Catch-As-Catch-Can Page 10

  “Andy,” said Dee quietly, “I am going on a real probability.”

  Andy said, “Nuts to probability. I take a certainty when I can get it. I’m stopping at the next phone booth. This is ridiculous.”

  Dee cried, “Don’t stop.”

  “I’m going to call. This is a job for the cops.”

  “Scare her to death,” said Clive again.

  “Don’t be such a fool,” snapped Andy. “I’ll risk scaring her to death. That stuff she’s got in her will kill a lot surer than fright can. Dee, don’t you know I’m right?”

  She said, “If she’s with Pearl, then I know where they’ll most probably go.”

  “If,” he said, “and that’s a big one. I think I’ve been indulging your instinct to rush around. Sorry, but I’ve got to do the best I know. I’m thinking of Laila.”

  Clive was mouse-quiet. Let them fight, he thought, complacently.

  Dee said, “So am I. I think this is so probable, I’ve got to go on this thread. All right, Andy, you stop. You call. Let me go on.”

  “With the car?” he said.

  “Yes, I’ll need the car.”

  “And I?”

  “You can phone,” she said. “We interfere with each other anyhow. I’m a handicap to you. We don’t agree. Maybe you can find her your way.

  “I’ll find her,” he said savagely, “anybody’s way. All ways. There’s a phone.” He sent the car swerving and squealing onto the apron of a gas station and stopped it. He got out “Come along,” he said sternly. “I want you to describe that car and trailer.”

  “No, no. We’re on Pearl’s heels. We can’t wait!” She was looking up into his stern face that had aged, already, in this one afternoon. “Oh, be free of me,” she cried, “and let me go. You know I will find her for you if I can.” She was blind with sudden tears.

  Clive caught them both unawares. He stood up and forced his body over and around Dee into the driver’s seat. “She’s right,” he yammered. “We’re going on.”

  “Wait a minute.…” Andy clung to the car. He said rapidly, “Dee, leave if you want to. I won’t make you go my way. But I must tell you, you’re on the right track. I think Clive knows it.”

  “What!”

  “There’s something funny going on. He got us out of there too fast. He’s got us on a chase and we don’t know Laila is in that trailer. I don’t think it’s his guess. I think it’s his purpose.”

  “You’re wasting time,” Clive yelped. “Now you’re deliberately wasting time.”

  “We can’t waste time,” said Dee, bewildered.

  “Dee,” Andy’s face was dark with the darkness of his thought. “Don’t you know that if Laila should die.…”

  “She’s not going to die. I won’t let it happen.”

  “Think about what pushes other people. He would,” said Andy. “He might. Clive might … let it happen for a nice profit.”

  “Andy!” Dee was utterly shocked. “Nobody would let it happen. You don’t mean that!”

  His gray eyes were sorry.

  “She’s my cousin, too,” cried Dee.

  “Yes, I know,” he said. “I just don’t like it. I’m not trying.…”

  Clive said, “He’s trying to waste time and that’s all he’s doing. Look out!” He yanked Dee down into the seat.

  “Wait! Dee!” Talbot grabbed for the ignition key, too late. Then he tried to leap aboard. But the blue convertible spurted up and Clive shoved viciously with his elbow. Dee turned, knee on seat, and saw Andy catch his balance on the very brink of a fall and then run a few futile steps. She saw an attendant running to his side as the car lurched out into traffic and Clive slammed it ahead.

  Clive said furiously, “This makes better sense than listening to his insults. We can’t be far behind. You and I agree. We mustn’t waste the time. We’ve got to keep going.”

  She faced around forward. Her hair whipped her cheek. In a very disagreeable painful way, it made sense to keep going without Andy. She meant it with all her heart, what she had said. She would find, for her love, the girl he loved. For the first time, she realized that she too was Laila’s heir. She realized Andy had thought of it. It seemed all wrong to have thought of such a thing. She thought, “I don’t know him. Nor does he know me. Nor ever shall we.” She put her bare hand in the sun, where the wind would weather it. It was twenty-six minutes after four.

  Talbot stood, biting his cheek. The attendant seemed angrier than he. “I seen that,” he offered. “You want a car? You want to chase them?” He was hot and furious.

