Michael Shayne again parked his car at the curb in front of the side entrance to his hotel because he expected Lucy Hamilton to be waiting tor him upstairs and that he would drive her home a little later. He climbed the one flight of stairs that by-passed the elevator and went down the hall toward his door, instinctively getting out his key as he approached. He unlocked the door and it opened silently and the ceiling light was still on as he had left it when he dashed out a couple of hours previously. But Lucy wasn’t there to jump up and greet him with eager curiosity as he had expected. He advanced slowly into the room, noting the tray with the glasses still on it where he had set it down on the center table to answer the telephone, with the liquor bottles standing beside it where Rourke had placed them.
He stopped and looked around uncertainly, and then a broad grin spread over his rugged features. Lucy lay curled up asleep on the shabby sofa against the right-hand wall. She had kicked off her shoes onto the floor beside the sofa and she lay on her side with her cheek nestled into the palm of her left hand, and she was breathing as sweetly and quietly and happily as a child that has been bedded down with loving care by its mother after having said its prayers in full confidence that they will be heard.
Shayne moved over slowly and silently to stand at the head of the sofa looking down at his sleeping secretary, and his grin widened when he saw the book lying open and face down where she had dropped it on the floor. It was a copy of Michael Shayne’s Long Chance, a mystery novel which Brett Halliday had written from one of his cases, the story of his first meeting with Lucy Hamilton in New Orleans soon after his wife had died, when she had been one of the prime suspects in a murder case and long before either of them dreamed she would eventually wind up as his secretary.
He leaned down to pick the book up to see how far she had read, and was touched to find it was open at page 169, at the point in the story where he had asked her to decide whether she wished to take a long chance with him on a wild hunch which he hoped would blow the case wide open. That was when he had called her ‘Lucile’ and she had said to him then, “I think I know you better, Michael Shayne, than I’ve ever known any man,” and her eyes had been shining and her voice confident as she said it those many years ago.
He turned away slowly with the book in his hands, and laid it face down on the table beside the tray and poured cognac into the empty glass waiting there.
A long time ago, and a great many things had happened since that day in Lucile Hamilton’s New Orleans apartment when she had first thrown in her lot with him. He tipped his head back and let cognac trickle down his throat and wondered if Lucy now regretted that decision she had made in New Orleans. There had been good times and bad times for each of them, and out of it all they had built an enduring relationship which was as close to marriage as either of them wanted.
He lowered the glass and turned his head to look at Lucy again, and he saw her eyes were sleepily half-opened and fixed on him although she had not moved from her sleeping position.
She said drowsily, “I’ve been dreaming, I guess. I was reading that book, Michael, and I got to thinking back…” Her voice trailed off and she closed her eyes again and a little half-smile of contentment came over her softly flushed features.
Then she opened her eyes wide and pushed herself up on the sofa and fluffed her brown curls with both hands and said practically, “It was that champagne I drank at dinner. You shouldn’t have given me so much. You know my capacity.”
“Tim Rourke was paying for it,” he reminded her. She blinked her eyes at him, and suddenly frowned and demanded, “What happened, Michael? You and Tim dashed off to try and stop his friend from shooting the columnist. I called the police as you told me, and then I sat here waiting. What happened?”
“We were about a minute too late to head Ralph Larson off,” he told her. “Wesley Ames is dead and Ralph is in jail charged with murdering him.”
“Oh no!” she cried instinctively. “That’s too bad. I don’t know them, of course, but it all sounds so useless.”
Shayne nodded somberly. “Most murders are. You want a drink now, angel? You were about to have a C and C when I got that call.”
Sitting on the edge of the sofa, Lucy shuddered as she leaned down to slip on her shoes. “That was hours ago and the champagne has all worn off now. I’d like a nice tall glass with ice cubes and cognac and filled to the top with soda. Then you can tell me all about Ralph Larson and Wesley Ames. I’ll go in the bathroom to comb my hair and put my face back on. I feel quite disheveled and practically wanton.”
Shayne chuckled and told her, “You looked like an innocent child asleep there on the sofa.” He took the tray into the kitchen to get fresh ice cubes and open a bottle of soda, and the telephone started ringing as he returned with the tray.
Lucy was coming out of the bathroom and Shayne stood by the table with the tray in his big hands scowling down at the instrument. “I’m afraid this isn’t our night for quiet drinks, angel. If we’re lucky that’ll be Dorothy Larson calling again.”
“Why lucky?” asked Lucy curiously, and Shayne realized that she didn’t know about Dorothy being missing. He set the tray down and picked up the phone, but this time it was the voice of the desk clerk from downstairs:
“There’s a man to see you, Mr. Shayne. He says it’s very important.”
