A Bullet for Cinderella (17 page)

“What do you suggest, sir?” Prine said more humbly.

“Wait and see if somebody picks him up.”

Marion broke the connection. “Okay, Howard. You seem to know Fitzmartin pretty well. Where does he come from?”

“Originally from Texas, I think.”

“What’s his line of work?”

“I think he worked in oil fields.”

“Ever say anything about his relatives?”

“He never talked very much.”

“That’s not much help, I guess. Where can we drop you off?”

“My car’s parked across the street from Peary’s office.”

“Want to tell you that I appreciate you making a pretty good guess about this whole thing, Howard. I can’t help telling you I wonder just how much of it was guessing. And I wonder why you came here. I’d like it if you’d play the cards face up.”

I had thought him amiable, mild, ineffectual. Hour by hour I had revised my opinion. I had thought Prine was the dangerous one. Prine was the fool. Captain Marion was something else entirely.

“I’m not hiding anything, Captain.”

“We’ve got George dead, and that Grassman missing, and we’ve got those two bodies, and now Fitzmartin on the run. It has to get tied together a little better before I feel right about it.”

“I’m sorry I can’t help you.”

“I’m sorry you won’t help, son. Good night.”

They drove away. It was after ten and I was famished. In twelve hours I would be picking Antoinette up. With luck, in twenty-four hours I would be gone. Either with her or alone. I didn’t know which it would be. Call it a form of monomania. I had thought about the money for too long. I had aimed toward it for too long. Tomorrow I would have it. Once I had it, maybe I could begin to think clearly again.

I found a place to eat. I was just finishing when Brubaker came in. He sat beside me at the counter and gloomily flipped the menu open. “A hell of a long day,” he said.

“It has been.”

“And not over yet. At least they’re giving me time to eat. And then back on the job. Until God knows when. Nobody will get any sleep tonight.”

“I thought Captain Marion said he’d just wait and hope Fitzmartin gets picked up.”

“That’s right. I mean about the girl.”

I suddenly felt very cold. “What girl?”

“I thought you knew about that. The Stamm girl.
Peary brought her back to town. He left her off at her car. They found her car parked on North Delaware. And nobody’s seen her since. Her old man is fit to be tied. Everybody is running around in circles.”

I couldn’t finish the little bit of food that was left. I couldn’t drink the rest of my coffee. It was as though my throat had closed. I wondered how soon they’d add two and two. Ruth had been subdued and thoughtful when she left the lake. She would remember that Fitzmartin had acted strangely. She was the sort of person to do her own investigating. She was the sort of person who would go and talk to Fitzmartin. She would have no way of knowing that he was a killer. She would underestimate his cleverness. It wouldn’t take him long to learn that the car had been found, to learn that they were searching the area of the lake cabin. It was time to go. The string was running out. I could guess how it had happened with Grassman. Grassman, as a result of his quiet investigation, had made some sound guesses as to what had happened. He had paid a call on Fitzmartin. Maybe Grassman had wanted to cut himself in. Maybe he had made a search of the place where Fitzmartin lived while he was out. He could have found the large sum of money Fitz had extorted from George Warden. Fitz could have found him there and killed him, driven the body into town, and put it in my car.

From the violence of the blow that had killed Grassman, it could be assumed that it was an unpremeditated killing. In the moment he killed Grassman, Fitz became more deeply involved. He waited, expecting me to be jailed for the Grassman murder. When I wasn’t, he would know that I had successfully gotten rid of the body. No one had spotted it in my car. Thus, when it was found, it could as readily be traced back to him as to me.

Assuming he could be questioned about Grassman, then George became the weak link. George, by talking, could disclose Fitz’s motive for the Grassman murder. And so George had to die. Fitz had killed him boldly, taking his risk and getting away with it. Prine had been right about the towel.

Just when he thinks everything has been taken care of, Ruth Stamm arrives. He can’t leave without her immediately spreading the alarm. He needs a grace period, time enough to get far away before someone else makes the same guess she has made. That left him with a choice. He could tie her up and leave her there. But that would be too clear an admission of guilt. He could take her with him. That would be awkward and risky. Or he could kill her. One more death wouldn’t make any difference in the final penalty.

