Complete works of peter.., p.64
Complete Works of Peter Cheyney. Illustrated, page 64
I switch the lights on an' take a look all round the place. There just ain't anybody there. Finally I go inta the kitchen. When I get there I see the note that was propped up against the tea canister is gone an' I wonder if Nellie the cook has been back. If she has, where is this baby?
I go back to the hall an' I grab the telephone. I ring through to O'Halloran an' ask this guy if he's got any news. He says yes, that he has been on to Lee Sam an' the girl's cashed in all right. She got in just after nine o'clock. She's been stickin' around seein' friends. I ask him if he has said anythin' to this Lee Sam about Mrs. Thorensen not bein' out at the Villa Rosalito, an' he says he ain't said a word, that there didn't seem any call to say anything, but that the daughter would know that anyway.
I then tell him that I'm comin' straight back to the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, and as it is good an' foggy I reckon to be back there about eleven o'clock, an' that maybe he would like to meet me at the dump an' drink a little more whisky. He says O.K. he will go any place to drink whisky.
I go outside, start the car up an' drive back. The mist has come down like a blanket an' there is a thin drizzlin' rain. It's a miserable sorta night. It's not so easy to drive an' it is quarter after eleven before I get back.
Upstairs in my room I find O'Halloran. He has finished the bottle I ordered when I was there before so I get another one up an' we have a drink.
"Look, Terry," I tell him. "I'm gettin' plenty leg-work on this job. Right now I'm takin' a run up to this Lee Sam's place. I wanta have a word with that daughter of his. I reckon I wanta know where Marella Thorensen is."
He puts his glass down. "Why don't you call her husband?" he says. "He's got an apartment up on Nob Hill. Maybe she's out there."
"Yeah, an' maybe she ain't," I tell him. "If this dame wanted to talk to her husband about this business that she wants to talk to me about, she'd have done it before. Right now I don't wanta disturb this guy Aylmar Thorensen. I just wanta talk to this Chinese dame, but if you wanta be a good guy I'll tell you what you can do. Stick around here an' go on drinkin' whisky. Maybe I'll want you to do somethin' for me. If I do I'll call you through from Lee Sam's place."
"O.K. Lemmy," he says. "Me I'm happy. I've got my feet up an' I'm drinking whisky. What can a guy ask more than that?"
I leave him reachin' for the bottle.
I jump a cable car up the hill an' get dropped off somewhere around this Vale Down House where Lee Sam lives. As I walk up to it I see a lighted window stickin' outa the mist. The house is one helluva big place standin' in its own grounds with a high sorta wall around it an' big ornamental gates. It looks like this Chinaman has got plenty dough.
I go through the gates, walk along the drive an' ring the bell. A slit-eyed palooka in a butler's coat opens the door. I tell him that I am a Federal Officer an' that I would like to have a few words with Miss Lee Sam, an' he shows me inta some sittin' room that is filled with some swell Chinese furniture, an' tells me to park myself.
About five minutes later a guy comes inta the room, an' I reckon that this will be Lee Sam. He is a fine old benevolent lookin' guy with white whiskers an' a Chinese pigtail, which not many of 'em wear these days. He is wearin' Chinese clothes an' looks like he'd stepped out of a picture on a willow pattern plate. He has got a nice quiet sorta face, bland an' smilin', an' he speaks good English except that he can't sound his "r's."
"You want see Miss Lee Sam?" he says. "Can I help. Velly solly I disturb Police Department unnecessarily. Daughter is quite safe. She was driving alound seeing fliends."
He smiles. "Young people velly thoughtless," he says.
"Fine, Lee Sam," I tell him, "an' I'm glad your daughter's O.K., but I wanta have a word with her, see? I wanta see her about something else."
He looks a little bit surprised, but he don't say anythin', he just sorta shrugs his shoulders, turns around an' walks outa the room. I sit down again an' light myself a cigarette, an' in a coupla minutes the door opens an' a dame walks in. An' what a dame!
