The harsh overhead light made me blink.
The scene that came into my view made me catch my breath.
A woman, stark naked, lay on the bed. Her wrists were tied to the bedposts, her ankles too. She had a rag stuffed into her mouth. On her right thigh was a livid round burn: a burn that could have only been made by crushing a burning cigar end into her flesh.
I knew this was Freda Hawes. She was small, beautifully built, around twenty-five. A few years back, she could have been pretty, but now the edges had hardened, the mouth, the eyes showed the steady downward slide.
All this I took in in one brief glance, then I reached her, got the gag out of her mouth and her wrists untied. Then I started to free her ankles.
‘A drink... the kitchen,’ she croaked.
I found a light switch in the living room, found the kitchen, opened the refrigerator. It was stocked with bottles of gin and charge water. I found a dirty glass which I rinsed under the tap, poured a heavyweight slug of gin and a featherweight slug of charge water. I hurried back and seeing how her hands were shaking, I lifted her head and fed her the drink.
She drank greedily, shut her eyes, her fingers gripping my wrist.
‘More!’
‘That’ll hold you,’ I said gently. ‘You...’
‘More! Hear me, you sonofabitch! More!’ There was a yell of despair in her voice so I went back and produced the mixture as before.
When I returned she was sitting up on the side of the bed, the sheet across her lap. She snatched the glass from me, drank, then threw the glass across the room. It shattered against the wall.
‘Cigarette!’
I took out my pack, lit a cigarette and fed it between her trembling lips.
She sat still, her heavy breasts hanging forward, dragging at the cigarette, letting smoke drift down her pinched nostrils. I stood back and watched her.
After some minutes, the gin began to work. She looked up and stared at me.
‘Who are you?’
‘Just passing. I heard you making noises, so I looked in,’ I said, sure she wasn’t ready yet for me to show my hand.
She nodded.
‘I’ve always been lucky. I thought I was going to stay right there until next month. Sit around. I like you. I want a pee.’
She wobbled across to the bathroom and shut herself in. On the floor, by the bed, lay a stub of a cigar. I picked it up and regarded it. It meant nothing to me or was the smell a little familiar? My nose again, I thought and laid the cigar on the night table.
She came out of the bathroom, opened a closet, put on a wrap, then walked into the kitchen. I heard the gurgle from bottles and she came back with another glass in her hand.
‘Thanks, boy scout. Keep this close to your chest. I’m fine now. Take the breeze, will you?’
‘Lieutenant Goldstein should be told about this,’ I said gently.
She slopped her drink, then stared at me, her big dark eyes opening wide.
‘You’re not another of those bastards, are you?’
‘Have there been more than one?’
She sat on the bed, motionless for some moments, then she drank half the contents of the glass, shuddered, then looked around as she dropped the cigarette end on the floor.
I picked it up and crushed it out in an ashtray, lit another cigarette and gave it to her.
‘Who are you?’ she demanded.
‘Gordy was blackmailing me.’
She closed her eyes, nursing her glass.
‘Oh no... not again,’ she muttered. ‘So what are you going to do? Burn me?’ She let the glass slip out of her hand. It bounced on the tatty wool rug and the gin and water made a little puddle. She cradled her head in her hands and began to moan.
I moved away from her and sat in a chair. I waited, silent.
‘Hell! I’m starting to live like a hog,’ she said as if speaking to herself. She got up, picked up the glass and went into the kitchen. She came back with a drink that would have felled an ox.
‘You still here? I told you to take the breeze.’
‘I need your help.’
She peered at me. Then she took a gulp from the glass.
‘Help?’
‘That’s right. My wife stole a bottle of perfume from the Welcome store,’ I said, speaking slowly and distinctly. ‘She got caught on the scanners. Gordy wanted twenty thousand for the strip of film. He’s dead now, but the film is somewhere. I was hoping you would tell me where to find it.’
With an unsteady hand, she put the glass on the night table.
‘Jesse was a sonofabitch, but he got to me.’ The gin was working on her now. ‘I don’t know how many times I told him to cut out this blackmail caper, but he wouldn’t listen. I kept telling him it would land him in trouble. He wouldn’t listen.’ She peered at me. ‘Judas! Am I drunk! Get the hell away from me! Leave me alone.’ She reached for the glass, knocked it over and again there was a puddle on the rug.
I sat still, watching her.
She said the usual four letter words, then she held her head in her hands again.
I remained still.
After some minutes, she looked up and glared at me.
‘Look at this!’ She flicked her wrap aside and showed me the burn. ‘That bastard came here and he burned me. He too wanted the film. So go ahead and burn me and see where it gets you!’
‘Who was it?’ I spoke gently, as if I were talking to someone who had just had a major operation.
‘How would I know? A cop. I can smell a cop a mile away. A big bastard: blue, staring eyes. If I had been his mother I would have drowned him as soon as he had popped out.’
I looked at the dead cigar and it jelled. Herman Webber!
No regular cop would have burnt her.
‘You gave him the film?’
She suddenly dropped backwards across the bed, putting her arm across her eyes.
‘I want a drink.’
I picked up the glass and went into the kitchen. I made a drink and came back. Then putting the glass on the night table, I picked her up and laid her on the bed with her head on the pillow.
‘Going to start burning me?’ she asked, but she smiled for the first time.
‘Won’t you help me?’ I said, looking down at her. ‘Did you give him the film?’
‘I told him where he could find it.’ She gave a drunken giggle. ‘I said I had mailed it to my sister in New York.’
‘Did you?’
‘No.’
‘He’s a cop, baby. He’ll call your sister and he’ll know she hasn’t got it and he’ll be back.’
‘She’ll tell him yes and when he gets there, she’ll spit in his eye. My sister and I work together.’
‘But he’ll be back.’
‘I’ll be the hell away from here by the time he does.’
‘I want that film. Would fifteen hundred dollars buy it for me?’
She studied me. Maybe this was a mistake because there came into her eyes an expression only a greedy hooker has.
‘Come again?’ she lifted her head. ‘How much?’
‘Fifteen hundred. It could get you away from here. Do you know where the film is?’
She caught hold of my wrist.
‘You mean you’ll give me fifteen hundred bucks for the film?’
‘That’s what I mean.’
She blew out her cheeks. The gin was now hitting her hard and I began to wonder uneasily if she was going to pass out.
‘I know where it is. You give me the money and you get it.’
She reached for the drink, but I took it out of her hand.
‘Skip it baby! You’re already floating.’
She nodded.
‘Yeah... gimme a cigarette.’
I lit one for her and watched her try to get hold of herself.
‘Where is it?’ I said.
‘Anxious?’ she smiled. ‘I know. Let’s have the money first, buster. That’s what Jesse always said to me: money first.’