False colors (21 page)

Sheldon said, "We're fine. I don't think this fullback of Las-siter's is going to play the rest of the game, though. Let's see." He bent and gave Molo a checkup. "He's alive," he said cheerfully, "but right now he doesn't know it."

"What are you doing here?" I said.

Nancy said, "When I came out of the house Sheldon was waiting in the square and—"

"Save it," Sheldon said. He took Molo's revolver and broke it open and husked out the bullets and stuck them in his pocket. "Let's go somewhere else to talk."

That seemed like a good idea. We walked quickly out of the square and crossed to the other side of Eighteenth Street and headed toward Nancy's house.

"I ought to say thanks," I muttered.

"Don't strain for it, old boy," Sheldon said. "I wouldn't know what to do if you started treating me like a friend."

"You got me out of a bad jam. It doesn't make me like you any better, but I won't forget what I owe you. Thanks a lot."

Sheldon grinned, and said to Nancy, "Pete trying to be gracious reminds me of an elephant doing a ballet dance."

"Don't tease him," Nancy said. "He thanked you for it and meant it. I don't know what more you can expect."

"And now that I've thanked you," I said, "what were you doing in the square?"

"Spying on you," he said cheerfully.

"Spying?"

"Of course I knew you two were holding out on me," Sheldon said. "I dropped around to see Nancy tonight, and she asked me to take her to Lassiter's show. I figured that was connected with your private mystery and the queer painting you thought Lassiter wanted to buy. So after we reached Lassiter's, I tried to keep my eye on her."

"It doesn't work," I said. "I tried it."

"You're so right, Pete. I couldn't keep track of her. Then you showed up in a sweat, and disappeared. Then you both popped up. Then Nancy vanished. You got in a worse sweat than ever. You tried to tell me Nancy had gone home."

"I had sneaked upstairs," Nancy said.

"Of course I didn't think of that," Sheldon said. "I telephoned your home, Nancy, but William said you weren't in. So I was sure Pete was covering up for you, but I didn't know why. I kept watching him. Finally they swept him out with the last bunch of visitors, and I trailed him to your house. William answered the door and Pete asked if you were in. William said no, and said he thought you were in trouble. Pete went in and I waited outside. At last Pete came out and headed back to Lassiter's and I tailed him there."

"I'm flattered," I said. "All that attention from a big game hunter."

"I wasn't tracking you for your sake. It was because of Nancy. I don't trust you to take care of her."

Nancy said, "Pete was wonderful tonight."

"Yes? Well, I only saw him trying out for the track team. To get back to my story, I watched Pete pull some kind of trick that got him inside Lassiter's place. Then I waited some more. Of course I didn't realize you were inside and in trouble, Nancy. Finally you came hurrying out of the front door and I cut across to meet you in the square and to ask what was going on. You know the rest, Pete. Nancy and I were waiting for you back of that stone railing. You'd have been all right if you hadn't lost your nerve and looked back at that guy. Old boy, you really took off."

"If a guy like Molo was coming after you with a gun," I said, "you'd have taken off too."

"Maybe so," Sheldon murmured. "But I don't think I would have knocked over a girl who got in my way."

"Sheldon!" Nancy cried.

My skin started feeling as if spiders were crawling over it. "Let me get this straight," I said. "You claim I knocked Nancy down so I could get away faster?"

"Nobody's perfect," Sheldon said easily. "You were in a jam and didn't have time to think."

I grabbed the lapels of his coat. "You're going to take that back."

He smiled. "I could break your arm, Pete. I could kick your legs out from under you. Got any choice?"

"Try them both. But make it fast."

"You aren't proving anything by this, Pete. The question isn't whether you have the guts to take me on in a brawl. It's whether you have the guts to face a guy coming at you with a gun."

"Pete," Nancy cried, tugging at my arm. "Please stop. Sheldon's right. Fighting him doesn't prove anything."

I let go my grip on Sheldon, and stared at the girl. Her face looked white and solemn. Or maybe scornful. "He's right, is he?" I asked.

"He's right about the two of you fighting."

"What about the other thing he said?"

"Don't put her on a spot like that," Sheldon said. "She's a good loyal kid, and she'll defend you. But I won't, Pete. Nancy's got to understand she can't count on you when the going gets rough."

"The hell with your opinion," I said. "I'm interested in Nancy's."

