ALVREO MARCH SOi^ K HITCUCOCKSfi MYSTERy MAGAZINE

NEW stories presented by the master of SUSPENSE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED March 1967

Dear Reader:

A profile of our time would not be ^a^ complete without a close perusal of pertinent issues. Historians of the fu­ ture could do no better in grasping a well-rounded picture of our era than to consult the magazine you are now hold­ ing. The latest electronic advances and a momentous de­ cision by the highest court in the land are among the current events mystery writers explore. The fine arts, child psychology, banking, botany, bridge and physics are some of the others represented herein—from parti­ cular viewpoints. It was brought to my attention that a citizen bent on extreme wrongdoing was attempting'to find a suitable method. He was so startled by the arts and sciences in these pages that, as a result, he returned to college, earned his degrees and became a doctor of medicine. So AHMM makes practical reading, whether you are snowbound or beachbound. At this time of year the chances arc even that you are one or the other, but which­ ever, you might prepare yourself for a sudden chill not necessarily related to the weather.

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Vol. 12. Ko. 3. Murcli l!tG7. Single coiilcs .50 cents. ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE Sub.s(TiptionsS(i.OO for one year in the Unit oil States jtrul Po.ssessioiis; elsewhere $7.00 (in U.S. funtls) for one year. Published niontlil.v by JI. S. D. Public^ations. Inc.. LM41 Beach Court. Riviera Beach. Fhi. 'i.UiU. Publications ollice, 10 Terry Siroet. Concord. X. if. 03302. .second class postage paid at Concord. N. H. Copyright II. S. D. Publicatiun.'-. Inc.. Ift67. All righls reserved, protection secured under the InterTiaiional and Pan-Aineri<;:ui copyright convention. Title registered \>. S. Pat. Oilice. Reproduction or use without express iKjrnii.-ision of editorial or pl(;torial content in any manner is pro­ hibited. Postage must accompany manuscripts if return is doslrets and changes of addresses should be sent to .Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Maga­ zine, 2441 Beach Court, Riviera Beach. Kla. 33404. Xo similarity between any of ihe names, characters, i>ersons an

CONTENTS

NOVELETTE THE LIFESAVER by Don Tothe 138

SHORT STORIES HEIR TO MURDER by Ed Lacy 2 THE PRIVILEGES OF CRIME by Taltnage Powell 17 STILL LIFE by Edwin P. Hic\s 24 PITTER-PATTER by Ed Dumonte 35 CALCULATED ALIBI by Richard Deming 42 A BIG BLACK HORSE by Patricia H. Sy\es 53 THE MARKSMAN by Clar\ Howard 61 LOADED WITH MONEY by Anthony Marsh 74 DEATH WISH by Lawrence Bloc\ 80 SPILT MILK by James A. Cox 90 THE MAN MUST DIE by Jonathan Craig 99 CARDS ON THE TABLE by Wenzell Brown 103 KILLER COP by Richard O. Lewis 119 THE BET by Arthur Porges 129

RICHARD E. DECKER, Publisher G. F. FOSTER, Editor Associate Editors Pat Hitchcock Ernest Mutter Victoria S. Benham Marguerite Blair Deacon, Art Director

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Where one's actions are so abstruse that normal human be­ havior is seemingly defied, we have a mystery indeed.

strenuous than golf; say tennis. His blue eyes were on the jolly side as he said, "Mr. Columbia, you may not remember me. I'm Williams Sanford. I was the lawyer for Moorepark Appliance, which is why I thought of you when I de­ cided I need a private investiga­ IT WAS difficult to peg his age, but tor." The deep voice went with his I guessed forty-five. He was al­ build. ready bald, but his face was hand­ "After that mess, I'm surprised some, in a fleshy way, and the cus­ you'd want me for anything, Mr. tom-tailored suit showed off a good Sanford," I said poHtely. Actually build—from something .. more it hadn't been my fault. I'd been

ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED hired to get information on a rival months ago Mr. Massini's uncle outfit's new models and prices. died, leaving an estate worth over However, they must have expected 1800,000. Mr. Massini—that is Ste­ their ofSces to be bugged, for ven Massini—was willed $18,000. they'd had a whole false informa­ As executor, I've been looking for tion deal set up. Steven so the will could be pro­ "That's all in the past, Mr. Co­ bated. A few months ago I finally lumbia. For the present I need to located him in Nice, France. I find a man—that's the job." gather young Steven is an artist, a "Have you tried the police.?" kind of beatnik character. I imme­ "This isn't a police matter." The diately-airmailed him a letter ex­ blue eyes actually twinkled. "Aren't plaining that he had to be here be­ you seeking business, Mr. Colum­ fore the will could be probated, al­ bia.?" though his share is the smallest one "Like crazy, but I'm the wrong of the estate. -He wrote back, via type of investigator for you. My ordinary mail, asking why the field is electronics, electrical snoop­ money couldn't be sent to him. ing, bugging. For the run-of-the- Well, after an exchange of letters, mill detective work, I have a he finally flew to the States two friend, Al Peters, a retired cop weeks ago. I imagine you read who—" aboiit the jet that crashed and "I'd hke to hire you." burned at Kennedy.?" I shrugged. "Okay. But my fee I nodded. "Was he on it?" is $150 per day." "Yes. According to the papers, "That's rather steep. This won't Steven was one of the three sur­ require any of your electrical gadg- , vivors. He happened to be seated ets, Mr. Columbia—Fred." in the tail section, which broke off "That's why I suggested Al Pe­ on impact. Steven was thrown ters, Mr. Sanford. He'll only cost clear and escaped the flames and you $50 a day and he's an expert at death that ninety-two others met. shadowing, that sort of work. He was rushed to nearby Brook You'd be taking me from other Hospital for a check-up. He wasn't possible cases, so I have to charge injured but was merely in a mild for my time." state of shock. On reading about Sanford nodded his polished this, I called the hospital the next head. "I appreciate your frankness morning to speak to Steven. I was and agree to your fee. I'm looking told he had made a phone call an for a Steven Massini, About fifteen hour after he had entered, that a

HEIR TO MURDER

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED young lady had come for him and "How did' you locate him, Mr. he had gone with her. That's the Sanford.?" last I know of Steven, although Sanford smiled. "One of his cou­ I've been running ads in the public sins happened to read a news item notices columns of the papers, urg­ about a Steven Massini being ar­ ing him to contact my office." Mr. rested for picketing the U.S. Con­ Sanford smiled, waved his hands sulate in Nice, some kind of peace as if to smooth the air in front of protest. As Massini is hardly a- com­ him. mon naine, I wrote him, established "Has this Steven been in touch that he was the missing heir. The with any of the other^ heirs, his only hard fact I know about Steven relatives ?" is that he's twenty-six years old." "No. He was adopted and not on "You've hardly given me any­ speaking terms with the rest of his thing to work on, Mr. Sanford. I family. As I told you, Steven's a want $300 now, as a binder, for sort of wild type, a nonconformist. two days' work, including today. His adopted parents died seven All I can tell you is, I'll give it the years ago in a car crash, and Ste­ old college try." ven's been abroad ever since. As "Fine. Let me know the moment you can understand, the other you locate him," Sanford said, get­ heirs are most impatient to have ting to his feet, taking six $50 bills the estate settled." from a fancy wallet, and his card, "Sure. And eighteen grand should and dropping them all on my desk. interest a struggling artist, too. Is "Of course, all this is strictly con­ he married.?" '' fidential, Fred." "Not as far as I know.' I've never "Sure, Mr. Sanford." seen Steven, haven't even a photo It was two-twenty p.m. when he of the lad. The last time any other left. I phoned a guy who works members' of the family saw Steven for a top credit rating house, asked was many years ago, when he was for a rundown on Sanford and on about four years old. His -father Steven Massini, of Nice, France. I was on the wild side, too, had mar­ do this with all my clients; credit ried an Indian girl. Frankly, I was houses have better files than the astonished to find Steven had even FBI. been mentioned in the will. This Then I phoned a- newspaper lack of knowledge has been the friend and was told the jet had reason it had taken mc so long to crashed at six-ten p.m., meaning find him." . . Massini couldn't "have reached the

ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED hospital before seven p.m. This board, records. May I have the gave me time to attend to some .number?" other things. Five minutes later I called a fel­ After supper I was at Brook low working for the phone com­ Hospital at seven p.m. Flashing pany, who told ine the number was my fancy gold badge, something I that of a Mr. Phil Wells, and gave hadn't done in a long time, I ex­ me his Queens address. I drove out plained to a stout man in the of­ there; it was one of these small fice I was looking for Steven Mas- houses with a tiny lawn and a one sini, and about the inheritance, and car garage in the back, a carbon asked if I could speak to the nurses copy of every other house in the and doctors who had treated him area. when he vvas admitted. It was now nine-thirty p.m. Two nurses gave rne a descrip­ Phoning Al Peters from a corner tion of Steven: six feet tall, rangy, booth, I told him to stake out the about 175 pounds, dark hair, no Wells house from five a.m. on. distinguishing marks, ordinary Then I drove back to the steno's face. They thought he was about apartment to get the transcript of thirty years old. Part of his suit had the tape I'd left and to spend the been burned, but a doctor told me night with her. This wasn't quite Steven himself hadn't suffered any as romantic as it may sound, since known injuries. He was dazed and she's my ex-wife. One of these days in shock, yet had refused a sedative, we'll remarry, I hope. , saying he didn't believe in allowing I was at my office by eight the anything but organic foods in his next morning, and did some work body. Within an hour after he was on an industrial• spying job. At ten examined, he had made a phone a.m. I phoned my buddy in the call. About twenty minutes later an credit office. , . excited blonde woman, . about He told me, "We've nothing on twenty-five years old, had called Steven Massini, meaning he's prob­ for him. Against the doctor's ad­ ably, broke and hasn't any: employ­ vice, Steven had insisted upon ment record. Williams Sanford is.a leaving the hospital. credit risk. He took a bath in "When he made this call, was he Moorepark Appliance. stock a year in bed?" I asked, hopefully. ago. His law income is in the "Yes." . • $20,000 per year bracket but he "Good. Then there should be a lives above it—house in the record of the call in your switch­ suburbs, two cars, expensive wife,

HEIR TO MURDER

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED his third, by the way, membership orange juice, Fred.?" When I shook in a couple of swank clubs. He's my head, he finished the contaiiier, deeply in debt, although he made a asked, "You want me planted small killing in the market a few here all day.?" months ago, started paying off "I don't know, yet." some of his lOUs. But he. still I was studying the house. I. owes plenty. He comes from a once could wait until the Wells went wealthy family and will step into out, then break in, but-that was a fat bundle when his uncle dies. risky for the other houses were The said uncle is seventy-nine and very close, and in the snooping still plays eighteen holes of golf business you have to be careful. every week. That's it, Fred." You're always on the brink of I thanked him, asked for a run­ breaking a dozen laws. down on a Phil Wells and hung Back in my car, I put on a cap, up. From my old safe I took a tiny pulling it down over my face, transmitter, so small it fits into the added a wispy gray moustache and mouthpiece of a telephone receiver. two hairy warts to my fat face. I also took out another of my re­ Strapping on my tool belt, I care­ ceiving tape recorders. These gad­ fully put • the transmitter in my gets were the reason my marriage pocket and set up the receiving went on the rocks, since I have to recorder on the back floor of Al's plow everything I make back into car. Handing him a listening plug the business. Putting my phone re­ and a pad, I said, "You know the pairman's outfit on over my suit, routine, Al; write down anything I" drove out to the Wells' house and you hear. I should be back in an found Al Peters sitting in his old hour. Oh, pull up, you're more sedan down the street, sipping a than three hundred feet from the container of orange juice. As I house." slipped onto the front seat beside When I rang the door chimes, his bulk, he said, "Nothing, so far, there was a rush- of slippered feet Fred. The milkman left a bottle at and the door opened on a blonde seven a.in., and at eight-thirty a in a standard pink housecoat. She blonde took it in. Nice -looking had a nice figure only because it's babe, even with her hair in rollers." hard for a 25-year-bld not to have "Mr. Wells didn't leave for one. Her average face was on the work?" nervous side, and the dark circles "Nobody has left or come in." under her eyes said she hadn't been Al yawned. "You want some sleeping much. Glancing at my

ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY T.tAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED notebook, I asked, "Mrs. Phil Wells, I'm a friend of Steven Mas- Wells?" sini's. Can you—" "Yes. I'm Mrs. Wells." "You have the wrong number!' "There's been a buzz in the code She hung up, hard. area phone Hnes. I'd like to check I dialed again, and she let the your phone for a possible short." phone ring five times before asking, I was careful not to say I was from "Yes?" the phone company. "Mrs. Wells, don't hang up until "My phone's all right" you hear what I have to say. I "Yes, but if there is a short, it know you picked up Steven Mas- could affect the other circuits. .It sini at the' hospital after the plane will only take a second,- Mrs. crash. I have a large sum of money Wells." for him, an inheritance. If you'll—" "All right." "I told ypu. before, you have a The livingroom was in cheap wrong number! I never heard of contemporary. I went through the any Steven '. . . whatever-his-name routine of pretending to check with is. Leave me alone!" She banged the operator. I took the receiver the receiver down again, but there apart and, even though she was had been a trace of hysteria in her watching, me, I attached my tiny voice. microcircuit . transmitter, certain I drove back to AI Peters. He she didn't know what it_was. These nodded and followed my car are so small I once installed one in around the corner, where we both a plastic olive in a martini glass parked. As I sat beside him he and listened in on a bar conversa­ said, "An easy one,. Fred. She tion while I was two hundred feet called a Mr. Stevens, room 121, away. A moment later, when'I was Devenport Hotel, a few seconds finished, I checked the dial tone after your second call. She—" and told Mrs. Wells, "I put in new "A Mr. Stevens? Not a Steven parts to be on the safe side. Your Massini?" phone checks out okay. Thank "Nope, a Mr. Stevens. She told you, ma'am." him about your call, sounding un- I drove a few blocks away, took . glued." Al squinted at the pad. off the disguise and coveralls, and "He said, 'Take it easy. Rose. If went into a stool joint for a bite he calls again just say you don't to eat. It was forty-five minutes know what the hell he's talking later when I dialed her number. about. Rose, how about going over When she answered I said, "Mrs. to your mother's, in Newark, for a

HEIR TO MURDER

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED few days? I'll send for you later.' steps. The hallway was empty.. " 'I can't put on the act there. No. The guy opening the door of 121 Oh, honey, I'm worried! Worried wore slacks and an open , white sick!' shirt, and fitted the hospital de­ " 'Relax, darling. Tell you what, scription. When he asked, "Yeah.? don't answer the phone again or What you selling.'"' there was a . I've a better idea, come over faint whiskey aura around.' the here.' words. • ; " 'But if mama calls and doesn't Flashing my gold badge, I said, get any answer, she'll get: upset "I have to talk to you, Mr. Mas and . . . I'm going to pieces!' sini." , ••- •'; "'Rose, baby, take, it slow. He grabbed my wrist and stiid- Things are breaking fine for us. ied the badge. Then he let go- of Listen to me: call your-folks and my hand. "A store cop. Take, a say you're going away} for a few walk before I call the realfuzz." i days, the house spooks you and all "Go ahead, call them,- Mr. Mas- that jazz. Then come here. I'll ex- sini. But; you misunderstand the • pect you around two. Now calm iiature of my visit. I'm here to put down, baby.'" ; ' $18,00.0'in your hands." I got my "Nice, Al, real nice work. I'll foot in the doorway and tried to set the recorder on automatic re­ smile. Massini had at least three ceiving and you drive. back, • park inches oh iiie, and I'm hot much within two hundred feet of the of 'a battler. '!No harm in our talk­ Wells house. I'll wait here for you." ing about it, is there ?" When Al drove off, I went into "Okay, talk." He was studying a drugstore and found" the"'Deven- my shoe in the door. port Hotel in the phorie book; it "In the,hall.?" . •- was near the airport. Al returned "That's right. I have some . . . on foot and' I dropped hirn at the company, very shy. You know. subway, told him to wait in his You from the lawyer^Sanford.?" room for my call. "Correct. Why haven't you been The hotel was modest and new. in touch with him ? He only wants I told the elderly desk clerk, "I'm to settle the.estate." going up to room 121 to pull a "Just tell him to leave me alone. surprise gag on Mr. Stevens. Don't When I get ready to see him, I'll call him on the house phone." I do it. Also teir him I don't like his left a ten-dollar bill on the desk putting a private eye on me." He and went up the one flight of steel strioothed his hair with his right

8 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY. MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED HEIR TO MURDER

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED hand, and I saw the lumpy knuck­ and parked down the block. I had les of a puncher. to get my transmitter back. Aside "Aren't you interested in your from the fact it had cost me $180, inheritance, the $18,000?" at some future time the phone corn- "I don't know. The dough puts pany would find it and might be me in a high tax bracket; and it able to trace it to me. Then I'd may cost me more in the long run. be in a real jam. I may go back to Nice." The telephone repair act was "Why haven't you called Sanford out. Breaking into the house would and told him this?" be simple, except there were. far "Because I don't feel Hke it. Now too many people around now. I get your foot out of the door before decided to return at night to see if I take your fat face apart, snooper." I could get in. I put a note on Al's "Okay." I got my shoe out before windshield that the car was out.of he slammed the door. order and waiting for a mechanic. In the lobby I phoned Sanford, Then I drove Xo my office, called told him where Massini was, and Al, and told him we'd pick up 'his added, "He doesn't seem interested car in the evening.. in collecting his inheritance—said I phoned my credit buddy, who something about returning , to told me, "The Wells have a .joint France. I suggest you get out here income of $9,400. Their house cost quickly, if you want to see him." $20,000 and carries a $15,000 mort­ "Thank you, Mr. Columbia, your gage. They furnished it, when they service is fast and excellent. You've were married four years ago, on put in one day's work. You owe installment buying; very prompt me $150. I advanced $300." on their payments. She's a typist "i haven't figured the expenses for a local real estate company. He yet. Listen—" was, employed as a reservations "You said nothing about ex­ .clerk at Trans-Europe Airlines." penses." . "Isn't that the company whose "Sanford, we'll argue about my plane crashed recently?" bill later. If you want to see him, /'Right. Phil Wells was, killed in get out here quickly. He'll prob­ the crash. Okay, Fred ?" ably change hotels now." I said, "Thanks," very slowly. "I'll handle things from here. A I was going to phone Sanford fine day's work, Mr. Columbia." but decided to wait, just in case I He hung up. didn't recover my transmitter, and . i drove back to the Wells house he started beefing about expenses.

10 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED I did some work around the "Cut it out, Al, I've had my office, then later in the afternoon share of being told off for the I stopped at a. newspaper office and night."' read up on the crash. Phil Wells "Okay. I'll pick up my car, and was among those burned to a crisp. what you do is your business. Just As an airline employee he had give me time to get out of the been riding free, had spent the neighborhood." weekend in Paris. Identification "Sure. By now things should be was based on a cigarette lighter quiet around there. I'll call the with his name on it, a Christmas Wells house first, to make sure gift from the company, found there's nobody home." among the remains of one of the When I stopped at the corner of charred bodies. There was even.a their block to let Al off to pick up human interest sidelight: his heap, things weren't exacdy "Mrs. Rose Wells, the deceased's quiet: four police cars were parked young wife, stated she was sup­ in front of the Wells house and a posed to have gone with her hus­ small crowd was hanging around. band on the weekend flight. 'Phil Al glanced at me and groaned, had just finished five years with I said, "Go on, get your car. You Trans-European, so I could go free, were driving by this morning and too. It would have been our first the motor stalled. Raise the hood trip together, but on Friday my and fool around. And find out boss took sick and I couldn't get what's happened.'- Saturday off.'" A half hour later Al honked his I had supper with my ex-wife. -horn as he passed me and I fol­ She wanted to take in a movie, but lowed him a few blocks before we I said I had to work, and we got parked. Al was wiping his sweaty into another of those arguments face. "That was too close! A lot of about my crazy hours. She told me stuff has hit a big fan. It seems to get out. ' this Wells blonde knocked off your I phoned Al and picked him up Massini guy! They found her in at the 59th Street Bridge at nine some"'rundbwn hotel, with his p.m. As we drove put to the Wells corpse and the murder gun, this house and I mentioned I was go­ afternoon." ing to break in, Al shook his big "She's confessed to the killing.'"' head. "Fred, I've told you this be­ "Way I heard it, she hasn't talked fore, I don't break the law, openly, one way or the other. Hasn't even anyway." asked for a lawyer. I'm sure glad

HEIR TO MURDER 11

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED we're off the case, that's for sure." Island City, called the Monroe. It's I was about to remind Al that two-forty now, best you don't take my transniitter \vas. still in the. the car. You can be here within—" Wells' telephone, but he was. upset There was the bark of a shot and enough as it was. I .took the tape then Rose Wells shouting, "Phil! recorder from his car, drove to my Phil! What's . . . .?" Somebody office, and played the tape back. hung up, cutting her off.' There was a call from Mrs. Wells' I replayed thF tape, doing some mother, full of trite gas as she told furious thinking, and the only her daughter to bear up- and be thing I ended up with was a cold brave in "your hour of sorrow." sweat and, a headache. Igpt Al on Then a call from Steven Massini the phone. "This is important, Al. who asked impatiently, "Who were Can you find out the exact time of you talking to ? Line's been busy death for Steven Massini.?" for the last ten minutes." "Yeah; I can ask around but, . "Mama. Oh, I forgot to tell her Fred, it will look . . . bad. I mean, I'm going away for a few days." my caHing some old pals now, at "You can call her back later. night. It sort of connects me—us— Pack a bag .but wait for my call, with this mess. Maybe tomorrpw,- hon. Some fat private eye working during the day I can^-" for Sanford visited me here, so I "Al, I have to find the time of ' have to move." ' ' - death now." - "How could anybody have found "Fred, as an experienced police _you ? I wish we'd never got into officer, let me give you some this mess, Phil." . . . straight advice—don't make any "Relax, there's nothing.to worry waves. I haven't forgotten that your about. I told him I wasn't inter­ transmitter is still in the phone, but ested in the inheritance and threw there's little chance of the police him out. I'll call you as. soon as I bothering to take, the phone apart get. moved. -Take it easy,. baby, now. -But once I start asking we're going to be rich." • around. ;.. it's hardly a secret I My recorder was automatic, and do some work for you and then worked only when the transmitter . they'll—'! . • was in action—when the. Wells "Al do you thi.nk the police phone vvas in use. I.heard another would go for a deal?-Forget us call and the same man's voice said, and the transmitter, give it back "Hon, I've moved. A small and to me, in exchange for the real crummy, but' clean hotel in Long killer?"

12 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "I could . . . Blondie didn't do ing of this late call? Don't you—" it? Hell, Fred, what are we getting "I have to see you, right now. I into?" guess you know Steven Massini "Al, I'm trying to get out of this was killed?" niess. I know Mrs. Wells didn't do "The police have notified me. it, but I haven't the kind of stand- They found my letter on his body. up evidence the police would need But I still don't understand why for court. However, I think I can you re— get a good confession for them, if "Sanford, I'll pick you up in they 11 deal with us. Will they?" tront of your house in a half hour. "Fred, I guess if we could deUver Be waiting!" I hung up. a confession all neatly wrapped up, I was talking from a street a deal could be worked. But I booth, less than a mile from San- don't like the way this is shaping ford's house and had time to kill. up. I don't Uke it at all, that's a I phoned my ex-wife and she fact. Why do we have to get in any wasn't happy about my getting her deeper?" out of bed, but I had to hear her "First, there's Mrs. Wells being voice again, maybe for the last framed and . . . Al, use your head; time. I told her, "Baby, we've even if the cops don't find the had enough of this crazy stalling. transmitter now, the phone com­ We're getting married again tomor­ pany will, in time, and then we'll row. I'll try to be at your place really be up the creek. The phone before daybreak—I hope." company will recall the murder, be "Fred, are you drunk ? I . . . sure to report finding the trans­ Fred, are you on a rough case, a mitter to the police, even if it's real bad one?" months or a year from now. Okay, "It's sort of rough." the chances are slim that they, can "Oh, Fred, T told you I can't trace it to me, but it's still a chance take this!" she wailed. and the kind of a long shot I don't "I know what you've told me. want to win. Al, I'm at my office. Baby, I love you, that's the only Find out the time of death. and thing that has to be said now. To­ exactly what happened at this ' morrow, we'll talk about the rest. Monroe Hotel this afternoon. Then Maybe 111 take one of those steady come to my office." jobs in an electronics factory, like At a little past two ajn. I phoned you want rhe to. See you, hon." Sanford at his house. He asked, Sanford's house was set back "Mr. Columbia, what's the mean­ from the street by a wide lawn. He

HEIR TO MURDER 13

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED was waiting for me on the dark get even for that mess with the curb, wearing a snappy and loud apphance company. The point is, hat, a light spring coat and gloves. I never would have taken the job The sight of the pigskin gloves if I thought it involved murder." made me feel better. Sliding onto "I don't know what you're talk­ the front seat beside me, he asked ing about. That the wretched the routine question, "Did you tell young lady shot Steven is hardly anybody you were coming to see aiiy of my business." me, Mr. Columbia ?" "Sanford, she didn't do it. I had "No." I drove on, vsrondering her phone bugged, that's how I how soon he'd pull the gun. I drove operate. I have a tape of her phone to. the outskirts of the suburban conversations for yesterday after­ area and turned into what-seemed noon, on the back seat. I'll play it a deserted dirt sideroad and for you, if you like. The medical stopped. My life depended upon examiner has fixed the time of stopping. Massini's death at about three p.m. Sanford asked, "Why are we At two-forty she was talking to parking, Mr. Columbia?" The him, from her house, with the gloved hands still rested on his lap. sound of the murder shot on tape, He was playing it too cool. If I giving Rose Wells a perfect aHbi. was wrong about things, I'd end . You waited for her to come to the up doing time for sure. I said, "We room at the Monroe Hotel, where have to talk. You hired me to find you'd already slugged the rummy a missing heir, which I did. But desk clerk and killed Massini. now it's become a murder." When she entereid the room, you "Is that what you got me out of hit her and left the gun and the bed for, Columbia ? That this Wells corpse in the hotel room, with Mrs. woman was carrying on some sort Wells, for the police to find." of affair with Mr. Massini and Sanford still hadn't moved his killed him doesn't concern me. Or hands from his lap as he stared at you." me, saying softly, "A fantastic yarn. "It sure involves - me. Sanford, Is this some kind of a shakedown, when you first came to me, I told Columbia.?" you to hire an ordinary investi­ "Have I asked you for any gator, not an electronics snooper. money.? But I can't stand still and But you insisted upon hiring me. watch Mrs. Wells framed for a I don't know what you had in . stupid murder. As I said, you mind then, perhaps to frame me. shouldn't have hired me, Sanford.

14 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED I do a lot o£. routine checking on "Steven Massini died, in the plane my cases, far more than the .usual crash. Phil Wells was also on the investigator does. I know you're jet, one of the few survivors. You broke, and have been dipping into shot and killed Phil Wells. He had that $800,000 estate, stalling . the a sharpie mind, and when he saw heirs with an excuse that you all those burning bodies around couldn't find Steven. You were him, he picked up a wallet from hoping your uncle would die and near a . charred body—^Massini's solve your money matters. One o£ wallet—and threw his ovyn lighter the heirs found Steven, so you had near the burned corpse. Phil then to write him, and he was on his passed as Steven Massini. He left way here when the plane crashed. the hospital after phoning his yvife, I suppose you always meant to kill Mrs. Rose Wells. It isn't hard to him to delay settHng the will. guess Phil's angle: his wife would Could-be you hoped to work out collect his $10,000 iG.I. policy and a deal with Steven, have him con­ of course she'd sue the airline. test the will, anything to stall until Later they would go away together. your old uncle died. Steven's mys­ Due to the flames, any positive terious disappearance from the hos­ identification was impossible, so pital suited you fine, but you had Phil had a-" to find him, silence him one way "As impossible as' your story," or another, knowing he would Sanford cut in, eyes like blue show up sooner or later. So you marbles. hired me." "Phil must have been tempted "Columbia, you're spouting pure to collect the $18,000 from the es­ nonsense. I hired you to find a tate. Your letter was in Massini's missing heir, a legitimate job. You wallet, but Phil was afraid he'd be found him. That he was later killed recognized as an imposter. Poor is no affair of mine." His mouth Phil had no way of knowing was a hard line. either you or any of the heirs, I was still puzzled as to why he and hadn't the smallest idea of didn't try to gun.me. "This death what Steven looked like. Sanford, will delay probating the will and like all amateurs, you were stupid. you're praying uncle will die in the Aside from my having Mrs. Wells' meantime. But Sanford, I didn't alibi.on tape, you were the only find Steven Massini." person besides Mrs. Wells who "I'm getting bored with this \new where 'Massini' was holed silly talk. Drive me^" up. After I phoned you that he was

HEIR TO MURDER 15

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED at the Devenport Hotel, you rushed me, he opened the compartment out there, perhaps was told he was vvith his gloved left hand, saw the leaving, managed to follow him to transmitter. I said, "That's a power­ the other hotel. You killed him ful one, Sanford, has a range of after overhearing him phone Mrs. two thousand yards, and the Wells to come over. He must have police—" phoned the second- he was in his "Your blui? won't save you, new room and you. were out in the Columbia. A transmitter needs hallway." tubes and I don't see any." Sanford's Jieavy face was sweat­ "This uses the new—". ing. He pulled off his hat and The dirt road turned bright with that's where he had the gun, a two flashlights, and the police captain shot derringer. He said, "I don't standing next to Al Peters shouted, understand this rock move on your "You're surrounded, Sanford, drop part, Columbia. You realize that your gun!" you've forced me to kill you now.'"' Two uniformed cops holding Despite the gun pressing into my rifles stepped out of the bushes side I was dizzy with relief that ahead of us. Sanford jabbed my he had finally gone for his gun, side' with his derringer and confessing to murder by the action. shrilled, "Get out of the car, Maybe I was also dizzy with fear. Columbia! I'm using you as a I said quickly, "See, I'm keeping shield—" my hands on the steering wheel, I grabbed, his gun hand. We in the open, so don't get trigger- wrestled on the cramped front happy, Sanford. Before you do any­ seat. As the cops yanked the door thing, open the glove compart­ open, Sanford fired. I felt the slug ment. Everything we've said has wallop my gut. I tried hard to been broadcast to police cars. We're keep from fainting. on the air. Open the glove, com­ I was wearing a bulletproof vest, partment, Sanford!" but I never did have a strong Keeping his hard, blue eyes on stomach. 1 16 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Whoever believes confession is good for the soul will have to ^ loo\ elsewhere for relief. c

i§HERiFF Alfie Abbott bounded from his rain-streaked ofBcial car as the headlights, winked off. With his tall, lean deputy, Bud Smith, flanking him, Alfie ran across the TJVIM^ dark street to the small, almost- deserted bus station. Like the tiny <3 beaks of pecking chicks, the drizzle pattered on the tin roof over the - \ •' •

THE PRIVILEGES OF CRIME 17 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED concrete apron where the Cleve­ hurry," Bud said. "Lucky for us land bus was due to pull in at any he's a real dumb crook." Bud moment for its brief stop. glanced toward the waiting room. Presenting shadows roughly in "Just a sitting duck. Like he the shapes of a bowling ball and wanted to get caught." a tenpin, Alfie and Bud peered "We ain't all the way caught him through the dingy window of the yet," Alfie reminded. "Got to be dim waiting room. A lone person careful. Don't want to get the old was-visible on one of the scarred lady in there hurt." benches, an ill-clad, dozing old Bud nodded, his long face grave. lady with a battered pasteboard "What's the plan, Alfie.?" suitcase tucked under her seat. The Alfie's black slicker rustled. His ticket window was closed. Anyone eyes made a quick summation of wanting to catch a local out of Ho- the surroundings. skinsburg at this hour had to pay a "We'll box him," he decided. fare direcdy to the driver. "You cover the front door. I'll go in "Dad-burn," Alfie growled in from the side where the buses disappointment. come in." Then a door inside the waiting "Gotcha, Sheriff!" room opened. A man came out of "Keep a sharp eye through the the men's room, and Alfie's blue front window," Alfie cautioned. eyes lighted. "If he ducks back into the men's "Dad-burn!" he echoed in an room, scat around to the alley." entirely different tone. "Believe we "You cut him off to the rear, he got him. Bud! He sure fits the de­ won't get away," Bud promised. scription." His . tone caused Alfie to look The man inside was short, sharply at him. Bud's eyes had a stocky, swarthy, wearing tan poplin glint that reminded Alfie of a pants and a soiled zipper jacket. He blood-hungry bear dog. looked at the dusty clock over the Alfie stabbed a finger in front of deserted ticket stall. The time was Bud's hawkish nose., "Now, Bud," 10:53. The local, bound for Cleve­ he ordered the deputy, "you keep land, was due to trundle in three in mind all them court rulings minutes from now. about the treatment of suspects, ar­ Alfie grabbed Bud's strong, wiry restees, and criminals. Seeing as arm and yanked him away from how we're the only law in this here the lighted window area. crossroads community, we can't "I guess we solved this one in a afford the time and taxpayers'

