I have bust Luis good an' plenty, an' he's pretty sick right now."
She is still smilin'.
"That doesn't really matter, does it, Lemmy?" she says. "I'm still on top of the game."
"You're tellin' me," I tell her. "But what's the good of you bein' on top of the game? Where do we go from here? Listen, Paulette," I say, "why don't you get yourself some sense? What do you think you're goin' to do with that gun? Do you think you're goin' to shoot me? How come? Be your age."
She laughs out loud this time, an' she looks as sweet as pie. I'll tell you this Paulette has got one helluva nerve.
"Aren't you being a sap, Lemmy?" she says. "And do you think you'll be the first dick who's been killed in Mexico and not missed? I'm goin' to kill you, Lemmy, not because I particularly want to, because in several ways I find you rather attractive, but I think you're a little bit too consistent for my way of thinking. You're obstinate you know. You're the sort of man who would go on working and working, following his nose so to speak, until he might do all sorts of things that might even be inconvenient for me. I'm choosing the lesser of the two evils."
I flop down in a chair. She is standin' in the middle of the room right under the electric light. I look at the gun in her hand. It is as steady as a rock. I reckon this dame will kill me without even battin' an eyelid.
I don't feel so good. I am burned up that just when I am gettin' ideas about this job that I should be ironed out by some dame. Me - I never thought that I would be bumped by a dame.
"You know, Paulette," I tell her. "I think you're bein' silly. What you got to bump me for? What harm can I do you? I don't get this sorta business at all."
She just smiles.
"Well," she says, "here it comes, Lemmy. I'm going to give it to you. And I'll try and do it so that it won't hurt too much. How will you have it - sitting down or standing up?"
"Justa minute, Paulette," I say. "There is just a little thing I wanta say to you before you start the heat"
"All right, Lemmy," she says. "I'm listening. Go right ahead, but don't be too long."
I start thinkin'. I think as quick as hell. You gotta remember that earlier in the evenin' I told you that Paulette came an' put her hands on my shoulders when she was talkin' to me. When she took her hands away she sorta let 'em drop down the sides of my coat an' her right hand rested for a minute on my Luger which was in its shoulder holster under my left arm. OK. Well, maybe she will think that the gun is still there. She won't know that the Mexicans pinched the holster off me an' that I have got the gun in my right hand coat pocket.
I get up. I let my hands hang loose by my sides.
"Well, well, well, Paulette," I say. "If I've gotta have it I reckon I'll have it standin' up. Maybe you're not very keen on doin' anythin' for me, but there are two favours I would like to ask you. One is that I would like to have another shot of that bourbon of yours before I hand in my checks an' the other thing is that I would like you some time or other to send my Federal badge to a dame in Oklahoma. I'll give you the address. You don't have to send it now. Send it in a year's time if you like, but I sorta feel that I'd like her to have it."
She laughs again.
"Just fancy now," she says, "the tough 'G' man getting sentimental about a woman."
I shrug my shoulders.
"That's the way it is," I say.
I turn round an' I walk over to the sideboard. I pour my-self out a shot of bourbon, an' I drink it I put the glass back on the sideboard, an' I turn around.
"OK Paulette," I say, "here's the badge. I'll leave it on this table."
I put my hands sorta quite natural in my right hand coat pocket, an' I fire through my coat. I fire at the electric lamp an' I get it right, at the same moment I drop on my knees an' I hear Paulette fire three times. I take a leap forward like I was a runner gettin' off the mark, an' hit her clean in the belly with my head. She goes over backwards. I grab her arm an' twist the gun out of it.