"I know you had a perfectly good reason for anything you did," she said. "Maybe you didn't even see me, or—"

"What more can you ask?" Sheldon said. "She just gave you a nice excuse. Do you like that one, Pete, or do you want to see if you can come up with a better one?"

I could come up with a better one. I could say I pushed Nancy to get her out of the line of fire. I could say I ran to draw Joe Molo away from her. But it wouldn't sound good. It would sound like an afterthought. And it's hard to be convincing when you claim you're a hero. Besides, I hadn't been one. I had been scared to death. When you came right down to it, Sheldon had a good point. I had run away from a guy with a gun, and Sheldon had run after him. It was that simple.

"I don't feel like arguing," I said. "I'll just bow out and let Sheldon take over."

"You can't," Nancy cried. "You've got to believe I trust you."

"It isn't a matter of trust," I said. "It's a matter of who can handle this mess. Sheldon's got a right to know about it now. And maybe he ought to handle it. The pace is getting a little too fast for me. Good night, Nancy. I'll give you a ring."

I turned and walked quickly away. Nancy called to me but I didn't stop. It had been silly to think that I could compete for her against Sheldon. Maybe I could keep her interested for a while by playing on her mother instinct or something, but that wasn't the way I wanted it. I walked for a block before taking a look over my shoulder. Sheldon and Nancy had just started down the street, so perhaps she had been watching me tramp away. She was a swell kid. I hoped that for once Sheldon was serious about a girl.

Back at my apartment I tumbled into bed fast. I was tired and might have gone to sleep right away except for something I remembered. Earlier in the evening William had told me Nancy had stirred up a bit of trouble that I didn't know about. I tried to figure what it might be, but I didn't have anything to go on. Probably it was something minor, anyway, compared to the trouble I knew she had been getting into. I blanked it out of my mind and went to sleep.

I should have stayed awake screaming murder.

18.

Somebody was shaking me. It was a timid shaking, and I growled and clung to sleep like an animal hanging onto food. There were sad twittering noises over my head. Then someone else grumbled, and gave my shoulder a bone-rattling shake.

I opened my eyes and complained, "What are you going to do with that shoulder after you tear it off?"

Two faces were hanging over me. One belonged to my assistant, Miss Krim. She looked as if the right word from me would send her flying, and I certainly hoped I could think of it. It took me a moment longer to identify the other face. It belonged to a man. He didn't look as if there were any right words to chase him away. I placed him finally as Detective Mc-Cann.

"I told him and told him you mustn't be disturbed," Miss Krim wailed. "But he said he's a detective and had to talk to you."

"I hope he has a clue to where I can find a quiet apartment," I said. "This place is worse than noon at Broad and Chestnut. What's the trouble, McCann?"

"Maybe you ought to tell me," McCann said. "You're getting to be more an expert on trouble than I am." He turned to Miss Krim, and said, "Thanks, lady. I want to talk to him alone."

She gazed at me sadly, as if she wanted to fix in her mind how I looked without handcuffs, and left the apartment.

I got up and squinted at my watch and saw it was a little after nine. "You were talking about me being an expert on trouble," I said. "My trouble is lack of sleep. What's yours?"

"People that want to play detective. You were busy after I left you yesterday."

"Lot of customers in the store. Everybody wants to be an artist nowadays."

"You know what I mean, Meadows. You went to Shakespeare Village and talked to those Archbold people. Don't deny it. I was there later in the evening and they told me."

"What did you expect?" I said. "Yesterday you tossed the name Mason Dawes at me as if you were throwing a knife. Naturally I got curious."

"At the time I thought his name might startle something out of you. How did you dig up the Archbolds?"

"After I couldn't find Dawes in any directoiy, I went to the Inquirer and asked one of the rewrite men if there were any

clippings on him. The rewrite man was Eddie Talbot. You can check that if you want."

"I don't have to," McCann said. "You're in the clear. The Archbolds said they never saw you before. What did you think of the Dawes suicide?"

"The same thing you do. Murder."

"Any idea who?"

"The same guy who tried to strangle Kay Raymond. Why ask me that? You're the one who spotted the blue-green silk that was used on both of them."

"I could use a name."

"If I get a name I'm sure of, I'll give it to you."

"Could the name you're not sure of be Nick Accardi?"

"I'm sure he didn't do it."