18 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED money defending ourselves against rusty revolver and informed Jim charges of police brutality." that this was a stickup. Bud ground his teeth. "All Almost as scared as the would-be right," he growled, "but if he bandit, Jim had let out a bleat and swings on me, I'm gonna bust him dived behind a counter. The yegg onel had interpreted Jim's screech as a "Just so long as you don't use un­ cry of wrath from a heroic man due or inhumane force. He's got plunging toward a hidden weapon. rights, you know." - He'd panicked, dropped his gun, "Rights, hell! Downright privi­ took off. Hearing the sounds of leges, I call it," Bud snorted. flight, Jim had scrambled from be­ Alfie's attention was again cen­ hind the counter. tered on the bus station. He took a Short minutes later, Alfie and breath, hunched _his shoulders in Bud had been on-scene, summoned his moisture-laden raincoat. "Well by Jim's phone call. . . . here goes!" "He hightailed it down Main As he barged around the corner Street on foot, Sheriff," Jim had of the building, Alfie figured he wound up his account of the event, had a grade-A smart guy inside. In sitting sickly on the counter. "He his book, a smart guy was a cluck was a loner, nobody waiting for so dumb he was convinced all him." other folks had even less sense. "No car?" The bird roosting in the^ waiting "Not that I seen, Sheriff." room with the hand of the law "Hmmm," Alfi^ had pondered. about to tap him must have sized "No train depot or airport . . . up Hoskinsburg as a spot for easy just the Cleveland bus due . . ." pickings, with nothing more than He snapped his fingers. "Dad- a rube constable on duty. burn, Jim! That hooligan has But the yegg had botched, his cased our town. Timed his caper to caper from the start, walking nerv­ the arrival of the Cleveland bus. ously into the Hoskinsburg Servi- Planned to leave you slugged un­ Center and Truck Stop where the conscious while he made his escape night man, Jim Harper, was on with the loot, bold as brass!" duty alone. With no more aplomb "That's it, Alfie!" Bud had than a wiggle-worm feeling the grabl^ed his arm. "You done de­ first touch of a fishhook, the punk duced it!" had tried to keep a lookout in all "Unless he had a car stashe~d on directions at once as he'd pulled a a side street;" Alfie said. "Anyhow,

THE PRIVILEGES OF CRIME 19

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED rule number one is to cover all of suspicion at Alfie, then at the modes of exit, and in Hoskins- front door. He saw Bud's lank burg, the bus station is it. Come on, shadow out there, let out a wild Bud. We got to beat the Cleveland breath, and took a step toward the bus to the station." men's room. Now it seemed that Alfie's effi­ Alfie sidestepped to intercept ciency and keen mind were about him. The yegg rocked back on his to pay off. Instead of covering the heels. His mouth gave an ugly few miles to Cleveland and losing twist. "What gives, pal? You try­ himself in the crowds before a dull- ing to get in my way or some­ witted country constable got on thing.'"' His voice reminded Alfie the job and figured things out, the of sand spilling from a dump truck. yegg was smack between the jaws Alfie ojpened the collar of his of a trap. Alfie was sure he'd spot­ raincoat to expose the small silver ted the right-man. It was unlikely badge pinned to the lapel of his that two strangers fitting Jim's de­ black suit. "I'm the sheriff of this scription so closely would be in county, and I got probable cause to Hoskinsburg on the same night. hold you on suspicion." Alfie had reached the wide,, The yegg gave his head a bra­ swinging side doors. He peeked vado tilt. "You nuts.? I'm just wait­ through the glass panes at the man ing for a bus." in the waiting room. The man "I know," Alfie said mildly. "But was younger than Alfie had first there will be others, if you're lucky thought: about thirty, but hard enough to be innocent." looking, with heavy bones jutting "Yeah.? Innocent of what?" against the swarthiness of the "Attempted • stickup of the Ho­ thick-lipped face, and-a rmane of skinsburg ServiCenter and Truck black hair tucked like glistening Stop less than twenty minutes ago," feathers about the ears and bull: Alfie said. neck. The yegg made a desperate as­ Alfie gulped some of the sudden sessment of Alfie's size and deter­ dryness from his throat, pushed mined face. "Listen,"-he snarled, "I open the .door, and lumbered into got my rights..." the waiting room with the awk- • "Which will be respected," Alfie ward grace of the bus that would assured him. "Fact is, we'll start arrive too late to do the punk any off by- warning you that anything good. ; . ,you say may be used against you." The yegg threw an instant glance . Although a sudden sag hit his

20 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED shoulders, the yegg threw out a "You mean you're not going to final threat. "Okay, pal. But you go listen to me.'"' the yegg said, slack- throwing a false arrest on me, I'll jawed. sue you until you- can't aflford a "Nof• until you got a lawyer," pretzel with your beer." Alfie said. "The law says that's the "Beer's the drink on my salary," rule." Alfie said placidly. "Now let's get The yegg slumped back in .the- going." He turned, his prisoner chair. "What kind of sheriff are with a polite touch on the shoulder you.?" and frisked him. A sudden weariness flooded Al­ Wedged between Alfie and Bud, fie's eyes. "I used to think I was a who drove, the suspect was steeped dad-burned good one. Now I don't in gloomy silence during the short reckon it matters.so much. I got ride to the small, drab building that less than a year to go to retirement, housed Alfie's office and. the four- and I won't have an outside punk cell jail. using his rights to foul up the end When they had filed into the of my career. I figure I'm due that office, Alfie motioned toward a pretzel with that beer." wooden armchair near' the flat- The suspect scurried a glance topped desk. from Alfie to Bud, back to Alfie. The suspect eased into the chair, "That crack about suing you . . . gripping the arms. "I been think­ it was just that. Just a crack." ing it over. Maybe I better level "But a dad-burn good point," with you—" Alfie said. "No, sir. Law says Alfie'jerked up a silencing palm. you're. not supposed to give me "Whoa, now. We ain't taking any anything but your name, age, ad­ confessions from you under duress. dress whilst there ain't no lawyer The courts says^it's the law." present. Then if you got no lawyer The suspect stared. "Duress?" and no means to hire one, I'm sup­ Alfie stabbed a thumb at himself posed to get one for you, even if and then at Bud who had taken we have to pay him with the tax­ a guard position beside the door. payers' money." "Two police officers," he said, The suspect sat in a stunned vac­ "holding you against your will, all uum. His nervousness was gone alone, in a little rooin in the dead entirely. "I'll be-.a monkey's uncle," of night. Reckon you could.claim it he said at last. "So even the hicks constituted duress, hence a viola­ have heard the Supreme Court gos­ tion of your rights." . pel."

THE PRIVILEGES OF CRIME 21

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "Just going by the book," Alfie ing back. "That's the way it is." said. "You're the first thing ap­ "Who says so?" proaching a major crime in Ho- "The law, you dummy! You got skinsburg in the past thrd§ years. rights whether you know it or not. Probably the last before I retire. I You have got to have a lawyer!" ketched you. I got a gun you han­ Alfie glanced down at his knuckles dled, and a witness. My job is done, which had been thumping the desk. all the way by the book as she's He pulled in a breath, lowered his written today." voice. "Now who is your lawyer ?" The yegg pulled himself upright. "I know a fellow in Cleveland, "If you'll let me cop a' plea, I'll tell I guess . . ." you everything . . . First time I "What's his name?" tried a stickup and I—" "Arnold Eman." "Name?" Alfie said doggedly as "We'll contact him for you," he dragged a sheet of paper across Alfie said. "Part of our job. Part the desk. of the safeguards that have been The suspect gusted a breath. "Sil­ erected to protect your rights." vio Santos," he said morosely. The attorney didn't arrive at Al- "Age?" fie's office until ten o'clock the fol­ "Thirty-one." lowing' ihorning. He swept in, "Address; Mr. Santos?" introduced himself, shook Alfie's Santos shrugged. "No permanent hand with a firm grip'. Alfie's eyes address." were bugging. He'd expected a "Okay. That'll do it for now. cheap shyster. Instead, Mr. Eman Take him back to a cell and see was a robust, expensively tailored that the bed.is clean, Bud." individual who wore a diamond on "Yes, sir." .Bud crossed the office, his pinkie that weighed about nine took Santos by the arm. carats. He exuded polished self- "Now wait a minute!" Santos confidence and a waft of cologne held onto the chair. "I got a few that suggested Bond Street. Out­ things to say about the caper in the side, -a chauffeur waited in the lim­ truck stop—" ousine that had brought him here. "When your lawyer arrives, Mr. "Now if I may see my client, Santos." Sheriff." "Who said I wanted a lawyer?'-' "Sure," Alfie said. "He's the only Santos yelled. boarder we got in our jail just now. "Man, you have to want a law­ You'll have all the privacy you yer," Alfie jumped to his feet, yell- want. This way, please.'-

22- ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED When Alfie returned alone to his "I'll make up for the woman part office, he rocked back in his desk when I get out with my pockets full chair, folded his hands across his of payoff." Silvio elbowed Eman in girth, and gave himself-to complex the ribs and laughed. Then the pondering. swarthy man leaned back and his After a time, he relaxed. With the face became serious. "A year to de­ rusty revolver, Silvio Santos' fin­ cide on when and how^ to do it," gerprints, and Jim Harper's sworn he mused. eyewitness, he had an airtight case. "Check," Eman said. "Nobody A smile tugged at Alfie's lips. will ever suspect you'd even heard Let Santos and the fancy lawyer go of the mark. You'll never be con­ over it all they want, this was one nected with him." The lawyer's case that wouldn't get thrown out face hardened. "He's a.lousy, dirty on a technicality. The prisoner's squealer who deserves no more rights had been protected to the consideration than a fly that needs final word, letter, and period. stepping on. Between now and the In the sequestered quiet of San­ trial I'll have plenty of time to brief tos's cell, Eman was saying, "Under you fully. Once you're inside aiid the circumstances, I suppose it was have everything sized up, we cap best to call me." smuggle in anything you need." "Sure." Santos sat on the comfort Santos nodded. "Imagine. Here of his spodess bunk enjoying a cig­ I'd gone to the trouble of setting arette, myself up for a parole-able peni­ Eman sat beside his client and tentiary offense. Then it began to laid a reassuring hand on his shoul­ da^vn on me that a legal jackass der. "Just don't worry, Silvio. might be rung in who'd get me ofl You'll go up—and then. be out completely." within a year." Eman lit an ivory-tipped ciga­ "With twenty five grand wait­ rette, smiling at Santos through the ing!" Silvio's dark eyes dreamed curl of smoke. "Exactly. Now for a into the future. few preliminaries about the creep "Shouldn't be a bad year," Eman the syndicate has decided to exter­ chuckled, "except. for the lack of minate." Eman cleared his throat. women. Prisons are not what they "First, he is convict number 11802. used to be. Today you got rights, His name ..." privileges; movies, ball games, Eman's voice dropped to a confi­ libraries; inspectors who come dential drone, and Santos listened, around and taste the chow." eyes half closed.

THE PRIVILEGES OF CRIME. 23 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Although educational relations reputedly ma\e the strongest tie, there is something to be said for consanguinity.

ELIZABETH HARRIS differed in three ways from Margaret Bourke- White. She was younger, she had very bright red hair, and she used a sketch pad, crayons, paintbrush and canvas instead of a camera.-But she had the same restless urge as Miss White, to expose the soul of humanity the world over;, the same

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24 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED compulsion to be where things Once, immediately before her first were happening. Elizabeth had assignment overseas, she had done spent six months with American a painting, "Boyhood," the por­ military forces in the Viet Nam trayal of a freckled-faced lad catch­ campaign, capturing with her art ing bullheads off the bank of the spirit displayed by the Vietna­ a Mississippi River slough. This mese patriots in war against ag­ painting had placed third. Her gression. Before this, the magazine present project was bound to ring which employed her had kept her the bell for the top award! shuttling back and forth between Now she lay blindfolded on the the Berlin Wall and the Congo. back seat of an ancient car which Elizabeth was on what she was chugging along a dusty road in planned to be a long, indolent, fall the heart of the Ozark mountains vacation in the Ozark country, in the dark, and-she was listening with nothing to do but eat break­ to the crackling voice of an old fast in bed, then paint mountain woman singing camp-meeting scenes and Ozark types through the hymns. long, lazy afternoons. Earlier that night the, woman . Instead, EUzabeth no sooner had and her husband had appeared at arrived at the Ozark hotel than an. her hotel room at the North Ark­ idea possessed her and she.began ansas fishing resort. The old lady casting about trying to contact had giggled. The man, as if sud­ an honest-to-goodness mountain denly remembering his manners, moonshiner. Eagerly, happily she had reached a gnarled hand to the passed the word around among the tattered felt hat he was wearing, fishing guides, and all the other, removing it to expose a shock, of mountain people with whom she. white hair. His lantern jaws made contact, that she would pay worked slowly as he chewed to­ $500 cash to any Ozark mooiishiner bacco and calmly appraised the who would let her" do an oil paint­ r.ed-;headed "city woman." His eyes ing of him at his still. were as blue as the skies Liz had An honest-to-goodness, on-the- painted during her artist colony spot painting of ari, Ozark moun­ days at Tabs, and as cold as the • taineer tending his still, Liz was frosty breath of the East German quite certain, would win first prize border guards-on a winter day. for her in the annual American' -."Are you a moonshiner.?" Eliza­ Art Association contest for paint­ beth asked the man. ings in the Americana division. "Do you have that $500.?" he

STILL LIFE ^ 25 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED asked, eyeing her suspiciously. ly down through the boughs of Elizabeth got. her purse and fresh smelling pine and scrub-oak counted out |250. "And here is the trees, relieving to some extent the other $250 which I will put in the odor of horse and cow .manure hotel safe to be paid to you when I which was heavy on the night air. am delivered safely back here with Three cows were bedded down al­ the painting," she said. most beneath their feet, and two The hard hands of the man beat mules peered sleepily from the the eager claws which the woman shelter of a ramshackle shed. extended towards.the rnoney. He Elizabeth sank deeply into a pocketed the bills in an ancient featherbed and was unconscious wallet. "Fair enough," he said. / immediately. She awoke to find the "Yes, fair enough," the woman mountaineer's wife standing by the agreed. bed, a lighted kerosene lamp in her The car they got into coughed hand. and wheezed and rattled. Once out­ "Breakfast's on, the table," she side town, the old man pulled to said. The old woman put the lamp the side of the road and stopped. on a stand and left the room. "Get out and let .my Sarah blind­ It seemed to Elizabeth that she fold you," he. said. "We can't take had been asleep only a few. min­ 410 chances of you leading a passel utes, ..but her .watch showed five of revenooers in where we're go- o'clock. Yawning, she slipped a ing." . /^ • .-, , housecoat over her green pajamas The woman did a thorough job, and sleep-walked into the other of blindfolding, using a. strip of room. The light from a lamp in the black cloth. Then Liz .was helped middle of the table shone upon into the back seat of the car and rude, hand-carved furniture and an -told.to lie down. She complied as old-fashioned wood-burning range. best she could. . . Breakfast consisted of hot biscuits, It was after midnight when the eggs, bacon, white gravy, coffee, car came to a burnpingstop and peach preserves, and honey. Liz the blindfold wjas removed. Eliza­ was hungry and ate like a starved beth discovered that they were.in a teenager. barnyard, behind a primitive house , She was also happy, eager, to get of .hewed logs—but . where, the started on her painting, and she barnyard and house were.situated, tried. to draw her host and hostess she hadn't the slightest idea. The into conversation, but they spoke .October moon was shining bright­ very little, and the old woman's

26 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED voice was edged with something The ground about the place was Liz did not understand. The old worn stnooth by countless foot­ lady sat across the table, the light prints. Near the old still were bar­ between them, and it was hard to rels and large earthen jars of fer­ see her face. This morning she was menting mash, and stored next to wearing a blue calico mother hub- the wall of the cliff were bags of bard, instead of the dark Sunday- cane sugar and many sacks of go-to-meeting cotton dress that she grain. A spring trickled down had worn when she appeared with from beneath the ledge, and a large her husband at the l^otel room. basin had been hollowed out big The woman's white hair was enough to hold several barrels of combed down against her head, water. It was an ideal hiding place, with a tight ball at the back. Now an ideal location for an illicit still, and then EHzabeth caught the old and it probably had been used by lady's dark eyes peering at her from generations of moonshiners for behind the glare of the lamp, and that very purpose. for some reason they made her un­ That first morning Liz sketched comfortable. the old moonshiner as he went After breakfast the blindfold about firing the still and handling went into place again, and Eliza­ the mash. She sketched him in var­ beth, with her drawing pad and kit ious attitudes—placing earthen jugs under her arm, was guided by beneath the copper worm of the the old mountaineer along what still, sampling the new brew from seemed like an interrhinable moun­ a jug, chopping firewood. tain trail. When the blindfold was But in the lines and crevices of removed it was broad daylight, but the old fellow's face, in his horny they were still in the shadows and hands arid brown arms, in the icy . the reason was obvious. They were stare of his keen old eyes, the griz­ now beneath a ledge of gray lime­ zled head of hair, the weather- stone rock, with a big slab of gran­ ' beaten parchment of the lantern ite-like rock in front. Within this jaws, Elizabeth- found what she recess was a well-used, much worn, wanted to portray. She finally green-mottled copper still! Liz's posed him seated on a block of pulse began racing from excitement wood, his lanky frame stretched at and pure joy. This was it! This ease, his fierce eyes gazing off into would win that American prize for the distance, the greenish copper her or she would take up number still by'his side, the repeating rifle painting! propped across his knees. In the

STJLL LIPE 27 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 28 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED background she sketched the bar­ barking which might have been.a rels and crocks of mash, the sacks fox, the baying of hounds. The of sugar and grain, the chopped strange, unreasonable jealousy of firewood and the earthenware jugs. the mountaineer woman prevented In the morning she would go to her from going to sleep very early. work on canvas. She had been in various places That evening Liz, bubbling with of the world—with thousands of happiness and excitement, oflfered young American men away from to help the mountaineer housewife home and yearning for the sight of with the dishes. The old woman a girl from the States—and always turned on her angrily. "I don't had remained unharmed. But this want you putting your lily white illiterate backwoods woman, who hands in the dish water. They was probably old enough to be her mightn't never be the same again." grandmother, was green-eyed be­ Liz was too astonished to answer. cause she was painting a picture of "And another thing," the woman her "man", and paying $500 for the continued, "you keep your distance privilege. from my man down there. Jed, he Elizabeth's friends in New York ain't no riian to control hisself would get a real bang out of this when a woman walls her eyeballs when she told them—^^that is, if she at him, especially a fancy red­ didn't wake up in the middle of the headed woman Hke you be." , night to find Grandma belaboring "Why, the idea!" said Liz. "He her with a meat cleaver or some- could,be my grandfather!" .thing! But Liz lived through the "Jed's still quite a mite of a- man, •night, and went to sleep in spite of he is, and you are minx enough to -herself.' know it." . • The next,. morning she went They heard Jed coming from the through the ritual of the blindfold, barn, where he had been feeding and as soon as she started to work the livestock. Before he entered the on canvas everything else was for­ house, Elizabeth went to her room gotten. Every stroke of her brush and shut the door. She got into her was one of joy. She wasn't on the pajamas then and lay upon the job now—she was at play—she was bed, listening to the strange, un­ going to win the art association usual sounds' of the Ozark moun­ award. But the motivation was tain wilderness going to sleep—the greater than this, the desire to last twitterings of some birds, the create something brutally primitive hooting of owls in the distance, a and real. She painted what she saw,

STILL LIFE " 29 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED and she saw more than an ordinary with smoking cornbread, strong person. She painted those hard, black coffee, fresh milk with thick rough old hands, still with the cream, fresh meat which Liz be­ power of steel in them. She painted lieved was venison, fruit cobbler, those merciless eyes, that shock of and sorghum molasses. But the white hair—white hair streaked woman and Liz- didn't speak to with the original black that it once each other. They hadn't spoken had been. She painted the rugged- since the explosion of the night ness.of the setting, the gray, lime­ before, but Jed noticed nothing stone rocks, the black smudges strange in their lack of conversa­ from the still smoke, the trickling tion, or if he did he ignored it. water, the golden, dripping corn- For that matter, Jed himself was likker, the red coals of the hickory a very quiet man. There was some­ fire glowing beneath" the greenish thing about him which refrained old still-pot. Liz from asking questions. He was Elizabeth had no idea who her living up tO' his part of the bargain, moonshiner model was, except that and that was all she had any right his wife called him Jed. This may to ask. In fact, Liz felt like a small or may not have been his real child who had been given the key name. Anyhow, in the serenity and to a candy store. Her good fortune beauty of the place, Liz forgot all was almost unbelievable. The child about the wife. The canyon at the in the candy store was certain to time seemed to her to be" the most be confronted with the problem of beautiful place in the world, the getting away with all the candy he most peaceful at any rate, with the could carry. Liz beHeved she- had leaves of the trees golden and rus­ the painting that would make the set against splotches of green. Frost contest judges and the art critics already had come in these moun­ gasp—if she could get it completed tain altitudes, and it was Eliza­ and get out of there with it. beth's privilege to be there^ breath­ As the afternoon of the fourth ing in the wild fragrance. Her spir­ day in the mountains came on, the its bubbled with exuberance, be­ deep threat of the enmity of Mrs. cause she was creating, and creat­ Je'd was more and more in Eliza­ ing something she believed was beth's mind. She knew there would worthwhile, something that would be no peace between them as long live. as she remained in the woman's That night they ate off -the fat home. To the old lady, she was a of the land, from a table loaded red-headed siren, an evil temptress,

30 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED who would grab her precious man ma'am," he said, "but my Sarah is and take him away from her if she afeered you're aimin' to run o£E could. with me. That was her down there. Very well, one more day's brush She didn't mean you no real harm. work and the painting would be She can shoot the eye out of a fox done. Elizabeth would have her squirrel in the top of the highest canvas, and the couple would take hickory tree in the woods. I taught her back safely to her hotel and her to shoot years ago.. She can't collect the remaining $250. She stand it, you and me down here to­ would break the good news at the gether day after day, so she just cut supper table that night, and per­ your brush in two to scare you haps that would relieve the tehsion. away from here. That two hundred But trouble arrived that after­ and fifty extra dollars, or the whole noon in the form of a singing bullet blame five hundred, don't mean a which came closer to hitting Liz dern thing to her. But you go right than anything among the Viet ahead, ma'am, and take all the time Nam fireworks had ever done. Her you please, because old Betsy here, brush was clipped in two between that she took down from over the her hand and the canvas! mantel, is the only other gun we Elizabeth dropped to the floor o£ got." the cave with reflex action. Equally Elizabeth resumed her work fast, old Jed moved between the with anbther brush—after. her pine saplings, buck bushes and un­ hands stopped trembling. From dergrowth, leaping from boulder time to time Jed chuckled to him­ to boulder with the agility of a self. "Poor old Sarah," he said, mountain goat, and headed toward half apologetically. "She's lived a cloud of white smoke which rose back in these hills so long she from a clump of sumac bushes can't stand the sight of another some sixty feet away. There was a woman gettin' even near me. She commotion in the bushes and an promised to be good, when we outcry, and in a surprisingly short heered about that |500 you was time Jed was back again, carrying offering, but now it's to hell with two weapons in his arms—his own, the five hundred—just get you and a long, muzzle-loading rifle. away from here." He was grinning. It was one of the He chuckled aga;in and contin­ few times Liz had seen any sem­ ued: "Makes me think of'the'time blance of amusement on his face. Cousin Rufe and me was havin' it "You wouldn't believe it, out tryin* to win Sarah's favor.

STILL LIFE 31 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Rufe and me was both just young brush. "Come and look at it, Jed," colts and still wet behind the ears. she said. "The job's all done." She was queen at all the barn The old fellow had hardly dances, a regular hillbilly belle, glanced at the painting up to this and me and Rufe was the pick of time. Now he examined it closely. the young bucks" for a^ whole Liz saw that he was pleased and whoop and a holler around here. that beneath the surface he was as We sure was. She got a whole hell excited as a child. of a lot of fun out of first playin' "That's me all right, ma'am," he Rufe against me and me against said, "and that's old Copper Annie Rufe. Sometimes I think she got thar. You shore done a good job." mixed up herself over which one "Glad you like it. Now you can she really did favor most, but she take me back to the hotel and get finally chose me. And ever since your money." I reckon as how she thinks every "There's just one thing, ma'am. .woman is as interested in me as What you going to do with this much as she is. Crazy old fool. pitcher.?" That was a long time ago when a "Jed," Liz boasted, "that picture woman would look at either Rufe of you and the still is bound to or me. carry off first prize in the biggest That night when Jed and Eliza­ art contest in the nation this year. beth went back to the house, Sarah It's pure Americana, and there's was working in the kitchen, wear­ been nothing like it before. It's the ing a sunbonnet. At the table, she best thing I've ever done." - kept her face turned away fronn "Yep, so you told me. But I Liz throughout the meal; biit orice don't know as I understand what Liz caught a fleeting glimpse be­ all that means. There wouldn't be neath the bonnet. Her eyes "were no pitcher of that paintin' come pufJed and swollen. out in the paper, would there ?" Before she retired that night, "Picture in the paper! Listen, Elizabeth pushed a dresser in Jed, you're famous! If that paint- front of the door to her bedroom. -ing wiris, it very likely will appear A jealous, woman, she had found in every paper in the. country. out, is more dangerous than a That's one piece of art everyone Congo tribal uprising. can understand—art critics and The afternoon of the next day, the public alike." the fifth that Liz had been in the "Not my pitcher, it ain't." mountains, she laid' down her "Now, Jed, we've got an agree-

32 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED ment. I'm paying you five hun­ That's what city folks expect us dred dollars for that picture. It's mountain people to look like any­ mine. way." The old man shook his head So Liz worked yet another day, stubbornly. "Ain't been nothin' prayerfully and . with her fingers said about my pitcher and old crossed, painting old Jed with a Copper Annie bein' put in no long, heavy beard. From time to newspaper at no time. We never time Jed inspected the painting had no such agreement. You must and gave his ideas about the color­ take me for a dad-blamed fool. ing of the beard. Liz complied. She Ever' revenooer in the state will had to, or she knew she would see that pitcher, and most of them never get out of the mountains know me and been trying to get with any painting at all. She had something on me for years." to cover the mouth lines, the boney "Now, don't be like that," Liz thrust to his chin, the parchment pleaded. "I'm down here hundreds texture of his lantern jaws. Finally of miles from home, just to make old Jed was satisfied, and Liz had that picture." to be. "And you're plumb shore goin' That night they drove to town, all the way back without it, Elizabeth lying in the back seat, ma'am, unless'n—" blindfolded, as she had been on • "Unless what?" the trip into the mountains, but the "See here, ma'am, them artists tension was lifting every mile of who'll judge that pitcher don't the way. Liz was feeling it, old have to see my face just like it is. Jed was getting an extra notch or Can't you change my looks a two out of his ancient car, and mite.?" Sarah was humming to herself. "I can," said Elizabeth, "but it's Halfway to, town Sarah was in full your face that makes the paint- crackling voice, once more, and ing." she entertained them with camp- "Tain't my face at all—it's that meeting hymns. At the hotel, copper still thar. You could sit any Sarah looked almost kindly at old longreared mountain goat Liz as she counted out the re­ down alongside of old Copper maining |250. and handed it to Jed. Annie thar, and them city galoots The next day EHzabeth headed would think it was a real still- for New York, and barely got the runner. Why don't you paint me painting under, the wire for the on a beard, a long, thick beard.'' entrance deadline. Then she left

STILL LIFE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG 33 ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED for Florida, for a sure-enough va­ ^sin, also was a moonshiner and,' cation, and to await further assign­ Liz learned for the first time, Rufe ment from her magazine. bore an amazing facial resem­ Shortly after the first of the year blance to Jed. Following their split- Liz got the good news—almost up over Sarah years before, Rufe. simultaneously with an assign­ had grown a heavy beard, while ment to Central America. Old Jed remained dean-shaven, in or­ Copper Annie and Jed, whiskers der to break up the.hated resem­ and all, hadn't let her down. She blance. had rung the bell, winning first When Rufe saw the picture of prize and first place in the Ameri­ his bearded self sitting beside a cana oil painting division. moonshine still, in a newspaper Ehzabeth had been right. Her reproduction of Ehzabeth's award- painting was a smash I Sophisti­ winning painting, he knew the cated art critics praised its depth revenooers would be on his neck and power. The Joes in the pool- immediately. Expert illicit still op­ halls understood the painting and erator that he was, Rufe had in­ were equally enthusiastic. ^Editors stantly recognized the classic lines gave it plenty of space, some play­ of Jed's Copper Annie, and he ing it on the front page. Her own knew that Jed, although keeping magazine ran if double page, full his mouth shut—true to the moon­ color, with a story of. her career. shiner's code—had betrayed him Six weeks later Liz was back in just the same. Now, the State of New York. Her painting was to, Arkansas charged, Rufe had taken hang in the Art Gallery, and she his gun and gone over one night was completely happy—until one and shot poor Jed dead. He then day a subpoena server tapped her surrendered to the sheriff for pro­ on the shoulder. She was ordered tection. And Elizabeth figured to appear as a witness in a murder poor old Rufe would need plenty case in the Arkansas Ozarksl of protection—from Sarah and It seemed that Rufe, Jed's cou- her muzzle-loader! 1

34 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED There's the patter of raindrops, and of little feet, and then jj, there's plain old pitter-patter. ( K

I WAS an honest man before the the sweetest, prettiest httle girl I day I asked Barbara Ann to marry ever knew, but I think the reason me. I don't mean by that to blame I proposed to her is because she Barbara Ann for my adventure was so convenient. We lived on in crime, but it's a fact that until the same floor of the rooming house I promised to marry her I was and, because I worked nights at the perfectly content with my job at gas station and she worked days, the filling station. in an office downtown, we kept Barbara Ann is without a doubt meeting each other in the hall. As / 35 PITTER-PATTER LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED I left for work at night she'd be SALE key on, the cash register to getting in from a date or a movie open it. The bank, deposit envelope with some girl friends, when I got is behind the oil cans on.the sec­ home in the morning she'd be ond shelf." : leaving for her office. . It wasn't-the first time the sta­ ' Soon we were greeting each tion had been robbed. It happened other like old friends, in a little every month or so, and. always be­ while I was dating her, and before tween two and four in the morn­ long Barbara Ann began waiting ing. for me to get home from the sta­ . "'That's right, Mac," he said, tion in the morning with breakfast heading for the cash register. 'You and a good-night kiss. just cooperate and nobody'll get Now I work hard all night, and hurt." when I get home I'm tired and "That's a real good disguise shouldn't be held responsible for you've got," I told him. "I would­ what I might say. Anyhow it was n't be able to identify you if I saw one of those mornings, over strong you again." coffee and sugar covered dough­ "Yeah, thanks. Simple but effec­ nuts, that I asked Barbara Ann to tive, that's my policy. Hey, what's marry me and. she said yes. That the matter with this cash register.' was the day I began losing sleep You trying to pull a fast one.?" over how I was going to provide "Oh, I must have locked it. for a wife. Sorry. Turn the key to the right, And a week later the filling sta­ then press the NO SALE button." tion was held up again. He did and the cash drawer He came into the office of the sta­ popped, open. With his free hand tion about two-thirty in the morii- he scooped the money out of the ing, wearing , a Hollywood-gang­ machine and stuffed it into his ster trenchcoat with the collar pocket. The other hand remained turned up. His hat was pulled in the pocket of his coat, pointing down over his forehead and a at me threateningly. handkerchief covered the lower "Say, do you really have a gun part of his face. He stood in the in that:pocket.?" doorway glaring at me; one hand . "What do you mean.? Of course held ominously in -the • pocket of I have a gun. You try something his coat. ., , funny and you'll' find out," "O.K.,' Mac, this is.a —" "Oh, I wasn't goiiig to. try any­ "Yeah, I know. Press the NO thing," I assured him. "I just won-

36 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED dered. The guy who stuck me up He counted the money again. last month only had a toy pistol. "Seventy-three. I missed a ten. It's A couple of months before that, still X lousy night. All right, I'm the guy just kept his hand in his leaving now. Don't call the cops—" pocket, didn't have anything at "It sure must take a lot of nerve all." to stick up a place." "Well I got a real gun," he said "You bet your life it does. And and pulled it partly out of his brains, too." pocket for me to see. Then, behind "Brains? Go on, what brains his mask, he gave what might have does it take to stick a gun in a been a giggle. "I ain't got any guy's face and say 'stick 'em up'?" bullets for it, but don't let that give "Boy, you amateurs! You think you any ideas. Where did you say that's all there is to it? Let me tell that bank envelope was?" you, Mac, it takes a lot more than "Behind the oil cans on the sec­ that. If you're going to be a pro ond shelf." you got to develop your own He took the envelope and put it style, a modus operandi the cops with the money from the cash call it. Take me, for instance. My register. Then he backed away M.O. is to pick oiit five or six gas from me, toward the door. "All stations that look ripe for plucking. right, I'm leaving now. Don't call I spend three weeks or a month the cops until—" casing the joints, then when every­ "Aren't you going to tell me thing is laid out I pull all the jobs how much money you took.""' in one night and blow town before "Why should I?" morning. Neat, eh? But it takes "I gotta pay taxes, you know. I years to perfect your own style. It know how much was in the en­ ain't so easy as you think." velope; just count the money from "Yeah, I guess you're right. It the cash register. Go ahead, you've ain't so easy." got time. Nobody will be in for a "You bet your life it ain't. All couple of hours." right, I'm leaving now. Don't call • Grumbling, he took the loose the—" cash from his pocket and counted "That's too bad. I'll never be able it. "Sixty-three dollars," he snapped to pull it off by niyself."s when he finished counting, "A "Pull what off?" • lousy night." "A robbery. I know a place that's "Sixty-three? Are you sure? It just crying to be robbed. But I should be more." don't have the nerve to do itj or

PITTER-PATTER 37 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED the brains to try it right now." station and, motioning me back "Ah, what do you know about away from him with his free hand, it? You probably think a bank is, sat on a corner of the desk. a good place to rob because it has "Now wait a minute,'Mac. Let's a lot of money." talk this over. Maybe we can work- "Well, isn't it?" something out." "No, it isn't! A bank' is tough. . "It's no use. I told you, I don't It takes a lot of planning to ^rob have the nerve for it." a bank, and equipment." As he .. "No, but I do." talked his voice became dreamy "You mean we could work to­ and far away. "You got to know gether on this stickup?" the bank schedule- right to the :, "Don't jump to conclusions," he second, and time the job just right. snarled at me. Then, through the You got to train a bunch of-boys pocket of his coat, he pointed the to be in the-right place at the right gun he didn't have bullets for at. time. You got to plan a getaway me. "And don't move so fast, it route in advance, and have a.place makes me itchy. Now tell me, you to hide out until things cool off." know what day of the month this He ended the statement with a old lady goes to the bank?" sigh. "I'll rob a bank someday, but "Sure. The first banking day of it'll take a big investment." every month." "M^ell, this is nothing like that," "And you know the layout of I told him. "It's just thirty .thous­ the roadhouse?" and dollars in an old.lady.'s-Nshoe- "Like the back of my hand." box." . ' "Well then maybe, just maybe, "An old lady, huh? I don't like we can work together on this to that. Them old ladies are tricky." get that money." "No, not this one. This old .lady "Gee, that's swell," I said. "I is my Aunt Rosemary, and she wouldn't be afraid to try it with runs a roadhouse outside of town. someone who knew the ropes. I She must rake in seven-eight thous­ could leave here any night after and a week; and she ohly\goes to two. If I got back before four no the bank once a month, so the rest one would ever know I was gone. of the time the money just lays A perfect alibi." around in piles. But what's the.use "Man, that's.what I mean about of talking about it. I. don't -have .amateurs!" he said, disgusted with the guts to try. and I know it." me. "You just don't think. The The man left the doorway of the night you ducked out of here to

38 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED pull a job would be just the time gether.'' It's my idea. I'll wait a- someone came around looking for while and do it myself sometime." you. If I do this job I'll do it alone, "Ah, you don't have the guts for I don't want no amateurs around it. You said so yourself. You need to panic and blow it." someone like me to do the job." "Well, where do I come in.'' It "And you need me to point out was my idea, remember." the easy mark. But once I do that, "That's where you come in," he you don't need me. You'll just take told me. "For fingering the joint the money and disappear." and telling me the layout you're "That's why no one wants to doing part of the work, so you get work with amateurs," ' he said part of the loot. Now,'where did sadly. "Haven't you ever heard the you say this roadhouse was?" expression 'honor among thieves'.? "Just outside of town. About ten If we work together I'll pull the miles out on highway— Oh, no job and come right back here and you don't. It won't be that easy, give you your share." buddy. Once I tell you where the "Sure you vvill. Except, as you place is you don't have any more pointed out, I'm not a thief—not use for me." yet. No; there's no way we- can "You don't trust me, huh ? How agree.- I don't triist you and you are we going to work together if don't trust me. We might as well you don't trust me.?" forget the whole deal. Unless—" "Who says we have to work tb- "Unless what.?"

