“And I want you to go into it.”
“All right, his secretary told me.”
“How did she know?”
“It was her birthday. There was a sort of office party and—”
“Cocktails?” Dale asked.
“Cocktails.”
“Go on,” Dale said. “What happened?”
“And then this cheap, chiseling, two-bit punk, Donald Lam, got in the picture and told me such a convincing lie about having seen the accident that I came to the conclusion my suspicions were all wrong and I drew in my horns. I threw up my hands, decided I was licked and then paid the s.o.b. two hundred and fifty dollars in cash to boot.”
Dale thought things over for a few moments, then he began to chuckle.
He got up and nodded to me. “Go on with your party,” he said to Maxton. “I’m sorry I interrupted you and I hope the panties fit.”
Chapter Fourteen
We went back down to the car. The chief started the motor. His eyes were narrowed in thoughtful speculation.
He turned on the radio and called in to the dispatcher. “This is Chief Dale in Car One. I’m working on a case. Anything new on that Holgate case? Over.”
The dispatcher said, “Bulletin from the Los Angeles police just a few minutes ago, putting out an all points bulletin on Donald Lam. They’ve buttoned up the case against him and are ready to charge him with the murder of Carter Holgate. Over.”
Chief Dale said, “Thanks. Keep in touch.”
He shut off the radio and grinned at me.
“Your friend on the Los Angeles police force doesn’t have much faith in you, does he?”
“Not much,” I said. “How about making a telephone call?”
“Sure thing. Anything you want, Lam.” He grinned again and said, “Anything you want. You name it, you can have it.”
Then he began to chuckle.
“Some reason why Holgate wouldn’t want to take the responsibility with you, Chief?” I asked.
“You’re damned right there is,” Dale said. “It’s a long story. Holgate was a high-pressure salesman. A good enough egg, but strictly high pressure. A friend of mine had some property up in the mountains. Holgate offered to trade it for a couple of lots in his subdivision. She went for it in a big way.
“After the trade had been made for about sixty days, it turned out there was a new highway going through the mountains and the location went right through the property this girl had owned. I don’t know how much Holgate made out of it, but it was plenty.”
“Did she do anything about it?” I asked.
“She didn’t,” Dale said. “But I had a talk with Holgate.”
“What did he do?”
“He laughed at me.”
“So,” I said, “in case you were in a position to jail Holgate for drunk driving, hit-and-run... I’m beginning to see a great light.”
“And I’m beginning to see a great light,” Chief Dale said. “For your information, Lam, there’s a special meeting of the council at nine-thirty this evening and one of the subjects on the agenda is getting a new police chief. When you dropped into my office it was manna from heaven. I hadn’t told my wife about it because I didn’t want to worry her. I was going to go home, have cocktails and dinner, and had made arrangements to be summoned on the telephone so I could go up to the council meeting and be available. But they hadn’t invited me to be present. They were having an ‘executive session’ and I gather my successor may have already been picked out sub rosa. — Here’s a good isolated telephone booth. Put through your call. Got all the money you need?”
“I have a credit card,” I said.
“Okay, I’ll wait here.”
The chief settled back in the car and lit a cigar. He was grinning like a Cheshire cat.
I put through a call to the office.
Bertha Cool answered. “Where the hell are you?” she said. “My God, do you know what’s happened? That s.o.b. Frank Sellers, let that Ace High Detective guy sell him on the idea you were cutting corners. Heaven knows what sort of evidence they cooked up, but Sellers rang me up and told me to have you surrender yourself at once.”
“What did you tell him?”
“I told him the truth. I told him you’d gone out and I didn’t know where you were, and he said I had fifteen minutes to locate you and if I didn’t locate you in that time he was putting out an all points bulletin, that he was tired of being made a patsy.”
“Anything else?” I asked.
“That’s it— Oh, wait a minute. Elsie wants to talk with you... Where the hell is she? She said she had something else that might interest you. I guess she’s gone out.”
“All right,” I said. “Here’s what I want you to do, Bertha. Get in your car and drive just as fast as you can to the Miramar Apartments in Colinda. You locate Elsie. Leave a message for her in her apartment house if you can’t do anything else. Tell her to bring her scrapbook on automobile accidents and hit-and-run and get the hell out there just as fast as she can. I’ll meet you there.”
“How soon?”
“As soon as you get there.”
“Do I get dinner first?” Bertha asked.
“Hell, no,” I said. “You get out there just as fast as you can, and get Elsie out there.”
I hung up the phone and started putting on an act. I’d pretend to drop a coin, then I’d dial a number. I kept that up for nearly ten minutes, pretending to talk and listen.
Chief Dale sat in the car, grinning. When he showed signs of getting restless I went out of the booth.
“Took you long enough,” he said.
“I had several calls.”
“All done?”
“All done, Chief.”
“Well, Donald, I don’t want to be hauled on the carpet for conspiring to protect a felon. You’re wanted for murder. Hold out your wrists.”
I held out my wrists. The chief snapped handcuffs on them. “You’re under arrest,” he said. “You’re my prisoner. And I just want you to know that while you’re my guest in the jail at Colinda, if there’s any damned thing on earth you want, all you’ve got to do is to mention it. You can have special meals, special attention, a telephone in your cell, you can see anybody you want to. You can have anything you want except a dame. That I can’t get for you.”
“Thanks,” I told him.
“Don’t thank me,” he said.
“Are you going to take me down to the jail before you—”
“Before I see Vivian Deshler?” he asked. “Hell, no. Don’t think I’m dumb and don’t be dumb yourself, Lam. I just put those handcuffs on you as a token. You’re my prisoner — and you’re too damned smart to try to escape. You may be innocent of the murder but after you’ve been placed under arrest by an officer, making an escape is a felony and — well, I wouldn’t like that, Donald, and I could be awfully mean if something happened that I didn’t like.”
“I understand,” I told him. “I’m sitting right here.”
“Those handcuffs too tight?”
“No, they’re very comfortable.”
“Okay,” he said. “Here we go.”
We drove out to the Miramar Apartments, and the chief took me up in the elevator with him, handcuffs and all.
We went to Vivian Deshler’s apartment.
The chief pushed his finger against the mother-of-pearl button and held it there until Vivian Deshler opened the door.
Dale pulled back his coat. “This is the police, Miss Deshler. I’m Chief Dale of Colinda, the chief of police.”
“Oh, yes,” she said. “What can I do for you, Chief?”
“I want to talk.”
“Come in and sit down, Chief Dale,” she said. “You’re very welcome. I’m going out a little later but...”