  “Not I,” said Andy. “I want some change. I want to telephone.” His voice was cold and controlled.

  “That was a fine thing for him to say,” Clive snorted. “You know who profits.”

  “What do you mean, Clive?” Dee said impatiently, holding herself steady and watching the street signs. Clive was a wretched driver.

  “I mean we both profit. You, too, Dee. If Laila.…”

  “Don’t even …” she flared around at him.

  “I didn’t start this. He did. O.K. Listen, Dee, honey, never crossed your mind, I suppose, but remember … Talbot got engaged to you while he had reason to believe you were Uncle Jonas’ heir.”

  “He didn’t even know about Uncle Jonas. Don’t be so silly.”

  “You think he didn’t. You remember all that noble speechmaking the night after Jonas died? Yeah. But who wanted to hear about the will?”

  “Oh, Clive, please. What’s money got to do with it? Who’s thinking of money?”

  “Your boy friend,” snarled Clive. “Obviously, he’s thinking of money.”

  “That’s not true,” she said weakly.

  “No? What’s he mean, ‘profit,’ then?”

  “I don’t know,” said Dee. “I don’t care.”

  “Listen, Dee.…”

  “We’ve got to go right.”

  “What?”

  “Clive. you’re in the wrong lane.”

  “I’ll get over. Take the next one.” Clive got himself well tangled in the traffic. “You’re only thinking about Laila,” he proclaimed, “and I’m only thinking about Laila. You don’t imagine he ever did any thinking about Laila?”

  “Clive, please. Work over into the right lane. You’re not.…”

  “I am. So all right. She’s nuts about him, poor little bunny. He could marry Laila and the whole damn fortune any day he said the word. You think he hasn’t been tempted?”

  Dee said, “Clive, be quiet.”

  “Maybe he’s been tempted,” Clive insisted. “But nobody wants to look like such a heel as to throw you over for the girl who’s got the money. This is different—kind of opportunity.”

  “Clive, I don’t want to hear.…”

  “You heard him, didn’t you? Implying I’d just as soon let her stay lost until she dies, so I’d get the money. All right. Now you can hear me. If she stays lost and dies, he marries the same money. Doesn’t he?”

  “No.”

  “Yes, he does. He marries you. And a half of the money. You’ll sure be a lot better off financially than you are now.”

  “Clive, you’re so wrong. And that’s the meanest … the smallest, meanest.…”

  “All right,” Clive snarled. “But who wants to stop and call back, all the time? Who gets in an argument and makes a delay? Who doesn’t look like he’s so crazy to catch Laila.”

  Dee’s eyes shot sparks. “I never heard such a horrible idea in my life. Nobody would do a thing like that.”

  “Where you been, Dee?” said Clive sadly. “Not around.”

  “I think you’re disgusting!”

  They whipped on. Around to the right. Cars ahead, blue, green, yellow and black. Nothing shining. No trailer. No Pearl. Clive was sweating. He couldn’t figure out a way to blow a tire or pull a wire somewhere and stop this pell-mell flight into disaster. He’d thought it not a bad idea to get rid of Talbot. He was glad to be in the driver’s seat. Maybe he’d think of a way, yet
. Clive was afraid his cousin, Dee, who maddeningly knew so much, had put them on the right trail. His mind twisted and squirmed. He couldn’t afford to catch them. But he had to seem to be hell-bent to catch them. That Talbot, the crust of the things he’d said. So Clive had to muddy the waters. He couldn’t stop talking.

  “You know, Dee,” he said plaintively, “what you want to realize is that he’s human. It doesn’t seem exactly criminal, just to hold up a little bit. Keep talking about doing the sensible thing. Let her get lost, eh? I mean, he may not think it all out, but you know, subconsciously.… What I’m trying to say, that could happen.”

  “Oh, stop it,” she cried. “Stop that and drive. Or let me drive.”

  Clive clamped his teeth. She wouldn’t stop watching the road. She wouldn’t let him stray. She wouldn’t get upset over Talbot and the money. She was on the right trail. She’d never give up. He couldn’t shake her. He couldn’t muddle her. He couldn’t stop her.

  He hated her!