PITTER-PATTER LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG 39 ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "Unless you give me my half "Sure. You sell me the informa­ now. In advance." " tion you have about the place. That "Give you— Are yoii out of your way, at least you'll get something head.'"' he shouted at me. "What out of it. I'll check it but and if it do you think, I go around sticking looks right I'll pull the job. If it up gas stations for a hobby? Where doesn't I'll go back to my regular would I get that kind of rnoney?" business. I'll be taking all the risk, "Yeah, I guess you're right," I see? Tell you what, if the take is said. "We'd better forget the whole as good as you say it'll be I'll even thing. We can't work together, and guarantee to give you a percentage I need the money too bad to let of it. Now what could be fairer you walk off with it alone." than that?" He stalked around the office of "Well ..." the station for a minute, glaring at While I hesitated, he began rum­ me. Then, abruptly, he -was over maging through his pockets and his fit of anger. dropping handfuls of crumpled "You want that money pretty bills on the counter beside the cash bad, huh?" he asked. register. "Yeah, real bad. I'm getting "Sorry," he said apologetically, , married." "it's the only money I have. This "All right, and I want to do the was the fourth station on my list job because maybe my share will for tonight. I haven't had time to be enough so I can afford to rob get these straightened out." that bank I was telling you about. He broke open a couple of bank But neither of us will get anything deposit envelopes sirriilar to the one this way. You can't do it yourself, he had taken from me, sorted the you don't have the nerve or the bills. according to denomination know-how. I can't do it because I and counted theni out. It came to don't know where the place is." something over five hundred dol­ . "So what" are we going to do ? lars. ' , You don't want me to work with "That's the best I can do," he you, and I'm certainly not going said at last. "How about it? Re­ to give away an idea I may be able member, an idea you can't carry . to use someday." out isn't worth anything at all to "I think r,ve got the answer to you." that. You don't give the idea to 'At the sight of all that money me, you sell it to me." lying in neat stacks on the counter "Sell it?" I capitulated. I told him how to

40 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE- LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED get ito j^unt .Rosemany's ;road- .provincial iurniture ihe -wanted. house, drew .'him a floor;pIan :of the What }I 'forgot to tell my .partner place -and (told Jhim what Ihours ;it was that .Aunt Rosemary is a was ;most ;likely .to 'be 'empty. Me -.widow. .Her Ihusband was a cop, had 'what ihe \wanted and ^was ready and ;for ;.years she's been feeding all to leave when I.stqpped!him,at;tihe -the state and county, cops in. the door. district. There's .always at Jleast one "Hey, -what about the filling sta­ 'team of patrolmen in ithe iback tion's money?" I asked. .room of .her :place, putting away a "Oh, yeah. Allmost .forgot. Guess free meal and shooting the breeze. I can't .stick you up, :now .that we'!re But .1 guess. he!s .'found that out .by partners. Honor among thiev.es, now, one way -or another. and all that." He :put tthe money •Eor me, (things haven't changed and the env.elope he had taken .on much. I'm :Still working nights here, the counter .beside the cash register. in the filling station, and not mak­ Then witha casual salute said, "So. ing any more money ,at it than long, Mac. See you by the end of ever. Only now I have a wife to the week and let you know how support, and Barbara Ann has had we stand." to quit her job, and the baby is on J didn't see him by the end of. the way ... the week, or 'by the end of the next Well, I see that somebody is week, either. • coming into the place, so you'll Barbara Ann and I used part of have to excuse me for a minute. the five hundred dollars .to rent a Here we go again. cabin at the lake for a week's "All right, Mac, this is a —" honeymoon. I managed to get in "Yeah, I know. Press the NO some fishing and had pretty good SALE key on the cash register. luck. When we got back to town The bank deposit envelope is be­ we rented ;a new apartment and hind the oil cans on the second had enough money left -over to shelf. Say, that's a real nice disguise make a downpayment on some you got there, buddy."

PITTER-PATTER 41 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 42 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED In this marvelous age of electronics, one is inclined to dismiss peremptorily the possibility of human aberration. .

narily, had to submit to the un­ varying schedule of Amos Crowder's Hfe only forty hours a week, plus each Wednesday eve­ ning, when he was expected to be the Crowders' dinner guest. Vivian was sentenced to conform to the schedule twenty-four hours a day, . seven days a week. • Vivian took her accustomed chair in the front-room and. Ab­ Richat'd bott, as usual, sat on the sofa. .Sometimes he had the impulse to Demiiig; choose a-different seat just to mar the metered rhythm of his em­ i^s USUAL,. cocktails _ were served ployer's existence, but he never exactly at five-thirty and they sat did. -Even so minor a change as a down to dinner exactly at six. As different after-dinner seating ar­ usual, Amos Crowder signaled rangement would have disturbed the end of the meal by rising from Amos. • , his chair exactly at six forty-five. As he always did ' Immediately At the Crowder home every act after dinner,- Amos: Crowder nad- ' was timed to thesplit second. mentarily held his hands to -the As his host and employer led heat of the' burning log in the the way from the dining room into fireplace, his back to his wife and the huge front room, Peter Abbott secretary." At sixty-five he was still could understand how the set rou­ muscular and erect and not un­ tine was . gradually driving the handsome in an .austere sort of retired industrialist's young wife to vvay. His • complexion was still distraction. Abbott was merely the smoothly unwrinkled and his hair, older man's secretary and, ordi- although nearly white, was thick

CALCULATED ALIBI 43 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED and crisply wavy, well groomed. wife, but gathered she had been Vivian took advantage of her a mousy little woman who had husband's back by forming her lips endured the rigid routine of mar­ into' a silent kiss to Peter Abbott. riage to Crowder for forty years The handsome secretary gave his before dying about two years head a warning shake. previously. There had been no After a precise thirty seconds of children during the forty years. warming his hands, Crowder Vivian said in a soft voice, turned around and said, "I'll get "Still love me.?" the coffee." "Of course," he said in an equal­ This was another ritual. Al­ ly low tone. "But this is no time though • the Crowders employed to discuss it." both a housekeeper-cook and' a The inevitable had happened. ifiaid, drinks were always person­ During the six months since he ally mixed and served by Amos. ha'd been engaged as Amos Before dinner he had mixed mar­ Crowder's personal secretary, Pe­ tinis at the bar dominating a cor­ ter had often wondered how such ner' of the livingroom. Now he an obviously intelligent man as would repair to the kitchen and Amos could deliberately throw his return with a tray bearing three young wife into nearly constant mugs of' Irish coffee. Pla'in coffee contact with a virile and unat­ was never served with dinner at tached man her own age without • the Crowder home. It was always anticipating what would develop. Irish coffee served, following din­ Peter's duties were not exhausting. ner, in the livingroom. Aside from handhng Amos' rather As Amos disappeared in. the limited correspondence, his prime direction of the kitchen, Peter Ab­ duty was to transcribe the retired bott gave Vivian an intimate smile. industrialist's memoirs from the She was a slim, shapely blonde" of tape recorder into which Crowder thirty, with a lovely but unsmihng dictated. Since for a good part of face. She had been Amos Crowd- each day Amos was locked in his er's private secretary for five years study dictating into the machine, before his retirement as president Peter had much 'idle time. With of Crowder Eiiterprises, and had two servants, Vivian's time was married him the day he retired a equally idle. year ago. It was her first marriage The result could have been and the industrialist's second. Ab­ foreordained. In the .beginning bott had never known the first Peter had merely been a welcome

44 ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED companion to relieve Vivian's it much longer, darling. It's like loneliness. Then, gradually, with­ being in jail." out either being fully aware of just "Leave him," he urged. "When I when it started, an intimacy de­ said. I loved you, I meant all the veloped which began to express word involves. Divorce. him and itself in minor but telltale ways. At marry me." ail accidental touching of hands, "And live on what?" she in­ both would jerk back as "though quired. the contact had -been electric. Some­ He flushed. At thirty, Peter Ab­ times they would find themselves bott was not an outstanding finan­ staring at each other for long, cial success. Over the years he had silent moments, before simultane­ held a series of minor clerical jobs ously looking guiltily aside. Then with various companies, none with had come the day when; alone in any particular future. His present the front room, they hadn't looked employment as Amos Crowder's aside. Instead, Peter had taken secretary paid a fair salary, but her into his arms and she had naturally would terminate if he ran clung to him in passion. off with the rrian's wife. He didn't After that there had been clan­ have much security to offer. destine meetings outside the home "We can't keep on meeting in after Amos was asleep. These had back streets forever," he growled. not been difficult to arrange, be­ "We have to do something." cause Amos' sleeping routine was "I know," she said. "I've been as rigidly patterned as the ,rest of thinking of something we can do. his life. An insomniac, he took a We'll discuss it when we're alone. sleeping pill exactly at ten each Can we meet tomorrow night ?" night and retired at ten-thirty. By . "Why not tonight?" he inquired. a quarter to eleven he was invari­ She,made a face. "It's Wednes­ ably in a drugged sleep which day.". lasted until seven in the rtiorning. He felt, his face redden. Damn Neither servant lived in and, as Amos Crowder and his inflexible Vivian and her husband had sep­ routine. Wednesday was the night arate rooms, it was easy for her to he deigned to let his wife share his sneak frona the; house without bed. detection. They heard Amos coming from "We have to discuss it," Vivian the kitchen "and lapsed into silence. said. "He can't hear us in the The older man entered the room kitchen. I don't think Tcan stand carrying three coffee mugs on a

CALCULATED ALIBI 45 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED tray. Thick whipped cream floated agent was willing to furnish edi­ on the top of each cup. torial advice and criticisrh of each Irish coffee is nothing but black chapter as it was completed. The coffee with a slug of Irish whisky whole matter could be accom­ in it and a blob of whipped cream plished by mail, but if it were pos­ floating on top. Peter didn't partic­ sible for the author to get to New ularly care for it, but when you York, a personal conference would dined with Amos Crowder, you be of value. submitted to his tastes. Because "I don't want to go up there," Amos had decided that Irish cof­ Amos said. "It would throw my fee was the perfect after-dinner schedule all out of kilter. You drink, his guests were never of­ know as much about the book as fered any other choice. I do, so I want you to go talk to Wednesday-evening' conversation the fellow. You can fly up Sunday was always the same. Ariios and night, talk to him Monday, and Peter discussed the progress of fly back that night." Amos' memoirs while Vivian lis­ "All right," Peter agreed. "It's tened in silence. From Peter's only about two hours by jet." point of view the book, now about Exactly at seven twenty-five the a third finished, was incredibly, maid came in to collect the empty dull, but Amos obviously regard­ coffee mugs. Five minutes later ed it as a literary masterpiece. In she and the housekeeper-cook de­ the interest of keeping his job, parted for the night. At eight Peter naturally did nothing to dis­ Amos rose and lifted the tape courage his employer's opinion. recorder which lay on a corner of Amos had a letter from a New the bar. York literary agent to show to his "You transcribed everything I secretary. Amos had answered an recorded this morning, didn't ad of the agent, who offered to you?" he said to the secretary. evaluate, and criticize book manu­ "Yes, of course," Peter said. ' script's for a reading fee, and mar­ "The manuscript is on your desk." ket those he judged marketable. "I feel in the' mood for starting Amos had submitted three chap­ a new chapter. I think I'll dictate ters and an outline of his memoirs for an hour. Will you excuse me?" to the agent, along with a check. "Certainly," Peter said, rising. According to the letter, the book "I'll run along early then, if Viv­ had great literary possibilities and, ian doesn't mind." for additional reading .fees, the He was a trifle surprised, for 46 ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED this was a departure from routine. car and buttoning his topcoat Usually when Peter came to din­ against the outdoor chill, he ner each Wednesday, he and walked back to the convertible Amos discussed the book until and got in the front seat. The car nine, then Amos retired to his was equipped with a gas heater study to proof the day's output or which made it comfortably warm dictate until bedtime, and Peter despite its thin canvas roof. took this as a signal to go home. Vivian moved into his arms and Amos had never previously kissed him passionately. broken up the evening so early. After a time he. said, "Motel?" Vivian escorted Peter to the "Not tonight," she said. "We door as her husband carried the have things to discuss." tape recorder to his study. She "Like what?" gave his hand, a tight squeeze. "What we're going to do. As "Tomorrow night?" she whis- you said after dinner last night, jpered. we can't go on forever hke this. "If you think it's safe." But if I simply leave Amos, we'll "It's always safe except for Wed­ be penniless. He'll fight any sort nesdays," she said. "Thanks to of financial setdement. I know sleeping pills. Same place, same him." • time?" "I can get another job," he said "Uh-huh," he said. "Thanks for without much conviction. dinner." "Oh sure. At peanuts. After a The next morning Peter taste of luxury, I have no inten­ phoned the airport and discovered tion of ever pinching pennies there was a jet flight to New York again, Peter. I want you and Amos' at six p.m. on Sunday. He made a money." reservation, and also one for an "That would-be nice, but how eight pxa. flight back from New do you plan to swing it ?" York on Monday. Dropping her head to his shoul­ He didn't see much of Vivian der, she whispered against his that day, because she was gone on chest, "Would you be averse to a shopping tour all afternoon. marrying a rich widow?" At midnight Peter parked on He stiffened. "You're not seri­ the curve near the elephant house ous?" in Forest Park. Moments later a She raised her head to look into convertible with the top up his face in the dimness. "I've never parked behind him. Leaving his been more serious. Do you really

CALCULATED ALIBI LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG 47 ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED love me? Enough to prove it now?" said. "Your flight arrives in New "Of course I do. But murder!" York at 8,:01 .p.m. There is a jet "Is it your conscience or the flight back .to here at 9:35 p.m. thought o£ getting caught that That gives you an hour and thirty- bothers you?" four minutes to get to a hotel, reg- After a inoment of contempla­ • ister, go to your room long tion he said reluctantly, "Probably enough to make the bellboy think the thought of getting caught.- I you're in for the night, duck out really don't particularly like Amos. the back way and taxi back to the But I'd hate to spend our honey­ airport. You'll fly back here under moon in the gas chamber." an assumed name, getting in at "We won't get .caught," she said. 11:28. There is a jet flight back to "I,have a foolproof plan." New York at 2:00 a.m., getting "I'll bet. A lot of residents of you there at 3:58. -You could be death row, thought they had fool­ back in your hotel room before proof plans." . • dawn, and no one would ever "This one is," she assured him. know you had been out of it." "With those sleeping pills he takes, He did some'silent calculation. he sleeps like a rock. He would "That leaves two and a half hours, never hear a prowler break into approximately, for me to get froin the • house. Suppose he was mur­ the airport to your house, do the dered by a prowler at a time when job and get back to the, airport we both had perfect aHbis?" again. Enough time, I suppose, "What kind of alibis?" , , providing all three of the planes "Yours is ready-made. The I have to take are on schedule. But prowler \yiil break in- around mid­ suppose one runs late ?" night Sunday, while you're- regis­ "It won't matter if the last one tered at a hotel in New York City.!' does, only if your first flight or the He frowned, "You'r jomg to one back here is too late for you pull the killing?" to make connections. If either is, She shook her head. "You are. you simply-forget it and we wait I said you'd be registered at a Ne\y for another Opportunity. What York hotel. I didn't say you'd ac­ have we lost except the price of a tually be there, but no one will couple of plane fares?" ever be able- to prove you \yeren't.'-' He thought some more. "I "Maybe you'd better fill ine in," would have to have reservations he said. "I don't follow- you;" on the two extra flights." "I visited the airport today," she "They can be made by phone.

48 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAG.iZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED In order to confuse your trail, River, or wherever you decide." they should be made under two "You were certainly confident different fake names. Suppose I I'd go along," he growled. make them for you tomorrow and He opened the glove compart­ pick up the tickets?" ment, groped for the flashlight "Don't rush me," Peter said. in it and examined the gun by "How do I kill him? I don't own its beam. It was a five-shot Smith a gun." and Wesson, probably fifty years "I do.'' She straightened in her old, but it seemed to be in good seat, opened her bag and took condition. Breaking it, he discov­ out a hammerless .32 revolver. "I ered it was fully loaded. bought it in a pawnshop today, When he glanced at her in­ under an assumed name. It can't quiringly, Vivian said, "I bought be traced, because it's never go­ cartridges in a sporting goods ing to be found. After you use store. You won't need more than it, you can take it back to New are in the gun, so I threw the York and drop it in the Hudson rest away." He switched oil the flashlight, returned it to the glove compart­ ment, and thrust the gun into his topcoat pocket. "Okay," he said. "Now how about your alibi?" "I plan to be in the hospital that night." When he stared at her, she said, "Amos is always sound asleep by a quarter to eleven. Saint John's- Hospital is only six blocks from us. I'll check in, complaining of severe abdominal pains,- shortly after eleven. Naturally they'll keep me overnight ' for ' observa-" tion. You won't arrive at the house much before twelve thirty," so I'll be covered'." He said dubiously, "Providing they-fix. time of death when it

CALCULATED ALIBI LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG 49 ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED actually happens. There won't be from there and fill one with my any witnesses to just when he sterling silver from ..the dining- dies." room buffet. .Leave it. near the "Neighbors -are bound to hear door you came in and carry the the shots." other case upstairs. After you He frowned at that. "Yeah," shoot -Amos, drop it next to the he said slowly. "And suppose one bed. It will look as though the comes to investigate.'"' burglar took it upstairs, intend­ "People don't break into dark, ing to pack it with whatever val­ houses to investigate shots," she uables he found there, then said patiently. "They'll just won­ dropped it in panic and ran, after der what the noise was, then for­ shooting Amos. It will also look get it. But somebody will remem­ as though he were in too much ber the time when police later of a hurry to stop for the filled question neighbors. Just to make case on the way out." sure, you can put a bullet After thinking this over, he through the alarm clock on nodded. "It should work. I'll go Amos' bedside table. That will along." fix the time." She moved back into his arms. "All right,", he agreed.."! think "Kiss me," she said. they can fix time of death pretty Sunday evening Peter Abbot's closely by autopsy anyway. You jet landed at Kennedy Airport should be in the clear." . exactly on time. He was carrying "Here's what I want you to only an overnight bag, so he do," she said. "We want this to didn't have to wait for luggage look like a burglary, so I won't to be unloaded. At twenty min­ give you a key. Break one.of. the utes to nine he was registering panes in 'the French doors, lead­ at a hotel. Fifteen minutes later ing into the front, room in order he emerged into the alley from a to get in. You won't have to fire exit. He was lucky enough worry about Amos hearing you, to find a cab immediately, and because an earthquake wouldn't by oflFering a ten-dollar bonus, got rouse him after he's had one of , the driver to break most of New his sleeping pills. You know York's traffic laws on the way where .the first-floor linen closet. back to.jthe airport. He made his ist ?" flight thirty seconds before the "Uh-huh." jet's passenger door closed. Get a couple of pillowcases . "Mr. Arthur Reynolds.?" the

50 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED dark, but he advanced cautiously. Quietly he made his way across the lawn to the front porch. Be­ fore the French doors he shined the small flashlight he had brought on the panes in order to locate the one next to the inside latch. When he found it, he broke the pane with the butt of his gun, then switched oflE the flashlight and listened. When several sec­ onds had passed with no sound from inside, he reached through with a gloved hand and uh- latched the door. Using only the flashlight for illumination, he located the first- floor hnen closet and removed two pillowcases. In the dining- room he loaded one with' silver, stewardess asked, her pencil hov­ then carried it to the front room ering over the only unchecked and laid it in the center of the name on her passenger list. floor. "Eh?" Peter said, then remem­ Carrying the other pillowcase, bered that Arthur Reynolds was he climbed the stairs as silently the name Vivian had used when as he could. He eased open the making the reservation for this door of Vivian's bedroom and flight. "Yes, that's right." flashed the light around to make This flight arrived on time too. sure she was gone. When he Peter had left his car at the air­ found the rooni empty, he port parking lot, so there was no crossed the hall to open the door need for a taxi. to Amos'room. It was a quarter after mid­ Amos Crowder always slept night when he arrived at the with the windows open, and the Crowder home. He parked a room was quite cold. The figure half block away and walked the in bed was completely covered rest of the distance. The house, by a quilt, head and all. and those each side of it, were Peter stepped into the room,

CALCULATED ALIBI 51 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED tossed the empty pillowcase on some time. You had a way of the floor before the bed and di­ looking at each other which was rected the flashlight beam at the more, revealing than. you appar­ sleeping figure. Raising his gun, ently realized. So I've been leav­ he squeezed oflE four shots. At ing the tape recorder around here the first shot the figure beneath and there, running. It was run­ the quilt jerked and emitted a ning Wednesday night as it lay muffled, gasp, but the other slugs on the bar, and recorded your merely riffled the quilt. whole conversation. Since you Moving closer, Peter focused made a date with Vivian for the the beam on the alarm clock on following night, I decided to a night table the other side of eavesdrop on it. Just before I the^ bed. Aiming carefully, he put went to bed Thursday, I carried a bullet ill the center of the dial. the tape recorder out to the gar­ A lamp sprang on in a corner age and put it in the trunk of of the room. Jerking his gaze Vivian's car, with the speaker that way, Peter was horrified to pushed through under the back see Amos Crowder, bundled in seat. I had it loaded with a two- an overcoat, seated in a chair next hour tape, so it was "good until to the lamp. A forty-five automa­ twelve-thirty. It ran out before tic was leveled at- Peter. ' your conversation was finished," "Drop' it," the older man or­ but there was enough on. it to dered crisply. "I imagine it's get the gist." - - empty, but drop it anyway." Peter's gaze strayed to the fig­ Peter- dropped both the gun and ure beneath the quilt. Amos the flashlight. chuckled without humor. "Wha—wha—" he stammered. "Go ahead and look," he said. "I suppose you'd like an ex­ "Vivian never got to the hospital. planation," Amos said pleasantly. I dropped a few of my sleeping "I've been suspecting you and pills into her Irish coffee- after Vivian of—ah—intimacy for quite dinner this evening."

52 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED I shall remember never to become mired in both a pit and a r) possessive child's affection simultaneously. ' t'

CARA didn't know what cabbage- what it meant, all her mother did town meant. She had guessed, by was get real mad, and tell her to the taunts from the kids at school, 'never mind.' that it wasn't a very nice word, but If Daddy were si ill here, he she had always thought cabbage ' was something your mother made you eat, even though you didn't like it. When she asked her mother

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A BIG BLACK HORSE 53 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED would tell her, and he would buy Someday, when she was big, she her and Stevie lots of nice clothes, would have enough money to and toys, and lots of things. But buy lots of toys and dogs, and a .Daddy wasn't, here, and Mommy Daddy too. She'd show those darn said he wouldn't be coming back, ol' kids at school. She didn't care ever, so she would probably never what cabbagetown meant, arid she know what cabbagetown meant. didn't want any stupid ol' dolls Cara pulled at six-year-old Stev- and stuff. "Gome on, Stevie. Hurry ie's arm. "Corrie on, Stevie. You- •up." She pulled roughly at Stevie's don't want to be late gettin' home, hand. do ya.? And put that darn ol' stone ^They turned off the road to cut down. What do ya want a darn ol' through an empty lot. There was a stone for, anyway.?" Stevie was fence around it, but some of the only a year younger than Cara, boards were broken, and they had but he seemed so young and silly a special place where they could sometimes. squeeze through. Stevie put .his hand over the Stevie ran over to / some old pocket containing the stone. "It pipes that had been lying in the ain't no stone. It's .a rock. I'm same place.for as long as he could gonna put it in my c'llection." remember. Mommy had said they "You and your silly ol' collec­ were for sewers or something, but tion. It's a stone. Rocks are bigger that was a long time ago, and the an' prettier. So throw it away." pipes were still here. "I won't. It's a. rock, and I'm "Stevie, you be careful," Cara gonna putit in my. c'llection." said. "You know Mommy'll get Cara didn't feel hke teasing her mad if you get dirty." brother today. Anyway, Mommy Stevie climbed on-top of a pipe, would make him throw, it away and crawled along it on his hands when she found it in his pocket. and knees. He couldn't stand up Just like she had made Cara throw without falling off, and he didn't away her bugs. She wondered why want his sister to see him fall. her mother didn't let them keep When he carne to the end of the anything. They didn't have any­ pipe he straddled it, and sat there thing the other kids had—no dolls, kicking his feet into the rounded no toys, no dog, no -Daddy. Mom­ sides. Someday, when he was big, my had said they couldn't afford he would buy a horse, a big black toys and stuff. Cara wondered if it one with a long tail. cost, money to have a Daddy, He looked over at Cara. What a

54 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED dumb girl! Why doesn't she come The hole was deep, at least it up here and have some fun? All seerried so to six-year-old Stevie, she does is hit the grass with a and he could see a dark figure stick. "Hey, Cara," he called. huddled at the bottom. He jumped "Look at me. How do ya like my up and scampered after his sister. black horse?" "Cara, Cara," he shouted. "Come "It ain't black, and it ain't a and see what I found. It's in a horse," she yelled. "It's red. It's a hole back there." darn ol' red sewer pipe. Now Cara stopped, and looked dis^ come on." gustedly at her brother. "What did Stevie slid off the pipe. "Ah, you ya find now? I don't wanna look don't know nothin'," he said. He at any of your darn ol' stones." kicked at the dust, arid a shiny "It ain't no stone, Cara. Come stone skipped across the ground. and see." "Hey!" he squealed, and chased Reluctantly she followed Stevie, after the stone. He picked it up, who ran excitedly back to the hole. and rubbed it on his shirt. "Hey, He pointed. "Look!" he whis­ Cara, look what I found," he pered. called. "This is a real good rock." Ca'ra leaned over and peered Cara just waved her hand, urg­ into the hole. "Is it dead?" ing him to catch up with her. "I don't know. What is it, Cara?" Stevie put the stone in his pock­ Cara thought for a moment. "I et, and was about to run after his think it's a man." She lay down sister, when he heard a noise—a on her stomach to get a closer look. kind of groan. He looked around Stevie joined her. "How can ya ' quickly. He saw nothing, but there tell?" he asked: was a hole close by. Maybe there "Look, there's two legs. was something in it. Cautiously he Hey, and look! He's only got one moved toward it, and heard the arm!" noise again. He stopped to look Stevie's mouth dropped -open. for Cara, but she was quite a way "Gee, how come he's only got one ahead of him and didn't see what arm?" he was doing. He fingered the "I don't know. Do ya think he's stones in his pocket, wondering if dead?" he should go any nearer to the: Stevie dropped a stone onto the hole. Finally, he crept closer. He still figure, but it did not move. leaned over the edge and looked He cupped his hands over his in. mouth, and yelled, "Hey, you!

A BIG BLACK HORSE 55 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Hey, you, hello!" They waited. Let's call him George, shall we.?" Then they heard a sigh, and Stevie pouted, on the verge of slowly the figure rolled over so tears. "I found him. He's mine. I they could ' see two white eyes wanna name him." staring at them from a bearded "Oh, okay, ya baby. You name face. Stevie jumped up,.ready to him." .... run, but the figure, made no at­ Stevie thought for a moment. tempt to chase them so. he knelt "Blackie! That's what I'll call him down at the edge of the hole. —Blackie." They waited for the figure to "Boy, is that a stupid name!" speak, but he lay quietly, his legs Then Cara saw liis lip tremble, bent under him in an unnatural ' arid she said, "But if that's what^ position, his ragged clothes stained you want to call him, okay." She with dark, damp patches, and his •leaned over the hole again. "Hey, white eyes staring blankly from the you." She waited for a reply. darkness. - - "Hey, you. We're gonna call you Finally, Cara spoke. "Hey, who Blackie-'cause we don't know your are you.''" name. Okay.?" The white eyes remained blank, The" white eyes opened again. but the matted beard moved, and "Blackie,"- he mumbled, and again there was a grating sound. "Who they saw t'he body shake, and am I.'" The voice paused. "Who heard the strange sound. are.you?" Another pause. "Who is Cara stood up. "We've gotta get who.?" home for supper now," she said. Stevie was frightened by .the . "Mom -will get mad if we're late." raspy voice, and by- the- strange She brushed the dust from her words. Again he stood up, but dress. "We can't come out after Cara leaned over the edge of the . supper, but we'll come and see hole. "I'm Cara, and this here is you tomorrow on the' way to my brother Stevie. Don't you school. Here's an apple I saved know who.you are?" from recess." She dropped the ap­ The white eyes closed, and there ple into the hole, and it landed was no answer, but the dark fig­ near the lone arm. "We'll bring ure shook, and they heard a noise something for you to eat tomor­ they could not distinguish as a row. Okay?" laugh or a cough. There was lio answer from the Cara looked at her brother. "I hole. She shrugged her shoulders, guess he doesn't know his name. and turned to her brother. "Come

56 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAC-VZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED on. We gotta hurry or Mom'll get "Yeah, maybe," Cara said mad again." She took Stevie's thoughtfully, then added, "but we hand, and they hurried across the can't tell Mom about Blackie. You empty lot. know she'll just tell us we can't, "Do ya think Blackie's sick.?" have him. We gotta keep this a asked Stevie. "Maybe we could secret. Just you and me can know, bring him some of Mom's medi- - We can't tell anyone." She stopped cine.?" and looked at Stevie. "Can you

A BIG BLACK HORSE 57 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED keep a secret, Stevie? Can you?" him. His beard and hair were " 'Course I can," he said indig­ caked- with mud, and they could nantly. "I can keep a' secret bet­ see that his white eyes were now ter'n you. I won't tell nobody. Not streaked blood-red. the kids, not even Mom." Cara and Stevie were on their The next morning they each stomachs,. resting their chins in took an extra apple froxn the re­ their hands. "Are ya feeling bet­ frigerator before leaving for ter ?" Cara asked. school. They hurried to the hole After a long pause, the dark and peered in. The dark figure figure answered, "Yes." was still. "Here's a sandwich I didn't eat "Hey, Blackie," Stevie called. at lunch," Cara said, and dropped "Are ya awake? We got ya some­ a peanut butter and banana sand­ thing to eat." wich into the hole. Slowly the figure rolled over, They watched in fascination as and they heard a low groan. Stevie the one arm slowly picked up the dropped his apple into the hole, sandwich and put it to the beaitd. and it landed next to yesterday's. The beard alone seemed to devour "Hey," he said, "ain't ya hun­ the food, as they could not see a gry? Ya didn't eat the apple vve mouth beneath the matted hair. gave ya yesterday." The white eyes . "Hey, Blackie," Stevie said, "I remained, closed. "I guess he's still hope ya like your name, 'cause I'm •asleep," Stevie said. ; the one that named ya." Cara leaned over the hole, His eyes sparkled when he "We'll come back after school, heard the low, rasping, "Y'es, it's Blackie. Okay?" She heard a fine." " • groan, and took that as a "Yes." "Where do ya come from?" Cara She jumped up, brushed her dress, asked. and took Stevie's hand as they After a few moments the voice hurried to school. answered, "I don't know." In the afternoon they returned "Don't ya know where ya live?" again, and saw that the apples Stevie asked incredulously. "I do. were eaten. The sun shone directly My name is Stevie Colier, and I into the hole, and they could see Uve at 64 Cane Avenue, and I'm their "Blackie" quite clearly. He six years old." lay in much the same position as Cara looked at her brother. "Oh, when they had discovered him, shut up, stupid." She looked back with his legs still folded uiider into the hole. "Well how did ya 58 ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED get here?" she asked. "You fall?" poured some into a plastic glass. "I don't know," came the reply. Stevie made some peanut butter "Maybe this is where he lives," sandwiches, and put them into a Stevie offered. "My teacher says brown paper bag. Finally, they that rabbits and groundhogs and were ready to_visit their. Blackie. things live in holes in the ground. As they opened the front door Maybe Blackie does too." and stepped onto the porch, Cara "Well, how long ya been here?" stopped. There was a large puddle Cara asked. of water in front of the house, This time there was no answer. and the trees were still dripping, "Hey, Blackie, are ya sick?" he "Stevie," she said, "it's been rain­ asked. ing! It must have rained last Again, after a long pause, the night." answer came, almost as a sob, "I Stevie looked alarmed. "We bet­ don't know." ter hurry and see Blackie. He'll Stevie looked puzzled. "Don't ya be cold and wet." even know if you're sick? Don't They started to run, but Cara ya feel good? I mean do ya hurt couldn't keep up with Stevie be­ anywhere?" cause she had the glass of medi­ This time Stevie understood the cine. answer, "Yes," from the dark fig­ Stevie was staring into the hole ure. when she caught up with him. She "Well, we gotta go now," he too peered into the hole, then said, "but we'll be back tomorrow gasped. Water partially covered the morning, and we can stay longer motionless forrri at the bottom. His 'cause it's Saturday, and we don't eyes were wide and unblinking, gotta go to school, and I'll try to and drops of water glistened on sneak some of Mom's medicine, his matted hair and beard. and bring it to ya. Okay?" They Stevie's. lower lip quivered. "Is both said goodbye, and ran for Blackie dead, Cara?". home. "I don't know." Cara and Stevie awoke early the "He looks awfully still," Stevie next morning and, as was custo­ said. "I talked to him before you mary on Saturdays mornings, they got here, but he didn't answer." dressed and made their own Cara looked around her and, breakfasts—peanut butter on toast. seeing a long stick, picked it up. Cara took the bottle of. brown She looked into the hole again. medicine from the cabinet and "Blackie," she. called, "are you

A BIG BLACK HORSE 59 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED awake? We brought ya some med­ shovel, and she with a garden icine." There - was no answer. spade. Carefully, she poked the still fig­ It was long, hot work for the ure, but it did not move. Cara and two small mourners. In an hour's Stevie stood silently as they stared time they had covered the body into the hole. and nearly filled the hole. They Finally, after a long silence, stopped, both tired and perspiring. Stevie spoke. "What are we gonna "I guess we should say a prayer do, Cara.?" or something," Cara said. She thought for a moment. "I "Yeah, I guess so. Let me say it, guess we should bury him." eh, Cara.?" "Yeah, I guess so." , "Okay, go ahead." - "Come on, Stevie. 'Let's go and In the quiet of the sunny spring get the shovel." morning, the two children folded "Okay." their hands, while Stevie said, When they returned about a half "Now I lay me down to sleep . , ." hour later, the morning sun was When the prayer was finished, beating down on the wet earth, they picked up their shovels and and the wild, green grass was slowly, wearily, trudged across the drinking in ,its life-giving warmth. quiet, empty lot., Stevie took Already, the water had begun to Cara's hand. "Do ya think . we'll disappear from the bottom of the ever find another Blackie, Cara.?" hole, but the sun could not return he asked. warmth to the motionless body. "I don't know." In a-last, longing g'^sture, Stevie Stevie spied a shiny, green stone shouted into the hole, "Blackie, are on the ground, and rah to pick you awake.?" His voice echoed it up. He poHshed it against his faintly, but that was all the an­ shirt. "When I get big," he said, swer he received. He turned to "I'm gonna have lots of money, Cara, and silently they began to and buy me a big black horse, fill the hole—he with a small sand with a long tail." 1

•60 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED / find it impossible to label the protagonist as either white-col­ lar or blue-collar, for he is identified by a hue all his own.