I tell you she's got everything. She is tall, slight an' supple, but that don't mean she's thin. She has the right sorta curves. I tell you that dame's figure would have made a first-class mannequin jump in the lake out of envy. Her hair is as black as night but her eyes are turquoise blue. If I didn't know that this dame was Lee Sam's daughter I'd never have guessed she was Chinese in a million years. I woulda thought she was just a super American lovely.
She is wearing a black silk Chinese coat an' trousers worked over with gold dragons. The coat is buttoned high to her neck an' a pair of black satin shoes with diamond buckles set off her feet swell. Her skin is dead white an' her lips are parted in a little smile as if she sorta thought she liked you but wasn't quite certain. Her teeth are pearly an' even, an' she has got about twenty thousand smackers' worth of diamond necklace around her neck an' another ten grands' worth on her fingers in rings.
If this is what dames look like in China then I am wise to why so many palookas are tryin' to be missionaries.
She stops right in front of where I am sittin' an' looks down at me. "Good night to you," she says. "You wish to speak to me?"
I get up. "Just a few questions, Miss Lee Sam," I tell her. "My name's Caution. I'm a Federal Officer. I suppose you don't know where Mrs. Thorensen is?"
She looks surprised. "Marella was at home when I saw her last. I arrived there at four-forty-five. There was no one there. I waited a little while and then she returned. That would be five o'clock or a little after."
"O.K." I say, "an' then what did you do?"
"We sat an' talked."
She is lookin' at me with the same half smile, sorta old-fashioned, if you know what I mean.
"An' how long was you sittin' there talkin'?" I ask her.
She shrugs her shoulders. "For a long time," she says. "Until about seven o'clock or maybe later. I left there at about twenty minutes to eight."
"An' you left her there?"
She nods her head.
"If that's so, Miss Lee Sam, can you explain why it was that your father couldn't get any answer on the telephone when he called through after he'd got worried about you?"
She is still smilin'. She looks to me like a very swell-lookin' school teacher bein' patient with a kid.
"I can tell you that, Mr. Caution," she says. "When we were talking Marella took the telephone receiver off the hook so that we should not be disturbed. Then afterwards we went up to her room and I expect she forgot to put it back again."
I think a minute. I remember that when I went out there the second time an' rang O'Halloran from there the telephone receiver was on the hook all right.
"That's possible," I say. "An' why did you go out there in such a helluva hurry directly you got in on the China Clipper?"
She smiles a bit more.
"She wanted me to," she answers. "She wrote to me in Shanghai. She told me to go to her very urgently because she was in trouble. She write me by air mail on the first of this month. She said I was to come to be with her on the 10th at latest. She is my friend," she says, "so I came."
I grin. "Lady," I tell her, "I wish you was so friendly with me that you'd fly four thousand miles if I wrote you a letter. Was that the only reason?"
"That is enough reason, Mr. Caution," she says. "If I loved you I would fly four thousand miles to you if you asked it."
I reckon that I oughta keep my mind on the business in hand, so I don't say anything to this crack.
"Maybe you've got the letter that Mrs. Thorensen wrote you askin' you to come over?" I say.
She shakes her head. "No," she says, "I destroyed it. I saw no reason to keep it."
"What's you first name Miss Lee Sam?" I ask her.
"Berenice," she says.
She looks at me an' her eyes are like a deep stream in the summer. I tell you this baby is no pushover. She has got poise an' calm an' the whole works an' her brain is as snappy as a whip.
"Don't you think it a nice name, Mr. Caution?" she says.
"So your mother was American?" I shoot at her.
"Yes," she says. "How did you know?"
"Your father can't pronounce 'r's'" I tell her. "So he wouldn't have christened you Berenice."
"You are very much more clever than you look, Mr. Caution," she says. "And you are right about my father. He pronounces it 'Belenice'; but he has another name for me. It is Chinese. It means 'Very Deep and Very Beautiful Stream.' Do you like that Mr. Caution?"
"Lady," I tell her, "you're beautiful all right an' I think you're plenty deep."
She starts smilin' again an' turns around as the old guy comes inta the room. He comes over to me.
"Gentleman to spleak to you," he says. "Telephone in hall outside."
I go out after him. I leave her standin' there smilin'. It is O'Halloran.
