The Postman Always Rings Twice (7 page)

      "Is that what you'd tell a jury?"

      "I'd have to, judge. But what I can't understand is how she came to be driving it. I started out with it. I know that. I can even remember a guy standing there laughing at me. Then how come she was driving when it went over?"

      "You drove it about two feet."

      "You mean two miles."

      "I mean two feet. Then she took the wheel away from you."

      "Gee, I _must_ have been stewed."

      "Well, it's one of those things that a jury might believe. It's just got that cock-eyed look to it that generally goes with the truth. Yes, they might believe it."

      He sat there looking at his nails, and I had a hard time to keep the grin from creeping over my face. I was glad when he started asking me more questions, so I could get my mind on something else, besides how easy I had fooled him.

      "When did you go to work for Papadakis, Chambers?"

      "Last winter."

      "How long did you stay with him?"

      "Till a month ago. Maybe six weeks."

      "You worked for him six months, then?"

      "About that."

      "What did you do before that?"

      "Oh, knocked around."

      "Hitch-hiked? Rode freights? Bummed your meals wherever you could?"

      "Yes sir."

      He unstrapped a briefcase, put a pile of papers on the table, and began looking through them. "Ever been in Frisco?"

      "Born there."

      "Kansas City? New York? New Orleans? Chicago?"

      "I've seen them all."

      "Ever been in jail?"

      "I have, judge. You knock around, you get in trouble with the cops now and then. Yes sir, I've been in jail."

      "Ever been in jail in Tuscson?"

      "Yes sir. I think it was ten days I got there. It was for trespassing on railroad property."

      "Salt Lake City? San Diego? Wichita?"

      "Yes sir. All those places."

      "Oakland?"

      "I got three months there, judge. I got in a fight with a railroad detective."

      "You beat him up pretty bad, didn't you?"

      "Well, as the fellow says, he was beat up pretty bad, but you ought to seen the other one. I was beat up pretty bad, myself."

      "Los Angeles?"

      "Once. But that was only three days."

      "Chambers, how did you come to go to work for Papadakis, anyhow?"

      "Just a kind of an accident. I was broke, and he needed somebody. I blew in there to get something to eat, and he offered me a job, and I took it."

      "Chambers, does that strike you as funny?"

      "I don't know how you mean, judge?"

      "That after knocking around all these years, and never doing any work, or even trying to do any, so far as I can see, you suddenly settled down, and went to work, and held a job steady?"

      "I didn't like it much, I'll own up to that."

      "But you stuck."

      "Nick, he was one of the nicest guys I ever knew. After I got a stake, I tried to tell him I was through, but I just didn't have the heart, much trouble as he had had with his help. Then when he had the accident, and wasn't there, I blew. I just blew, that's all. I guess I ought to treated him better, but I got rambling feet, judge. When they say go, I got to go with them. I just took a quiet way out."

      "And then, the day after you came back, he got killed."

      "You kind of make me feel bad now, judge. Because maybe I tell the jury different, but I'm telling you now I feel that was a hell of a lot my fault. If I hadn't been there, and begun promoting him for something to drink that afternoon, maybe he'd be here now. Understand, maybe that didn't have anything to do with it at all. I don't know. I was stinko, and I don't know what happened. Just the same, if she hadn't had two drunks in the car, maybe she could have drove better, couldn't she? Anyway, that's how I feel about it."

      I looked at him, to see how he was taking it. He wasn't even looking at me. All of a sudden he jumped up and came over to the bed and took me by the shoulder. "Out with it, Chambers. Why did you stick with Papadakis for six months?"

      "Judge, I don't get you."

      "Yes you do. I've seen her, Chambers, and I can guess why you did it. She was in my office yesterday, and she had a black eye, and was pretty well banged up, but even with that she looked pretty good. For something like that, plenty of guys have said goodbye to the road, rambling feet or not."

      "Anyhow they rambled. No, judge, you're wrong."

      "They didn't ramble long. It's too good, Chambers. Here's an automobile accident that yesterday was a dead open-andshut case of manslaughter, and today it's just evaporated into nothing at all. Every place I touch it, up pops a witness to tell me something, and when I fit all they have to say together, I haven't got any case. Come on, Chambers. You and that woman murdered this Greek, and the sooner you own up to it the better it'll be for you."

      There wasn't any grin creeping over my face then, I'm here to tell you. I could feel my lips getting numb, and I tried to speak, but nothing would come out of my mouth.

      "Well, why don't you say something?"

      "You're coming at me. You're coming at me for something pretty bad. I don't know anything to say, judge."