W RANK HOLcoMB was sitting by the stove in the kitchen of his ranchhouse, warming his hands around a cup of steaming coffee, staring out through the frost pat­ terns on the windowpane as he waited for the phone to ring. It was not yet seven o'clock. The call, he knew,^ would come around seven; it always had. Beyond the window he saw an early morning snow mist hover low over. the flat pasture that stretched from his house to the mountains a mile away. It was pure white, billowy and rolling, like a thick, warm cloud, but Hol-

THE MARKSMAN 61 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED comb knew there was nothing dered soberly; Bonnie was ten thick or warm about it. The snow years old. That made him thirty- mist was thin and cold; walking six. Lord, time passed quickly. He through it would be like wading looked at the kitchen clock and in ice water. Utah, he reflected, saw that it still was not quite seven. must be the coldest place in the Years passed quickly, he corrected world in January. himself; minutes seemed to drag He put down his cup and lighted by. a cigarette. Exhaling the first deep He heard Lill coming down the drag, he turned to stare at the stairs; a moment later she entered phone on the wall across the room. the kitchen, chenille robe buttoned He did not know why he was so to the throat over her flannel edgy waiting for it to ring. This pajamas. time would be no different from "They haven't called yet.?" she the other—how many?—eight, yes asked. —the other eight times. He sighed "No.'l He did not know why she heavily, deciding that he was ner­ asked, really; she would have heard vous simply because it had been so the phone ring just as well up­ long. (They had never gone two stairs as he would have in the full years before this. -kitchen. - Upstairs he could hear Lill get­ "Maybe they won't," Lill said in ting their daughter Bonnie up for a neutral tone, neither hopeful nor school. Usually Lill had a difficult pessimistic. time of it' with the girl on Monday Holcomb looked intently at his mornings, but probably she would wife. She's a cool one, he thought not on this particular Monday admiringly. Always has been, come morning. This was the first day of to think of it. Even that first time, school after the Christmas holiday; when he had told her what he Bonnie was eager to show her was going to do, she had accepted classmates the new wristwatch she it as if it were a thing every hus­ had found under the tree Christ­ band did; no surprise at all, no mas morning. She • was certain, consternation, no arguments—just absolutely certain, that she would calm acceptance. Of course, that be the only girl to have a genuine had been the year of. the Big self-winding heart-shaped^ young Freeze, the year that winter had lady's wristwatch in the entire become a white death and left their fourth grade. cattle frozen stiff standing straight The fourth grade, Hblcomb pon­ up, the year of no meat, no grain

62 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED and no money. Maybe Lill had enough to piit two and two to­ been as scared as he had been; gether." maybe that was why she had not "Well," said Holcomb, "maybe objected. That first time, with that by that time we'll be iar enough first five hundred dollars he had ahead so I can quit—" earned, had - carried them into The phone rang. spring and helped them save their Holcomb lifted the receiver be­ ranch. fore it could ring a second time. Then the second five hundred "Hello . . . Yes, operator, this is had paid for the doctor and the Frank Holcomb—" hospital when Bonnie came. A crisp, businesslike voice came The third five hundred had over the line. As he listened to the bought the fence they needed to sarne words he had heard the other keep strays out of the west pasture, eight times, Holcomb watched his where the winter grass had to be wife. Her easy movements, the way protected. she used her hands, the twist of The fourth five hundred had— her shoulders as she turned to do "I said," Lill repeated, "maybe something, all were pleasing to they won't call." Holcomb. For years he had secretly "They'll call," Holcomb said. enjoyed watching her do the casual "Once it gets this close, they never things that a woman does around back down. It's not like in some / her own house; the straightening, other places." the arranging, the setting of a "If you go, what will you tell table as she was doing now. It Bonnie?" / gave Holcomb a warm feeling to "Same thing I've alvyays told see her moving about like that; it her, I guess." made him feel as if he had some­ "She might be getting a little old thing. for that story, mightn't she?" "Yes, all right," he said into the "What do you mean?" Holcomb phone when the crisp voice had said, mildly indignant. "She's only finished, "I'll be there. Yes. Good­ ten. Besides, she always beUeves bye." He hung up and stood for a what her daddy tells her, you know moment next to the phone. that." "You're going?" "All the same," Lill said, "I "Yes," he said, "I'm going." He think you'd better give some stepped over to his place at the thought to a new story. One of table and sat down. The smell of these days she's going to be old frying bacon filled the room. He

THE MARKSMAN LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG 63 ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED heard his daughter coming down ly, I will have.to quit this business the stairs, and turned in his chair I'm involved in. It's one thing for as she entered the kitchen. She her mother to know, but never— walked directly to Holcomb and never—would he ever want Bonnie put her arms around his neck and to find out, kissed him on the cheek. "Daddy won't be home tonight," "Good morning, sweetheart," he he said as casually as he could. "I said, hugging her back. He saw have to go out of town and I won't that she was wearing a Sunday be able to get back until sometime dress instead of her usual woolen tomorrow afternoon." skirt and sweater. "Will she be "Where are you going?" the girl warm enough in that.?" he asked wanted to know. "Won't you be Lill. home to hear how everyone liked "She can wear ski pants under it my watch?" and take them off at school," his "You can tell me all about it wife said, "It's the first day back tomorrow night. I have to take a and she's got her new watch on, trip up north. Fellow I know wants you know." me to shoot a bad cat for him." Lill put a large platter of bacon "A mountain lion?" Bonnie's and eggs and biscuits in the centei- voice grew breathless. Having of the table and they began eating grown up on a small cattle spread, breakfast. she knew, even at ten, the hazards "I can't wait to see how everyone of a mountain cat. likes my watch," Bonnie saiid ex­ "Not sure just what kind it is," citedly. "It's such a pretty watch." said Holcomb. "Just know that it's "Pretty watch for a pretty girl," a bad one;" said Holcomb. It wasn't true, real­ "Aren't you glad you're such a ly; *s.he wasn't a very pretty girl. good shot, daddy," the girl said, She was rather plain and had none a little worshipful. of the full feminine features that Holcomb did not answer. made her mother so attractive. But They finished the meal and Lill - she had the lines,' Holcomb started cleaning away the dishes. thought. Her nose and mouth and "You run along and get into your eyes all had the right hnes, and ski pants," she told Bonnie. "The someday, seven, eight years from school bus will be here in five now, she would bloom into a very minutes." clean, very pretty young woman. , Holcomb remained at the table Before then, he told himself silent­ and sipped more coffee until

64 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Bonnie was bundled up for the driver prepared to disassemble the trip to school and they heard the weapon. familiar honk of the school bus as The rifle Holcomb worked on -it came slowly down the snow- had a smooth, solid walnut stock covered road. Holcomb and his mounted under a cold forged bar­ wife kissed their daughter at the rel twenty-three inches - long. The door and watched through the win­ receiver and bolt and trigger hous­ dow as she ran awkwardly along ing all were chrome plated, as were the slippery path to the road, waved the swivels that held tautly the briefly, then disappeared inside the . pliable black leather sling at the } bright orange vehicle. It moved off gun's belly. There was a matted sluggishly before a trail of billow­ ramp sight at the front of the ing exhaust and a moment later muzzle, and a dual range peep was gone.. sight at the rear of the breech. A "Well," Holcomb said, almost to spring magazine, blued, lay snugly himself, "better get ready, I guess." in its niche beneath the chamber "I'll get your bag and other entry. At that moment the maga­ things from upstairs," Lill said. zine was empty; later on it would "All right." hold five 30-30 caliber, 220-grain, - As Lill went up the stairs, steel jacketed, semi-pointed bullets. Holcomb walked into a spare room Lill came in with Holcomb's they called their den and un­ overnight bag just as he finished locked his gun cabinet. There were breaking down the rifle and was five weapons in the rack: two shot­ placing the parts neatly into a guns and three rifles. Holcomb re­ fleece-lined takedown case. moved one of the rifles and laid it • "I put in a clean shirt and socks on a table next to a jigsaw piizzle for you to wear on the train com­ he and Lill and Bonnie had been ing back," she said. "Also extra working on since Christmas. The handkerchiefs", your battery shaver, puzzle, nearly complete, was a pic­ and four packs of cigarettes." ture of a beautiful ballerina stand­ "Four packs.'"' ing tall and graceful with arms "You ran out and had' to look upstretched in the classic ballet for a place to buy some last time, pose. The gleaming, deadly rifle remember.?" looked frighteningly incongruous "That's right, I forgot." She's a lying next to the sedate picture, but cool one, all right, . Holcomb Holcomb did not notice. He sat thought again. But it pleased him down and with a small screw­ that she took care to remember

THE MARKSMAN 65 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED so many little things regarding his It was night now; Holcomb comfort. Every man should have had been on the train for eleven a woman hke her. He zipped up hours. The northern air was bit­ the gun case and laid it in the terly cold. open suitcase Lill had brought in. "Car's over this way," Spaak "Guess that's about it." said. Holcomb walked with him Lill followed him into the front along the wooden passenger plat­ hall where he opened the closet form and down three railroad-tie to get out his heavy mackinaw. steps to where a car waited with "Will it be colder up there than its motor idling. "Always leave it down here^'l\ running," - Spaak explained; "so's t, . "Most likely. Usually is." the heater'U stay warm." Holcomb slipped a pair of fur Holcomb nodded: He had earm^uifs over his head before put­ heard the same thing before from ting on his hat. He wrapped a wool Spaak. Eight times before, to be muffler around his neck, turned exact. Opening the car door on the . up the collar of his coat and drew right side, he laid his bag on the on a pair of deerskin gloves lined back seat and got in. Spaak swung with rabbit fur. the car in a slow arc away from "Keep the doors locked and the depot and eased it up a cinder- leave a light on all night," he said, covered drive to the highway. the same thing he had said the "What's the temperature.?" Hol­ other eight times he had gone comb wanted to know. away. "I'll be back around three " 'Bout six, I reckon," Spaak tomorrow if the trains run on said clinically, "maybe five. When time." it gets under ten it don't make Holcomb gave his wife a warm, much difference anyway." soft, lingering kiss. He left the "Guess you're right," Holcomb house then and trudged off across agreed. He settled back in the seat, the frozen snow, suitcase in hand, loosening his collar and muffler toward the barn to get out the and taking off the earmuffs, and , pickup for the.drive to town to the lighted a cigarette. depot. The road they drove was a two- lane blacktop, piled high on each . Spaak met him when he got off side with a continuous mound of the train. snow laid out almost geometrically "Hello, Holcomb." perfect by the blade of a snow- , "Hello, Spaak." • plow. It was a straight, level road, ^

66- ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED and although Holcojnb had never such as hunting, which was com­ traveled it except at night, he mon to nearly all men in Utah. knew it cut across the flat plane of Because of Holcomb's unique posi­ a high valley, through pastures tion in their association, however, and meadows and grazing land he was precluded from discussing much like that o£ his own place anything like that, anything in far to the south. The land was the least way personal that might vast and sweeping, stretching to give an indication of who he was, lofty, white-topped mountains on where he lived, whether he had a all sides, the high altitude air thin family, a business. and pure and, like the land, rich. To Spaak, Holcomb had to re­ Maybe, Holcomb thought, when main siinply Holcomb, that was it was all over, when he had quit all: a name, and a man who an­ and been away from it for a few swered to it. Spaak did not even years, he would bring Lill a.nd know exactly how Holcomb was Bonnie up here for a vacation, just summoned; all he knew was that to see what it did look like in the on the night he was needed, Hol­ daytime. comb would arrive. He " would "You follow pro football arrive on a train-' that had sped much?" Spaak asked in an at­ the length, of the state; he might tempt to make conversation. have come from anywhere. To "Not much," Holcomb told Spaak, the man called Holcomb him. They had been all through was really little more than a spec­ this before, he recalled, trying to ter. make conversation and failing "How 'bout a little music?" - miserably at it because, although Spaak said, reaching for the radio. they had known each other for "Fine," said Holcomb. They longer than eleven years, they were about halfway there now, he were absolute strangers. Apart guessed. It wouldn't be much from their .brief association at longer. He rested his head back times like this, they never saw one against the seat and closed his another and thus had never estab­ eyes. The radio warmed up and lished any common ground' be­ soft music filtered out of the tween them. It vvas a shame too, speaker. Between the soothing Holcomb thought, because Spaak melody of the music and the lull­ seemed likeable enough, and un­ ing sound of the car cutting the doubtedly there could be found wind, Holcomb soon dozed. many things of mutual interest, He awoke when he felt the car

THE MARKSMAN 67 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED slowing to a halt. Opening his door and Holcomb followed him eyes, he saw in the glare o£ the into the shack. Inside was an at­ headlights the gate being opened mosphere of dull, greenish light, for them. emanating from a.large oil lan­ "We're there," Spaak said quiet­ tern suspended on the wall. Aside ly, seeing that Holcomb' was from the lantern, the shack was awake. completely empty,. totally bare. "All right." Holcomb' sat up "I'll tell 'em you're here," Spaak and reached inside his coat for a said. Holcomb nodded and Spaak cigarette. left the shack. They passed through the gate When he was alone, Holcomb and across a snow-covered court­ stood for a moment in the quiet yard to a small, very narr.ow emptiness, smelling the cold pun- wooden shack; three wooden gence of the freshly sawed lumber walls built onto a wooden floor of which the shack was built. He and supporting a flat wooden breathed deeply of the smell, be­ roof. Where the fourth wall cause it was pleasant to his senses, should have been was a partition like the smell of fresh hay and of four feet high; the opening be­ the high woods country where he tween it and the roof was cov­ hunted; He wondered briefly how ered with a length of burlap. - it would feel to know that the Spaak parked the car directly be­ new wood of the shack would be- side the shack and put it in neu­ the last thing he. would ever' tral, pulling on the parking brake smell; to know that he was going and leaving the motor running. to die with that rich, vigorous Holcomb adjusted his muffler odor in his nostrils, a final re­ and buttoned his mackinaw; he minder of just how precious life . did not bother with the earmufis was. - this time. Turning in the seat, he There was a sudden flapping flipped open his bag and removed sound and Holcomb turned to the the Vifle case.' Spaak got out of the half wall that had the length of car and came around to open the burlap stretched across.its. open­ door on Holcomb's side. Cradling ing. A corner of the burlap had the rifle case in the crook of one come loose from its nail and was arm, Holcomb stepped out into being whipped back by a shaft of the thin, bitter cold of the high wind from the open courtyard out­ Utah night. side. Stepping over to the parti­ • Spaak pulled open a narrow tion, Holcomb forced the truant

68 ALFRED HITCHCOCKS MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED corner back tightly over the head ing against the wall smoking a of the nail. He did not try. to look cigarette. The fully assembled rifle beyond the burlap; what was rested, muzzle down, between his there he would see soon enough. hip and one arm. With a sigh, Holcomb turned "'Bout ready," Spaak said. and knelt beside the back wall, Holcomb nodded. He took a placing his rifle case on the floor final deep drag on the cigarette, and unzipping it. Removing his brushed the ash off with his gloves, he spread open the wings thumb and put the butt in his of the case and began to assemble pocket. He could as easily have the rifle. dropped it on the floor, but he had When Spaak returned a few a fetish about these shacks, this minutes later, Holcomb was lean- one and the other eight in which THE MARKSMAN • - . 69 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED he had stood; he did not like to ~. This is the last time, he swore to leave anything of himself behind. himself. The last time— The shack door opened and a . The area beyond the partition small man wearing a hat and was flooded with sudden light; heavy overcoat entered. stark, glaring light from powerful "Holcomb," he said, bobbing floodhghts and the half-wall be- his head in brusque acknowledg­ wide eyes a scene of horror was ment. He drew one hand out of his illuminated. A second three-sided overcoat pocket and handed Hol­ enclosure, lumber-new like the comb five brass-colored, steel- first, stood a scant twenty feet tipped .30-30 cartridges. While away, its open side facing the both he and'Spaak watched, Hol­ floodlights and the half-wall be­ comb slid them into a spring mag­ hind which Holcomb waited. azine and inserted it into the belly Within the structure a crude, of his rifle. He loosened the sling, heavy wooden chair had been built slipped his left arm into it,, and of the same raw tiniber; a chair of tightened it across his muscle. flat, hard planes, without contours, "Ready.?" without dignity. A man" was Holcomb wet his lips and nod­ strapped to the chair, his. forearms, ded. He turned and faced the par­ thighs, calves and chest bound to tition as Spaak turned off the.lan­ the new wood with leather belts. tern and began removing the bur­ A black hood covered his.head and lap. This was the worst part of fell • to his waist." Pinned to the it for Holcomb; not the actual dark cloth, over the man's heart, squeezing of the trigger, but the. was a four-inch circular target. two or three minutes between'the Last time, Holcomb vowed time he was ready and— again. / won't do it anymore. The shack door closed behind • He tore .his eyes away from the him and he knew that he .and hooded figure in the chair and Spaak were alone again. The bur­ nervously scanned the rest of the lap was all the way off now; an cold midnight scene. A dozen icy draft flooded the narrow room'. men, witnesses, stood still as stat­ In a moment, Holcomb thought, ues to one side of the execution the floods will go on. He tried, to- shack, their faces turned away close his eyes but could not. Al­ from Holcomb, the wind whip­ ways it was the same; he wanted ping at their coattails and swirling to close his eyes, but his eyelids gusts of powdery snow around would never function. their feet. Four guards armed

70 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED with shotguns stood between the of Bonnie; Bonnie, growing up so witnesses and the shack. A doc­ quickly, so few years left for her tor, stethoscope in hand, huddled to be daddy's little girl. Suppose near the guards. A Mormon bish­ she found out someday . . . op, hadess, moved his lips silently. Never again—never. Holcomb lowered his eyes and Outside the shack, the man who stared at the partition in front of had given Holcomb the bullets him. He thought of home, of Lill, stepped into the side light of one

^ I

THE MARKSMAN 71 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED of the floodlights. He put on a of the man in the chair, a sob es­ pair of glasses and held up a doc­ caped. It pierced the thin night air ument from which he began to like the slash of a blade. read aloud. ". . . fire!" "Order of Execution. The Su­ Holcomb squeezed off the first preme Court of the Sovereign round and saw a hole appear State of Utah, having found . . ." dead center in the target; the body The wind whistlecl into the behind the target lurched violent­ shack where Holcomb stood. The ly.. Holcomb's hand worked the sound "of it" muted some of the bolt fluidly, ejecting the spent hurriedj official words, but it did shell, throwing another one into not matter to Holcomb; he had the chamber. heard them all eight times before. Last time— ". ... murder in the first degree, He .flexed his sensitive trigger and having been duly sentenced finger and fired again. And again in the Superior Court of the County and again and again. of ..." The words droned on, and the In the car, with Spaak driving wind whipped and whistled while him back to the depot where he the guards stood erect, the doctor would have a three-hour wait for waited patiently, the bishop con­ the morning train, Holcomb's. tinued to move his lips, and the thoughts settled again on his little witnesses shufHed uneasily as ranch and his little family.. If he death drew near. had a good year this year—that is, Then' it was silent, starkly si­ if he did better than break even lent; even the wind stopped. The after all expenses, if he could man­ litde corner of ^the prison court­ age to put a few hundred in the yard became for the men assem­ bank—then at the end of the year bled' there the stillest place in the he would write a letter to the world. . . prison bureau and tell them to. "Ready . . ." find someone else for the job. He Holcomb raised the rifle and would quit; quit for good, and dug its butt into his shoulder. A get out of it once and for all. trickle of sweat escaped from his Settling more comfortably in the armpit and ran slowly, distract-., seat, Holcomb reached into his ingly, down his side. shirt pocket for a cigarette. His ". . .aim . . ." fingers brushed against the vouch­ From beneath the black hood er for five hundred dollars that

72 ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED the warden had given him. If he cent of his profit; he could take a mailed the voucher to the state trip to the Chicago stockyards and paymaster that afternoon when he get himself lined up with one of got home, he'd have his check in the top grade beef buyers and- be about a week. He had hoped to able to sell directly for premium be able to use the money for a market price. Of course, a trip to good stock bull to build up his Chicago would take money too. herd, but thinking of it now he Everything took money ... did not see how he would be able Holcomb rubbed his chin to. The electric pump oil his well thoughtfully and turned to Spaak. was going bad and would surely "How many more you got' up need replacing by spring; a hail­ there in the death house now?" he storm had damaged the roof of asked casually. the barn last month and he had "Three," said Spaak. "Probably to buy material to repair that; and be four pretty soon. Fellow over in Lill had mentioned a couple of Provo was convicted last week of times that maybe they should see killing an Indian woman;, ain't about braces for Bonnie because a been sentenced yet but he'll prob­ couple of her front teeth were ably get the max. Federal govern­ turning crooked. So most of the ment's" touchy about their Indians five hundred would go for those getting murdered, and the state things and probably a few others court knows it. Yeah, he'll get the he hadn't even thought of. max for sure." ' He could not help thinking, "But right now you've - got thoiigh, how nice it would have three.?" been to buy that bull. Just a little "Yep. Right now three." more good blood in his stock and That was fifteen hundred dol­ he soon would have a prime-line lars worth, Holcomb thought-. A of beef. Then he wouldn't have man could do a lot. on a little to sell through stock jobbers any­ ranch with fifteen hundred dol­ more and give away twenty per­ lars. A

THE MARKSMAN 73 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED From as far bac^ as the Second Century, B.C., it has been coun­ seled, "According as the man is, so must you humour him."

T,HE WIRY little Englishman was always exceedingly deferential even when he was bucking au­ thority. The effect was enhanced by the perpetual, bland expression for changing it. Is that clear?" on his face and the old-fashioned, "Well, I think we ought to put wire-rimmed spectacles that clung up a bit more fight, sir. We can't to his nose like a piece of himself, just sit quietly oii one side and let "Look, Mr. Peinbridge," said the people get away with this sort of manager, "this is the policy of the thing." bank, and I am really not inter- "And I and the board of direc- ested in any schemes you may have tors happen to think that we are

74 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED doing what we ought to be doing. and I became expert in what you Every bank has to take the chance might call gadgetry. I'm sure I o£ being held up some time or could devise—" other. Our accountants have work­ The manager looked up at the ed this out for us in dollars and clock impatiently. "Mr. Pembridge, cents. It's like any other of our we employ a firm of highly compe­ overheads; we're financially pre­ tent engineers who can devise any alarm system we choose, it is very easy for us to prevent a robber from getting away with a httle loot, but we cannot guarantee that a member of our staff or a cus­ tomer will not get hurt." pared for it, so don't fight it." "Yes, sir, but in the Royal "But this branch has been held Engineers—" up three times in the past few "We are not in the field of months, sir." battle now. We are in the down­ "That's just the luck of the town branch of the bank in Market game, Mr. Pembridge. We'll proba­ Street, San Francisco, one of the bly be left alone for a while now. busiest streets on the west coast. We Anyhow,- there's nothing you or I are not in the business of catching could do about it." bank, robbers; we are in the bank­ "If I may say so, sir, there is. ing business, which is quite dif­ Look what happened to the last ferent. In case you haven't realized man who tried to hold me up." it yet, Mr. Pembridge, we are here "That was very commendable, to make money. As long as we but you were also very, very lucky conduct our bank on proper lines, that gun didn't happen to be load­ . our - customers will continue to ed, otherwise there might have come-in and do business with us, been a tragedy, and your heroics but if they learn that we are pre­ would have been no consolation pared to turn the place into a shoot­ to us for your loss. It wouldn't ing gallery, they will stop comiag have done our public image much in here, there will be no business; good either." there will be no money, and there "It isn't always a question of will be no job for me or for you, heroics; sometimes a little ingenu­ Mr. Pembridge. Do I make myself ity can be of service. I was in the clear?" Royal Engineers during the war "I still think, sir—"

LOADED WITH MONEY 75 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED The manager slammed his hand really had a fighting chance," as on the desk. "I don't care what you he modestly told the reporters think. I don't want any more o£ afterwards. The other clerks knew your heroics, and I don't want any he had acted contrary to the rules, change in the alarm system,' do a move they would not have dared you get that? If a bandit walks themselves. This made him a rebel, in, armed with a gun, a bottle of and since these were days when acid, or any other weapon of de-, most rebels were heroes, too, Alex struction, and asks for the contents Pembridge was doubly honored. of your till, you are to give it to Now he had a hefty reputation to him.. I cannot be more explicit maintain. than that, Mr. Pembridge. Those For a time the manager's guess are your orders." proved correct; they were left The bank- clerk drew himself up alone. Maybe the knowledge that to attention and saluted smartly. there was a clerk at the downtown "Yes, sir." branch who would brook no non­ "And I don't particularly care sense frightened off the amateurs for your_,brand of humor, Mr. and less venturesome thieves. Alex Pembridge." Pembridge was rather sorry that "I'm sorry, sir." Mr. Pembridge's his firm stand might have pro­ eyes behind their narrow-rimmed duced this undesirable effect. Se­ lenses showed deep contrition, but cretly, the banking business was his tone and manner belied this. only of secondary interest to him; He wheeled round with military his main, devouring preoccupation precision and marched out of the was the apprehension of holdup manager's office. men. He returned to his place at the It was several months before he front counter, and Nancy, the was rewarded. His reputation must petite redhead at the next window, have died down, or perhaps the .gave him a flashing srhile. Ever man was a newcomer to .San, since he had called the bluff of , Francisco. Mr. Pembridge recog­ that last unfortunate bandit by nized" his adversary as soon as he simply leaping onto the counter, came through the glass doors, the vaulting over the grill, and disarm­ slouch hat, the loose topcoat, and ing him, Alex Pembridge had be-- the man's right 'hand stuck. Na­ •come a hero among his fellow poleon fashion, inside the coat. workers. It had all happened in a It was the quiet part of the split second. "The poor devil never morning before the lunchtime

76 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED scramble. There were a few men Mr. Pembridge straightened up at the executive desks in the car­ and held out his palms to show peted space across from the how innocently empty they were. counter, including the manager "Nothing at all, sii-, I assure you. who sat out- front interviewing Still, if my levity .offends you—" customers instead of using his pri­ The man tried to snatch the bag vate office; it looked more friendly but Mr. Pembridge drew it back. and democratic. Two people wait­ "Pardon me, sir, but I haven't ed at Nancy's window; the next finished yet. My orders are that if two were closed, and the others a gentleman like you, sir, comes in had one or two customers apiece. and asks me for all my money, I Happily, Mr. Pembridge was . am to give it to hirn without alone; he blinked at the robber argument. I always carry out my and bestowed on him his most orders, sir." inviting smile. The man carne "Stop making with the phony right over. He dropped a cloth accent, and give me that sack. I've sack onto the counter, then hastily been in here too long already." . covered up his mouth and the tip "I beg your pardon, sir, but I of his nose as if to minimize the was born in Tunbridge Wells in exposure. He withdrew his right England, and I went to Rugby hand from under his coat just far School. My accent—" , enough to reveal the chamber of a "Shut up and give me that sack." heavy revolver. The gun was held right out now, "What can I do for you, sir?" but the man leaned forward so no Mr. Pernbridge's manner was one else in the bank could see it. bright and businesslike. Mr. Pembridge ignored the "Quit fooling," said the man. weapon. "There's a special bonus "Just put all the cash you've got in for you today, sir." He opened a there, and be quick about it." lower drawer and brought out a "Certainly, sir. I'm always will­ neatly stacked wad of notes almost ing to oblige a gentleman who two inches thick. "These are knows his business." He started fifties, sir. I'm sure a gentleman pulling notes out of the drawer like you could make use of them." and stuffing them into the bag, He dropped the packet into the whistling softly as he did so. sack and leaned forward confi­ The robber glanced about him dentially. "Don't turn round, sir, quickly. "Cut that out. You're up but there's a lady approaching; I to something." think she's going to join your line.

LOADED WITH MONEY 77- LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Just act normally, and I'll get rid just walk out naturally as if noth­ of her. I'd put that thing out of ing untoward were happening." sight if I were you, sir." Mr. Pembridge lifted the sack over The robber withdrew the gun the top of the grill. back but kept it pointed at the The man snatched it, and al- clerk under his coat as the woman . though he did not run, he walked came up and stood behind the out at such speed it amounted bandit. almost to the same thing. The car Mr. Pembridge called to her, started off while he was still strug­ "Would you mind going to the gling with the door. next window, ma'am; I'm closing Mr. Pembridge sauntered across this one for lunch." He saw Nancy to. the carpeted section and stood - give him a curious glance, but the stiffly in front of the manager who woman moved over and nobody at that moment was busily engaged said anything. with a prominent downtown mer­ Mr. Pembridge winked at the chant. bandit. "You see, everything is all "I'd like to tell you, sir, that I right, sir. Now you'll need a Uttle carried out your orders explicitly." small change." "Can't you see I'm busy?" "Give me that sack!" The bandit "But it's important for you to did not pull the gun out this time, know now, sir." but he was scowling. "Mr. Pembridge, please, some Mr. Pembridge reached into the other time." top drawer and scooped up hand- "I have to report this now, sir. fuls of coins which he drained into That gentleman who left so hur­ the sack. He shook them well riedly a moment ago was a bank down, tied the neck of the sack robber." He was just engaged in carefully, and held, it up. It was holding me up. I obeyed your in­ too thick to go through the bars. structions to the letter and gave "I trust you have transportation, him all my money." sir." Through the glass doors he The bank manager shot up, al­ could see the car which was parked most falling across his desk. "Then , by the curb, its driver jerking his what the devil are you doing here.? head and peering into the bank You ought to be on that special with constantly increasing anxiety. line, calling the police." "It's none of your damn business. "I will if you want me to, sir." Give me that sack!" "I told you, Pembridge, I don't "Take my advice, sir, don't run; care for your sense of humor.

78 • " ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Quick, let's give them a description months back} Single-handed ?" of the man." The manager dragged "Yes, Sergeant, but I was given him over to the phone without strict orders not to repeat that per­ ceremony. formance." , Mr. Pembridge described the Nancy came over to say that the man comprehensively; five foot policeman was wanted on the eight, crooked mouth, wide chin. phone, and he left to speak on the He was also able ,to help them private line. The manager said with the driver; he'd had only a nothing as he remained there star­ glance at his face, but the man ing at Mr. Pembridge, but there wore a dark, handlebar moustache, was a strange, questioning look on "Riather like, the R. A. F. types we his face. had during the war," he added. When the sergeant came back he He had hardly left the phone was very excited. "They've caught before the police arrived, a patrol­ the pair of them. It seems you man and a sergeant. The latter''im- were quite right to act as you did, mediately started to question him Mr. Pembridge; that gun was fully in detail, and he told them in a loaded." leisurely manner exactly what had "I was really quite sure it was." happened. The sergeant and the "But did you know about that bank manager took turns opening little bomb they had with them as their mouths in astonishment. well?" "You mean to say," the officer "The bandit didn't mention that said, "that you kept this man here to me," Mr. Pembridge said, truth­ for a good five minutes and no­ fully; body took the slightest bit of notice "Well, it must have gone off in of what was going on ?" the car. They've got the two men "1 did my best to avoid attracting in the emergency hospital, pep­ anybody's attention." pered with nickels and dimes like "Why.?" somebody unloaded buckshot into "Orders, Sergeant. After all, I them. The doctor says it will be didn't want to take the risk of about a week before they can take anyone getting hurt. That was a them off to jail." heavy revolver the bandit was The manager was still staring at wielding, a forty-five I would say, his clerk with that strange look, and probably loaded." but Mr. Pembridge merely stood "Aren't you the man who dis­ rigidly at attention and stared armed a bank robber here a few straight back.