“You’re doing a lot of sweating,” Brubaker said. “It isn’t that hot in here.”

I managed a feeble smile. I said I would see him around. I paid and left. It was too easy to visualize her dead, with raw new lumber stacked over her body, her dark red hair against the damp ground in the coolness of the night. What shocked me was the stunning sense of loss. It taught me that I had underestimated what she meant to me. I could not understand how she had come to mean so much, in so short a time. More than Charlotte had ever meant.

I
went directly to police headquarters. I demanded to see Captain Marion. After fifteen minutes they let me see him.

I told him that I thought Ruth’s disappearance had something to do with Fitzmartin. He looked older and tireder. He nodded without surprise.

He said, “She knew George pretty well. Maybe she remembered something George said about Fitzmartin. So she tried to check it out herself. Maybe he’d think she was the only one who’d guess. I’ve thought of that, Howard. I don’t like it. I’ve got a crew out there searching the yard. I thought of something else, too. Maybe Grassman
guessed. Maybe that’s why something happened to him. Thanks for coming in, Howard. I added it up about a half hour ago. I don’t like the total.”

“Can I help in any way?”

“You look like hell. You better try to get some sleep.”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep.”

I drove back out to the motel. It no longer seemed important about meeting Antoinette in the morning. It didn’t matter any more. I had come here to Hillston to find treasure. I had thought I would find it buried in the ground. I had found it walking around, with dark red hair, with gray eyes, with a look of pride. And I hadn’t recognized it. I had acted like a fool. I had tried to play the role of thief. But it didn’t fit. It never would fit. The money meant nothing. Ruth meant everything. I had had a chance and I had lost it. They don’t give you two chances.

I parked in front of my motel room. The office was dark, the
No Vacancy
sign lighted. Cars sat in the light of an uneasy moon, and the travelers slept.

I unlocked the door with my key and stepped inside, reaching for the light switch. Something came out of the darkness and slammed against my jaw. Pain blossomed red behind my eyes, a skyrocket roaring was in my ears and I felt myself fall into nothingness.

I came to in a brightly lighted place. I opened my eyes and saw nothing but the white glare and closed them quickly. The white glare hurt. My hands were behind me, fastened there somehow. I was in an awkward position. Something soft filled my mouth, holding it open.

I opened my eyes again, squinting. I saw that I was in the small tile bathroom of the motel. The door was closed. I lay on my side on the floor. Earl Fitzmartin sat on the side of the tub. He wore khakis. He looked at me with those eyes like smoke. His pale colorless hair was tousled. I could sense at once that he had gone beyond the vague borderline of sanity. It was like being in a cage with an animal.

He stood up, closed the lid on the toilet, bent over me, picked me up with disconcerting ease, and sat me on the
closed lid, holding me for a moment until he was certain I wouldn’t topple over. He sat on the rim of the tub again, facing me.

“We aren’t going to talk over a whisper, Tal. We aren’t going to make any sudden noises. If we make any sudden noises I’m going to snap your neck with my hands. It wouldn’t be hard to do. Nod your head if you’re going to be quiet.”

I nodded. He took a knife out of his pocket, opened the blade, and leaned toward me. He put the cold steel against my cheek, holding it there, smiling in an odd way, then yanked it toward him, cutting the strip of sheeting that held the dry washcloth in my mouth. I pushed the washcloth out with my tongue and it fell to the floor at my feet.

“Where’s Ruth?”

“That was just a little bit too loud. Not much too loud. Just a little bit. So soften it up, Tal. Ruth is all right.”

“Thank God.”

“Not God. Me. I had the idea, not God. She was on the ground. On her face. Out like a light. I took hold of that wonderful hair in my left hand and I pulled her head up. I held this little knife against her throat. It’s sharp enough to shave with. I was about to pull it through her throat when I suddenly began to wonder if she might be worth something. So I didn’t do it. She’s all right. Don’t thank God. Thank Earl Fitzmartin. She isn’t comfortable. She isn’t happy. But she’s still alive, Tal.”

“Where is she?”

“Not over a half mile from here. But you don’t know what direction. It’s across country. I was trained to fight at night. I move well at night, Tal. I’m good at night. You know how I used to get around the camp. You remember that. She’s well tied, Tal. She can’t even wiggle. She can’t make a sound. You’re really worried about her, aren’t you? She came to the yard. For a little heart-to-heart talk. Did they find the bodies, Tal?”