"Listen, you beautiful brute," he says. "I been amusin' myself doin' a little telephonin' around this town an' here's a flash for you. Half an hour ago some cops from the Harbour patrol find a body floatin' around the New York Dock. They sent it along to the morgue. It's a dame. I ain't been around there because I hate leavin' this whisky, but here's a rough description. Height about five feet five: weight estimated at 120 to 130 lbs. Blonde an' bobbed hair. Does that mean anything to you?"
"O.K. Terry," I tell him. "Just stick around an' I'll take in the morgue personally. I'll be seein' you."
The old guy has disappeared. I go back inta the room. She is still standin' there where I left her.
"Listen, lady," I tell her. "There's just one thing more. What clothes was Mrs. Thorensen wearin' when you saw her?"
"She was wearin' a blue suit with an oyster coloured crepe-de-chine shirt," she says. "She had on grey silk stockings and black patent court shoes."
"Any rings?"
"Yes, a diamond and ruby betrothal ring, and a diamond set wedding ring, and a single ruby ring on her little finger. She always wore those."
"Thanks a lot," I tell her. "I'll be seein' you some more Very Deep an' Very Beautiful Stream," I crack at her, "an' mind you don't run out to the sea while I'm away."
I scram.
I jump a cab that is wanderin' an' I go down the hill. I pay off the cab at Kearny an' walk along past the Hall of Justice to the morgue. This is a long low dump lyin' beside the hall on the other side of a little roadway.
It has started to rain like hell an' in spite of the mist it is sorta close an' heavy. Away down the street I can just see the blue lamp outside the morgue.
Just along by the entrance I can see a dame. She's got no slicker an' no hat an' no umbrella; she is just standin' there lookin' as if she was lost an' likin' it.
"Hey, sister, don't you know it's rainin'?" I tell her as I walk past. "What's the matter? Has some guy stood you up?"
She looks at me sorta fresh, but there is a scared look in her eye. "On your way, sailor," she says. "Maybe I like rain; it sets my hair."
As I turn inta the entrance I am thinkin' that all dames are nuts anyhow. I go up the entrance steps an' push the door open. Inside on the right of the hallway is the office. I go in there. There ain't anybody in it; but there is a bell for the attendant on the desk.
I push it. Then I wait around for a few minutes. Nothin' happens. I push the bell again. After a bit the door on the other side of the counter opens an' the attendant comes in. He is in his shirt sleeves an' his uniform cap is about two sizes too small for him. I start wonderin' why it is that they always give these morgue guys caps that are too small.
"An' what can I do for you?" he says.
I show him my badge. "There was a dame brought in here to-night by the Harbour squad," I tell him. "I wanta have a look at her."
"O.K." he says. "This way."
He opens up the flap in the counter an' I go through. Then I follow him across the office an' along a passage an' down some stairs. As we go down the air gets plenty cold. We go through an iron door at the bottom an' he switches on the light. Then he gives a sorta gasp an' points with his finger.
"Well, can you beat that?" he says. "Look. To-night just after they brought this dame in the freezin' apparatus down here goes wrong an' I have to telephone through for a whole lot of ice to keep this place cold, because we got eight stiffs down here. One ice block was put on that iron shelf above the tray they laid that dame on an' look what's happened to it."
I look. Right along the sides of the walls are what looks like white japanned filin' cabinets, an' the trays they lay the bodies on come outa these on rollers. Way down at the end of the morgue is a white tray out with a dame's body on it, an' a block of ice about three feet square has slipped off the shelf from above the tray right on the face of this dame. It wasn't no sight for babies, I'm tellin' you.
I go along an' look at it. It is dressed in a blue suit with patent court shoes, an' I can see that the shirt was oyster silk that is before the ice slipped. I look at the left hand. There is a diamond and ruby ring on the third finger an' a weddin' ring set with diamonds next to it. On the little finger is a big single ruby ring.
"O.K. buddy," I say. "That's all I wanted to know."
I scram. I walk back to the Sir Francis Drake an' go to my room. Terry is there drinkin' whisky an' playin' solitaire. I give myself a drink.
"What's eatin' you, Lemmy?" he says. "You been to the morgue?"