LOADED WITH MONEY 79 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED An established pattern of life can, at_jimes, assume a false prominence, thereby subjugating a deviation to misinterpreta­ tion.

&HE COP saw the car stop on the bridge but didn't pay any par­ ticular attention to it. People were apt to pull over to the side in the middle o£ the span, especially late at night when the traffic was thin and they could stop for a moment without somebody's horn stabbing them in the back. The bridge was. a graceful steel parabola over the deep channel of river that cut the

80 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY'MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED city neatly in two, and the center The cop didn't think of that at of the bridge provided, the best first, not until he saw the man view of the city, with the old emerge from the car, and walk downtown buildings clustered to­ slowly to the footpath at the edge, gether on the right, the flour mills and place a hand tentatively upon downriver on the left, the gentle the rail. There was something in skyhne, the gulls maneuvering his stance, something in the pose of over the river. The bridge was the the soHtary figure upon the empty best place to see it all. It wasn't bridge in the after-midnight private enough for the teenagers, gloom, something about the gray- who were given to long-term park­ ness of the night, the way the fog ing and preferred drive-in movie was coming off the river. The cop theatres . or stretches of road' looked at him and cursed and along the north bank of the river, wondered if he could get to him but sightseers stopped often, took in time. in the view for a few moments, He walked toward the man, and then continued across. headed over the bridge on the Suicides liked the bridge, too. footpath. He didn't want to shout OT blow his whistle at him because he knew what shock or surprise could do to a • potential jumper. Once he saw the man's hands tense on the rail, his feet lifting up on the toes. At that moment he ^^ft almost cried out, almost broke •into a run, but then the man's feet came back into position, his, hands loosened their grip, and he took out a cigarette and lit it. Then the cop knew he had time. They al­ ways, smoked that last cigarette all the way down before they' went oyer the edge. When the cop was within ten yards of him the man turned, started slightly, then nodded in resignation. He appeared to be somewhere in his middle thirties,

DEATH WISH 81 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED tall, with a long narrow face and out, sooner or later. Some of the deepset eyes topped with thick time they take awhile, and I guess black eyebrows. they don't look too good, but they "Nice night," the cop said. work out." "Yes." " ^ "You really believe that?" "Having a look at the sights.?" "Sure." "That's right." ' "With the things you see in your "Saw you out here, thought I'd job?" come out and have a talk .with "Even with all of it," the cop you. It can get lonely this hour at said. "It's a tough world, but that's night." The cop. patted his pockets, nothing new. It's the best we've passed over his cigarettes. "Say, got, the way I figure it. You're sure you don't happen to have a spare not going to find a better one at cigarette on you, do you.? I must the bottom of a river." have run out," The man said nothing for a The man gave him a cigarette. long time, then he pitched his ciga­ It was a filter, and the cop nor­ rette over the rail. He and the cop mally smoked nothing but regu­ stood watching it as it shed sparks lars, but he wasn't about to com­ on the way down, then heard the plain. He thanked the man, accept­ tiny hiss as it met the water. ed a light, thanked him again and "It didn't, make much of a stood beside him, hands on die splash," the man said. rail, leaning out over the water "No." ' and looking at the city and the "Few of us do," the man said. river. He paused for a moment, then "Loolcs pretty from here," he turned to face the cop. "My name's said.- Edward Wright," he added. The "Does it?" cop gave his ovt^n name. "I don't "Sure, I'd say so. Makes a man think I would have done it," the feel at peace with himself." man went on. "Not tonight." "It, hasn't 'had that effect on "No sense taking chances, is me," the man said. "I was think­ there?" ing about, oh, the ways, a man "I guess not." could find peace for himself." "You're taking a chance your­ "I guess the best way is just to self, aren't you? Coming out here, go on plugging away at life," the standing at the edge, thinking it cop said. "Things generally have a over. Anyone who does that long way of straighteniing themselves enough, sooner or later gets a httle

82 ' ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED too nervous and goes over the nothing will be the same, but—" edge. He doesn't really want to "I know." and he's sorry long before he hits "You sure you don't want a cup the water, but it's too late; he took of coffee?" too many chances and it's over for "No, I'd better get home," the him. Tempt fate too much and man said. "I'm sorry to cause fate gets you." trouble. I'll try to relax, I'll be all "I suppose you're right." right." "Something in particular both­ The cop watched him drive ering you away and wondered whether he "Not . -. . anything special, no." should have taken him in. No "Have _you been seeing -a doc­ point, he decided. You went crazy tor?" enough hauling in every attempted "Off and on." suicide, and this one hadn't actu­ "That can help, you know." ally attempted anything, he had "So they say." merely thought about it. Too, if "Want to go grab a cup of you started picking up everyone coffee?" who contemplated suicide you'd The man opened his mouth, ' have your hands full. started to say something, then He headed back for the other changed his mind. He lit another side of the bridge. When he cigarette and blew out a cloud of -reached his post he decided he smoke, watching the way the wind should make a note of itj anyway, dispersed it. "I'll be all right now," so he hauled out his pencil and his he said. notebook and wrote down the "Sure?" name, Edward Wright. So he "I'll go home, get some sleep, would remember what the name I haven't been sleeping so well, not meant, he added Big Eyebrows, since my wife—" Wife Dead, Contemplated Jump- "Oh," the cop said. ihg. "She died. She was all I had and, well, she died." The psychiatrist stroked his The cop put a hand on his pointed beard and looked over at shoulder. "You'll get over it, Mr. the patient on the couch. The im­ Wright. You just have to hold on, portance of beard and couch, as that's all. Hold on, and sooner or he had told his wife many times, later you'll get over it. Maybe you lay in their property for enabling think you can't live through it, his patients to see-him as a func-

DEATH WISH 83 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED tion of such, outward symbols responses, reacting as he always rather than as an individual, thus did, but not really hearing a word facilitating transference. His wife that was said to him. / wonder, he hated the beard and felt he used thought, whether I do these people the couch for amorous dalliance. any good at all. Perhaps they only It was true, he thought, that he wish to tal\ and need only the and his plump blonde receptionist illusion of a listener. Perhaps the had on a few occasions occupied entire profession is no more than the couch together. A few mem­ an intellectual confidence game. If orable occasions, he amended, and I were a priest, he thought wist­ he closed his eyes, savoring the fully, / could go to my bishop memory of the delicious way he when struct^ by doubts of faith, and Hannah had gone through but psychiatrists do not have bish­ Krafft-Ebing together, page by ops. The only trouble with the delirious page. profession is the unfortunate ab­ Reluctantly, he dragged himself sence of an orderly hierarchy. Ab­ back to his current patient. ". . . no solute religions could not be so longer seems worth living," the democratically organized. man said. "I drag myself through He listened, next, to a dream. life a day at a time." Almost all of his patients delight­ "We all live our lives a day at a ed in telling him their dreams, a time," the psychiatrist commented. source of unending frusti-ation to "But is it always an ordeal.?" the psychiatrist, who never in his "No-',' life remembered having a dream "I ^almost killed myself last of his own. From time to time he night. No, the night before last. I fantasied that it was all a gigantic almost jumped from the Mbrrissey put-on, that. there were really no Bridge." ' dreams at all. He listened to this "And.?" dream with academic interest, "A policeman came along. I glancing now and then at his wouldn't have jumped anyway." - watch, wishing the fifty-minute "Why not.?' hour .would end. The dream, he "I don't know." knew, indicated a diminishing The interplay went on, the end­ enthusiasm for Ufe, a development less dialogue of patient and doctor. of the death wish, and a desire for Sometimes the doctor could go suicide that was being tentatively through the whole hour without held in check by fear and moral thinking at all, making autorhatic training. He wondered how long

84. ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED his patient would be able to re­ "And then you decided not to frain from taking his own life. In act like a damned fool, eh.? I the three weeks he had been com­ gather you didn't fall asleep. ing for therapy, he had seemed to Twenty minutes.? Why wait this be making only negative progress. long.?" Another dream. The psychiatrist "I tried to make myself throw closed his eyes, sighed, and ceased up." listening. Five more minutes, he "Couldn't do it? Well, we'll try told himself. Five more minutes the stomach pump," the doctor and then this idiot would leave, said. The operation of the puirip and perhaps he could persuade was unpleasant, the analysis of the plump blonde Hannah to do some stomach's contents even less pleas­ further experimentation with him. ant. The pumping had been in There was a case of Stekel's he plenty of time, the doctor discov­ had read just the other night that ered. The pills had not yet been sounded delicious. absorbed to any great degree by the bloodstream. The doctor looked up at the "You'll live," he said finally. man, took in the heavy eyebrows, "Thank you. Doctor." the deep-set eyes, the expression of • "Don't thank me. I'll have to guilt and fear. "I have to have my report this, you know." stomach pumped. Doctor," the "I wish you wouldn't. I'm . . . man said. "Can you do it here or I'm under a psychiatrist's care. It do we have to go to a hospital.?" was more an accident than any­ "What's the matter with you.?" thing else, really." "Pills." "Twenty pills?" The doctor "What sort ? Sleeping pills ? Is shrugged. "You'd better pay me' that what you mean ?" now," he said. "I hate to send bills "Yes." to potential suicides. It's risky." "What sort.? And how many did you take.?" "This is a fine shotgun for the The man explained the content price," the clerk said. "Now, if you of the pills and said that he had want to get fancy, you can get taken twenty. "Ten is a lethal yourself a weapon with a lot more dose," the doctor said. "How long range and" accuracy. For just a few ago did you take them.?" dollars more—" "Half an hour. No, less than "No, this will be satisfactory. that. Maybe twenty minutes." And I'll need a box of shells."

DEATH WISH 85 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED The clerk put the box on the "Invite me in," the man said. counter. "Or three boxes for—" "It's cold out here." "Just the one." "Mark, i don't—" "Sure thing,". the .clerk said. He "Inside." drew the registry ledger from be­ In. the livingroom Edward neath the counter, opened it, set it Wright stared into the mouth of on the top of the counter. "You'll the shotgun and knew that he was have to sign right there," he said, going to die. "to keep the state happy." He "You killed her, Ed," the visitor checked the signature when the said. "She wanted a divorce. You man had finished writing. "Now couldn't stand that, could you? I I'm supposed to see some identifi­ told-her not to tell you. I told her cation, Mr. Wright. Just a driver's it was dangerous, that you were license if you've got it handy." He nothing but an animal. I told her checked the license, compared the to run away. with me and forget signatures, jotted down the license you but she wanted to do the de­ number, and nodded, satisfied. cent thing and you killed her." Thank you," said the man, "You're crazy!" when he had received his change. "You made it good, didn't you.? "Thank you very much." Made - it look like an accident. "Thank you, Mr. Wright. I think How did you do it? You'd better you'll get a lot of use out o£ that tell me, or this gun goes off;" gun. "I hit her." "I'm sure I will." "You hit her and killed her? Just like that?" At nine o'clock that night Ed­ Wright swallowed. He. looked at ward Wright heard his back door­ the gun, then at the man. "I hit bell ring.. He walked downstairs, her a few times. Quite a few times. glass in hand, finished his drink Then I threw her down the cellar and went to the door. He was a stairs. You can't go to the police tall man, with sunken eyes topped with this, you know. They can't by thick black eyebrows. He prove it and they wouldn't believe looked outside, recognized his vis­ it." itor, hesitated'only momentarily, "We won't go to the police," the and opened the door. man said. "I didn't go to them at His visitor, poked a shotgun into the beginning. They didn't know Edward Wright's abdomen. of a motive for .you, did they? I "Mark-" could have told them a motive.

86 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED but I didn't go, Edward. Sit down of Edward Wright's shaking head. at your desk, Edward. Now. That's "You wouldn't do it," Wright right. Take out a sheet of paper said. and a pen. You'd better do as I "But I would." say, Edward. There's a message I "You'll hang for it, Mark. You want you to write." won't get away with it." "You can't—" "Suicide, Edward." "Write / can't stand it any long­ "No one would believe I would er. This time I won't fail, and commit suicide, note or no note. sign your name." They won't believe it." "I won^t do it." "Just write the note, Edward. "Yes, you will, Edward." He Then I'll give you the gun and pressed the gun against the back leave you, with your conscience. I

DEATH WISH 87 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED definitely know what- you'll do." man said. "You just told me you're "You-" not the suicidal type and no one "Just write the note. I don't want will believe it when you kill your­ to kill you, Edward. I want you self. However, you'd be surprised to write the note as a starter, and at your recent actions, Edward. then I'll leave you here." There's' a policeman who had to Wright did not exactly believe talk you out of jumping off the him, but the shotgun poised against Morrissey Bridge. There's the psy­ the back of his head left him little chiatrist who has been treating choice. He wrote the note, signed you for suicidal depression, com­ his name. plete with some classic dreams . "Turn around, Edward." and fantasies. And there's the doc­ He turned, stared. The man tor who had to pump' your stom­ looked very different. He had put ach this afternoon." He prodded on false eyebrows and a wig, and Edward's stomach with the gun. he had done something to his eyes, "Pump my—" put make-up around them. "Yes, your stomach. A most un­ "Do you know who I look like pleasant, procedure, Edward. Do now, Edward .f"' you see what I've gone through on "No." your account? Sheer torture. You "I look like you, Edward. Not know, I was worried that my wig exactly like you, of course. Not might slip during the ordeal, but close enough to fool people who these new epoxy resins are extraor­ know you, but we're both about dinary. They say you can even the same height and build. Add wear a wig swimming, or in the the character tags, the eyebrows shower." He rubbed one of the and the hair and the hollow eyes, false eyebrows with his forefinger. and put them on a man who intro­ "See how it stays on.? And very duces himself as Edward Wright lifelike, don't you think?" and carries identification" in that Edward didn't say anything. name, and what have you got.? "All those things you've been You've got a good imitation of doing, Edward. Funny you can't you, Edward." recall them. Do you remember "You've been impersonating • buying this shotgun, Edward.?" me." CCT )» "Yes, Edward." "You did, you know. Not an "But why.?" hour ago, you went into a store "Character development," the and bought this gun and a box of

88 ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED shells. Had to sign for it. Had to you never should have killed her, show your driver's license, too." Edward. I loved her, even if you "How did you get my license?" didn't. You should have let her "I didn't. I created it." The man go, Edward." chuckled. "It wouldn't fool a po- Wright was sweating. "You said hceman, but no policeman ever you weren't going to murder me. savv it. It certainly fooled the You said you would leave me clerk, though. He copied that num­ alone with the gun—" ber very carefully. So you must "Don't believe everything you have bought that gun after all, hear," the man said, and very Edward." quickly, very deftly, he jabbed the The man ran his fingers gun barrel into Wright's mouth through his wig. "Remarkably and pulled the trigger. Afterward lifelike," he said again. "If I ever he arranged things neatly enough, go bald, I'll have to get myself one removed one of Wright's shoes^ of these." He laughed. "Not the positioned his foot so that it ap­ suicidal type? Edward, this past peared he had triggered the shot­ week you've been the, most suicidal gun with his big toe. Then he man in town. Look at all the peo­ wiped his own prints from the gun ple who will swear to it." and managed to get Wright's prints "What about my friends? The all over the weapon. He left the people at the office ?" note on top of the desk, slipped "They'll all help it along. When­ the psychiatrist's business card into ever a man commits suicide, his Wright's wallet, stuffed the bill of friends , start to remember how sale for the gun into Wright's moody he's been lately. Everybody . pocket. always wants to get into the act, "You shouldn't have killed her," you know. I'm sure you've been he said to Wright's corpse. Then, acting very shocked and distraught smiling privately, he slipped out over her death. You'd have to the back door and walked off into play the part, wouldn't you? Ah, the night. i

DEATH WISH LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED An economy-minded head of household should realize that re­ duction of overhead is a goal not limited to shrewd business­ men.

VTA'.'^ •^^•.fim

^^HARTHA and Philip _ Wendover lived in a pleasant litde cottage on a quiet road in a very nice sub­ urb, and were, as far as the eyes of the 'world could see, a happy cou­ ple. No one cared to pry too deep­ Cox ly into'their affairs, however. Un­ The accident had cut short his der the circumstances this was not vyorking days, of course, and the surprising, for Philip had fallen Wendovers were not rich. The down a flight of steep stairs a few cottage was paid for, but with the years before and now was con­ rising cost of living the disability fined to a wheelchair, a helpless insurance check which arrived ev­ quadriplegic. ery month just barely took care of

90 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED their basic necessities. Happily, fee. I mention this fact not to sug­ Martha was able to pick up a lit­ gest that Martha was playing a tle extra for the simple luxuries promotional game, for she was in­ they enjoyed by performing minor tensely sincere in her maternal de­ services for their more affluent sires, but to show that she was a neighbors. Not washing or iron­ perfect gem of a wife in some ways ing or darning socks or anything aiid that Philip was a fool for not like that, of course, but ladylike realizing it. things, such as crocheting dresser Yes, the sad truth is that rela­ scarves and tending house plants tions between Philip and Martha when the owners were on vaca­ were not exactly what they ap­ tion, and making needlepoint coz­ peared to the rest of the world. ies for rarely used teapots. As a matter of fact, there were: no She also on' occasion would relations at all of a certain sort, baby-sit, and this work she loved for Philip's paralysis was graver above any other. than anyone imagined—although "I feel positively guilty accept­ some of the neighbor ladies would ing money for sitting with dear occasionally raise a quizzical eye­ little Bruce," she would say to brow when Martha spoke so wist­ Mrs. Archer, for example, as she fully of wanting a child.. accepted the money. "He's such a For obvious reasons Philip had beautiful child and I love him as become accustomed to the depriva­ if he were mine. Oh, Mrs. Archer, tion more readily than Martha, if you only knew how much I and in fact was, at this point, rath­ would love to have a baby of my er grateful for it. After all,. he own!" would point out defensively, with She said the same sort of thing the way~-the cost of living was ris­ to Mrs. Carroway and Mrs. Le ing so rapidly, their fixed income Fevre and Mrs. Harrington and would soon be hard put to meet Mrs. Levine. These gracious ladies even the necessities. "I say it is a would all nod and look sad, and blessing," he would announce sol­ pat Martha condescendingly on the emnly, "that we have no brood of shoulder, and for that moment, brats to eat us out of house and at least, feel that having a baby home." wasn't such a dismal -chore after "But just one wee babe?" Mar- all. Out of this mist of momentary ' tha would say plaindvely. "One motherly camaraderie usually came wee babe wouldn't eat much." a handsome tip in addition to the "Do you have any idea how

SPILT MILK 91 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED much the price of a quart of milk raising plants and canaries for so­ has gone up in the last few years?" lace. In spite of Philip's carping, was. Philip's usual retort; although she milked her garden faithfully he sometimes cited a lo_af of bread. every week, and the results were "I tell you I'm glad we have no nothing short of amazing. Lush children, and I do wish you would green foliage had turned the so­ stop harping on the subject. You larium into a small, square jun­ ought to appreciate when you're gle, long arms of ivy scaling the well off." walls and ceiling on suction- Then Martha, overwhelmed by cupped feet, philodendron with her anguish and yearning, would leaves larger than a pugilist's palm invariably go into the solarium cascading green to the floor and and feed bits of bread to her ca­ circumnavigating the room on trel­ naries and polish the leaves of her lises which Martha had- cunningly philodendron and ivy plants with contrived from old wire coathang- milk, while Philip, the cords of ers. Indeed, so spectacular was the his neck popping out in anger and growth that once, when she ne­ frustration, would scream, "If I glected her pruning shears^ for a had the use of just one finger I few weeks, the canary cages were would rip out every one of those almost engulfed and Martha all dirty weeds and throttle every one but disappeared from sight as she of those idiotic birds!" worked her way, pitcher of milk Martha, -to punish him for the and sponge in hand, into the outburst, would wheel him fum­ depths of the room. ing into the solarium and leave Because the Wendovers lived a him there. quiet life and had the scantiest of This was an old-country prac­ social relations with their neigh­ tice that Martha had learned from bors, only a few people recognized her mother—rubbing the leaves of Martha's horticultural genius. One her household plants with - milk, of these happened to be the strap­ not wheeling her husband into the ping young Italian gardener from solarium. It would, her mother as­ the Archer place next door. He sured her, give the leaves a healthy had seen the greenery through the gloss and help the plants to grow. solarium windows on a quiet This bit of folklore from her peeping-tom expedition when he girlhood came back- to Martha was supposed to. be clipping the when, childless and frustrated after hedge, and was experienced eight years of marriage, she began enough to' realize that such ver-

92 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY. MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED dant growth did not occur nat­ His crisply curling black locks urally, except perhaps in the tro­ were arranged on his. forehead, his pics, in which the dull little town brilliant white teeth were scrubbed of Tottenham certainly was not. with celery, he wore his tightest Here was^a secret worth having! dungarees and a handtooled Mex­ It never occurred to the young ican belt with a huge silver buckle, '' gardener, Salvatore Buonaventura and he had lovingly invested a by name, to approach Martha and half pint of the finest imported ask her point-blank how she did olive oil in his magnificent torso— it. With old-country cunning he first taking off his shirt, of course managed to be pruning the far side —so the sun would glint on his of the lilac grove at the end of the burnished skin as the. muscles rip­ Archer property on the sanie pled underneath. Ah, he knew bright spring morning that Mar­ women as well as flowers, did this tha was adding some clippings to Salvatore. But he was not as yet her mulch pile behind a clump, of too familiar with the American screening yews. species. From what he had seen in Being experienced in things oth­ the movies he suspected that things er than gardening, Salvatore had were a little different here, and as plotted carefully for this moment. a concession to the unknown had

SPILT MILK 93 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED tucked a spicy clove in his cheek. ican movie queen who hated Let it be said now with some cloves, and soon found himself on pride that American women are an estate in southern California not so easily beguiled into parting with keys to the doors of the wine with their most cherished posses­ cellar and the dairy locker, among sions. The Archer lilacs were others. But it does help to~get us pruned almost into oblivion, the by the next six months, during Wendover mulch pile assumed which time' things happened that monumental proportions, and poor ' are rather unpleasant to write Salvatdre was reduced to swab­ about. Philip, you see, was not bing himself with domestic cook­ blind, and as the truth of Mar­ ing oil before Martha would give tha's condition grew upon him he up her secret. Even then, shrewd reacted in beastly fashion. Yankee trader that she was, she As a matter of fact, he was just waited until she was in her third as bad after the baby, a girl, was month to make sure. born. Martha suggested calling the Salvatore Buonaventura, sick to child Phyllis, but since this had death of cloves and homesick' to no perceptible effect on Philip's boot, took himself back to Italy, pique she decided instead on Sally, where he expected to become rich though whether through a mo­ and famous with the botanical se­ mentary fit of spite or nostalgia cret which his family could hence­ will never be known. ^ forth claim to have kept proudly Philip maintained -a perpetual for generations. As it turned out, low-key rage. Not, as you might unfortunately, his family didn't be­ suspect, over the indiscretion that lieve him. How could they be ex­ had proved him a cuckold, how­ pected to.? No self-respecting plant ever. He never mentioned that, in all Italy, they were convinced, never demanded the name of the much less in the proud hills of father, almost as if the paralysis Tuscany, would stand for a bath that had taken away his physical in mil\, of all things. Madonl capability had also erased all mem­ Incredible! ory of how babies got started in But this is not Salvatore's story, the first place. To hear him carry and it is not really very important on, you would think Martha had that the strapping young gardener managed the act of creation all by from Ttiscany carried a spear in herself, just to spite him and pre­ an epic Italian film, showed his vent him from saving enough burnished torso to an aging Amer- money for a battery-operated,

94 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED voice-controlled wheelchair by two ounces, or one quart," she said. raising the milk bill. "I know how much four times Sitting there with a beatific eight is," Philip spluttered, "and I smile on her face as she gazed know very well how many ounces down at the babe at her breast, there are in a quart." Martha would'sometimes raise one "She is also ready for cereal and eyebrow ever so slightly at Philip^'s strained baby foiad," Martha said. bitter railing over the milk bill. "Vegetables and fruit and meat If he became too noisy, as he often and orange juice." did, she would calmly walk out of "No!" Philip exploded. "The ex­ the livingroom and continue feed­ pense ..." ing the child in the solarium. "Raising a baby is no simple One day, when Httle Sally was matter," Martha chided him firmly. about four months old, Martha "There are things she must have bluntly interrupted Philip's newest which the neighbors can't pro­ complaint, the gist of which was_ vide." that he was not being fed on "What things?" time because she was too busy "Mrs. Archer has loaned us the feeding the baby, and he was not crib and the stroller. Mrs. Levine being bathed regularly because she gave us a whole box of baby had to bathe the baby, and he clothes " might just as well hire a maid or a "No, no, no, no, you idiot!" bab­ caretaker as have a wife, since he'd bled Philip. "What else does she be assured of some attention theii need?" or he'd fire - the wench, and it Martha looked surprised. "Why, would probably be cheaper than vitamins, for one thing. Dr. Har­ the situation he had on his hands rington says she should have vita­ now, God knows. mins every day, to supplement her "We shall have to begin order­ diet. And she must be vaccinated ing another quart of milk toxnor-. against smallpox and get shots to row," Martha said. protect her from diphtheria and po­ Philip made strangling noises in lio and tetanus and " his throat. Philip groaned. "You've been go­ "Our wee babe is an infant no ing to the doctor, ioo? At ten dol­ longer," she continued. "She is lars'a visit? We'll never be able to ready to be weaned. She will re­ pay it." quire eight ounces of milk four "Five," Martha said. "I explained times a day. That makes thirty- things to Mrs. Harrington and she

SPILT MILK 95 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED talked to the doctor and they're Philip said nothing, but his eyes willing to let us pay it off little widened. by little, the same way we're going' "And another thing," Martha to pay him for the delivery. It was continued, "now that we're on the very kind o£ them. They even subject. You're always complain­ loaned us the money for the hos­ ing about "the milk; but I haven't pital." been bathing my plants, either. Philip really did seem to be The poor things haven't-had a strangling now. "How much.? No, drop of milk since Sally was born." don't even tell me," he choked. Philip did not seem to hear her. "I thought you went to the clinic! "What did you do with the birds?" We'll never be able to pay it. Not he asked. "With what was left of in a million years. You're a fool them, I mean?" and an. idiot." "They're all dried up now. You "I wish you would stop carrying can't see them. The plants grew on so," Martha said. "You're the around them." one who is being a fool. Of course "The plants are sdll in there, we'll pay it. I've already started to though?" save money." "I'm watering them, since they She went across to the solarium make a nice warm shady nook for door and opened it. "Listen," she Sally to sleep in, but pretty soon said. "Do you hear anything? No, they'll look just like anybody else's. of course not. You've been making They miss the milk, poor things. so much noise you don't hear any­ Just the other day I was feeding thing, even when it's gone." Sally in there and I heard a rus­ "What did you do'with them?" tling noise and felt something tick­ Philip said with surprise. "1 didn't ling my neck, and pretty soon at see you take them out." least a half dozen ivy creepers "I didn't. I just stopped feeding worked their way over my shoul­ them. I'm not an idiot, you know. der and under my arm and curled I know we have to save money around my breast. They must have now. Besides, they made so much smelled .the milk. Sometimes ani­ noise they kept my babe awake, mals and plaiits know what's good and I couldn't have that." Martha for them better than people do." smiled serenely. "The solarium is She . sat for a moment with a quiet now. It's the only quiet' place faraway look in her eyes. "It was in the house where she can sleep in strange," she said musingly. "They peace." were so tenacious, and much

96 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED stronger than I thought they could the canaries and bathing the plants. be." To save money." Suddenly she stood up. "I don't "Yes," said Philip, "I under­ think I'll leave Sally in there, any­ stand that now. But I didn't be­ more," she said. fore, and I was worried, don't you She wheeled the sleeping baby see.'' Since we were just scraping in the carriage into the living room by with only two in the family, I and parked it by her chair. "You've didn't see how we could afford been too noisy," she said to Philip. another mouth to feed." . "From now on you'll have to be "You keep haqjing about an­ quiet." other mouth to feed," Martha said "But you let the canaries starve?" irritably. "As if the poor little wee whispered Philip. "Those poor, babe ate so much! Why, you eat helpless birds? Why didn't you sell more than Sally and I put to­ them, or at least'let them go free?" gether. We could really save IVIartha snif5ed impatiently. money if it weren't for you and "Don't be ridiculous," she said. the Vv'ay you eat." "They made too much noise. Be­ Philip took a deep • breath and sides", they couldn't take care o£ licked his lips. "Well, I'm not go­ themselves outside. They'd be ing to worry about it anymore," ' helpless. They are better ofl' dead." he said. "I'm going to leave it all They sat quietly, Martha smil- . -up to you. You seem to have ev­ ing down at her baby, Philip star­ erything ail worked out." ing down at his useless hands and "Yes," said Martha, "I have. Our his shruiiken legs. wee babe is going to have every­ When he looked up his eyes thing she needs." She looked chal- were unnaturally wide and bright. lengingly at Philip. "I guess I haven't been too pleas­ "Of course," he said quickly, ant to live with lately," he said. with a little cry that tried.to be a "No," said Martha coldly, "you laugh. "But within reason, of certainly haven't. You've been per­ course, considering our finan " fectly horrible about little Sally." "Everything," Martha said with "Well, you see, I've been pretty great intensity. "No matter what. worried about our financial situ­ I am determined to do everything ation. I didn't see how we could in my power to make sure she has manage with another mouth to everything she needs." feed." "Yes, of course," said Philip. "That's why I stopped feeding At that moment the baby began

SPILT MILK 97 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED to whimper.. Frowning, Martha splashing on Philip's head, stream­ leaped to her feet. ing over his face, dribbling down "I think I'm beginniBg to love his shirt. her," Philip said, but the whimper, "Oh! Clumsy!^' Martha ex­ had become a piercing cry, and claimed. Martha was hurrying out to the Philip sat speechless, his mouth kitchen, so no one heard him. hanging open. In a few minutes she was back, The baby was screaming. carrying a baby bottle full of milk. "I'll have to warm up another She stood before his wheelchair bottle right away," Martha said. and held the bottle out for in­ "I'll clean you up after I've fed spection. "See?" she said. "Only Sally and calmed her dowii. She eight ounces. That isn't too much might hurt herself by crying so to begrudge our sweet wee babe, hard." is it?" She wheeled Philip's chair to­ "Not at all," Philip said, rolling ward the solarium door. "I'll just his eyes. "I was very wrong." " leave you in here where it's "Oh, dear. The cap seems to be warmer so you can dry off in the loose!" Martha giggled nervously. meantime and not catch cold." "I've never done this before, you Philip threw back his head to know." look up at her. His eyes, bulging Peering intently at the,bottle, she and red-rimmed, blinked as milk unscrewed the cap. "The nipple dripped into them from his sod­ isn't in right," she said, trying to den hair. press- it into 'place with . her There . was a rustle in the so­ thumbs. Her hands twisted as she larium, a. stirring, as if a hot wind did so and, as luck would have it, had suddenly fingered its way the bottle, which she had appar­ through a tangled jungle. But ently forgotten in her' concentra­ Martha, hurriedly closing the door tion on the cap and nipple, twisted behind her, could hear nothing but too. The warm milk poured out, , the hungry cry of her wee babe.

98 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Rarely, indeed, does one find a "dedicated dispenser of justice" who can render an equable and impartial decision in every instance.

IS IS HATRED for the man in the edges of the newspaper so tightly newspaper photograph was so in­ that his wrists ached. When he tense that for a moment the stern, opened his eyes again, he looked at strong-featured face seemed to the group photograph-next to that blur, as if obscured by a pale, pink of the man, at the lovely smiling mist. He closed his eyes, squeezing woman and the two handsome the lids together hard, willing him­ youngsters at either side of her. self to control the anger that Then that photograph, too, grew caused his hands to clench the blurred, this time with tears. Behind him he heard Mrs. Cor­ ey's heavy tread, and he put the paper down on the table, aligning

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THE MAN MUST DIB 99 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED the edges with the edges of the ta­ who murdered a woman and her ble in unconscious precision. two children, that's what you see." Mrs. Corey stood at his elbow He closed his left hand into a fist now, her flat, florid face set in a - and brought it down sharply on worried frown. "You haven't even the man's face. "He murdered touched your breakfast, sir," she them, just as surely as if he'd said. "You _ haven't been eating hacked them to death with an right since—". axe." "Mrs. Corey," he said, and then Mrs. Corey shifted her feet un­ paused. easily. "It-it was an accident," she "Yes, sir.?" she said. She had . said. never, he reflected, addressed him "Accident.? A man gets drunk in any other way, not once in all and causes a wreck that kills three the years she had been with him. people—and that's an accident?" When she spoke of him to others, "The papers didn't say—" she referred to him as 'The Mis­ "No, the papers didn't say he ter'.' " • ' was drunk. They printed the facts, "Mrs. Corey," he said, "look at but not all the facts, Mrs. Corey." that man.in the photograph there. "You ought to try to eat, sir. I'll What do you see.''" just poach some more—" "See, sir.?" "My wife is dead, Mrs. Corey. "Yes-rsee. The caption'says he My children are dead. Ten days is Judge Arthur G. Harrington. ago this house was filled with The honorable Arthur G. Har­ them. And, because of them, there rington. Down in the story about was happiness and wonder and the-murders he committed, he's beauty—and love." He felt the called distinguished, and respected, tears begin to blur his eyes again. and dedicated, and a number of ."Their niurderer'deserves to die, other fine things. Is that what you Mrs. Corey. He deserves to, and he^ see when you look at his photo­ is going to." .." graph, Mrs. Corey—an honorable "You've got to stop tbrturing- and respected and dedicated dis­ yourself, sir," Mrs. Corey said, penser of justice.?" picking nervously at a fold in hef "Sir, I. don't ... I just don't skirt. "You don't eat right, arid know what you mean." you don't sleejj hardly at all and "I'll tell you what'you see; You you—". • " see a cold-blooded killer there, "This morning," he said, rising Mrs. Corey. You see a monster from the table. "This morning,

100 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Mrs. Corey. No time to delay." ing-goods store," he told the driv­ "I beg your pardon, sir?" er, "I'm going to kill him," he said. "That'd be Donovan's," the driv­ "I'm going to destroy the^ murder­ er said. "Corner of Woodland and er of my wife and children. This Ninth." morning, Mrs. Corey—within the While the cab waited outside hour." Donovan's, he bought a .38 revolv­ Mrs. Corey's eyes widened with er and a box of cartridges. As the alarm. "Sir?" she said uncertainly. clerk watched with amazement, he "Oh, you can't mean that, sir!" pushed six of the cartridges into He smiled at her, knowing how the gun's cylinder and put the box ghastly that smile must.be. "Have with the remaining cartridges on you ever known me to say I was the counter. going to do something, and then "I shan't be needing these," He not do it?" said. . "No, sir. But—" "But, sir—" the clerk began. He turned and strode toward "Thank you for helping me," He

the front door. "Good-bye, Mrs. said. "Good-bye." He walked out.' Corey," he said. In the cab again, he leaned back A cab was approaching even as against the cushion, his fingertips he went down the steps, and he caressing the cold metal of the gun hailed it. inhis jacket pocket. "Take me to "Take me to the nearest sport- the courthouse," he said.