“They tore up the garage floor.”

“Now they can ask George all about it. But George won’t have a word to say. George isn’t talking. George
didn’t have much more left. Just a little equity in the lumberyard. A little stock in the store. Not enough left to stay around for. He was good for forty-seven thousand, seven hundred dollars. It should have been more. He didn’t have to give up. He could have gotten on the ball and started making more. He could have tried to fatten up the kitty. But he was selfish. He would have lived longer.”

“You killed him.”

“That was a shade too loud, Tal. Just a bit too loud. How are you coming with Cindy, Tal. Find her?”

“You took an awful chance killing George.”

He smiled again. “You won’t believe this, but I didn’t kill him. He started to come to while I was stripping him, but I poured more liquor into him. I read that people drown themselves and shoot themselves and cut their wrists naked. Did you know that? Very interesting. I got him propped on the side of the bed. I got the muzzle with the towel around it between his teeth. The gun was about the only thing holding him up. I wanted the angle to be right and I wanted to do it when there was a lot of noise on the floor. But I wanted to do it, Tal. You know, you plan a thing, and work it out just right, you want to do it. But he opened his eyes. He looked right at me. He looked ridiculous, with the gun in his mouth. He looked right at me and put his big toe against the trigger before I could stop him. I don’t know if it was an accident. What do you think?”

“I think he did it on purpose.”

“So do I. So do I. It makes me feel a little strange. He maybe did it like a joke. He did that well. He didn’t do much else well. He didn’t do well marrying that woman or burying her, either. I thought I’d hit the sixty thousand when I dug under the pines. But it turned out to be the woman and the salesman. It disappointed me, Tal. But it turned out to be just like finding money, didn’t it?”

“They’re all after you now.”

“Do you think that worries me? Now hear this. It doesn’t worry me a bit. Maybe you ought to be worried. Where is Grassman? I didn’t think you could get out of
that. You surprised me a little, Tal. I thought it would give you the jumps. What did you do with it?”

“I hid the body in a barn, an abandoned barn.”

“And I bet you did some sweating. Grassman was smart. He was in my league, Tal. Not yours. He added things up. He was a pro. He added things up and came after the money. He knew I had to have it around somewhere. He knew I was too smart to spend it. I caught him looking for it. We had a little talk. He got rough. I got mad and hit him too hard. That made it awkward. I put him in the back end of my car. I didn’t know where to dump him. I was thinking of an alley, so they’d think he’d been mugged. But I found your car by accident. It saved me a lot of time. After I killed Grassman, I knew I had to get George out of the way. He was the only one who could tie me to Grassman. It took some planning, and some luck. I won’t have time to work on the Cindy angle. How are you coming?”

I could see the shape of it. George could tie him to Grassman and George was dead. I could tie him to both of them. It was only through his greed that I could buy time, buy my life. “I found her.”

He waited ten seconds. He said, “A hundred and seven thousand sounds better than forty-seven. I think I better have that much before I take off, Tal.”

“They’re going to get you.”

“I don’t think so. I don’t figure it that way. They might have got me if I’d cut her throat. I wanted to. But I didn’t let myself. They would have hunted me too hard. Now you can trade information for her, Tal. If she doesn’t mean anything to you, too bad. I can kill you right here and go and kill her and be on my way and be careful and take my chances. I couldn’t leave you here telling them about George and Grassman and then finding my sixty thousand. I’d rather nobody found it.”

“Somebody is going to find it, anyway. The girl is going to find it. She knows where it is.”

“Where is it, Tal?”

“She wouldn’t tell me. I told her too much. I couldn’t find out any other way. She’s—more in your league, Fitz.
I’m picking her up tomorrow morning in Redding. At ten o’clock. She’s going to go with me to where the money is hidden.”

He smiled in that wild, unpleasant way. “You’re kidding the troops, boy. You’re stalling. I scared you and you’re making things up. You’re just smart enough to know that if you are going to get it tomorrow, and yet you don’t know where it is, I’ve got to leave you alive. You’re that smart, and that’s why you made it up.”