McCann said, "He was at the Rittenhouse Arms that night. I can prove it. He was out of jail before Dawes got hung, and as a matter of fact Nick had just started attending an art class Dawes taught. I showed the Archbolds a photo of Nick. They think he might have visited Dawes once or twice."

"What's his motive for killing Dawes?"

"I was hoping you might have an idea about that."

I wanted to tell him about Lassiter but I didn't dare. Instead of figuring Lassiter did the job, McCann might twist things around and say that Lassiter hired Nick for the murder. And that didn't fit my picture of Nick at all. "I can't help you," I said.

"Where is Nick Accardi hiding out?"

"I don't know. And that's the truth."

He nodded. "Okay. I'll buy that."

His voice sounded strangely casual, and I said, "You don't seem very disappointed."

"Oh, we'll pick him up sooner or later."

I studied his face. He was acting too unconcerned. When a cop wants a guy for murder, there can't be anything more important than making the arrest. So if McCann was acting casual about the arrest, there could only be one reason. "You know

where he is," I said. "Ten to one, you're having him picked up right now."

His hand shot out and grabbed my arm. His pale eyes looked like hunks of broken glass. "So help me," he said, "I ought to run you in. You're too goddam smart."

"All I did was figure it out from the way you were acting."

"Yeah, I know. Well, I'm not having him picked up. I'm doing it myself right after I leave here. And if he's skipped, I'll charge you with tipping him off and blocking justice. You got that straight?"

"But I told you I don't know where he is!"

"I wouldn't walk out of here alone if I didn't believe you. But after I leave, don't get any more of your bright ideas. This is my case, see? I worked on it alone. I'm cracking it alone. So don't get in my way."

"The only thing I want to get in," I complained, "is bed."

"I wish I'd never got you up," he said bitterly, and tramped out of the apartment.

After he left I couldn't have gone back to sleep unless somebody had worked on me with a blackjack. I washed and shaved and had a breakfast that tasted like boiled paper. Things were going very wrong, and I didn't have an idea what to do about it. I went downstairs and finally clumped through the shop toward my office.

Miss Krim stopped me and said, "I hope you'll forgive me for letting that man upstairs. I couldn't make him wait. Was anything wrong?"

"Nothing more than usual. Don't worry about it."

"Anyway," she said, "I didn't make the same mistake twice. There's another man waiting in your office. He said he had to see you right away, too, but I wasn't going to let you be disturbed again."

"Who is he?"

"He said just tell you his name is William. He works for the Vernons. Did I do right to make him wait?"

My stomach started dropping out from under me. William wouldn't have come over to borrow a couple of eggs for Nancy's

breakfast. Something had happened at the Vernons' and it was bad and he had to tell me about it. Miss Krim had made him wait. She meant well, of course. "Yeah, sure," I muttered. "You did fine."

I hurried into the office. William was balanced on the edge of a chair as if afraid he was taking a liberty by sitting down. He looked gray and tired, and there were purple half-moons under his eyes. He jumped up when he saw me.

"Hello, William," I said. "Sorry you had to wait. What's wrong?"

He peered into his hat like an old magician trying to remember how to do the rabbit trick. "I hardly know how to start," he said.

"Did something go wrong last night? After Nancy came home with Sheldon Thorp? He did bring her, didn't he?"

"Oh, yes. And he stayed for at least an hour talking to her. It was nearly four o'clock when he left. I stayed up all that time. I shouldn't say this, but I don't think Mr. Thorp should be left alone with a young lady late at night."

"Did he try anything?"

"No, sir. What I want to tell you has nothing to do with Mr. Thorp. I hope you can understand my position. I feel badly about carrying tales out of the house. I never did it before. But with Miss Nancy's parents away, I have nobody to turn to but you."

"Go ahead. You're doing the right thing."

He took out a handkerchief and wiped his forehead. Then he felt in the pocket again and brought out a sealed envelope. "I almost forgot this," he said. "It's the envelope you gave me last night. Perhaps you would like to destroy it."

I took it and stuffed it in my pocket, and waited for him to goon.

"Mr. Meadows, do you remember me telling you last night that Miss Nancy was in one more bit of trouble, and that she had asked me to keep it from you?"

"I remember."

He took a deep breath. "There's someone staying at the

Vernon residence," he said. "Miss Nancy didn't want you to know about it. He has been staying there since dinnertime last night."