THE MAN MUST DIE 101 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Yes, he thought, the courthouse. He paid his fare, walked up the That grim gray pile of granite wide, stone stairs to the bronze where the honorable dispenser of doors, and went inside. And from justice, the murderer of women that moment on, he neither looked and children, had sentenced so at anyone iior replied when spoken many other men to death. How to. He half heard the puzzled com­ completely just that his own execu­ ments, the curious whispers, that, tion should be carried out there. followed-him, but he kept his'eyes There was a Tightness about it straight ahead, striding rapidly to­ somehow; it was almost incon­ ward the double doors at the end ceivable that Arthur G. Harring­ of the corridor—the courtroom of ton die anywhere else but in his that most honorable judge, Ar­ own courtroom. ' . thur G. Harrington. "Nice day, eh?" the driver said. The massive doors echoed hol­ "Beautiful, in fact." lowly in the empty courtroom as "Yes," he said. "Beautiful." It he closed them and started down had been just such a day when his the aisle toward the bench. When wife and - children were killed. he- reached the bench, he. turned And now the cab was passing the right; then, ten feet farther on, he park where Margaret had brought turned left and walked to the door Billy and Bonnie when the twins of the room directly behind the were very small. And down that bench: Judge Harrington's cham­ street a block or two were the bers. stores where Margaret had loved He paused for a moment, one to shop. And now, just up ahead, hand on the doorknob, the other was the junior high school where on the revolver in his pocket. the twins would have started Then he went inside, sat down classes next September. in the tall leather chair behind the "Well, it looks like we made it," desk, put the muzzle of the revolv­ the driver said, drawing to the er against his right temple, and curb. "That'll be a dollar-ten." pulled the trigger.

102 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED A deck^ of cards, has been li\ened to a hierarchy, with every card a master to those below it, a lackey to those above it.

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Cripple's Bend after he's been away for six years. There's been Slichers around these parts for more gener­ ations than you can shake a stick at but there ain't none of 'em left sav­ fir's nigh onto ten years since the in' Tobe and his grandaddy. Now killin' on Nebbins Hill and I reck­ I ain't sayin' nothin' against on if Maw hadn't been on a bridge Gramps but he's a man with a binge that summer or I hadn't been fondness for the bottle and about so plumb ignorant about the game all he ever had to give to the boy things might of turned out differ­ was plenty o' good healthy neglect. ent than they did. All things considered, you had to Seems like the story really starts Jiand it to Tobe. From the time he with Tobe Slicher comin' home to was knee-high to a woodchuck,

CARDS ON THE TABLE 103 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED he was doin' odd jobs here and ty of girls ready ^to swoon over there and savin' money for clothes Tobe, teen-agers bein' what they and such. He was the kind of a are, but Tobe kept 'em all at a dis­ kid you didn't notice much, shght tance. He had eyes only for Flo. and short with dark hair and Mebbe Flo should have given blunt, ordinary features. He was Tobe the brush-off quicker'n she on the rough side but I'll say this did, but I reckon she never took for him, he never once got into him seriously. Tobe as a protege trouble with the law. was one thing; as a suitor, he was It was when he was in high something else again. Families like school that Tobe discovered his the Slichers and the Harterys just gift. He's got a voice that's true don't mix. Tobe knows that as well and clear as a bell. Not much vol­ as Flo but I guess he's so bedaz­ ume to it but it's the kind a mike zled by her he just can't give up picks up and smooths out 'til it's hopin'. As for Flo, she ain't got a like a giant croonin'. riiean bone in her body. She-lets Tobe never had lessons in music Tobe hang around because she but Florence Hartery took him in can't bear to speak the hurtin' hand. Flo ain't more'n three or . words that would send him away. fours years older'n Tobe but she's Then Jack Castle shows up in a heap more sophisticated. Her Cripple's Bend. Jack's thirty or so dad's a doctor who come up here but he looks younger. He's got a • first with the summer folk, then thatch of golden blond hair, skin decided to settle down in Cripple's smooth as bronze, and features I've Bend. Flo's lived half of her life in heard described as lookin' like New York where she studied pi­ those.of a Greek god. Jack's part of ano, folk-singin' and such. the summer crowd, but his Dad Flo loves ballads and she's got a bought the old Crowley house on big .stack of records: Burl Ives, Nebbins Hill just afore he died. Tom Scott, and a lot of others Seenis like Jack takes a shine to the whose naines I don't even know. place and uses it as a sort of hide­ She . played them records over'n away from the process servers try­ over again to Tobe 'til he learned ing to collect back alimony from 'em by heart. She even taught him him. Jack inherited a fortune but to strum the guitar to accompany he's already worked his way himself. Pretty soon Tobe was through three marriages, and he's singin' at every high school dance got expensive tastes. He runs to and church social. There was plen- fast cars, a yacht in the harbor, and

104 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED a heavy-drinkin' set of fast friends. on it as he can. Flo's the apple of The Harterys are Jack's closest his eye and he can't bear hurtin' neighbors. Doc Hartery lives half­ her, not even for her own good. way down the slope of Nebbins The weddin' is the biggest shin­ Hill and there ain't another house dig Cripple's Bend has ever seen. for half a mile around. I guess it's V Scads of society folk come up from natural for Flo and Jack to be Boston and New York. The party drawn together. Flo's pretty as a lasts for the better part of a week pitcher, fresh-lookin', with vivid and there's enough champagne colorin' and a sort o' breathless in­ drunk to float that yacht of Jack's nocence about her when she's ex­ in. cited, that creeps under a man's But there's one sour note to the skin. weddin'. The day before the cere­ As for Jack, he's a dashin' figger mony Tobe Slicker shows up on and he's got a smooth line of gab Jack Castle's lawn. The party's in that makes the local boys look like full swing and one thing is for a bunch of yokels. He talks to Flo sure, Tobe ain't been invited. I about theatre and ballet and all the reckon Flo's forgot all about him things she's been missin' from the in her infatuation for Jack. big city, takes her for drives in his It's like Tobe come out of no­ fancy car and entertains her on his where. He's dressed in his neat yacht, so it ain't no wonder she blue serge suit he's bought for falls hard for him. graduation from high school. His Doc Hartery don't like it and to hair is plastered down and he's got tell the truth I don't either. Jack a scrubbed schoolboy look! Castle's a boy as believes because he Jack is standin' on the lawn with was born with a golden spoon in a crystal glass in his hand. Tobe his mouth he can break all the marches straight up to him, his rules and walk away scot-free. Up face set in a scowl and his fists to date, he's never had to pay for clenched at his sides. He takes a his wild w'ays but I reckon sooner fightin' stance and says real loud, or later trouble's goin' to catch up "You, Casde, I want to talk to with him .and, when it does, I you." don't want to see Flo gettin' hurt Jack's a bit looped but even so too. he's poised and stnilin'. He says, Pretty soon Flo announces she's "Do I know you, sonny.?"" gettin'. married at the end o' the "My name's Tobe Slicher. You summer. Doc puts as good a face better remember that."

CARDS ON THE TABLE 105 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "Well, surely, old chap. But what er that there ain't nobody in Crip­ is It you want to say?" ple's Bend has seen hair nor hide "Just this. You treat Flo right, of Tobe 'til he shows up again six because if you don't, I'll come back years later and walks bold as you and kill you. I swear I'll kill you." please into Gimpy's Diner. Everybody's silent now. Jack Everyone's tryin' to guess what'll carries it off pretty well. He says, happen when he meets up with "0£ course, I'll treat Flo well. I Jack Castle 'cause if Tobe meant happen to be iii love with her.'' that threat he made six years ago, He laughs and tries to clap a he's got plenty of reason for killin' hand on Tobe's shoulder but the Jack. boy backs away from him like he Mebbe Jack Castle ain't too much has the plague. to blame. I reckon some men just Just then Flo comes to the porch ain't built for marriage. To them, a door. Tobe spots her and goes up woman's a toy to play around with to her quickly. for a while and then toss to one He says, "Flo, I'm leavin' Crip­ side. No woman can hold Jack for ple's Bend. I couldn't stay here. long. Lord knows Flo tried, but Not now. I wouldn't be tellin' you there's a story runnin' around that this but some day you may need even on their honeymoon Jack me. If you do, Gramps will know lights out. with some other woman where I am." and don't come back to Flo for the Flo cries, "Oh, Tobe, I'm sorry." better part of a week. Tobe swings around and starts From then on, Jack and Flo drift through the crowd, half-runnin', in and out of Cripple's Bend. Folks his face all twisted up like if any­ around tell as how Flo's mighty body speaks to him he'll bust out unhappy. Jack leaves her no self- bawUn'. respect^ He shows up at the coun­ Flo stands there, lookin' dazed, try club.or the Gateway Inn with 'til Jack comes up and puts an arm one. woman, then another. Jack around her. He uses his free hand wants a divorce and he don't make to cup her chin and tilts her face no bones about it. He even tells up so he can kiss her. Flo so in public. Tobe has left a cardboard suit­ Flo takes it as long as she can; case down, to Powers' Fillin' Sta­ then she walks out on Jack and tion. When the Portland bus rolls moves back into the Hartery house. through an hour or so later, Milt But she ain't givin' Jack a divorce. Powers sees him swing aboard. Aft^ Flo can be stubborn as a mule '

106 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED when she puts her foot down. meet up with Jack and his crowd There's nothin' Jack can do or say at the country club, it don't prove a to change her mind. thing savin' that Randy ain't much There's a spiteful streak in Jack. of a fighter. He may have the heart You'd think he'd clear out o' Crip­ of a lion but he's got no more ple's Bend, but it seems like he equipment than a jackrabbit. wants to flaunt his light-o'-loves in Randy starts the fight, there ain't Flo's face. Lots of nights there's -no denyin' that. He gets in the first big parties goin' on in the house at blow, that explodes on Jack's chest the top of the hill 'til the wee with all the force of a cream puff. hours. But there's nobody to com­ Jack laughs and drives a piston plain but the Harterys. right to- Randy's jaw that straight­ From the winders of Doc's place, ens him up and leaves him wide you can see the front porch and open for a loopin' left to the pit of into the Hvin' room of Jack's the • stomach. Randy skids half­ house. Most nights it's lit up like a way across the room, bangs into the Christinas tree. But there's tinies wall and sits down hard. He makes when it's quiet and the lights are a half-hearted attempt. to get up dim. There's nobody up there but and make a rush at Jack but three Jack and whatever girl has taken or four fellers squeeze in between his fancy for the night. You can 'em and the fight is ended. see 'em on the porch, silhouetted All this time, Flo never shows against the yellow glow of the up in town and won't see people room beyond, kissin' and clingin' even when they drop by the house. to each other. Later they go inside She's always liked the woods and and the lights of the house go oil, the fields and sometimes she goes one by one. for long walks, movin' around like Flo is watchin' from the house a wraith, avoidin' even a chance below and eatin' her heart out encounter." 'cause, in spite of everything, she's There's one walk she never still in love with Jack. Randy. comes back from. She's gone all Hartery takes it'in his mind to do night, and in the mornin' Doc something about it. Randy is Flo's Hartery comes to my office to ask kid brother, just a few years me to form a posse to help look younger'n she. The trouble is. for her. The way things turn out Randy's the easy-goin' kind who's we don't have to look long. A cou­ never got into a scrap in his life. ple hours later a pair of young'uns So wheii he and his wife, Lillian, spot her floatin' face down in the

CARDS ON THE TABLE 107 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED water of Pinney's Pond, deep in we'll know better after the autopsy. the woods. So why not take it easy ?" Mebbe it's an accident. Could be. He's so excited Lthink he's goin' Flo got lost in the woods and con­ to take a swing at me. He shouts, fused with nightfall. She could've "Even if it was suicide. Jack drove floundered into the pond, fallen her to it. Morally he's a murderer down, panicked and somehow man­ and if the state won't make him aged to get drowned. But it don't pay, I will." look that way to me. I put it down . He calms down a little after that, as suicide, and everybody knows as but I don't like what I'm hearin'. how Flo has plenty of reason. Threats come mighty easy, but I've learned in my thirty years as sher­ ^^ iff that even a coward can whip himself up into action if he boasts long and loud enough about what' he aims to do. As for Randy, he's $&<^ neither coward nor hero, just a fair-to-middUn' brave man which makes him unpredictable as all get- out. The.autopsy proves death is by drownin'. There ain't a single bruise on the body, not a thing to Randy Hartery don't see it my suggest foul play. Doc Hartery way. Later that day he comes stands right beside the coroner all stormin' 'into Gimpy's while I'm the time. Later he asks me to help there drinkin' a mug of coffee, him break the news to Randy. He's and demands r arrest Jack Castle scary of what his son may do. for murder. He's spoutin' off a lot Randy starts off ravin' and rant- of wild talk without a shred of evi­ in' but finally Doc gets through to dence. I warn him he's headin' for him. He says, "Look, son, we've a slander suit but there's nothin' I had one tragedy in this house and can say will keep him quiet. that's enough. If you start playing Heyells, "You know damn well God, you'll destroy us all—me, your it's murder and so does everyone mother, and Lillian. Let Jack Castle else here." ' . go his own way. Sometime there'll I says, "Look, son, there warn't be a just retribution." no sign of violence I could see, but .'Randy don't like it but he has to

108 ALFRED HITCHCOCKS MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED admit his father's right. When I the same, I can't forget that look leave, I reckon there ain't goin' to of hidden violence I saw in his face : _ be any more trouble with him. the first day. I got the feelin' of All the same, I can't see why sittin' on a time fuse and waitin' Jack Castle has to hang around for the big blow. town. It's vanity, I guess, a sort of Finally, when I decide to go out perverse pride in provin' how to the Slicher farm, I find Tobe thick-skinned he is. He's got a new sprucin' up the place. Gramps is girl with him, a lovely lithe blonde huddled in a beat-up old Morris who, accordiri' to rumor, is ex- chair in the kitchen and he don't pectin' to be the next Mrs. Jack more than give me a grumpy nod, Castle. which is about average for Gramps. That's the way things stand Tobe has cleaned up part of the when Tobe Slicher shows up in mess that. Granips has made over Cripple's Bend. the years.and he's puttin' a coat of Tobe don't do anythin' you paint on the front room. He starts could rightly call suspicious. He off givin' me the edge of his stays out on the farm with Gramps tongue, but I got myself braced not but most nights when it's fair, he to get riled. Pretty soon Tobe sits walks into town. He wanders down and starts^talkin' reasonable. around a bit and usually ends up I reckon It's a relief for him to let at Gimpy's Diner for a beer or a off a little steam. cup of coffee. He carries his drink From what he says, I gather that over to a corner table and sits there the last six years have been mighty all alone, lookin' mean and surly rough on Tobe. When he left Crip­ like he's darin' anyone to as much ple's Bend, he headed straight for as look'at him cross-eyed. New York with the idea he's goin' Some of the crowd who knew to make a fortune with-his singin' him back in high school try to per­ and his guitar-strummin'. But it suade him to sing, but Tobe's bav­ don't work out that way. He learns in' none of it. folk-singers is a dime a dozen. All He says, "That's all over and he gets is nowhere fast. • done with. It's kid stuff anyway." After that Tobe takes a series of When they still egg him on, he jobs but he has no trainin' and no turns and walks away. . idea how to sell himself. The jobs I'm sort of keepin' a watch on are all piddlin' ones—bus boy, Jack Castle's place, -but as far as I kitchen-helper, or cleanup man. can see Tobe don't come near. All The worse, things get, the nastier

CARDS ON THE TABLE 109 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED his temper grows. Pretty soon he and I'd run out in the county car ain't speakin' to a soul. He's lone­ to fetch her. Maw's just settled ly and filled with spite and he can't herself down in the front seat be­ break out of his shell. side jne when the squawk box Accordin' to him, at first he does lets off with a blast. Roy Nelson, a lot of thinkin' about Flo but after who's workin' as my deputy that awhile he' almost forgets her, like summer, is so excited his words is she's part of a hazy dream out of stumblin' all over each other, so it long ago. Fie writes to Gramps takes me awhile to sort 'em out. now. and then but Gramps never It seems like Mary Hartcry, who answers, so he has no way of is Doc's wife and Flo's mother, has knowin' what's happenin' between just phoned in. She clairns as she Jack and Flo, and afore long he was standin' by the open winder of can't care less. her home when she hears a com­ It takes Tobe six years to learn motion up to Jack Castle's place. what a fool he's been, that he can't She looks up and sees two figgers ever be happy in New York. He • strugglin' on the porch. The fight hates the ceaseless traffic, the grimy carries 'em through the door into streets, the crowds, the noise and the front room, and Mary gets an­ the jumpin' neon signs. He's got to other glimpse of 'em through clear out or he's gdin' to crack up, Jack's bay winder. They break and there's only one place he can away, and then there's the sound think of to go—back to Cripple's of a shot. Seconds later a man Bend. runs down the porch steps and He swears that's-the only reason . onto the driveway. She sees his he's here, that if ain't got a thing shadder in the light, then loses it. to do with Jack and Flo. I look at That's all she does see. him and I don't know 'whether to Even while Roy is relayin' the believe him or not. Even while he's news, I'rh drivin' towards Nebbins tryin' to convince me, his mouth Hill. On the way I tell him to call is hard and his eyes are hooded so -up the state police and the coroiier I can't tell what lies behind 'em. arid to" try to round up Tobe I get the news about the killin' Slicher. I ain't got far to go. Ka­ on Nebbins Hill one night late that, tie's home is near Shore Corners summer. -It must'ye been a Thurs­ ^and there's a shortcut from there to day 'cause it's Mayv's bridge night. Nebbins Hill, so it ain't more'n ten She's been playin' with Katie minutes afore I'm in Jack's drive­ Dowd and a couple of her friends, way. I run up the steps. The front

110 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED CARDS ON THE TABLE 111 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED door is wide open and the lights is in' my breath. While I'm mountin' all ablaze. the stairs to the porch. Maw's right Jack's sprawled near the wide at my heels. bay winder in a crumpled heap, one Doc's face is white and tense but leg twisted under him, his cheek his hand is firm enough when he restin' on the carpet. I know he's shakes. When I tell him Jack's dead dead even afore I kneel beside him he sort of shakes his head. and feel for the pulse that ain't "How can you be sure? I'd bet­ there. ter go to him. Perhaps I should I get up and take a quick look have gone sooner, but Jack warned out the winder. There's Ughts oil me off his property. Besides, as far in the Hartery house, and Mary as Jack's death is concerned, I Hartery is standin' in her winder guess you'd say I was an interested lookin' up at me. It's a long way party." * down the hillside- but I can see her "That still goes. Doc. Jack's dead- real plain, as though she's framed er'n a cold mackerel and there ain't in the light. Her face is masked in a thing that you can do for him. I the shadders but you can't miss her don't want anybody messin' white hair or the pride in her slim, around up there till Doc Colby erect iigger. There's others in the takes a squint at him and the lab room behind her, but I don't stop" boys from the state police take to see who they are. Already I'm over." hurryin' back to the county car and Doc nods again and leads the Maw. way into the house. Maw's still As the car "'eases down the hill,. traipsin' along. She squeezes by Maw ain't got much' to say, which me, goes directly to Mary Hartery is strange for her. Once she asks if and puts her arms around her. Jack's dead, and I grunt that he is. I ain't payin' much attention. Maw says, "It's kind of funny. I'm watchin' Randy Hartery. There Doc not rushin' up there. After all, ain't no doubt he's got the jitters. ' he is a doctor."' He's holdin' a glass in his hand ' "Mebbe so, but Jack took down and the ice cubes is rattlin' inside the welcome sign for Doc long of it like he's got palsy. His eyes ago."- are sort of wild and he acts like Doc shows up in his door when he's havin' trouble breathin'. I'm halfway up the drive. I jump I try to keep my voice casual. out quick and tell Maw to stay "Randy, have you been up to the where she is. Seems like I'm wa'st- Gastle place tonight?"

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Randy gulps and, afoix he can way a woman reacts. I don't know answer, Lillian rushes in between about you. Sheriff." us. She's a cute little trick with red "You'd been playin' cards since hair, a freckled face, and plenty of supper-time. Is that right.?" pluck to her. She puts both her "Yes." hands on my lapels and looks up "Then how come you wasn't at at me. the table?" • She says, "Randy hasn't left the Mary gives a little laugh. "I take house tonight. He was here for it you don't play bridge, Sheriff. I supper and as soon as we were~ was dummy. To tell the truth, I through, he helped Doc set up the was a bit bored with the game. bridge table. We've been playin' After the bid I walked around the ever since." • table and glanced at my partner's Mary Hartery's voice, cool and hand. Then I drifted over to the level, slices across Lillian's rush of window." words. She says, "It was exactly Mary's right. I never played a 11:15 when I heard the shot. For hand of bridge in my life. Pinoch­ two or three minutes before that, I le's my game, and now and then I was standing at the window watch­ sit in on a • poker session. 1 look ing Jack struggle with his assailant. around for Maw to see how she's All that time my husband, my son takin' it. and his wife were seated behind Maw's standin' at the bridge ta­ me." ble, frownin' down at the cards. I I think it over. "You see two can tell she's troubled, but I don't men fightin' and you don't say a see nothin' wrong. Mary's hand is word to nobody?" lined up in tidy rows for her part­ Mary Hartery draws herself up a ner, who, I learn, is Doc. The other bit straighter and a, haughty look hands have been tossed carelessly spreads across her face. Then she on the table. smiles wanly. "No, Sheriff, I didn't Maw looks up at Mary and speak until I heard the shot. Maybe there's somethin' in, her eyes I don't that seems odd but really it's not. understand. It's like she's seen .Did you ever come unexpectedly something as has scared her. on a strange scene of violence.'' "What's the bid?" she asks.,. The first reaction is incredulity. "Three no trumps." You freeze and watch in shocked . Maw sighs. "I'd a-thought Doc silence, somehow not quite believ­ would have more card sense than ing your senses. At least that's the that. Makin' game in spades would CARDS ON THE TABLE 113 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED be a heap easier." She waits, but her. But, by the time I grab her Mary doesn't say anythin'. Then wrist, it's too late. She pulls herself Maw adds, "You say you been free and walks away. playin all night?" There's more'n a Just then there's a loud shout question in her voice; it's almost from outside, and the sounds of a an accusation. struggle. I reach the winder in "Yes." time to see Tobe flailin' wildly at "Where do you store your cards, Roy Nelson. Roy stumbles back­ Mary.?" ward and Tobe makes a break for "In the leather case on the hall it, racin' across the fields toward table." the pine woods beyond. One of the Maw starts across the. room and I state troopers lights out after him. \yatch her, wonderin' what in tar­ At the edge of. the -wood, Tobe nation she's gettin' at, but afore she trips and rolls, in the grass. The reaches the hall, there's a crunch of trooper lands on top' of hirn^ and wheels outside and headlights snaps cuffs on his wrists. come spearin' across the lawn. The. trooper leads Tobe back to Three cars have come up the road the road, and I'm bound to say he to Nebbins Hill. One of 'em is a warn't too gentle, about it. Tobe's state patrol, car. Another belongs to breath is wheezin' and I got a Doc Colby, the coroner. The third feelin' he wants to cry, but when I recognize as Roy Nelson's. Voices he sees me he makes a defiant ges­ are boomin' out and, among 'em, I ture. hear the angry, truculent tones of He yells, "Why can't you leave Tobe Slicher. - me alone.?", • I. swing around just in time to "You know Jack Casde's dead.?" see Maw handin' four cards to "Sure, I know. Roy's been yak-, Mary Hartery and I see soniething king-about it ever since he picked more, a look of frozen fear on me up. So what? I'm not sheddin' Mary's face.-1 move up quick and any tears, over Jack Castle. But I Mary drops the cards face-up on didn't kill him." the table. I get a good look at 'em. I move closer. There's the sour Four low cards: the three and four smell of whisky on Tobe's breath. I o' clubs, the six of diamonds, the turn to Nelson. "Where'd you find nine of hearts. him, Roy?" Then Mary reaches down' and "Not more'n..half a mile away." mixes the cards all up. I don't know •• I swing back to Tobe. "Have you why, but I know I ought to stop got an alibi?".'

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "How do I know? I don't even The first few days of the trial, it know when Jack was killed or how. looks like Tobe ain't got a chance. Idon't know nothin'." Then on the afternoon of the third That's Tobe's story and practical­ day, Mary Hartery takes the stand. ly the whole of it. He'd been Dave Reagan, who's county prose­ drinkin' earlier in the evening and cutor, puts her through her paces. was in a bad mood. He'd sat for She tells about witnessin' the strug­ a while in Gimpy's, nursin' a cup of gle on the front porch of Jack Cas­ coffee. Then a couple of high tle's house, of seein' the two men school kids come in and they start stumble inside and then one of 'em raggin' him about his singin'. Tobe run away. blows his top and takes a swing at Dave Reagan's lookin' right one of 'em, so Gimpy frog-marches smug and self-satisfied. He sticks him outside. his hands in his galluses and tee­ After that, Tobe just wanders ters back and forth on his heels. He around. For a while he sits by the clears his throat and says, "And side of the road and mebbe he nods now, Mrs. Hartery, can you iden­ oif. Then for some reason he can't tify Mr. Casde's assailant?" ' remember, he dfecides to take a That's when Mary decides to look at the Hartery place. toss her bombshell. "No," she says, Tobe's arrested that night and "I never saw him before nor since. soon as can be, he's indicted for I don't know who he was, but I murder. Folk around feel a lot of can state positively that he was not sympathy for Tobe. Jack Castle Tobe Slicher." warn't exactly popular in these The courtroom is in an uproar parts and Tobe had reasons for and Judge Reynolds has to pound killin' him. Still and all, a man his gavel for order. ain't got the right to take the law Dave Reagan tries again arid in his own hands. Murder can't go again to shake Mary's story but he unpunished. That's the way people can't. He questions her eyesight, are talking, and it seems like there asks why she didn't make her ain't nary a soul in Cripple's Bend statement earlier, and comes next- as believes in Tobe's innocence. door to callin' her a liar, but all of Three months later, when Tobe it don't do him one bit of good. . comes up for trial, the courtroom is Mary comes through with flyin' crowded. By this time I think even colors. The more she repeats her Tobe warn't quite sure whether story, the more it's got the ring of he'd killed Jack or not. truth to it. After awhile Dave sees

CARDS ON THE TABLE 115 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED he's licked and finally gives up. mellers him up a bit. He starts Mebbe Mary ain't convinced the singin' again, and I'll be switched jury of Tobe's innocence but, sure if some talent scout don't pick him as shootin', she's raised a reasonable up and put him on the map'. From doubt. They're out for less'n three time to time I hear he's goin' great hours afore they come back with a guns, first in some nightclub and verdict of not guilty. later on with TV. As far as I can see, there's only Maw don't open up in all these one person who ain't surprised by years 'til last winter, when Mary the turn the trial took and that's 'Hartery dies just a few months Maw. All along she's been tellin' after her husband. Maw sits me Tobe ain't goin' to be convicted thrdugh the funeral service dry: and, while the trial's goin' on, she's eyed, but when she gets home she been sittin' alongside of-me, knit- starts blubberin'. She -rushes up­ tin' and sort o' hummin' to herself. stairs and, when she comes down, She don't even look up when Mary she's holdin' a long white envelope. Hartery's givin' her testimony. She She tosses it into the fireplace and just nods like she's heard what watches the flames curl it up and she's been expectin' to hear. turn it into ashes. There's something' fishy about I come up and put an arm the way Maw's actin' and I got a around her and ask, "What is it, hunch it has to do with them four Maw?" cards I saw her handin' to Mary "A confession to the murder of Hartery. Maw's caught something Jack Casde." I missed, but I don't want to give "Mary Hartery lied on the stand, her a chance to prove how much didn't she?" smarter'n me she is, so I don't'dare "Only about one point. She saw ask her questions outright. the • murder committed right It's a funny thing; mostly Maw's enough, and the killer warn't Tobe a great one for gossip and she can Slicher. Like Mary said, he was a talk the whiskers off a tomcat, but bigger man." when she decides to be close- "Randy Hartery killed Jack, did­ mouthed, hell's fire can't pry a n't he. Maw? And the whole fam­ word out of her. ily conspired to give him an alibi." Time goes on and ! must say • Maw looks at me wide-eyed, "Is Tobe Slicher don't suffer none that what you been thinkin'all the from his trial. The town sort of tirrie? No, .it' warn't Randy. He makes a hero out of him and that ain't got that kind of guts."

116 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "Who then? Not Mary herself?" come out uneven and you'd spot it "Of course not. It was Doc." right away. But lackin' four cards, "How'd you know, Maw? I al­ you might not notice, 'specially ways reckoned you pulled some when you've got a lot on your sort of flimflammery with them mind." four cards, but I don't see how "But four cards missin'! That's they pointed to, Doc." too much." "They didn't. Not in themselves. "No, it ain't. You'd be surprised But let me tell you something, at how many times you miss the Paw. When you've got bridge in bottom cards of a pack when you your blood, you automatically look pick 'em out of a card box, and at a hand and take notice if any- Lillian warn't in no mood to be thing's wrong. The fir4St thing as careful. She snatched 'em up quick takes my eye is the dummy's one and brought 'em to Mary." card short. Then I look at the other I hem and haw a bit. Then I hands. In each case there's a card says, "Maw, you been playin' God missin'. Yet accordin' to the Har- —suppressin' evidence." terys, they been playin' bridge for "Suppressin' evidence of what? hours with only forty-eight cards. That they were ninnies enough to Does that make sense?" play all evenin' with four cards "Mebbe not. But I don't see what short? What kind of evidence is it proves." that to take to court?" "That the whole kit and kaboo- "But you knew they were lyin', dle of 'em was combinin' to set up the whole bunch of 'em. Still you an alibi, which in turn means one let Tobe Slicher take his chances of of 'em was guilty. Mary Hartery spendin' the rest of his life in jail." saw the killin' all right, but she "That ain't so, Paw. When I didn't lose the man in the shad- faced the Harterys and told 'em ders. He comes straight home. And what I knew. Doc Hartery made a I'll hand it to Mary, she doetf some full confession in writin'. He gave smart thinkin' mighty fast. She puts it to me and told me I could use it up the card table and tells Lillian to if Tobe was convicted. That's the fetch the cards. She deals 'em quick letter I just burnt." and sets the scene to make it look "All the same, standin' trial for a like they was in the middle of a murder he didn't do was rough on ^ game. Under circumstances like Tobe. It sounds to me like he got a that, if you were missin' one card raw deal." or two or three, the deal would "You're wrong again, Paw. Tobe

CARDS ON THE TABLE 117 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED knew or guessed who killed Jack It's like Maw's readin' my mind. Castle and he kept his mouth shut. She says, "You'll have to admit Meanwhile, word got through to that Doc Hartery did a lot of good him that Mary would testify for in his last years in Cripple's Bend, him on the stand and she'd do it at while there warn't . nobody the last moment to catch Dave mourned Jack Castle." Reagan by surprise. In a way, you "That ain't the point, ,'Maw." could say Tobe was a party to the "I reckon it ain't. The real point conspiracy of silence. He didn't kill is there ain't nothin' you can do Jack Castle but he hated him without puttin' a lot of dirty linen enough to protect his real killer." on display and hai-min' a lot of I'm mullin' it over^-Doc Har- people. What's more, seein' as how tery pullin' the trigger; Tobe Slich- your wife's involved, you'll be er keepin' silent; the rest of the ruinin' your chances of bein' re­ Harterys lyin' to protect Doc. Le­ elected sheriff." gally there was none of 'em. with­ Maw's right like she usually is, out guilt—or Maw neither. And and there ain't no sense tellin' her I'm sheriff, sworn to uphold the different. Havin' a fight with Maw law. There ain't no statutory limi­ and makin' up, always means buy- tations on murder. But what can I in' her a new hat over to Bancroft, prove.'' If I go to the county prose­ and Maw sure don't need a hat cutor and start jabberin' about four right now. She's got at least a doz­ missin' cards, he'll think I'm daft. en of 'em in her closet.