  CHAPTER 13

  Pearl Dean was one of the worst drivers in the world. She thought she was cautious. But she was sluggish in her reactions and vague in her purposes. She was out of phase with everything on the highway. A multitude of crisp and skillful decisions on the part of other drivers saved her from disaster about once in every mile.

  Now, she trundled along in her erratic way, varying her speed with her mood, sometimes confident enough to step up to forty miles an hour, sometimes drifting hesitantly in a zigzag across lanes. She liked to drive to music but she could find no music this afternoon. The radio seemed to be out of order. So she fell alternately from a drifting daydream to a sudden alarmed nervousness and the little car went as her moods went, and the trailer after it.

  Pearl preferred back ways to fast through streets, perhaps because she herself was less of a nuisance on these. So she wound and trundled her caravan through quiet residential sections, but she could not avoid all the through streets, all the business sections, or all the traffic signals. Pearl was not one who always saw a red light quickly enough to incorporate it into her plans. Now, as she trod on the brake and came to a stop with the coupe blocking the pedestrian crossing, she peered about her. She realized she was getting out of the city. Soon she would be on her pet street, her own way south, and beyond the city limits and the province of the Los Angeles Police Department.

  Pearl relaxed. Her mind went ahead to her destination. The sea. The darling cove. The sea sounds and the lonely peace. She threw herself into the self-hypnosis she enjoyed.

  A loud voice was coming from somewhere near. The news, on somebody else’s radio. Absent-mindedly, Pearl fiddled again with the knobs of her own. Too bad. Ah well, she had a little portable, back in the trailer. She and Laila could have music this evening, to the sea’s chorus. They would watch the high stars and Pearl could talk and talk and the child would listen, delightfully.

  Pearl had been drawn to Jonas Breen, yes, truly drawn. The man had excited her and she knew she had entertained him. He was one of a very few mature and intelligent persons willing to sieve from her potpourri of notions the grains of enlightenment. For Jonas’ sake, she would soothe and protect his darling child, who was Pearl’s own, by Pearl’s reckoning. Who was in danger because of the wicked money. Who must marry and bear a child to be safe from the danger that was entwined with the money. Who must have love and had Pearl’s.… The woman dreamed on … until the light changed and somebody honked and prodded her ahead.

  Behind her, Laila, crumpled on the couch, was holding her ears. The loud voice had penetrated and shaken the thin walls of the trailer. Her name. Her own name. All over the city, everywhere, people were hearing it. “Caucasian. Eighteen years of age. This girl has been poisoned. Anyone seeing this girl, please call Madison 7911. Or take her at once to Greenleaf Hospital. Please notify Madison 7911. This girl has been poisoned.”

  Poisoned?

  Now, Pearl knew what they were saying. Pearl was right beside that loud voice … could not help but hear it. So she would soon come and open the door and at last tell Laila what to think, whether to believe, what to do, what to do.… A very bitter truth had come to Laila Breen. She couldn’t think for herself, not yet, because she did not know enough.

  Oh, how could she be poisoned? Mrs. Vaughn must be the one who had been poisoned. Maybe they were confused about that, some strange way. And maybe not. But Pearl was her friend, and Pearl knew more than she, and Pearl would do what was best to do, now that she had heard the radio.

  The trailer lurched forward. The jiggling, the rattling, the relentless journey began again.

  Talbot put his coins in. Stirling’s voice was rough and quick in his ear. “Talbot? Say, the police got a tip from a cabdriver who says he picked Laila up. She was not alone. She was with a man. He took them to Fleming’s.”

  “When?” Talbot staggered. His suspicion grew hot.

  “That’s the question. Whether before or after you got there, we can’t.…”

  “Did the police go to Fleming’s?”

  “On their way. Should be there now.”

  “A man, eh?” said Andy. “Any description of this man?”

  “Nothing very distinctive. Tall. Brown hair. Gray eyes.”

  “Clive?” said Andy.

  He heard Stirling’s gasp. “Nothing to contradict the idea of Give,” the doctor said. “Why? What do you …?”

  “I’m puzzling my head about cousin Clive. I got the idea he was in it somehow. Don’t ask me why. The Fleming woman was lying. And he knew it. He was damn nervous, watched her like a hawk, got us out of there, ran us out on what he says is Laila’s trail. I’ve been wondering if it is the real trail. Are the police trying to pick up Pearl Dean?”

