Authors: Peter Cheyney

Tags: #det_classic

Dames Don’t Care (27 page)

"Instead of which I scram down to Mexico an' when I get there Paulette starts makin' mistakes as well. She rings through to her pal Luis Daredo to bump me off when I am goin' down to Zoni to see her supposed husband Rudy who is dyin' there. She thinks that it will be a wise thing to get me outa the way.

"Anyhow the job don't come off. I was lucky enough to get outa that, but I am still not suspectin' the truth. When I was on my way to see Rudy Benito at Zoni I hadn't got one idea about this business that you couJda called an idea.

"An' I got the truth just because crooks are always careless an' because they always make one big mistake.

"When I get to Madrales' place at Zoni, an' I go upstairs an' see this poor dyin' mug, I feel sorry for him, I don't suspect a thing, an' he tells me a good story that matches up with what Paulette has told me. You bet he does because she has been on the telephone an' wised him up about me.

"But just when I am walkin' outa the sick room I see somethin' durn funny. Stuck behind a screen is a waste-paper basket an' at the bottom of this waste-paper basket is a big cigarette ash tray, an' in the bottom of the basket where they have fallen out are about sixty cigarette stubs.

"I get it. Somebody has cleaned up the cigarette ends an' made out to hide 'em before I was allowed up to see Rudy. They have done this because they know that I will be wise to the fact that a guy dyin' of consumption can't smoke about sixty cigarettes in one day.

"At last I was wise. Now I got it why Paulette tried to stop me goin' to Zoni. I get the big idea. I go downstairs an' tell Madrales that I have gotta have a statement from Benito. I type it out an' make him sign it, an' then I go back to Paulette's place an' I compare the signature on the statement with one of the real Rudy Benito's signatures on a duplicate stock transfer of about a year before.

"The signature was different an' that told me all I wanted to know.

"Tonight just before I come down here I went inta Henrietta's room at her rancho. I found an old letter from Granworth Aymes an' I compared the handwritin'. The signature on the statement signed by Rudy Benito an' the Granworth Aynies handwritin' are one an' the same. The guy I saw at Zoni - the guy supposed to be dyin', who was laughin' his head off all the time thinkin' what a mutt I was, wasn't Rudy Benito - it was Granworth Aymes!"

I look over at Paulette. She is lyin' back starin' at the ceilin'. She don't look so good to me. She looks like she is due for a fit.

I pick up one of the wires that Metts handed to me.

"Just so's it'll help you when you see your lawyer in the mornin', Paulette," I tell her, "you might like to hear about this wire. It is from New York this mornin'. Followin' an instruction that I sent through from Yuma while you was gettin' your hair done, Langdon Burdell an' Marie Dubuinet was arrested early this mornin'. They grilled Burdell an' he squealed the whole works. They gotta full confession from him, an' he has said enough about you to fix you plenty."

Paulette pulls herself together. She sits up an' she flashes a little smile across at me.

"You win," she croaks. "I was the mug - I thought you was just another copper. How could I know you had brains?"

I look over at Henrietta. She is sittin' lookin' scared. Her lips are tremblin'.

"Lemmy," she says. "Then Granworth isn't dead. He's alive - in Mexico. I...

"Justa minute, honey," I tell her. "I'm afraid I gotta bit of a shock for you."

I pick up the second wire an' I read it to 'em.

It is from the Mexican Police at Mexicali, an' it says:

Following request from Special Agent L. H. Caution of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, confirmed by the Federal Consular Officer at Yuma yesterday, for the arrest of US Citizen Granworth Aymes, otherwise known as Rudy Benito, and the Spanish Citizen Doctor Eugenio Madrales, both of Zoni, Police Lieutenant Juan Marsiesta sent with a Rurales Patrol to eflect the arrest reports that both men were shot dead whilst resisting arrest.

Henrietta starts cryin'. She puts her head in her hands an' she sobs like her heart would break.

"Take it easy, lady," I tell her."I reckon that the way this job has finished is the best for everybody. Maloney, I reckon you'd better put Henrietta in your car an' take her along back home."

Henrietta gets up. I'm tellin' you that with her eyes fulla tears she looks a real honey. There is a sorta light in her eyes when she looks at me that is aces. I reckon that if I was a guy who was given to gettin' sentimental about anything I shoulda been sorta pleased with the way she was lookin'.

"I think you're swell, Lemmy," she says.

She goes out with Maloney.

I go over to Metts' desk an' I open the drawer an' I take out a pair of steel bracelets. Then I go over to Paulette an' I slip 'em on her. She don't like it very much.

"You better get used to the feel of 'em, Paulette," I tell her. "An' if you get away with twenty years I reckon you'll be lucky, an' that ain't even takin' inta consideration them shots you had at me."

She gets up outa the chair.