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118 ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED One requisite for self-protection is, "Laugh then at any but fools or foes." Another, it seems, is calculated timing. '

JAKE and I were in the little ho­ Jake nodded but said nothing. tel room. I was leaning back The footsteps paused just outside against one wall in a rickety chair, the door, and there were whispers. and Jake was half reclining on the High strategy! Real cloak-and-dag­ sagging bed. We exchanged ger stuff! Soon the door would glances as we heard the very quiet footsteps approaching along the hallway. "This is it," I said, softly.

j-'mii^

KILLER COP 119 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED shatter, come bursting open. , . . Wham-ol It did. Pieces of brok­ en latch went skittering across the floor, and two cops came charging in, guns drawn. One of them was rangy, broad-shouldered, and lean of face—Shancy Milligan, prize cop of the force. The other was equally tall, but heavier of build. His face was round and swarthy and splotched with patches of darker pigmentation. His full lips were partly drawn back from big teeth —Manny Markus. Killer Markus, ways. Even so, I hadn't fully ex­ he was called behind his back. pected the sudden and vicious at­ "New way of opening a door," tack. There was a lot of power in I said casually to Jake, who hadn't that left arm of his, and the blow moved from his position on the had taken me completely off bed. "Guess they haven't heard guard. about doorknobs." "Turn around!" he commanded. Markus wheeled toward me and "Face the wall!" shoved his gun under my nose. My eyes were on a level with "You!" he said. "Get up!" the base of his thick neck. I let I looked up into his face. His them travel slowly and deliberate­ narrowed eyes were arrogant, ly up into his. Then I began to domineering, the eyes of an ego­ turn around, slowly, taking my centric. own sweet time. "Why.?"-1 asked, cramming the "When I say move, move!" single word with as much venom He grabbed me by the shoulder, as I could. spun me around, and slammed me "Here's why!" His left hand against the wall. I stood with shot out, slapped hard against my hands spread against the faded right cheek, kiiocking me half out yvallpaper while he frisked me. of the chair. He didn't find much—a pocket- I got the rest of the way out knife, some loose change, a comb and stood up slowly, my cheek and handkerchief, and a billfold. and eye burning. I had heard a lot "I could hear the soft sigh of about Manny Markus and - his leather as he opened the billfold.

120 ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED I couldn't see his face, but I could "Your brother tried to get away. hear the sharp little intake of He fell down the stairs. You read breath, and I knew he had spotted about how it was in the newspa­ the name on the driver's license; pers." the name, Paul J. Hasselton. Yes, the name on the driver's There was silence in the room license had registered with him. for a full half minute. I knew he The name had been in the news­ was digesting that name, letting it papers; Paul J, Hasselton, older squirm around in his brain, trying brother of Stanley Hasselton who to put things together. had been arrested on suspicion of "All right," he said, finally. robbery by one Officer Manny - "Turn around!" Markus and had been brought to When I turned around, I saw the police station—dead. that he had bolstered his gun and "And maybe you hammered his had tossed the billfold and the rest face and head to a pulp!" I said. of my belongings onto the chair. "Then maybe you pushed- him And I saw something else, some­ down the stairs! After all, you thing in his dark eyes. The arro­ were the only witness. . . ." gance was still there. But there I was ready this time and saw was also another look, a look of the punch coming. I rolled with wariness and uncertainty. it, but I didn't roll enough. The "Where is it.?" he wanted to left side of my jaw went numb, _know. "Where did you hide it?" and my tongue, told me that at "I don't know what you're talk­ least two teeth had been loosened. ing about," I said. It was an effort to keep myself "The stuff from the filHng sta­ under control. But I didn't dare tion. A couple hundred dollars. fight back—yet. I needed .to keep Flashlights. Cigarettes. Other stuff. putting the needle to hixn. Where is it?" "Where's the stuff?" he demand­ I didn't say anything. I just ed. stood and looked at him, my lips' . "Go hunt for it," I said. "Mur­ curled as if. I had a bad taste in derer!'" my mouth. "Why, you. . . ." He grabbed me "Wipe that smirk off your face," by the shirt front, slammed- me he ordered, "before I knock it off!" down into the chair, and drew "Is that what happened to Stan­ his right fist back. ley (Hasselton's face?" I asked. . There wasn't muchT could do. "You used your fists on him?" I just sat there, waiting.

.KILLER COP 121 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED But the, fist never landed. Shan- please him. I deliberately took my cy had leaped forward to take hold time. He gave me a vicious shove o£ the arm. "All right, Markus," from behind. he said, quietly. "Lay off. Our job I stumbled, but regained my bal­ is to search for the stuff and to ance halfway down. "Murderer!" take them in. We'll attend to the I said, giving him the needle again. rest of it at headquarters." "Don't shove too hard! There are The arm relaxed slowly, but the witnesses this time. Remember?" murderous hate that had flared into He gave me another push, and his eyes remained there. Had we I went reeling through the open been alone in the room, I am cer­ doorway at the foot of the stairs tain he would have welcomed the and out into the street. chance to pound me into insensi­ A crowd of curious onlookers bility with those ham-like fists, the had gathered, the way a crowd way he had undoubtedly pounded usually gathers when it spots a pa­ Stanley when unable to find the trol car parked in front of a shab­ evidence of the' suspected robbery. by hotel, and someone in the Jake was picking up his things crowd had a camera. from the bed and cramming thern Now that he had an audience, back into his pockets. There hadn't Markus put on a show. He been the least altercation between grabbed my left wrist with his left him and Shancy—which was pre­ hand, passed his right arm over cisely the way it should be. my upper arm and back under niy It didn't take long to search the elbow in what is generally known room. Besides the chair and bed, as a policeman's "come-along" the only other furniture in the hold. Then he pressed my wrist room was a scarred dresser with a down, bending my elbow back­ mottled, upright mirror. wards, and struggled along with Markus jerked the drawers-from me to the car, as if he were the the dresser, spilled out their meager sole agent that stood between a contents, and cast .the drawers vicious criminal and an otherwise aside. He tore the thin mattress unprotected people. from the bed, ripped it half apart, I closed my eyes against the pain and tossed it into a corner. in my elbow and let him drag me The room was a mess when we to the car. Then, just as he re­ left. leased me, I brought the heel of I didn't. go down the narrow my shoe down hard on his in­ flight of stairs fast enough to step and ground it in with all

122 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED my weight. I really enjoyed, that. it, facing me over its back. He was He would have slugged me, I waiting, waiting for a possible am quite certain, if it hadn't been third degree, itching to get his big for the man with the camera. Af­ hands on me in revenge. ter the clamor the newspapers had "Have any trouble.?" asked the created over the Stanley Hasselton lieutenant, gazing at my face again. affair, Markus didn't want pictures "Not at all!" Markus said, taken of him slugging a defense­ quickly. "None at all!" less man who was now calmly get­ I knew that my right cheek had ting into the back seat of the patrol puffed- and, I guessed, had begun car. to discolor by now. Also, there was He got in beside me, jaws a sizable lump on my left jaw. clamped, trying to keep the pain "Liar!" I said, letting the word in his foot from showing in his ring loud and clear. "Look at my eyes. • I had dealt his ego a seveire face. . . ." blow. He would not be able to live "It was that way when we broke with himself now until he had re­ into the room!" Markus told the taliated. lieutenant, shooting a quick glance The room we were taken to at at Shancy. the second precinct was not a lafge Shancy didn't say anything. one. There were two doors open­ "Liar!" I said again; "Tell the ing into it, and along one wall was lieutenant how you kicked in an a row of tall, low-slung windows. unlocked door!~Tell him how-you There was a desk and two or three slapped me half off my chair, chairs. Lieutenant Brown- sat in slammed me against the wall to one of the chairs behind the desk. frisk me! Tell him how you He looked up as we were brought slugged me on the jaw, tore up in, his brown eyes traveling from the room, shoved rrie down the me to Jake and back to me again. stairs, tried to dislocate my el­ They remained fixed on my face bow. ..." for a second or two. Markus was on his feet, hate Markus and Shancy had left spilling from his eyes. "Listen, their caps, blouses, and gun belts you!" he snapped. "You need to in an outer room, and I noticed be brought down a bit, taught a with satisfaction that Markus htde respect. ..." limped on his right foot, as if he "Respect for what.?" I said. "Re­ had a crushed metatarsus or two. spect for a stupid cop who enjoys He sat down in a chair, straddling pushing innocent people around.?" KILLER COP 123 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED I walked up to him. "Respect for gave me a shove toward the wall an inefficient clown I could take behind me. apart with my two hands any time "This is it," L thought as I faced I took the notion?" the wall and placed the palms of His left hand suddenly fastened my hands flat against it a few inch­ itself-on my shirt front again, the es above my head. If I submitted way it had in the hotel room. I calmly to the frisking, I would could hear the fabric begin to rip simply be admitting that I had as the fingers tightened. spoken empty words. And if I "Just a minute!" It was Lieuten­ made an unsuccessful move against ant Brown. He had half risen him, to prove his efficiency to the from his chair and was leaning lieutenant he would slug me down forward, his hands supporting him or try to break my neck. on the desk top. "Young man," he He came up behind me, warily, said to me, "I hope you understand suspecting a trick, alert for any that you have made some very quick- move I might make. He grave statements concerning a reached forward and began pat­ member of this city's police force. ting the sides of my shirt lightly. You have accused Officer Markus I shifted my entire weight to my of brutality, destructive procedure, left foot and let my head sag down and incompetence in making a between my arms, my eyes meas­ proper arrest." uring distance and taking careful - "All of that," I said, "and more! aim. I didn't feel sorry for the man. I could have disabled this moron If anyone had something coming the very moment he started frisk­ to him, Markus certainly did. ing me." He shifted his search to my "That," said the lieutenant, "I hips, and I moved one hand along should like to see." the wall to attract his attention. He came around to the side of Then I swung my right leg back the desk and seated himself on its —^with the force of a kicking mule. edge. "Officer Markus," he said, The crunch of a solid leather heel "suppose you show, me the frisking against a shin bone was instantly procedure you used on this young drowned out by the sudden bellow man. Show him just how efficient of pain. you can be." I wheeled about, ready to duck "A pleasure!" said Markus, a any fists that might be flying in light of triumph showing in his my direction, but none were there. eyes. The hand at my shirt front Markus was. hopping about on

124 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED his left foot, the one with the bad arm over his head in a front head- metatarsi, and was clasping his lock, and brought my wrist tightly raised right leg in both hands. He up under one side of his jaw, hopped to the chair he had recent­ twisting his neck. I let the down­ ly vacated, rested his foot ort it, ward sweep of my leap carry me and began massaging the damaged backwards, his head firmly in my bone, his face twisted and white arm, neck,twisted. I hit the floor beneath its swarthiness. in a sitting position and rolled I had delivered his ego a devas­ back. The forward momentum I tating blow. I had made of him a had given him did the rest. He blundering clown before his super-; did a flying somersault over, me, ior, the lieutenant, and when news and I gave his head an extra twist of this leaked out to his fellow just before releasing it at the prop­ officers there would be snickers be­ er moment so he could take it hind his back. They would laugh along with him. him off the force—unless, of course, He landed against the far wall he could retaliate, save face, in in an upside down position, and some manner. there was a crash of shattering "Now, maybe yoii'd like to show- glass as his flying heels took out the lieutenant how efficient your the lower section of one • of the policeman's come-along hold is," windows. I said, "the one you nearly dislo­ He came up—groggy, bewild­ cated my elbow with." I let my ered, completely disoriented—and left arm dangle Umply and invi­ I could see that the madness in his tingly near him. eyes had reached a point of no re­ The pain in his eyes gave way turn. Take the ego from an ego- to murderous rage. He spun from rrianiac and you have only the the chair, grabbed my wrist and maniac left. quickly shot his right arm over . "Damn.you!" he gasped, wheel­ and under the elbow, his inten­ ing toward me." "Damn you!" He tions obvious. came at me, head down, arms out­ Had I waited until he got com­ stretched. "I'll fix you the same as pletely set, he no doubt would I fixed your brother. . . ." have rendered my left arm useless He didn't get a chance to finish for the rest of my life—but I didn't the sentence. I placed the palm of \yait. In one unbroken series of my harid on the top of his head as moves, I leaped lightly into the air, he went past and gave it a quick turned into him, passed my right shove downward. Off balance, he

KILLER COP 125 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED plunged forward to the.floor, flat and Jake, tossed his alongside it. on his face. Each contained a faked driver's Jake, Shancy, and Lieutenant license bearing the name Paul J. Brown stood in silence by the desk. Hasselton. Had Markus—sent on a Finally, the lieutenant glanced at false trail by the lieutenant—chos­ Shancy and motioned with a, nod en Jake in the hotel room instead of his head. Shancy "crossed - over of-me the outcome would have to Markus, raised hirn to his feet, been slightly different. Jake, being and led him toward one of the head coach at the new officers' doors, a sick and' battered killer. . training school, would have han­ I went over to the desk. • dled the man much more deftly Lieutenant Brown shook his and with greater dispatch than I, head, sadly. "It was a long shot," the assistant coach. Also, Jake he said, "but I couldn't think of \yould have had an aching face any other way to,break him down. instead of me. Knowing his extreme -egoism, I "Mind if I come- over to the had a good hunch it .would work third precinct gym and let you out all right. Anyway, I had'to find' coach me in a few of those tricks.?" out!" :•"::'. ^ '-. • the lieutenant asked me. He was silent for a moment.' I shook my head. "You can work "Under the circumstances, no wit­ out with Jake," I said. "He's top nesses to Stanley Hasseltbn's mail-, man. Me, I'm going to take a. few ner of death, we may not be able days off to heal up." to get a conviction. But of one The lieutenant grinned. thing I am certain. His kind is not . On our way out, I stopped and wanted on this force, or on any • turned. "Sorry about your win­ other police force. He's finished!" dow," I said. • "Too bad we had to do it the The lieutenant's grin widened. hard way," I said, fingering the "Sorry about your face," he said. egg-sized knob on my right jaw. I tried to grin back, but it didn't I tossed my billfold to the desk, turn out too good. X

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED One may search for a lifetime, yet find no force in the world more compulsive than self-preservation, with its myriad ramifi­ cations.

ISEVERAL times in his first semester Professor Brian Kendall had bet his life on the rationality of the universe in general, and on one law of physics in particular. Bril­ liant, articulate, caustically witty, and a masfer teacher, he could bring color and excitement to the most abstruse principles. He' was also a relentless • perfectionist, hard and abrasive as diamond dust in his relations with other faculty

THE BET 129 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED members. If a colleague wasn't metal bob hurtled directly toward first-rate in his field, whether it Kendall's face. was English or chemistry, Kendall So successful and popular was saw no virtue in the fellow. He this stunt as a means of arousing had been brought into Midwestern interest in physics that the profes­ University to revitalize its physical sor, ever the perfectionist, made science department; the dead wood plans to improve it. He requisi­ was being swept out in a veritable tioned a big room adjacent to his cloud of sawdust. lab. It was a kind of museum for The particular demonstration the geology department, but Ken­ that put his life in the balance was dall overrode their objections, indeed absorbing to watch. He had clearing out tons of junk, as he put suspended a ten pound metal ball it. The ceiling was much too low from a wire fastened to the ceiling for an adequate pendulum, so he of the classroom. At rest, it hung had a slot cut in it, and sent the a few inches- above the floor. He chain up to a loft, fastening the would haul the sphere up and swivel to- a roof beam there. .For a away from this lowest point until better weight, he wangled an emp­ it was just high enough to touch ty mine casing from the local coast his forehead. When released, it flew guard station; it was almost a yard . away from his face, rose to an in diameter, very impressive as a 'equal height directly opposite, and bob—roughly two hundred pounds then, with a seemingly irresistible of black metal. swoop, swung right at his head. Finally, while his ^numerous en­ But Kendall didn't retreat even emies at the university sneered at one-tenth of an inch. He knew— him for a flamboyant charlatan, he and bet his life on the truth of that rigged a stand of the sort used by comprehension—that the metal old-time photographers who had sphere could not rise any higher to keep their clients immobile for . than its starting point; that, in the long exposure needed in those fact, it would actually be a minute days. It held Kendall's head vise­ distance short of his forehead, be­ like in a fixed position, being fas­ cause of friction at the pivot over tened to the floor, and had heavy head, where the swivel was, and clamps for his cheeks. Obviously, air resistance against the ball. Nev­ the setup shouted, this man can't ertheless, the gaping students in­ possibly pull away from the bob in voluntarily flinched en rriasse, time now, even if he wanted to. breathing a fervent ahhhl as the Before the clamps could be loos-

130 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED ened, his head would be pulp—but at the end of the lab, could be only if the ball rose higher on its heard cranking the winch. return than at the start of its "At it again!" one of the stu­ swing. It was all meant to show dents said, shaking his head. "He's his absolute faith in the laws of nuts on that contraption, if you energy. ask me." As with any apparatus, there "Let him be," the other boy said. were last-minute changes needed. "Best physics teacher they've ever Kendall worked evenings on them. had. Why, I've learned more from He decided against standing in him—" place, and had a heavy armchair At that moment there was a screwed to the floor. The clamps loud, angry cry from behind the for his head were firmly attached closed door of the pendulum room. to the back, and since the mine cas­ The words were not clear, but one ing was so difficult to draw up into student thought Kendall yelled, position, touching his face, Ken­ "No! No—get away!" After that a dall provided a small winch. He shriller sound, more like a scream; would hook its- wire to the bob's then silence. ring, crank the sphere into place, They stared at each other, first and after seating himself, complete in surprise, then in dismay. Ken­ the preparations by a last few turns dall didn't like to be disturbed that made the black iron touch his when working, but this was differ­ forehead. Then a tug at the quick- ent; maybe he needed help. release mechanism would send the "We'd better go in there," one great ball flying away from him. student said, leading the way. On a Friday evening, the pro­ They found Kendall strapped in fessor returned to make a last the armchair. He was obviously check. There were two honor stu­ dead, the mine casing having dents at work in the lab; he gave mashed in most of his face. It was them a curt nod on entering. Then still swinging gently to and fro, re­ he went through the small door at turning each time to within a few one side that led to the narrow, inches of the corpse. winding stairway serving the loft. . It seemed that the professor had They assumed he was inspecting lost this particular bet with the uni­ the swivel. verse. A few minutes later he came down and, after entering the pen­ As chief claim's investigator for dulum room through its only door Great Lakes Mutual, Ben Joyce

THE BET 131 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED had broken many tough cases, but three: accident, suicide, and mur­ this was the first time his only sus­ der; In case of the second, no in­ pect was the famous Law of the surance need be paid; that would Conservation of Energy. Working save the company fifty thousand against hixn, so to speak, as defense dollars. As between accident and counsel, were such distinguished murder. Great Lakes' concern was scientists as Helmholtz, Maxwell, not financial, but rather to discour­ and Lord Kelvin—quite an array age death by other than natural of talent! causes as general policy. , Joyce was a widower, and had a For a week Joyce gathered data, •problem at home far worse than questioning everybody at the uni­ any on the job. Her name was Me­ versity who might have relevant lissa; she \vas twelve, had an IQ of information. He was expert at get­ almost two hundred, and a fierce ting people to talk, a talent vital to dedication to science. It's bad his work. Finally, having done all enough to have the task of rearing this preliminary investigating, he any girl these days, but for a man settled down one night across the alone, and with a young genius on table from Melissa, and began to his hands, the situation varied from summarize, for her benefit, and urgent to desperate.. his own, the basic information. Ben had made the mistake of-us­ "You've always hoped for a ing Melissa for a sounding board. locked-room case, Mel," he said, On his first case after the death of ."and this seems to be one in spades his wife, he felt lost without a -^blastit!" sounding board, and turned to the She was a skinny redhead, with girl. After that, he . was' hooked. great eyes of electric blue; her Aside from being - sharper than mouth was rather large, but mo­ pure mustard powder; Mel en­ bile and generous; and her voice joyed the experience so much, and usually ^had a lilt that warmed had such a flair for- the work that Joyce's heart. In spite of her rare he found it quite impossible to dis­ intelligence, the child was not courage her. priggish, and he rejoiced in that "I'm your new, unpaid, perma­ fact. Perhaps by working with him nent assistant. Daddy," she told oh real cases, she avoided the aca- him firmly—and that was that. - . demic detachment that poisoned In the matter of Kendall's death, some other young geniuses. it was Joyce's business, as always, "Great!" she sang, glowing. "I've to pick the proper label from been just dying with impatience

132 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED all week while you made tons of tra weight to the pendulum, eh.''" notes, and I didn't ask one ques­ She sighed. "No, Daddy. That tion, did I?" wouldn't change a thing. If the "You've been a good girl," he bob weighed ten pounds or a thou­ said with mock unctuousness. "So sand, it still rises only as far as the now the reward." beginning point. Only if it's given She squirmed in excitement. "I a push, or rnore weight, after being read about his pendulum in the raised, would it go higher on the paper. Tell me about the locked return." room." "Ouch!" "Oh, no, young lady. First you "And," she continued inexora­ brief me on the law—" he glanced bly, "if the room was really locked, at a note, "—of the conservation of then nobody could have tampered energy. And remember, my major with the pendulum after Kendall was not physics." lifted the bob for his trial run. "The only point here," she said, Now, will you tell me about that?" "is very simple, Daddy. The pen­ "Consider me on my back, with dulum bob has a certain amount of all four paws waving," he grinned. energy when it's raised to a given ."It's like this, my child: only one height—what it takes to lift it door to the pendulum room; two there. Now, in falling back down, students working in lab swear no­ and then rising at the end of its body else went in; ditto, the stair­ arc, it uses up that energy. If there way to the loft. So Kendall was were no friction or air resistance, definitely alone, when your nice the weight would reach exactly the law was suddenly repealed." same height above the ground as She made a moue. "Windows?" it started from; but since things "None in loft; two small ones in aren't that perfect, it stops a tiny pendulum room. Not big enough bit short. So it couldn't have hit for a man, even if fully open, but the professor on its return swing." they go up only halfway, anyhow. "But it did!" Kendall had put heavy stops in; She cocked her head, giving him valuable stuff in the lab, he felt, a shrewd stare. "If I see a ther­ should be protected from casual mometer -going up, and a pond thieves. I assure you, my love, no­ freezing at the same time, I know body came through - those .win­ that somebody's applying heat to dows." • the bulb. Right?" The blue eyes were very, bright. "You mean somebody added ex­ -A real l6cked-roo,m case, at last!

THE BET 133 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED For three hours Joyce went over They got along exceptionally well, his notes with the girl. Suicide was and she's rich herself." quite unacceptable; Kendall was at "N6 clues in the room itself.'"' his peak both in research and ad­ "Nothing the cops or I found— ministratively; he ruled with an except one tiny, tiny angle." iron hand, exerting influence even "Well, what was it.''"'she de­ over other departments not actual­ manded. "Doii't hold out. Daddy." ly his concern. "The place was very neat, and "Like "^the case'of Dr. Kent," the bob freshly painted glossy Joyce . said. "Poor old guy. Been black. But there was one greasy teaching biology for years—sixty- smear on it. I wiped some off with one; due to retire in four more a bit of tissue;" He reached into years. Not Kendall's business, but his shirt pocket, abstracted a mass he went out of his way to pres­ of criunpled white paper, and held sure the administration to-dismiss it out. "Have a sniff." the man. 'Not a biologist; never She put the tissue to her nose. has been one. Just a zoo-keeper!' "Ester.'' Fruity enough; banana the physicist had said at the meet­ oil.?" ing. The kids liked him—not that "Smells like it," he agreed. "Sug­ a school can put too much faith in gest anything.?" -. them in rating a teacher. They may "Not right off. Give me time." go for a guy who's easy or enter­ "Sure, but not now. I'm beat. taining, instead of competent and Let's adjourn until tomorrow." demanding." The next evening they sat down "Kendall must have offended a again, the table piled high with pa­ lot of people there, made a scad of pers; Mel had skipped school to enemies," the girl said. visit Midwestern with him on a "Too true. Besides firing most tour. They had taken in not only of the teachers in chemistry and the scene of the crime, but all the geology, he scuttled a few in other'- other buildings on campus. The departments. No PhD, no papers, girl, who loved animals, was par­ no reputation, he'd say. Get rid of ticularly delighted with Dr. Kent's him! We can't afford him." "zoo," with its rabbits, mice, "I rather agree," Mel said, with guinea pigs,- a horned owl, assort­ all the callous idealism of her youth ed monkeys, a chimp, snakes, and and bias. "Who gets his insurance even that most mischievous and —if you pay any ?" endearing beastie, a coatimundi. "His wife, but she's in the clear. Kent's real interest, they 'SOon

134 ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED learned, lay more in the field of there with his wife. She's been an animal b'ehavior and psychology invalid for years. That's why, I than the modern researches on suppose, he's hung onto the job to RNA and genetics. It is doubtful the bitter end. Most of the men that he could have explained the here quit at sixty, even though the lymphatic system of amphioxus. pension system is lousy." "I like him," Melissa told her "You should have a look at his" father later. "He's nice.". farm," Mel said, her face grave. "No PhD, no papers, no repu­ He gulped. "What for?" tation," he said, heavily ironical. "I'm not sure. But I would guess "Thought yoii agreed with Ken­ —no, I'd better not. Just go, and dall about dumping him." tell me what you see. Check the "I changed my mind," she said barn, and other buildings like sweetly. "A prerogative of my sex, that." if you'll pardon the expression." "But what am I looking for, Then she added thoughtfully, confound it?" "Where does Professor Kent live?" "I don't know," she said de­ "He has some kind of ranch, or murely. "You're the investigator. old farm, away from the city. Lives Maybe nothing."

THE BET 135 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED He knew his daughter; she was­ new hook,, freshly installed, if I'm n't about to add anything now. any judge, in the roof. But that's "Okay. I'll pay Kent's place a all. It must mean something, I sneak visit Monday, while he's know, after hearing from you, but : teaching." He cast a rueful glance what?" at their list of theories, each with "I was afraid of that," she-said, a heavy line through it. "Are we her face dark. "I almost wanted to absolutely sure these are kaput.'' be wrong. I like Dr. Kent." 'Pole prodding bob through win­ "So you said. But you like me dow.' Too far; wrong angle. too, just a little, I hope. I'm stuck 'Shooting or throwing something oh this case. So give already." through window against bob.'" "It was the banana," she said, "No shot was heard," she said. "and the windows—oh, a lot of lit­ "And no bullet or pellet would tle things—and Kendall's being so have anything like the necessary mean to the old man. Dr. Kent set mass. Something' gave that bob a up his own pendulum in the barn. good thrust of twenty pounds or You didn't see any bob?" she de­ so, I expect." manded. " 'Pulling chain in loft.' Nobody "No. Built his own pen—Why, there; only one door; and practi­ for heaven's sake?" cally speaking, very difScult to get "To train' that adorable little proper leverage on chain that high chimp—they're bright, you know up. Hmm. They're kaput, all right. —smartest of all primates, prob­ So it's the farm, says you. Yes, ably. They love to jump and dear, says I. And now, let's knock swing, too. He'd sit-in the chair, off; your old dad is tired." let the bob fly, and the" chimp was When Mel returned from school taught to grab the bob at the far tlie following afternoon, her father side of its arc, and hang on until was pacing the floor, waiting for it came back to Kent. Banana for a her. His face was a dead giveaway, , reward, plus love, I think." and she grinned impishly' at the "Mel! Are you saying-—?" sight of it. . "Kent must have passed by the • "You found something! What?" back of that pendulum room on "I know what—but 'why' I don't his way to and from the 'zoo,' and know, or what 'what' means," he everybody knew what Kendall was said, ludicrously sorrowful. "There working on all that week. Kent was an armchair in the barn; a could count on teaching a clever heavy one, like Kendall's. And a chimp in just a few tries since it

136 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED was a natural activity for a mon­ "Yes. Kent was probably sooth­ key to begin with. ing her with bits before she went "The night of the murder—it in, and he must have rewarded her was murder, I'm afraid," she add­ when she came, out, too." ed solemnly, "Kent waited by the "I think you've got it;, I know window, and when Kendall was you have." He frowned then. "But strapped in, and had released the as a court case.? Still, there's the bob, the old man pushed his chimp chair; and I'll find the bob—" through the window (he'd fit eas­ But he didn't. Evidently Kent ily) and said, 'Go, girl!' or the like. somehow learned about a man in­ She jumped to the' bob, adding specting, his barn because, when the about thirty pounds of weight. insurance investigator came .back Kendall saw her, knew what that with the police and a warrant, all extra mass would do. That's when the evidence was gone. he shouted, 'No! No—get away!' "Well," he told Mel heavily, "the He tried to get the clamps off fast, old man will now hang on until but there wasn't time. The chimp's sixty-five—one more murderer who weight would bring that bob a few got away with it. Pity." inches higher than its starting "Kendall bet that the universe point. Two hundred pounds!" Her was rational," the girl said, "and face was pale. "Horrible!" that may be true. But some mur­ "And the chimp left that little derers aren't so rational, so Ken­ smear of banana." dall lost on a foul!" • m )^i Dear Fans:

Here are the particulars about the Alfred Hitchcoc\ Fan Club:

Membership dues are one dollar which covers mailing costs and handling. (Please send coins or money orders, no stamps.) For this you will receive an autographed photo of Mr. Hitchcocli, his biography, and a bulletin of current news, which tvill be issued four times a year. You can't imagine how rewarding itis to hear from, so many loyal readers, and active, and incoming Fan Club members. I wmt.to.than\ all of you for your enthusiastic interest.

Most sincerely, Pat Hitchcoc\ P.O. Box 5425 - Sherman Oa\s, California THE BET LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG 137 ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED An Indian giver, as everyone knows, is one who gives only to ta\e^away, but not always is the act relegated to the category of a harmless pastime.

find her already occupied with some other man. Too, the faster he could get her out of the bar the less risk of anyone later remember­ ing his face, even though that part of it wasn't too much of a worry. He'd watched-her go home with

z^Titn^'ttc'r: O ENNY'S Cottage was a cocktail lounge • few unescorted worhen would venture into, especially on a Saturday night. Eleanor Mat­ thews, was one-of the few. Five minutes had passed since Danny, four different strangers in a week. alone in "his green sports car, had She was alone at the bar when watched her saunter through the Danny, wearing T-shirt, denims front door. Five more minutes and sneakers walked up beside would be just about right, just her. He ordered a beer, then cas­ long enough not to arouse her sus­ ually turned toward her. Her picion when he "accidentally" heavily-painted lips parted slightly bumped into her; If he waited in a smile. much longer than that, he might Danny feigned a thoughtful

138 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED frown. "Don't I know you?" He dropped numbly. Whiskey trick­ "knew her all right, knew enough led down her chin. She smiled about her to— drunkenly, • then without opening She stared directly into his blue her eyes, she said, "Hey! Forgot eyes. "With your looks, honey, you your name again." don't need a line." "Ed," he lied. It would do no He snapped his fingers. "'I re­ harm, really, to tell her his real member now." He reminded her name, because— But then, unnec­ about the beach. She remembered essary chances were foolish.-, too, and insisted on buying him "Eddie! Yeah, thass right. Re­ a drink. It was the least she could member now." She sank back on do, she told- him, after what had the couch. happened. He • knew she was twenty-six. Later, in her livingroom, as he She looked thirty-five- .or forty. lowered the glass from his lips, Her face was thin, wrinkled, her "the bourbon set fire to his tonsils, cheeks sunken. With her face almost bringing tears to his eyes. He hoped she hadn't noticed. She herself swallowed her whiskey like a Little Leaguer gulps cherry-fla­ vored soda after a hot ball game. She seemed barely awake now, her head against his broad shoul­ der, her legs drawn up almost un­ der her. A bottle on the coffee table in front of them- showed less than two fingers of whiskey. . She sat up with a start. "Booze al­ most gone," she announced, thick- tongued but concerned, her mouth twisted in a grotesque smirk. She picked up the , bottle, her hand wrapped around the neck of it like a sailor hugging a cold beer, and put it to her mouth. Dropping her head back, she tipped the bottle upright. The li­ quor disappeared. Her arm

THE LIFESAVER 139 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED filled out, she might have been "I told you! Leave me alone! attractive, even beautiful. Now, We're through!" she closed her with her eye makeup running and eyes a moment, listening, then her powder thick and splotchy, shook her head. "We've had it, she looked dissipated, prematurely . Carl. No! No! No! I don't want aged, a discarded piece of human to try again. No! I can't see you. rubbish. She was useless to herself, . I don't want to talk about it." She or to anyone else. She wouldn't slanmied down the receiver. be missed. The exchange had sobered her The phone rang and Danny's somewhat. Then she seemed to hand involuntarily shot toward it, remember where she was and who but he stopped himself in time. It she. was with—a boy almost— rang again, demanding attention. somebody to occupy her mind, to The shock of the sound to him make her forget. She took a ciga­ was the shock • of diving into a rette from a bowl on the table, and cold ocean after sitting under a worked the lighter between trem­ hot sun .for several hours. His bling hands. Danny offered her no hand trembled, and he was sud­ help. She took a deep drag and denly, acutely aware of how much exhaled a thick billow of smoke. on edge he had been the whole "Don't worry—we're separated. night. When it came right down He's filing for a divorce. They all to it like this, he was always a do . . . sooner or later." httle nervous. She looked around. "Be a sweet Eleanor Matthews didn't seem boy and get more booze for Ellie to hear the phone, not until the from the kitchen, will you ? " fourth ring. She'd fallen asleep, a "Don't you think you've had drunkard's deep, sudden sleep. enough ?" Now she stirred, tried to focus She slammed her hand on the bleary eyes, glancing at Danny as table, losing her cigarette. "You, if to ask why he wasn't doing too.'' A perfect stranger! Why is it something about that annoying everybody has to try - to reform sound, and reached for the phone. me.'* Look, honey, I want to drink. "Hello," she said, then waited. I //^(? to drink. I'm a lush. I'm Danny heard a man's voice, the gonna die young! That's t7iy busi­ words too muffled to .understand. ness. Right.'"' She broke down, Her nose wrinkled in anger—or sobbing, her face buried in her disgust—Danny wasn't certain hands. which. Danny reached down and