"Yeah," I tell him, "but that ain't what's worryin' me right now. I just got a funny idea. Listen, Terry, you tell me how the freezin' apparatus at the morgue can go wrong?"
"It can't," he says. "Not unless the electricity for the whole city goes wrong with it."
"O.K." I say. "This is where you an' me go out an' get busy."
He looks up. "How come?" he says.
"Look, Terry," I tell him. "When I go down to the morgue I see a dame standin' outside in the rain just for nothin' at all. Inside I see that the attendant's hat don't fit him. Also he tells me that the freezin' has gone wrong an' that they have had to get ice in, an' shows me how one block has slipped an' wiped out the face of the dame that was Marella Thorensen. Like a big sap I fell for it."
"For what?" he says.
"Just this," I tell him. "We're goin' out to find what they did with the real morgue attendant, the one they got outa the way while they brought that ice block in an' smacked it on the face of that corpse. The guy I saw down there was a phoney. That's why his hat didn't fit him."
I put on my hat.
"I'm layin' you six to four that we find the real guy down there in one of the trays," I say. "The girl outside was the look out. When I got in they was fixin' the job an' the others got out the back way while one smart guy came back into the office when I rang the bell an' played me for a sucker while they was doin' it."
Terry sorta sighs an' heaves himself up. We go down in the lift an' grab a cab outside.
When we get down to the morgue office there ain't anybody there at all. We go through the office an' along the passage and down the stairs to the corpse room. I switch on the light an' light a cigarette an' then we start pullin' out the trays with the stiffs on.
We found the morgue attendant all right. He was in number five tray. His eyes are wide open an' lookin' sorta surprised.
Which he was entitled to be because somebody has shot this guy three times.
II. TWO-TIME TOOTS
O'HALLORAN finishes the bottle.
"Ain't it like life?" he says. "Anyhow this dame Marella hadta die sometime. Why couldn't she get herself a piece of pneumonia or somethin' normal instead of havin' herself put outa circulation by some gun guy thereby causin' plenty trouble for all concerned?" He hiccups so hard he nearly ricks his neck.
"What I wanta know, Lemmy," he says, "is why some bozos haveta smash this dame's pan. It don't make sense to me. An' look at the risk they was runnin'. It's just sorta ridiculous. Here is the morgue stuck right next to the Hall of Justice. There is about seven cops on night shift who mighta strolled inta the morgue office any time to pass the time of day with Gluck. I don't get the idea at all."
"I get it plenty," I tell him, an' as I say this Brendy comes in.
Brendy is the Precinct Captain. He is a nice guy an' plays along very sweet with anybody who don't rub him the wrong way. He is a bit sore about bein' got up over all this besuzuz.
"Well, you guys," he says, "we got that identification sewn up all right. I had Thorensen down an' it nearly made him sick. I don't reckon I've ever seen a guy look so green around the trap. It's Marella Thorensen, an' if somebody will proceed to give me some sorta low-down on all this ice block stuff I'll be very pleased to listen to 'em."
He grabs himself off a glass an' gives himself a snifter.
"Also," he goes on, "I wants know just what we are goin' to do about these killin's. This job starts off as a Federal Investigation inta some sorta low-down that Marella Thorensen says she has got about Federal offences around here. O.K. Well, now the situation has changed plenty. There's two bump-offs in my precinct, an' that's a matter for me an' the Chief of Police. How're we goin' to play it, Lemmy?"
"Look fellers," I tell 'em. "Let's take this thing easy, shall we? Brendy, you don't know that you got two bump-offs. You're only certain that you got one. You know that Gluck, the morgue attendant, was murdered, but you don't know that Marella Thorensen was, an' that's why somebody put that act on with the ice block."
They get interested.
"Here's how I see this thing," I tell 'em. "The doctor says that Marella Thorensen was dead before she was chucked inta the drink. O.K. He knows this because there ain't any water in the lungs. So she died before she went inta the water, didn't she, an' at the present moment there ain't any medical examiner who can say just how she did die. Well I'm goin' to make a coupla guesses.
"Here's the way I reckon they played it. Somebody shoots Marella through the head, an' the next thing is to get rid of the body, so they take it along down to the wharf an' slam it over the edge.