“Who is it?”
“Mr. Sutter, he says. From New York, and he has to see you at once.”
Shayne said, “Send him up,” and put the instrument down and scowled at Lucy and tugged at his ear lobe. “A lawyer from New York named Sutter,” he told her. “He was at the Ames house waiting to see the man when he was killed. I don’t know what he wants with me, but he’s on his way up.” He shrugged his shoulders and poured a generous dollop of cognac into a tall glass holding three ice cubes. He filled the glass to the top from the bottle of Club Soda and handed it to Lucy just as a knock sounded on the door. He told her, “I’ll get it,” and went across the room to admit the pudgy figure of Alonzo J. Sutter.
Shayne nodded pleasantly to the New York attorney, noting that the man carried himself more erectly than before and that his round eyes behind the rimless glasses were not as bloodshot as they had been. He said, “Come in, Mr. Sutter. Perhaps you’ll join us in a drink.” He closed the door and turned to wave a big hand at Lucy who was gracefully settling herself in one of the comfortable chairs with her glass in hand. “My secretary, Miss Hamilton,” he said formally. “This is Mr. Sutter, Lucy.”
Sutter nodded vaguely toward Lucy and said, “I’m delighted,” in a tone which belied his words. He shook his head firmly at Shayne and said, “No drinks, please. I came here hoping and expecting to have a very private talk with you about a very confidential matter, Mr. Shayne. It is of vital importance,” he went on severely. “I made inquiries about you after you left the Ames residence, and I ascertained that you are highly regarded locally as a discreet and competent private investigator. I wish to consult you in your professional capacity,” he ended abruptly, again with a doubtful glance toward Lucy and the array of liquor bottles and glasses on the table.
Shayne laughed easily and put his hand on the rotund attorney’s elbow and guided him toward a chair near Lucy’s. “We couldn’t be any more private,” he said cheerfully. “I assure you that Miss Hamilton is the soul of discretion.” He pushed Sutter down into the chair and turned to the table, adding, “Let me know if you change your mind about a drink.”
He poured himself a noggin of cognac and sat down comfortably in a deep chair across from Sutter and Lucy, and said, “I though you’d gone to a hotel for the night and were catching an early plane back to New York.”
“I am at a hotel. The Costain on Third Avenue. And I have a reservation on a plane departing at nine A.M. for New York. But I am hesitant to leave Miami with things at loose ends as it were. Earlier in the evening, when I first became aware that Mr. Ames had been shot, it appeared to me that in a sense my mission was accomplished… that I could rejoice whole-heartedly and return to New York to inform our client that all was well and that… er… he had nothing further to worry about.
“However, afterthoughts began to worry me. The death of Mr. Ames does not necessarily settle the affair I came here to negotiate. The question now arises: Who will take possession of his private papers? What disposition of his effects will be made? Will his widow, perhaps, or his secretary, continue his syndicated column? Who will control what will be printed in the future?”
“How does that concern you or your client?” Shayne demanded bluntly.
Mr. Sutter sighed and he blinked his eyes rapidly behind the rimless glasses. He settled himself more deeply and comfortably in his chair and reached inside his coat to take a fat cigar from the breast pocket. He bit off the end and got a lighter from a side pocket and put flame to the cigar. He pursed his thick lips and expelled a cloud of smoke, and began speaking as though each word he uttered was distasteful to him:
“I came to Miami on a very definite and unpleasant mission. In my briefcase at the hotel I have an envelope containing twenty-five thousand dollars in currency which I was authorized to hand over to Wesley Ames in exchange for documents in his possession which would be ruinous to one of our valued clients if printed in Ames’ newspaper column. I am opposed to extortion and to the payment of blackmail in any form. The very thought is abhorrent to me. But I had no choice in this matter. I came here prepared to act for our client and make the exchange in good faith. Now, Ames is dead. I realize that the documents in question must be there in his study, accessible to whoever goes through his private papers and takes possession of them. I realize now that I will have failed my client if I return to New York tomorrow morning without those papers in my hands. That is why I am here, Mr. Shayne.”
“Why?” demanded Shayne.
“It seems to me that you are in a position to recover them at once, before someone else finds them and realizes their possible value. You appear to have the full confidence of the local police and it should not be difficult for you to gain access to the dead man’s study tonight on some pretext. The papers must be there at hand. All arrangements were made and Ames expected to turn them over to me tonight.”
