“You must have had a reason. I don’t see it, though.”
“I came to you in all sincerity. But now I know more about the situation. I tell you in all sincerity that if Lister had killed my sister I’d hunt him down to the ends of the earth. You don’t know me.”
“What about the plane tickets?”
“You’ve made a mistake. I bought no tickets, and if I had it’s no concern of yours. Look here.” He showed me the return half of a round-trip ticket between Los Angeles and Chicago. “You see, I’m flying home to Chicago tomorrow, by myself.”
“Mission accomplished?”
“Deuce take you!” They were the strongest words I’d heard him use. He rose and came towards me. “Get out of my room now. I’m sick of the sight of you.”
“I’m staying.”
“I’ll call the house detective.”
“Hell, call the police.”
He went to the room telephone and lifted the receiver. I stood and watched his bluff fade into nothing. He put the receiver down. I sat in the armchair he had vacated, and he went into the bathroom. I heard him retching. He had meant it literally when he said I made him sick.
The phone rang after a while, and I answered it. A woman’s voice said: “Reggie? I’m calling from a drugstore. May we come to your room? Leonard thinks it would be safer.”
“Naturally,” I said in a higher voice than my own.
“Did you get the tickets?”
“Absolutely.”
The bathroom door had opened. Harlan flung himself on my back. I hung up carefully before I turned on him. He fought with his nails and his teeth. I had to quiet him the hard way, with my left fist. I dragged him into the bathroom and shut the door on him.
Then I sat on the bed and looked at the telephone. Lister had a woman with him, and she knew Harlan. She knew Harlan well enough to call him Reggie, and Reggie had bought plane tickets for her and Lister. With a wrench that shook me down to my heels, the entire case turned over in my head and lodged at a crazy angle. Over its tilted edge, I saw Dolphine’s moon-dead face, and the faceless face of the woman who had left him.
I found his name again in the directory. His telephone rang six times, and then his voice came dimly over the wires:
“Jack Dolphine speaking.”
I said bluntly, to keep him from hanging up: “Mrs. Dolphine has left you, I understand.”
“What’s that? Who is this?”
“The private cop you talked to this morning, about the Lister case. It’s turned into a murder case.”
“Murder? How does Stella come into it?”
“That’s the question, Mr. Dolphine. Is she there?”
There was a long silence, ending in a “No,” that was almost as soft as silence.
“When did she leave?”
“I told you. Last night. Anyway she was gone when I got up this morning.” Self-pity or some other emotion rose audibly in his throat. “This murder, you don’t mean Stella?” The emotion choked him.
“Pull yourself together. Did your wife really leave with Lister?”
“Far as I know. Did he kill her? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”
“I’m not trying to tell you anything. I have a corpse on my hands. You should be able to identify it.”
“You put the arm on Lister?” He sounded very eager.
“Not yet. I’m going to shortly.”
“Don’t let him go, whatever you do. He’s a dangerous man. He killed her, I know he killed her.”
He was choking up again. I said sharply:
“How do you know?”
“He threatened to. I heard them talking before he went east, a couple of weeks ago. They were quarreling back and forth in his studio, yelling at each other like wild animals. She wanted to marry him, divorce me and go off with him. He said he was going to marry another woman, a woman he really loved. She said she wouldn’t let him. And he told her if she interfered, he’d strangle her with his hands.”
“Will you swear to that?”
“I’ll swear to it. It’s the truth.” His voice dropped. “Did he strangle her?”
“A woman’s dead. I don’t know who she is, until I get her identified. I’m in Santa Monica, at the Oceano Hotel. Can you come here now?”
“I guess so. I know where it is. Is Stella there?”
There was a flurry of footsteps in the hall.
“Maybe she soon will be. Make it as quick as you can, and come right up. I’m in room three-fourteen.”
Somebody knocked on the hall door. I hung up, took my revolver out, and carried it to the door, which I swung wide. Lister was surprised to see me. His eyes bulged in their white rings. His right hand started a movement, which the woman beside him interrupted. She wrapped both arms around his arm, and hung her weight on him:
“Please, Leonard, no more violence. I couldn’t bear any more violence.”
But there had been violence, and she had borne it. Its marks were on her face. One of her eyes had been blackened, one cheek was ridged diagonally with deep scratches. Otherwise she was a handsome woman of thirty or so, tall and slender-hipped in a tailored suit. A new-looking hat sat smartly on her dark head. But her single usable eye was glaring in desperation:
“Are you a policeman?”
Lister’s free hand covered her mouth. “Be quiet now. Don’t say a word. I’ll do the talking.”
They stumbled into the room in a kind of lockstep. I shut the door with my heel. The woman sat on the bed. The marks on her face were vivid against her pallor. Lister stood in front of her.
“Where’s Harlan?”
“I’ll ask the questions. You’ll answer them.”
“Who do you think you are?”
He took a threatening step. I leveled my revolver at his stomach.
“The one with the gun. It’s loaded. I’ll use it if I have to.”
The woman spoke behind him. “Listen to me, Leonard. It isn’t any use. Violence only breeds further violence. Haven’t you learned that yet?”
“Don’t worry, there won’t be any trouble. I know how to deal with these Hollywood dollar-chasers.” He turned to me, a white sneer flashing in his beard. “It is money you’re after, isn’t it?”
“That’s what Harlan thought. He paid me a thousand dollars to bury a dead woman and forget her. I’m turning his checks over to the police.”
“I hear you telling me.”
“You’ll see me do it, Lister. I’m turning you over to them at the same time.”
“Unless I pay you, eh? How much?”
The woman sighed. “Dearest. These shifts and strategems – can’t you see how squalid, how squalid and miserable they are? We’ve tried your way and it’s failed, wretchedly. It’s time to try my way.”
“We can’t, Maude. And we haven’t failed.” He sat on the bed and put one arm around her narrow shoulders. “Just let me talk to him, I’ve dealt with his kind before. He’s only a private detective. Your brother hired him yesterday.”
“Where is my brother now?” she asked me. “Is he all right?”
“In there. He’s a little battered.”
I indicated the bathroom door with my gun. For some reason it was embarrassing to hold a naked weapon in front of her. I pushed it down into my waistband, leaving my jacket open in case I needed it quickly.
“You’re Maude Harlan.”
“I was. I am Mrs. Leonard Lister. This is my husband.” She looked up into my face. I caught a glimpse of the thing between them. It flared like sudden lightning in blue darkness.
“The dead one is Stella Dolphine.”
“Is that her first name? It’s strange to have killed a woman without even knowing her name.”
“No.” The word was torn painfully from Lister’s throat. “My wife doesn’t know what she’s saying, she’s had a bad time.”