  Stirling said, “I suggested it. Right after you told me she had gone. Thought we ought to check with her. But tell me this, because I don’t know. What does she drive?”

  “Old car, small. A coupe. Black. Chewy, I think. Can’t swear to that. And she’s hauling a trailer.”

  “I didn’t know that. What’s it look like?”

  “I don’t know that, sir.” Andy groaned.

  “Ask Dee. Dee’s probably seen it.”

  “Dee’s not with me.” Andy’s voice was tight.

  “Where is she?”

  “Gone with Clive. Chasing Pearl. In my car. Look, who knows about this? Who can I contact in the police department?”

  “Name’s Sweeney.” Dr. Stirling gave a number. “Why?”

  “I want that cabdriver,” Andy said. “I’m stranded. I need a cab and what I need even worse is the driver who will know that man again.”

  “Clive, eh?” said Dr. Stirling, remotely on the far wire. “Well, it’s hard to believe. But say, try the Fleming house. It’s quite possible the driver is there. Talking to the police.”

  “O.K.”

  “Talbot. Hey, Talbot. Is Dee all right?” The doctor listened to the dead phone. He was a man of logic. He did not jiggle the phone and futilely flash the operator. He hung up, instead.

  He said out loud, “That Clive is a moral idiot but even he.… Dammit,” he said to his secretary, “stick on that phone, Mary. She’s gone too long. I don’t like the way this looks. If somebody sets out to hide her, that’s going to be different. That’s not the same problem, damn it. Get me that Sweeney again.”

  “Yes, Doctor.”

  “That Pearl Dean! Who knows …?”

  Talbot was calling the Fleming number. He thought, poor Dee. I already know much more than she, from the telephone. He winced, thinking of Dee’s tears. God damn it, why couldn’t you keep your balance between those two girls? He sneered at himself. You damn fool. When this is over, leave town.

  Clive was still chewing sourly on his theme, “So Talbot’s the one who gave her something to run away about, eh?”

  “Clive, watch the road.”

  “That’s interesting, too. Did he know she ate that stuff? Talbot, I mean.”

  “No, no, of course he di
dn’t. He didn’t know anything about it when he talked to her.”

  “Didn’t? Couldn’t have overheard …?”

  (Overheard? Dr. Stirling at the telephone, barking his medical terms. Andy used them sometimes. Andy used a term like greenstick fracture. Andy could have overheard and understood. Dee played with the possibility and then smiled over it.)

  “Don’t be silly, Clive. Suppose he had? He still did not know she had eaten any. Nobody knew it until Sidney told us. Clive, let me drive?”

  “Nuh, uh,” Clive accelerated. “Listen. Laila knew what she ate, I guess. Maybe he asked Laila?”

  “He couldn’t have,” said Dee calmly.

  “He could have,” Clive snapped, “but you’re too stubborn to consider it.”

  “I think you must be crazy,” she said wearily. “First you want me to consider that Andy wanted to marry Laila. Then, that he’s trying to murder her. Choose one.”

  “He could have wanted first one and then the other,” Clive whined. “I’m just wondering. After all, none of us know very much about Mr. Andrew Talbot. Anybody can work in an office. How do you know how his mind works?”

  “I’m beginning to know,” said Dee hotly, “an awful lot about how your mind works, and it isn’t decent. It makes me sick.”

  “You’re sure of him, aren’t you? You can’t see that he’s got a motive.”

  Dee let her head tip back. “I’ve got the motive. I’d get the money, wouldn’t I? I should be jealous of her, too.”

  Clive’s mouth fell open. Dee went on.

  “You’re not very bright, Clive. Don’t you see the ring I’m not wearing? Don’t you know when we find her and she’s safe, Andy will want to take care of her, forevermore?”

  “Do you mean …?”

  “You can’t tell me Andy’s trying to hold back. Why are you trying to tell me such a …?”

  Clive said, a little breathlessly, “Dee, do you mean that if she lives, you’ve lost him?”

  “Of course, I’ve lost him,” cried Dee. “Either way. And what has that got to do with it? What you call motives are nonsense, Clive. I’m telling you because I know. Nothing can stop me from trying to find her. So hurry. Turn left at the next corner. That will be Lemon Grove.”