I waited till Taggert was back standing in front of his chair, and I didn’t bother telling him to sit down; that was up to him. I asked, “Any last words, either of you?”
“You can’t get away with this,” Taggert said, but he didn’t sound as though he was convincing even himself. His voice slid upward almost to a question mark.
I said, “I’m not expecting to. All three of us are going out the same door, remember?”
Adrian started to say something, but I was afraid he might say the wrong thing. I said, “You’re first, Adrian, because you came first with Lola, and besides I want to save Taggert for the last. Are you ready?”
I lifted the gun and sighted it. The radio came to the end of a number and the announcer’s voice cut in with a commercial. I said, “As soon as the music starts again.” I lowered the gun a few inches.
The announcer’s voice shouted on—it was a shout, with the radio that loud. The commercial went on almost interminably, but it finally ended.
I lifted the gun again, but this time Taggert yelled, “Wait! Don’t. I’ll—I’ll write it.”
I said, “Don’t bother. To hell with you. I’d rather—” but Adrian came in, begging me to let Taggert write and sign. Weak and shaky inside, I let myself be talked into it. Taggert was sold by now; he was almost pathetically eager in wanting to get to the desk and write out that confession. I let him, finally.
He signed it and I said, “Hand it to Adrian,” and I kept the gun on him while Adrian read it rapidly. Adrian said, “It’s fine, Wayne. It’s all here. The only sad part is they can’t send him up for long. A little while in jail—and if this play goes over he’ll have money when he comes out. They can’t do much to him.”
I said, “There’s one thing I can do.” I put the gun back in my pocket and took the four steps that took me to Taggert, who was still standing by the desk. He made only a half-hearted effort to get his hands up and went down and out cold with the first punch I threw. There wasn’t much satisfaction in that, but there wasn’t anything more I could do about it.
I picked up his phone and called the police.
While we waited, Adrian said, “Damn you, Wayne, did you have to scare me to death after we got here? Couldn’t you have tipped me off in advance? How’d I know, for a while there, that you really weren’t going to shoot both of us?”
I said, “You might have hammed it up, Adrian. You can’t act, you know.”
He grinned weakly. He said, “I guess you can. Well, with him in jail or out, Taggert’s play goes on. Only I won’t consult him about who gets the lead. You still—I mean, did and do you really want it?”
I said, “I guess I do. I don’t really know right now. I’ll let you know after the police get through with me and I get over the hangover I’ll have from what I’m going to do after that. I’ll let you know. I feel like—”
I remembered the radio was still blaring; we’d both forgotten it. I went over and shut it off and then turned to Adrian. I asked him, “What will the job pay?”
He laughed out loud. He said, “You’ll be all right, boy. You’re coming out of it already.”
Don't Look Behind You
JUST SIT back and relax, now. Try to enjoy this; it’s going be the last story you ever read, or nearly the last. After you finish it you can sit there and stall a while, you can find excuses to hang around your house, or your room, or your office, wherever you’re reading this; but sooner or later you’re going to have to get up and go out. That’s where I’m waiting for you: outside. Or maybe closer than that. Maybe in this room.
You think that’s a joke of course. You think this is just a story in a book, and that I don’t really mean you. Keep right on thinking so. But be fair; admit that I’m giving you fair warning.
Harley bet me I couldn’t do it. He bet me a diamond he’s told me about, a diamond as big as his head. So you see why I’ve got to kill you. And why I’ve got to tell you how and why and all about it first. That’s part of the bet. It’s just the kind of idea Harley would have.
I’ll tell you about Harley first. He’s tall and handsome, and suave and cosmopolitan. He looks something like Ronald Coleman, only he’s taller. He dresses like a million dollars, but it wouldn’t matter if he didn’t; I mean that he’d look distinguished in overalls. There’s a sort of magic about Harley, a mocking magic in the way he looks at you; it makes you think of palaces and far-off countries and bright music.
It was in Springfield, Ohio, that he met Justin Dean. Justin was a funny-looking little runt who was just a printer. He worked for the Atlas Printing & Engraving Company. He was a very ordinary little guy, just about as different as possible from Harley; you couldn’t pick two men more different. He was only thirty-five, but he was mostly bald already, and he had to wear thick glasses because he’d worn out his eyes doing fine printing and engraving. He was a good printer and engraver; I’ll say that for him.
I never asked Harley how he happened to come to Springfield, but the day he got there, after he’d checked in at the Castle Hotel, he stopped in at Atlas to have some calling cards made. It happened that Justin Dean was alone in the shop at the time, and he took Harley’s order for the cards; Harley wanted engraved ones, the best. Harley always wants the best of everything.
Harley probably didn’t even notice Justin; there was no reason why he should have. But Justin noticed Harley all right, and in him he saw everything that he himself would like to be, and never would be, because most of the things Harley has, you have to be born with.
And Justin made the plates for the cards himself and printed them himself, and he did a wonderful job-something he thought would be worthy of a man like Harley Prentice. That was the name engraved on the card, just that and nothing else, as all really important people have their cards engraved.
He did fine-line work on it, freehand cursive style, and used all the skill he had. It wasn’t wasted, because the next day when Harley called to get the cards he held one and stared at it for a while, and then he looked at Justin, seeing him for the first time. He asked, “Who did this?”
And little Justin told him proudly who had done it, and Harley smiled at him and told him it was the work of an artist, and he asked Justin to have dinner with him that evening after work, in the Blue Room of the Castle Hotel.
That’s how Harley and Justin got together, but Harley was careful. He waited until he’d known Justin a while before he asked him whether or not he could make plates for five and ten dollar bills. Harley had the contacts; he could market the bills in quantity with men who specialized in passing them, and-most important-he knew where he could get paper with the silk threads in it, paper that wasn’t quite the genuine thing, but was close enough to pass inspection by anyone but an expert.
So Justin quit his job at Atlas and he and Harley went to New York, and they set up a little printing shop as a blind, on Amsterdam Avenue south of Sherman Square, and they worked at the bills. Justin worked hard, harder than he had ever worked in his life, because besides working on the plates for the bills, he helped meet expenses by handling what legitimate printing work came into the shop.
He worked day and night for almost a year, making plate after plate, and each one was a little better than the last, and finally he had plates that Harley said were good enough. That night they had dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria to celebrate and after dinner they went the rounds of the best night clubs, and it cost Harley a small fortune, but that didn’t matter because they were going to get rich.