“Mother, I think that’s an excellent idea... As a matter of fact, I’ve already called him up.”
“You — what?”
Veda spoke sleepily, and a little impatiently. “Mother, can’t you see that I’m trying to arrange things myself, without putting you to all kinds of trouble about it? I’ve been trying to spare you. I want to make things easy for you.”
Mildred blinked, tried to adjust herself to this astounding revelation.
Wally arrived around three. Mildred brought him to the privacy of the den, then went and sent Letty on an errand that would take her all afternoon. When she got back to the den, Veda was there, in a simple little blue frock that had cost Mildred $75, and Wally was looking at the pictures of Bert attending the banquets. He said things certainly did look familiar, and casually got down to business. He said he had done a little inquiring around, and the situation was about what he figured it was. “The kid comes into dough on his twenty-first birthday, that’s the main thing. How much I don’t exactly know, but it’s well up in six figures. He’s got to inherit. There’s no way the mother, or the stepfather, or any of them can juggle the books to keep him out of it, and once he dies, whoever is married to him at the time cuts in for her share of the community property. That’s what this is all about, and it’s all it’s all about. That’s why they’re breaking their necks to head it off. It’s got nothing to do with their being too young, or loving each other, or not loving each other, or the different ways they’ve been brought up, or any of the stuff that mother has been dishing out. It’s nothing but the do-re-mi — the old army game.”
When Wally stopped Mildred drew a deep breath and spoke slowly, raising her voice a little: “Wally, I’m not interested in whether he inherits, or how much he inherits, or anything of that kind. So long as I’m here, I don’t think Veda will be in want. But a situation has been created. It’s a terrible situation for Veda, and the only thing that boy can do about it is marry her. If he’s a decent boy, he’ll do the right thing on his own initiative, regardless of what his family says. If he’s not, he’ll have to be made. Wally, that woman had a great deal to say that I haven’t told Veda, but that I have witnesses to substantiate — about law, and what she’ll do, and other things. I’ll go just as far as she will. If it’s the only way, I want that boy arrested — and you can tell him he can be very glad it’s only the police he has to face, instead of Bert.”
“Arresting him may be a little tough.”
“Haven’t we got laws?”
“He’s skipped.”
Wally shot a glance at Veda, who considered a few moments, then said: “I think you’d better tell her.”
“You see, Mildred, just happens we already thought of that. Two, three days, maybe a week ago, I took Veda over to the sheriff’s office and had her swear out a warrant for Sam. No statutory rape, nothing unpleasant like that. Just a little morals charge, and same afternoon, couple of the boys went over to serve it. He wasn’t there. And so far—”
“So that’s what she meant by officers!”
Veda stirred uneasily under Mildred’s accusing eyes. “Well Mother, if you’re talking about what I said last night, I didn’t know at that time that any officers had actually been there.”
Mildred turned on Wally. “It does seem to me that on a thing of this kind, a matter as serious as this, I should have been the first one you would have talked to about it. Why the very idea, of legal steps being taken without my knowing anything whatever about it!”
“Now just hold your horses a minute.”
Wally’s eyes became very cold, and he got up and marched up and down in front of Mildred before he went on. “One thing you might consider: I’ve got a little thing called legal ethics to consider. Sure, I’d have been willing to talk to you. We’ve talked plenty before, haven’t we? But when my client makes an express stipulation that I not talk to you, why—”
When Mildred turned, Veda was ready. “Mother, it’s about time you got it through your head that after all, I, and not you, am the main figure in this little situation, as you call it. I’m not proud of it. I readily admit it’s my own fault, and that I’ve been very foolish. But when I act on that assumption, when I try to relieve you of responsibility, when I try to save you unhappiness, it does seem to me you could give me credit for some kind of decent motives, instead of going off the handle in this idiotic way.’
“I never in all my life—!”
“Now, Mother, nobody was asking any help from you, and as Wally has taken my case as a great favor to me, I think the least you can do is let him tell us what to do, as I imagine he knows much more about such things than you do.”
As Mildred subsided, a little frightened at Veda’s tone, Wally resumed in the casual way he had begun: “Well, so far as his doing anything goes, I’d say the next move was up to them. Way I look at it, we’ve taken Round 1. When we got out that warrant, that showed we meant business. On a morals charge, all the jury wants to know is the age of the girl — after that it’s dead open and shut. When they got him under cover quick, that shows they knew what they’re up against. And what they’re up against is tough. So long as that warrant is out against him, he dare not come back to the state of California, he can’t go back to college, or even use his right name. Course there’s a couple of other things we might do, like suing the mother, but then we’re in the newspapers, and that’s not so good. I’d say leave it like it is. Sooner or later they got to lead to us, and the more we act like we don’t care, the prettier we’re sitting.”
“But Wally!”
Mildred’s voice was a despairing wail. “Wally! Time is going on! Days are passing, and look at this girl’s condition! We can’t wait! We—”
“I think we can leave it to Wally.”
Veda’s cool tone ended the discussion, but all that day and all that night Mildred fretted, and by next morning she had worked herself into a rage. When Tommy reported, at noon, she had him drive her over to Mrs. Lenhardt’s, to “have it out with her.” But as they whirled up the drive, she saw the house man that had let her in, that morning long ago, talking to the driver of a delivery truck. She knew perfectly well he would remember her, and she called shrilly to Tommy to drive on, she had changed her mind. As the car rolled around the loop in front of the house, she leaned far back, so she wouldn’t be seen. Then she had Tommy drive her to Ida’s, and telephoned Bert. Leaving Tommy in Beverly, she again picked up Bert at Mrs. Biederhof’s corner, and headed up to the hills.
Bert listened, and began shaking his head. “Gee Mildred, I wish you’d told me you had Wally Burgan in mind. I’m telling you, I don’t like the guy, and I don’t like the way he does business. Telling him to step on the gas is like — well, he’s been liquidating Pierce Homes for eight years now, hasn’t he? And they’re not liquidated yet. He’s not trying to get Veda married. He’s just running up a bill.”
They rode along, each trying to think of something, and suddenly Bert had it. “To hell with him! What we want is to find that boy, isn’t it? Isn’t that right?”
“That’s it! Instead of—”
“What this needs is a private detective.”
A hot, savage thrill shot through Mildred. At last she knew they were getting somewhere. Excitedly they talked about it, and then Bert told her to get him to a drugstore, or any place where he could get to a phone book. She stopped in San Fernando, and Bert hopped out before the car stopped rolling. He was back in a minute or two, a slip of paper in his hands. “Here’s three, with phone numbers and addresses. I’d say let’s go first to this Simons agency. I’ve heard of it, for one thing, and it’s right there in Hollywood, not too far away.”