.140 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY M.VGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED picked up her cigarette. He put it "I thought you might—like a in the ashtray, and stood up. Not bath." His manner changed. "I yet twenty-one, he was tall, broad- just thought—" he felt giddy, de­ shouldered, darkly tanned. His bi­ tached, "it would feel good." ceps bulged against the sleeves of "Me take a bath?" She looked his T-shirt. His blond hair, sun- from him to the tub and back to bleached, was crewcut. His fea­ his face. "Are you nuts?" tures bore a strange mixture of Something flashed in his mind, male handsomeness and feminine and he moved forward, bringing delicacy. His eyes were deep ocean his hands toward her throat. She • blue, his cheekbones pronounced staggered back. He stopped, above a broad jaw. "Excuse me." fought to control himself. He turned and softly walked "You're tired." H- breathed away from her. deeply. "I thought soaking in a She watched him move across hot tub would feel good. Besides," the livingroom. "Hey! The kitch­ he told her, putting his hands on en's that way—the booze is in her shoulders, "I could wash your there." back." He stopped and looked back She relaxed, and laughed ner­ over, his shoulder. "I'm going to vously. "Well, this is one I never the bathroom." heard. But I like it, I like it.!' She "Oh." She giggled and put her kissed him on the lips, her breath hand to her mouth. stinging his nostrils. "What hap­ In the bathroom, he used his pens then? Do you tuck me into a handkerchief to turn on the tub nice warm bed?" faucets. Deliberately, he adjusted "Why don't we wait and see?" the hot and cold water. The tub He smiled. "I might just do that." began to fill. He hadn't closed the "Okay, surprise me." She un­ door behind him. By the sound buttoned her dress, and pulled it of her steps, he' knew she was stag­ over her head. Slip, panties, and gering across the livingroom, and bra followed. Naked, she stood'be­ he turned as she appeared in the fore him without modesty. He doorway. hadn't made a move toward her. "What are you doing?" She sat down in the tub and let "Running bath water," he an­ herself slide down into the warm swered simply, smiling. Dimples water. "Hmmmmmm, it does feel cut into his cheeks, but his eyes good." studied her with an icy coldness. He picked up a bar of soap and

THE LIFESAVER - . 141 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED a washcloth. . Muscles jumped She must not suffocate. She had along his wrists and forearms as to drown. That was important. he began sudsing the cloth. Silent­ She had to die that way, and that ly, he soaped her shoulders, gently way only. massaging her skin with his fin­ He looked straight ahead at the gers. His hands moved closer to black tile squares. Then he closed her neck. his eyes, and still held her down. She closed her eyes. "Hey this He started countings slowly—one - is service." . . .two . . . He couldn't tell when "Give me your hands." He it was that she stopped moving. spread the washcloth open on his At the count of twenty, he palm, and she placed both hands stopped, and looked down at her in it. His fingers tightened like body. steel bands, choking off the circu- Water still ran from the faucet, ladon of blood in her fingers. He too.rapidly for the overflow drain read the terror in her eyes. Hold­ to handle it, and spilled over the ing both her hands in his hand, rim of the tub. He was kneeHng he moved them to her stomach, and on the floor, and his white denims drove his fist into her midsection. darkened wetly from the knees She struggled against the pain. down. He grabbed a towel from the rack When he. stood up water cov­ at his side. She was. wide awake ered the bathroom floor. Carefully, now, terrified. - he wrapped the towel around her She opened her mouth to head. He used his handkerchief scream, but he shoved the towel again to turn off the faucets. With against her teeth and pushed her the water off, the house became head down into the water. She very still. kicked and thrashed, trying to Before leaving the room, he break loose from his grip. Rough­ paused to be certain he hadn't ly, he jabbed her hands into her touched anything that would hold own stomach, knocking the wind a fingerprint. He took his time in out of her. The strength to fight the livingroom ' too, wiping the left her. Her struggles weakened. glass he had used and the. whis­ She tried to shake her head free key-bottle. He polished clean the from his hand, but he held her knob on the front door as he down, moving the towel away stepped out into the night. from her mouth before it was too late. The L.A. night was damp and

142 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED cold, permeated with a light, misty Andy was tempted to make a fog. It was past twelve o'clock crack about Stu's bride of six when Andy eased the unmarked months. Instead, he remarked, squad car over to the curb. Stu "You want regular hours? So you Blake ambled out of the nearest should have been a dentist." apartment house, one of the plain, "That's what my old man al­ gray, square kind that looks like a ways said." Stu frowned. "In fact, prison building. Sally was saying that just the oth­ Andy Ettinger smiled to himself er day." as he watched the lumbering gait - "Already?" of the large young.man hurrying "What do you mean—already? toward the car. His latest partner We've been married almost seven must be cursing the day, not many months." years ago, that he decided to be a "Sorry, kid, I forgot you were police detective. A kid thinks of an old married man." all the glamour, never gives much "Another bathtub deal?" Stu thought to the prospect of being yawned. rousted out of a warm bed to Andy nodded. "Over in the Wil- hurry out into a cold night to look shire District this time. Andrews at an often colder body. A kid phoned me soon as it came in. A doesn't think about that end of it, woman; husband found her dead, not until he's had to go through floating in the tub around," he it a few times. If Andy had a buck glanced at his watch, "twenty for every night it had happened minutes ago." to him in twenty-three years, he r "Sound like the others?" could afford to tell the department "Andrews thought so. That's to keep his pension. why he called me." Andy reached across the car "How come nobody ever gets and jerked back the door handle murdered in the daytime, at a de­ to let the door swing open. Stu cent hour?" got in and closed the door with­ "Same reason babies are always out slanuning it. born at three in the morning." "That's a good boy." Stu grunted. "Ask a stupid ques­ Stu looked at him with sleepy tion and—" eyes. "Oh. Sure. Why wake' every­ "When'sthebigday?" body else up ? Just because we're a "Doctor says between Christmas couple nuts who don't know and New Year's." when it's time to be home in bed." "Maybe you'll get a haircut to

THE LIFESAVER 143 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED celebrate, huh?" Andy ]ooked~ at and introduced himself and his the young man beside him. Stu partner. Matthews, a middle-aged was twenty-five, an ex-football man .wearing a well-tailored dark player, ruggedly handsome, with-a blue suit, stood up to shake hands head of thick brown hair that re­ with them.. fused to be controlled. Andy had "You discovered your wife's been ribbing him about it for the body, Mr. Matthews ?" . month they'd been working to­ Matthews nodded abruptly. He gether. • opened his mouth to answer, but "I know. It's tickling my ears. a sob choked off his words. So, who has time to go to a bar­ Andy looked around the room. ber?" • Besides the front door, there were "You're complaining? I wish I two. other doors, one leading to had a reason to go to a barber." the kitchen and one leading to a Andy brushed his hand across his -hallway. Two sets of wet foot­ own bald head. They bpth prints on the rug pointed to the laughed. hallway door. Andy took a closer Thirty minutes • later they look. stopped before a white, Spanish- "I'll take the bathroom. You can style stucco house with iron bars ask Mr. Matthews a few questions on the windows and red clay tiles when he's up to it." on the roof. A patrol car was Stu nodded. "Right." parked in the driveway. When Andy was on a case, he A red-faced police officer was the first man into the murder opened the front door for them. room, and he went in alone. No­ "Hi, Andy." body else entered until he said Andy nodded, and looked past so. A few rookies had found it the policeman's shoulder to see a difficult to understand, but Stu man sitting on a couch. "Mat­ hadn't given him any trouble. thews?" Walking close to the wall, Andy "Yes, sir." He spoke softly. made a wide track around the wet, "Been sitting there, just sort of imprints. moaning and crying the .whole • The floor of the bathroom was time." wet. The water in the tub was "Just you . and he here?" level with the bottom of the over­ "Yes, sir. The lab boys.are on: flow outlet. The woman in the their way." . , tub, a towel wrapped around her Andy walked over to the couch head and covering her face, ap-

144 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED peared at first to be taking a beau­ subtle, but important, remarks in ty bat'h. A closer inspection a suspect's story. showed she wasn't breathing. "We've been separated for two Andy left her exactly as he'd months. That's why I came over— found her, leaving even the towel ' to try to patch things up." untouched. A bar of white soap , If the woman had died any oth­ was floating against her leg. Andy er way, or if Matthews hadn't noted it had a thick softened outer struck him as such a decent layer, the way soap gets when it's sort, Andy would have jumped left in water. No chance for prints. him right then. He could write a Except for the wet floor and the book just about the homicide cases woman in the tub, he saw nothing he'd handled where a "husband unusual—no signs of a struggle, trying for a reconciliation had nothing remiss. As he studied the ended up by killing his wife, usu­ room, he heard Stu questioning ally along with the boyfriend with Matthews in the next room. whom he found her, Matthews said, "I rang the door­ "Go on," Stu said. bell three times. She didn't an­ "I let myself. in. I called her swer. Her car was out front. She name. No answer, so I looked never walked .anywhere. It was around the house. That's when I late. I was sure she was home. found her." The lights were on. I was afraid "You touched nothing?" something was wrong." "Only the telephone, when I "Why should you think that, called the police." -Mr. Matthews?" "When was the last time you "You see, Eleanor-^my wife— saw her alive?" she, well, she ran around. She was Silence a moment. "That would -^was always meeting fellows in be about a week ago. That's why I bars and bringing them home. She had to see her tonight. I couldn't did it whenever I was out of town. stand being away from her. I had She didn't think I knew." After a to see her—even though she told painful pause he continued, "Any­ me not to come.". way, I waited. Then I let myself "When did she tell you that?" in. I still have a key to the house." "I phoned her around nine "You still have one ?" o'clock. She—she hung up on me," Andy smiled. The kid was turn­ he stammered. ing out to be a good interrogator,' Andy came back into the living- It took a good man to catch the room. "Did she seem upset?"

THE LIFESAA'ER 145' LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "No,' not anymore than usual. on the freeway, he vvas investigat­ Not so much that I'd ever dream ing an ax rnurder in East Los she'd kill herself." Angeles. "Kill herself?" Andy and Stu "I'll be through around four said it at the same time. Stu let o'clock. I'll come down then." Andy go ahead. "You think she "I wouldn't ask you," but it is committed suicide?" important. I doubt very much that "Of course. Didn't she? I've al­ your wife's death was an accident. ways been afraid of. something Someone murdered her. Is there like this." anything you can think of now Andy shook his head. "F hardly that might help "us find out who • think so, Mr. Matthews. It's prac­ did it?" - tically impossible lor a person to Matthews shook his head in be­ drown himself." wilderment. "No! Eleanor drank a "An accident then? Maybe she lot, but she had no enemies. Ev­ ^ hit her head. Maybe she . . . passed eryone who knew her liked her, out. and tried to help her." "The coroner can tell us more "Okay, we'll talk about it to­ about that." Andy was convinced morrow. You can go now." Matthews wasn't implicated. Matthews mumbled, "Thank "That's all for tonight, Mr. Mat­ you," then got lip slowly, and thews. I know it's Sunday, but I'd moved toward the door, pausing like to ask you to come down to to glance once at the bathroom in my office tomorrow, I mean today. disbelief. It's important." The experts, two of them, got Matthews used his handkerchief there right after Matthews left. to dry his face, then he blew his The rug was thick and just ab­ nose. "I've got to work. I don't sorbent enough to hold the shape know how I'll do it, but I have to. of the imprints. They sprinkled I'm a missile engineer. We're on a plaster of Paris on the deepest in­ crash program, and if I don't get dentations. done what has to be done by The shoe print was Andy's sec­ Monday morning, we'll have two ond clue in five cases. Several hundred people sitting idle." blond hairs, an inch or so lon'g "Sometimes it's better to biiry —barely long enough for the vic­ yourself in work." Andy spoke" tim to grab but she had managed from experience. The day after his it in her struggle—had been found wife had been killed in a smashup' at the scene of the second killing.

146 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "We have a lot to go on, sir, the to park a car. It's a wide color of his hair and the size o£ beach, with a long walk to the his shoe." Stu wasn't too encour­ water from any place you're lucky aged. enough to find for your car. "More'n a lot of cases I've seen. It was late in the season, with We've got the top and the bottom. one of the last good Sunday All we have to do is fill in the crowds. Danny always hated to middle." see the end of summer, the de­ The medical examiner wasn't serted beaches. The usual heavy much help. "Can't say for sure afternoon breeze was building up, just yet, but my guess, is she was and the surf was getting choppy. just plain drowned. No signs of It had been a slow day. He'd strangulation, no bruises or abra­ pulled a middle-aged businessman, sions. No wounds that I can see. a teenaged girl, and two surfers We'll know better after the au­ out of rip tides. topsy." He sat up on his chair-tower, "How long has she been dead ?" his eyes taking a swinging glance Andy asked. of the water every few minutes. "Being in that hot water compli­ He read the bodies in the surf as cates things, but I'd guess three or easily as words on a page; a swim­ four hours." mer in trouble was as obvious as "You do a lot of guessing, don't a word printed upside down. The you?" Stu said. most obvious potential rescue was The coroner looked at Andy. a swimmer away from the crowd, "'Nother fresh one, huh?" out too far. "Yeah, they stuck me with an-r He was aware of her presence other one." Andy shrugged, and before he looked down. He felt winked at Stu when the coroner her eyes on him. wasn't looking., He figured rook­ "Hi, Danny." There she was, ies had a hard enough time of it. looking up at him. She was eight­ een or. nineteen, with .long blonde Playa del Rey, a beach town al­ hair blowing loose. She smiled, most directly west of L.A., lies on and he couldn't help but smile the coast between Laguna Beach back. Her solid one-piece blue suit and Malibu. Playa's beach is less wasn't skimpy by modern stand­ crowded during the summer than ards, but she managed to look most of the adjacent beaches. sexier in it than most girls do in There's a lot of sand but no place bikinis. Her young body would

THE LIFESAVER 147 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 148 ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED look good in a baggy potato sack. that. Besides, hovs^ do you know "Hi, Maggie." I didn't look it up? I've got your "You saved another one. I saw name and address. Remember that the whole thing." Her eyes spar­ card we filled out?" kled. Her hair bounced about her "Why haven't you called then?" shoulders as she tilted her head "I've been busy. I'm shy, too." and shaded her eyes against the "You're fooling again; Danny. I sun. Every day she told him the don't have a phone. My father had same things, about how wonder­ it taken out." ful he was. He could never be "He sounds strict. What would sure just how much his saving her he think: of you talking, to' a life had to do with it—he'd strange boy on the beach?" . pulled her out a week agO:—but "You're not a strange boy—^you he didn't really care. She embar­ saved my life. He wants to meet rassed him with her open hero you, to thank you. How about it?" vyorship,' but he liked it and he "Okay. You doing anything to­ liked her. night?" • . • .-• He made his way dowri the lad- She bit her lower lip excitedly. (ier from the chair to the sand. "No." • ; "How 'many's that for today?" "Would you like to go to din­ •"How many what?" ,. ' ner, and take iii a iriovie?" "You know, silly. How many "Danny, Danny, I'd Jove to. people did you save?" \- • Come by around six?" "You mean, how many did I help out of the water?" -ICarl Matthews stepped into the "Come on, Danny, how many?" office at four-thirty. "Only • four. Look, Maggie, . "Thanks for coming, Mr. Mat­ probably none . of them would thews." Andy shook his hand. have drowned. I just keep them '.'I'll try to make this ..as brief as from getting tired out there." possible.'' !'Yeah, sure." She got • serious. Andy. informed him of his con- "Danny? Is there something", • stitutioiial rights and asked for his wrong with me?" permission-to tape the interview. "What do you mean?" • '.. Matthews insisted that he needed "Am I ugly or what ? It's been a no attorney to be present. "I've whole week. You haven't even nothing to hide. I don't need a asked me for my phone number." lawyer to help me' tell you the "Well, we're not supposed to do truth. I'm here to help you find

THE LIFESAVER" 149 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED the killer, not to figure out ways bathroom. She spoke inany times to prevent implicating myself. I of trying it. In fact, I really think suppose a lawyer would tell me she was trying to kill, herself, not to say anything. We'd never drown herself, in the ocean just, a get anywhere that way." fe^v weeks ago. The lifeguard got Andy admired the man's sincer­ to her just in time. There was a ity, but he'd seen a lot of innocent heavy undertow^down at Playa men become entangled in a bushel del Rey. She—" of trouble by not having an attor­ ."Playa del Rey?" ney with them. However, Andy "Yes, we went to the beach ev­ wasn't going to press the point. ery chance we had." "I want you to start at the be­ Butterflies brushed their wings ginning, from the time you met against the lining of Andy's stom­ Mrs. Matthews until—well, until ach. Andy claimed he got but­ now. iDon't leave out anything. terflies in his stomach when the Tell me everything that comes into pieces begin to fit together. Some your rnind." oldtimers claimed their feet Carl Matthews had known itched, or their ears burned, or Eleanor for a year and.a half. They their mouths got dry, like a boxer had met at a party, fallen in love, when he's got that feeling the and married two months later. next punch is going to do it. This She wasn't drinking then. She had was one of the times. tried to tell him that she'd once Andy stood up. "Mr. Matthews, been an alcoholic, but he hadn't I'm not going to keep you any been able to believe her. She'd been longer. You've been very helpful." married twice before. She wanted "That's all you want' to ask children badly, but neither of her me.?" iirst two husbands had been able Andy had a good feehng about to give her children. Matthews Matthews. "That's all for now. told Andy how she had started to Just keep yourself available in case drink after about a year, how he I need you." had realized when it was too late "All right, I'll do that." that she was turning to drink be­ As soon as Matthews left, Andy cause of a feeling of inadequacy. dug out the files on the other It was toward the end of the in­ bathtub cases. It was in the third terview when Matthews said, "I case, the Johnson fellow, that he really thought she had committed thought it had come up. He was suicide when I found her in the right. He found it there in the in-

150 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED terview with Johnson's wife. He five names, and all with the same read the transcription: name at the bottom-rDanny "Detective Ettinger: Is there Gruen. G'ruen lived in nearby El anything else you can tell us ? Segundo. They headed over there Mrs. Johnson: It seems so funny on the double. that just a week ago, poor Leon­ A silver-haired woman an­ ard ahnost drowned in the ocean swered their ring. . . . right down at Playa del Rey Andy told her who they were. . . , and now this in the ... in "We're looking for. a Mr. Dan his own bathroom." Gruen, ma'am;" It required seven phone calls "That's my son." Her eyes and an hour for Andy to check clouded. "Why are you—Danny out his hunch. The pieces fit to­ hasn't done anything wrong. He's gether. All five"victims had been a good boy. He's never done pulled from the surf at Playa del anything wrong—not Danny." Rey during the past four months. "Is he home.?" Andy dialed Stu's number. "I'm "No, he's out, on a date wItE a down at the office. Be here in girl, a nice girl, he told me." fifteen minutes. We've got work "Do you know the girl.?" to do." "No, Danny didn't tell me Her By the time Stu arrived Andy name. He doesn't always tell me had arranged to meet Paul Lang- who-" ly, the captain of the Playa del Rey Andy interrupted. "That's not beach guard crew, at Langly's important, Mrs. Gruen. This is an office. emergency. We'll have to search Langly was waiting for them Danny's room." when they got there. A husky red­ "But I don't think you—** sEe head with freckles, Langly failed started to object. to understand why they wanted a "Did your son bring a package list of all the beach guards who home from work today?" Andy had worked Playa del Rey during glanced at Stu, and caught the the summer. When they told him look of puzzlement on his face. what they had in mind, he came "I don't know. I didn't see him up with something'better—the file come in." of rescues. The guards must fill "A clock—a small clock. It was out a white card for each rescue, left at your son's lifeguard station showing name, age, and address as a prank. It's really a bomb and of the victim. There they were, all we don't know when it's set to go THE LIFESAVER 151 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED oflf." Andy ignored Stu's cough. and put it in his coat pocket. If Sometimes, you had to stretch the he tried to walk out with the rules of the game a Httle. shoes, it might look phony." Be­ "Who would—" sides, without a search warrant, "We don't have time to explain, the shoes might not be admissible Mrs. Gruen." Andy's tone was ur­ as evidence. gent. "Your son may have left it in He found what he was looking his room. I think you'd better for in the bottom drawer of the leave the house while we search dresser, a small notebook with for it." names in it, pages and pages of "Are you sure—" names. Most of the names had "Yes, ma'am. Some nutty kid at lines through them. Some had the beach was jealous because his crosses. Andy recognized five that girl kept flirting with your son." had been crossed out. Four names He turned to Stu. "It could blow were still open. He took a deep any minute, Stu. You'd.better help breath as he tucked the book into Mrs. Gruen outside. I'll have a his pocket. look. No use both of us taking a He was about to leave when he chance.?' remembered one more thing. He Stu nodded, and took a firm went to the bathroom. There was grip on the woman's arm. Andy a hairbrush, the kind men use on waited until they were outside. short haircuts, on the basin. He He found the boy's room. It was picked several hairs from it and in. good condition—for a' college dropped them into a small envel- kid's room. The bed wasn't made, " ope he always carried. several men's magazines were scat­ "Nothing in there," he told Mrs. tered-near the bed, pajamas vvere Gruen and Stu when he got out­ draped over a chair, pennants took side. "Your son has a car, hasn't up half the wall space. All in he, ma'am.''" all, it looked like a normal,. grow­ She told them what kind of a ing , young man's pad.-. Andy car her son owned, and found the looked under the mattress. He license number on a gas credit searched .the closet. A pair of ten­ card bill. , nis shoes lay in the corner—they They told Mrs. Gruen not to were damp. On the floor was a worry about- her son's safety, -that discarded cardboard container. they would be sure to find him Andy traced the outline of both before anything happened. shoes on the cardboard, folded it. Back in the car, Stu wasn't so

152 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED sure they had done the right thing. come so far away? Come on, scoot "You didn't have to do that. You over so I don't have to yell." scared the dayhghts out of her." "I thought you were shy." She Andy handed him the little slid over on the seat, moving clos­ black book. "I had to save time. er to him without crowding him. That girl is in trouble." "Where are we going to eat?" Andy radioed for a car to be "Like I told your father, Redon- sent to Danny's house while Stu do Beach. You like fish, I hope." looked through the names. "Love it." "I see what you mean. Looks like four names are still open, Andy and Stu:: found phone three of them women." numbers listed for two of the three "Yeah," was all Andy said." He women. Andy phoned one, Stu was thinking about that nice girl the other. Andy's was a Torrance Danny Gruen's mother had been woman, at home with her hus­ talking about. band. Andy explained the situa­ As they drove along Sepulveda, tion, to the man without going the fog began to roll in from the into detail and told him to keep ocean. his wife home until they heard from the police. The other gal was "Your folks are nice, Maggie." an S.C. coed. Stu talked to her Danny meant it. father, who agreed to bring her •"Thank. you. They like you, home from her sorority house un­ too." til things cleared up. The third "How can you tell?'' girl, Maggie Randolph, wasn't list­ "Oh, Papa didn't make a big deal ed in the phone book. " about my deadline. When'he does­ The two detectives headed for n't like my date he makes a big Maggie's house. deal about getting in by twelve- They got to the house an hour thirty." after the girl had left with "such a "He watches you , pretty close. fine looking young, man," as Mag­ Not many parents do these days.'! gie's father put it. Andy figured "I don't mind." She smiled.. there was no sense in overly alarm­ "Papa's fair about it. Some girls' ing them. He told them they want­ folks don't care what they do, ed'Danny for questioning, routine where they go, who they go with. questioning. I don't think I'd like that." ^ "Did they.say anything about Danny glanced at her. "How their plans for the night?" Stu

THE LIFESAVER 153 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED asked. "Where they were going?" at the shocked expression on his "We always know where our face. girl is going," Mr. Randolph an­ He smiled. Maggie had an in­ swered. "They're going to -have fectious warmth that reached out dinner in Redondo Beach, then to him. He'd been relieved a week they're going to see one o£ those ago when he'd decided, without a Elvis inovies." doubt, that she had a place on this "Did they say where for din­ earth. She'd been worth saving. ner?" "Why did you wait so long, Mrs.' Randolph volunteered, Danny, to ask me out? I had to "No, but Danny said he knew a flirt with you every day for a line place for a fish dinner." week. I almost died waiting." "How about the show?" "I don't go out much. Like I They both shook their heads. told you, I'm shy." "I think we have enough to go "Am I the first one you've res­ on," Andy told Stu. They gave cued and taken out on a date?" the Randolphs a number to use He hesitated before answering. just as soon as their girl got home. "Yes, as a matter of fact." They didn't tell them they would She stared into his eyes. "It must have a car sent to the house to be wonderful to be able to save wait. lives." By the time, they reached the "That's what I'm trained for." Redondo Beach city limits the fog "I mean, it must feel wonderful. was so thick they had slowed I bet you've saved a . hundred down- to five to seven miles an lives." hour. Store fronts were barely visi­ "'In three summers, at least a ble from the street. hundred, I guess." "Fog picked a great night,". Stu "Well, doesn't it make you feel, moaned. oh, I don't know how to say it." "Yeah, it's going to-be rough." "It makerme feel like I'm doing my job. That's what they pay me Maggie blotted her lips and set" for. I don't like to talk about it." aside her napkin. This kind of talk made him nerv­ "Good?" Danny needn't have ous. He wanted to drop the sub­ asked. Her plate was clean except ject. for a few fish bones. The mild outburst had sur­ "Lousy. I only ate it to be po­ prised her. She nodded without lite," she answered, then laughed saying anything, and they finished

154 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED their dessert quickly and in silence. "You wanted to tell me some­ When they stepped outside, he thing." asked, "You sure you warit to go "I don't know if I should." to a movie?" "Why not? Is it something "Why ? Do you want to take me wrong?" home ? I made you angry." "No, I don't think so—not real­ "No, of course not. You're the ly wrong. That is, I'm not sure. first person I've met in a long I just have to tell someone." He time that I can talk to. I'd just Hke stopped. "Can I trust you? Can to talk. There's something I've got I really trust you? You promise to tell somebody. We could walk not to tell.anyone?" out on the pier." "'Sure, I promise, Danny. What "In this fog?" is it?" "Sure,, it's fun." He knew he could trust this She hesitated only a moment. girl. He could tell her everything.. "Okay, let's go." The pier was a couple blocks Andy and Stu had made their from the restaurant. They left his plans in the Redondo Beach Po­ car in the parking lot and started lice Station. Captain Josephson through the fog. She held onto his was anxious to help. arm tightly. "Don't let go of me," The town force had been alert­ she told him. "'Boy, I've never seen ed. Each car was assigned to check it this thick." all restaurants in its cruising area. A foghorn broke the air. Andy figured if Danny had told Maggie hesitated. "I'm scared." the truth, the couple might still "Of what? You're with me, be in one of the local eating what's there to be scared of ?" places. The first step was to check "It's just so weird not being the parking lots for Danny's green able to see anything in front of car. The fog was so thick, the lots your face." had to be checked on foot. Squad The shops had closed early. cars moved around the city at five They . walked along one side of miles an hour. the pier, with Danny guiding him­ Andy and Stu, unfamiUar with self by the rail and Maggie walk­ the area, had chosen the three- ing on the inside. It was like being block section where most of the blind. restaurants were concentrated. When they had been walking They moved on foot. for five minutes, Maggie said, Near the end of the last block

THE LIFESAVER 155 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED they found the car, in the parking saved his life that I saw his pic­ lot of Otto's Grotto. They checked ture in the papers, all over the their guns and entered the seafood front page. He'd picked up this lit­ restaurant. Stu phoned the station tle girl, just six years old. He told to let them know where they were her that her mommy was hurt. while Andy questioned the cashier Then he took her for a ride, stran­ girl. The place was empty. gled her, left the poor little thing "Yeah, I remember him. Tall, out in the bushes." blond, good-looking. He had a "How could a man do that, sweet-looking girl with him. They Danny?" left an hour ago." "Not a man—a monster. I've "You sure?" seen things like that in the papers "They're the only customers we before, but this time it was dif­ had tonight, Mac." ferent. Here was a man who was "His car's out in back." alive only because I'd saved his The girl shrugged. "Maybe they life. If I hadn't pulled him out of went for a walk. Maybe they went the ocean, he would have out on the pier." drowned. He would have" been Stu heard the remark as he dead. And that Htde girl would walked up. The two men ex­ still be alive. That's all I could changed glances as Andy said, think about for weeks." "Out on the pier. Phone Joseph- "You can't blame yourself for son. Tell him to send some men that. It's fate." to die pier. Tell him to alert the He felt good telling her about it. Coast Guard too. We might need He knew he could trust "her now. them." He could tell .her everything. "Right." Stu nodded and hur­ She'd understand. ried back to the phones ' "I've been thinking a lot about "What's the quickest way to the that little girl. I'd stay awake at pier.?" night. Was she really meant to die "Straight down the street one like that ? Was that monster, really block, then over a block. You can't meant to be saved, so he could live miss it—when it's not so foggy." long enough to do a terrible thing like that.? Or should he have died.? At the end of the deserted pier And I interfered!" His last words Danny was teUing Maggie what were harsh, angry. "I helped kill had happened at the beginning of her. If-it weren't for me, she'd be summer. "It-was a week after I alive now, and I was responsible."

156 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "Danny, you— you can't do this," to take them away, destroy them." "I have the picture." He took "He told you all this?" out his wallet and opened it for "Yes. Because I was the one her. "I cut it out of the paper. who got him started, when I saved Such a tiny, pretty thing, with big that madman's life. That's what brown eyes and pigtails." The started him to thinking." tears came to his eyes as he "We have to tell the police. Dan­ thought about it. ny, don't you see? He's as crazy "He's going to the gas chamber, as the man who killed the little Danny." girl." • . "That's right, he's going to die "What!" He grabbed her by the' —but he should have died in the shoulders."Don't say that!" ocean." A hardness entered his "You're hurting me." voice. "I've got a secret to tell you. "Say he's not crazy!" It's about one of the fellows • I "Danny, stop!" work with. He thinks that mayte "Say it! Say he's not crazy!" He some of those people we save were turned her around until her back meant to die—not all of them, but was against the low wooden rail­ maybe some of them. So, after he ing. saves them, he checks into their The fog cleared for a moment. lives. He follows them. He finds Their eyes met, and he knew now out whether they were worth sav­ that nobody would ever under­ ing or not." stand. He'd been a fool to think "I don't understand, Danny. she would. "You know, don't What good does that do ?" you?" , .' Danny waited a moment. He "No, Danny, no." looked her straight in the eyes, "You. lie.- You're going to tell trying to predict her. reaction. the police about me." Then he told her,, "He kills "Gruen. Danny Gruen." At the them." sound of his name echoing "That's crazy! That's murder!" through the fog, he stopped and "No, no, not murder." How listened. Maggie opened her could he explain it so she'd under­ mouth to scream. He. caught her stand? "The ones he kills are the as she took a deep breath, and ones who should have, died." clamped his hand over her mouth, Something was wrong. Why was forcing her back over the railing. she backing away from him? "He "I swear I heard voices out saved their lives. He has the right there," Stu insisted.

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED •'Me, too." Andy squinted, tried "Andy, is this you.? Talk, man!" to penetrate the fog. It was no use. "I'm down here," Andy blurted You couldn't see your own hand out, rubbing his throat. He could in front of your face. The flash­ faintly . make out two outlines lights had turned out to be use­ struggling, punching at each other, less. next to the railing. A loud grunt, "Let's hold hands and, make a then one figure disappeared. human bridge across the pier," Stu "Stu.-"' Andy asked cautiously, said. "That way he won't slip past taking his gun from its shoulder us." holster. "It's worth a try. Okay, boys, "It's me. I'm all right. Our let's make like ring around the friend is in the water. I think I rosie." Andy was at the right end got him in the throat. I doubt if of the line, using the railing as a he'll make it. He's—" guide. He could hear the waves . "Help! Help!" The girl's cries, crashing below as they advanced. barely loud enough to reach them, "Let's go easy. We're not sure were weak. it's our man. Besides, if it is,. he "Come on," Andy shouted as he has a girl with him." moved along the railing. "She's far­ They hadn't gone far when they ther out." heard a girl's frightened scream. "Keep yelling so we. can find They stopped. you." Stu's deep voice carried One of the Redondo men said, through the fog. "I think she was falling." They ran toward the voice, and "Let's go, on the double," Andy stopped when it began to die away. ordered. They started to trot, still "We passed her." Andy turned holding onto each other. and bumped into Stu. "Back -up." Somebody ran into Andy, head- They walked, slowly, homing on. He fell on his back, a heavy in on the voice. body on top of him, fingers work­ "I think she's right below us ing at his throat. His grip with now." Stu's voice was firm, con­ Stu had been broken. fident. "I'm going in." "Andy, you okay?" It was Stu, "Wait! You can't jump. You yelling almost into his ear. can't see anything dowii there." Andy gurgled, thrashed out' Stu laughed nervously. "All the with his arms. The grip suddenly better—I'm chicken about heights. loosened, and he felt the weight If you don't hear from me, keep lifted from him. talking to her."

158 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Andy tried to grab his partner's the best chance, so I just jumped." arm as Stu climbed over the rail­ Andy straightened up. "'Hey, ing, but he was too late. Stu wait a minute. I'm not that old." jumped into the fog and disap­ "I. didn't mean it that way. peared. I just meant that I figured I had enough hair on my head to keep The Coast Guard made it in my brain from freezing up in that thirty minutes. Stu and Maggie cold water. But you, well . . ." had hugged a barnacle-laden pil­ Andy laughed and slapped him ing. They were scratched, tired, on the back. "Okay, say no more, and half-frozen, but they were all Tarzan." right. The boat dropped the couple off As the boat made its way to and went back to search for Dan­ shore, Andy poured two cups of ny Gfueh. They found him two hot' coffee, and handed them to hours later, floating face down. Stu and the girl, huddled under Andy assumed that Stu's karate one blanket. "Didn't anyone tell blow had paralyzed the killer you we're supposed to be brains, enough that he hadn't been able not heroes.'"' to help himself after he hit the "No, sir," Stu answered inno­ water. Andy wanted to beHeve he cently. "Nobody ever mentioned had drowned. It didn't help the that, and it's not in the book. One other five, but it made a little of us had to go. I figured I had sense.

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$119S Value in Publ, in 6 full-length, hard-bound books Agatha Christie I The Case of the A The Cose of the A The Cose of the latest thriller WORRIED WAITRESS ^^ TROUBLED TRUSTEE ^ PHANTOM FORTUNE erry's client is charged with Palmer is dead. Button was Perry must defend himself — and 2 more'V. • ladlp assault — and his ace with him. and his gunkilled . against the deadly serious itjfense witness is TOTALLY him. How can. Perry ever charge of framirig an at- top-flight LIND! save _Dutton? . tempted murder! f The Case of the Q - The Case of.the ft The Case of the mysteries BEAUTIFUL BEGGAR ^ HORRIFIED t«IRS ^ DARING DIVORCEE in this big ?rry agrees to help a lovely Perry's client and Mrs. Trent A suspected murder weapon' -rl — who turns out to be a have a "friend" who wants' disappears — and the D.A, •inning murderess. to murder them both! ' threatens to jail Perryl ''3-in-T'Volum

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