“Just what are these ‘papers’ that you were prepared to pay twenty-five grand for? What am I supposed to look for?”
“They consist of certain original documents highly incriminating to our client,” Sutter told him primly. “I hesitate to divulge his name, but I must trust you I suppose. He is Alex Murchinson. The name may be unknown to you, but he is high in the councils of our city government and the documents consist of private agreements with certain prominent contractors in the city relating to what might be referred to, vulgarly, as kickbacks or payoffs for the awarding of certain contracts for services to be rendered the city. It was highly irregular and most imprudent for Mr. Murchinson to have such documents in his possession while vacationing here recently,” Sutter went on severely, “but some of the details were finalized here where it was convenient and safer to meet some of the other parties concerned without arousing suspicion.
“They were stolen from his hotel suite on the night of his departure for New York,” the attorney continued, “by a woman who had insinuated herself into his confidence and was evidently in the employ of Ames for just such nefarious purposes. I have in my pocket photostatic copies of the original documents which were mailed to our client after his return to the city, with the thinly-veiled threat that unpleasant details would be subsequently primed in the Wesley Ames syndicated column unless payment of twenty-five thousand dollars was made to him. It was my intention to compare the photostats with the originals before turning over the money to Ames.”
Shayne held out a big hand and said, “Let’s see what I’m supposed to search for in Ames’ study… providing I can get in for a look.”
Sutter hesitated unhappily. “I… don’t know. I suppose I can rely on your discretion. This is a very delicate matter…”
“Yeh,” said Shayne grimly and coldly. “I can see just how delicate it is. You’ve got a crooked city official conniving with crooked contractors to mulct the city out of money by passing out contracts on a kickback basis. If you want me to do anything for you hand over the photostats so I know what I’m looking for. If you don’t, get yourself and your stinking proposition out of here.”
“Really, Mr. Shayne!” Sutter looked astonished, hurt and shocked by this outburst. “I’m not at all sure…”
“Make up your mind fast,” snapped Shayne, getting up and turning to the table to pour himself another drink, and broadly winking at Lucy as he turned. “Normally,” he said with his back turned, “I consider a blackmailer a vicious scoundrel who deserves to be stamped on. But some blackmailees deserve any damned thing they get and it sounds to me as though your valued client Mr. Murchinson is in that category. If I had a syndicated column to do it in I’d probably publish the damned documents, and the only thing I really blame the dead man for is making a deal not to publish them. Are you going to give me the photostats or not?” he demanded harshly, turning back with his filled glass in one hand and holding the other out to Sutter.
“I certainly do not care for your attitude, but under the circumstances I fear I have no choice.” Sutter withdrew a long white envelope from his pocket and passed it over with what remnants of dignity he could muster.
Shayne sat down and opened the envelope, drew out some folded photostatic copies of legal-sized sheets and glanced through them briefly. He nodded and returned them to the envelope and handed them back to Sutter.
“All right. I’ll see what I can do. I don’t know whether there will be a police guard over Ames’ study or not.”
“There is,” Sutter told him. “I heard that sergeant directing that a man be stationed there before I left. That is why I thought of you and the possibility that you might be able to gain access to the room even though it has a police guard.”
Shayne said, “I might be able to work something.” He looked across at Lucy and her glass which was still half-full. “Drink up, angel, and I’ll drop you off home on my way up to Ames’.”
“Ah… about your fee, Mr. Shayne. If you are successful in recovering the evidence. Do you think a thousand dollars…?”
“I think,” said Michael Shayne blandly, “that twenty-five grand will be exactly right.”
“Twenty-five… thousand?” wailed Sutter. “For possibly half an hour’s work. That’s preposterous. I cannot possibly…”
Shayne got up from his chair and towered over the pudgy seated man, his blunt jaw out-thrust.
“You said you had an envelope in your hotel room containing that sum which you brought down here for the specific purpose of buying those papers. If they were worth that much three hours ago, they’re still worth that much. Don’t talk to me about any thousand bucks. Me, I’ve got at least as much probity as your client in New York. I’ll do your dirty job for the full twenty-five grand, but not a penny less. Take it or leave it.”
He turned away angrily and drained his glass and slammed it down on the table.
Mr. Sutter got up behind him and said weakly, “Well I… I was authorized to pay that amount, of course. It’s still extortion,” he went on bitterly, “but…”
“It’s legal extortion this time,” Shayne told him cheerfully. “I’m simply gelling paid for doing a job. Go on back to your hotel and wait for me to call you. If I have any luck it’ll be within an hour.” He stood by the table and watched Sutter turn and go out of the room.