"I wish I'd got you," she says. "I reckon I woulda saved myself a lotta trouble if I had. Still that's the way life goes...

She takes a sudden step back an' then she takes a big swipe at my face with her wrists. I reckon if them handcuffs had hit me my face woulda been more like the Rock of Gibraltar than it is.

I do a quick side step. She misses me. I get hold of her an' I am just goin' to give her a good smackin' on the place intended for it, when I stop myself.

"No," I tell her. "I ain't goin' to smack you any, it would be like smackin' a tarantula. Paulette Benito," I go on, "I'm arrestin' you on a charge of bein' accessory to first-degree murder of your husband Rudy Benito. I'm arrestin' you on a charge of being accessory to the makin' an' issuin' of counterfeit bills, bonds, and stock certificates. I'm holdin' you here at Palm Springs pending extradition an' trial by a Federal Court.

"An' also," I go on, "speakin' personally I'd like to tellya that I'm durn glad that I ain't your husband. It would be like sleepin' with a rattlesnake."

She looks at me an' her eyes are glitterin'.

"I wish you were my husband," she says, "just for one week. If you were my husband, I'd give you rat poison!"

"Swell," I tell her, "an' if I was your husband I'd take it an' be glad. Take her away, boys. Lock her up, an' if she wants to she can start a civil war in the can."

The cops who are waitin' outside grab her an' take her off. Metts brings out a bottle of bourbon an' we have a stiff one each. I am feelin' like I could go to bed an' sleep for twenty-four years without even turnin' over.

Metts tells me that he has sent a wagon out to the Hacienda Altmira with a casket an' a coupla cops with spades to dig up what is left of Sagers an' fix him properly. I reckon that these boys will be waitin' for me to go out an' show 'em where Fernandez buried the kid, so I scram downstairs an' get in the car an' drive out to the Hacienda.

The dawn is breakin'. I reckon the desert country looks pretty swell at this time.

I reckon that I would like to stick around here at this place just doin' nothin' an' doin' it all the time, instead of rushin' about the country pullin' in cheap crooks an' counterfeiters an' jumpin' around duckin' shots from dames like Paulette.

I leave the car at the front of the Hacienda, an' walk around the back. Two State coppers with a police wagon an' shovels are hangin' around. They have got a casket in the wagon. I show 'em where Sagers is buried an' they start diggin'.

Then I remember somethin'. I light a cigarette an' go back to the car an' drive over towards Henrietta's little rancho. When I get there I see Maloney just gettin' inta his car.

"Say, am I the big mug, or am I?" I tell him. "With all this depression that's been flyin' around, I forgot the only bitta good news I got for Henrietta. An' anyway where was you goin'?"

"I'm scrammin'," he says. "You see, now that Henrietta's in the clear I reckon I don't haveta stick around any more. I sorta wanted to give her a hand that's all, an' I reckon I sorta used the situation inta rushin' her inta a marriage with me. But she ain't that way about it. She says she'd like to think of me as a brother - you know the stuff."

He grins.

"Anyhow," he says, "I got a girl in Florida. I reckon I'll go along an' say how are you to her."

"Atta boy," I tell him.

I watch his dust as he goes down the road. Then I walk up to the door an' I bang on it. After a bit Henrietta comes along. She has changed her kit an' she is wearin' a white crepe-dechine frock an' white shoes. That dame sure can look a honey.

"Say, Henrietta," I tell her. "I gotta bit of news for you an' I was a mug not to have thoughta it bcforc.

"Granworth was insured for two hundred thousand, wasn't he? Well the policy covered everything except suicide, an' he never committed suicide. He was shot resistin' arrest yesterday by Rurales.

"OK. Well the Company will pay. That means that you get plenty dough so I reckon you needn't worry your head about anything. I'll have a word with Metts on my way back so's if you want any dough quick the bank'll let you have some. I'll wire the New York Police to send the policy along, so's the bank can hold it against any dough you want"

She looks at me an' her eyes are sorta starry.

"That's fine, Lemmy," she says. "But won't you come in? There's one or two things I want to say to you. Besides there's breakfast coming."

I look at her.

"Listen, lady," I tell her. "Maybe you ain't heard about me. I am one tough guy. I am not the sorta guy you can trust around the place havin' breakfast with a swell dame like you. Especially if you are good at makin' waffles. I reckon that when I eat waffles I just get goin' an' they tell me that then I get to be the sorta guy that dames oughta be warned against."

She leans up against the door post.

"I was goin' to give you fried chicken," she says, "but after that I think I won't. I've got a better idea."

"Such as?" I ask her.

"Such as waffles," she says.

I look at her again an' I start thinkin' of my old mother. Ma Caution usta tell me when I was a kid that I always put food before everything.

An' for once Ma Caution was wrong.

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