      "You were gabby enough a few minutes ago, when you were handing me that stuff about the truth being all that would get you out of this. Why can't you talk now?"

      "You got me all mixed up."

      "All right, we'll take it one thing at a time, so you won't be mixed up. In the first place, you've been sleeping with that woman, haven't you?"

      "Nothing like it."

      "How about the week Papadakis was in the hospital? Where did you sleep then?"

      "In my own room."

      "And she slept in hers? Come on, I've seen her, I tell you. I'd have been in there if I had to kick the door down and hang for rape. So would you. So _were_ you."

      "I never even thought of it."

      "How about all those trips you took with her to Hasselman's Market in Glendale? What did you do with her on the way back?"

      "Nick told me to go on those trips himself."

      "I didn't ask you who told you to go. I asked you what you did."

      I was so groggy I had to do something about it quick. All I could think of was to get sore. "All right, suppose we did. We didn't, but you say we did, and we'll let it go at that. Well, if it was all that easy, what would we be knocking him off for? Holy smoke, judge, I hear tell of guys that would commit murder for what you say I was getting, when they weren't getting it, but I never hear tell of a guy that would commit murder for it when he already had it."

      "No? Well I'll tell you what you were knocking him off for. A piece of property out there, for one thing, that Papadakis paid $14,000 for, cash on the nail. And for that other little Christmas present you and she thought you would get on the boat with, and see what the wild waves looked like. _That little $10,000 accident policy that Papadakis carried on his life_."

      I could still see his face, but all around it was getting black and I was trying to keep myself from keeling over in bed. Next thing, he was holding a glass of water to my mouth. "Have a drink. You'll feel better."

      I drank some of it. I had to.

      "Chambers, I think this is the last murder you'll have a hand in for some time, but if you ever try another, for God's sake leave insurance companies out of it. They'll spend five times as much as Los Angeles County will let me put into a case. They've got detectives five times as good as any I'll be able to hire. They know their stuff A to izzard, and they're right on your tail now. It means money to them. That's where you and she made your big mistake."

      "Judge, I hope Christ may kill me, I never heard of an insurance policy until just this minute."

      "You turned white as a sheet."

      "Wouldn't you?"

      "Well, how about getting me on your side, right from the start? How about a full confession, a quick plea of guilty, and I'll do what I can for you with the court? Ask for clemency for you both."

      "Nothing doing."

      "How about all that stuff you were telling me just now? About the truth, and how you'd have to come clean with the jury, and all that? You think you can get away with lies now? You think I'm going to stand for that?"

      "I don't know what you're going to stand for. To hell with that. You stand for your side of it and I'll stand for mine. I didn't do it, and that's all I stand for. You got that?"

      "The hell you say. Getting tough with me, hey? All right, now you get it. You're going to find out what that jury's really going to hear. First, you were sleeping with her, weren't you? Then Papadakis had a little accident, and you and she had a swell time. In bed together at night, down to the beach by day, holding hands and looking at each other in between. Then you both had a swell idea. Now that he's had an accident, make him take out an accident policy, and then knock him off. So you blew, to give her a chance to put it over. She worked at it, and pretty soon she had him. He took out a policy, a real good policy, that covered accidents, and health, and all the rest of it, and cost $46.72. Then you were ready. Two days after that, Frank Chambers accidentally on purpose ran into Nick Papadakis on the street, and Nick tries to get him to go back to work for him. And what do you know about that, he and his wife had it already fixed up they were going to Santa Barbara, had the hotel reservations and everything, so of course there was nothing to it but Frank Chambers had to come with them, just for old times' sake. And you went. You got the Greek a little bit drunk, and did the same for yourself. You stuck a couple of wine bottles in the car, just to get the cops good and sore. Then you had to take that Malibu Lake Road, so she could see Malibu Beach. Wasn't that an idea, now. Eleven o'clock at night, and she was going to drive down there to look at a bunch of houses with waves in front of them. But you didn't get there. You stopped. And while you were stopped, you crowned the Greek with one of the wine bottles. A beautiful thing to crown a man with, Chambers, and nobody knew it better than you, because that was what you crowned that railroad dick with, over in Oakland. You crowned him, and then she started the car. And while she was climbing out on the running board, you leaned over from behind, and held the wheel, and fed with the hand throttle. It didn't need much gas, because it was in second gear. And after she got on the running board, she took the wheel and fed with the hand throttle, and it was your turn to climb out. But you were just a little drunk, weren't you? You were too slow, and she was a little too quick to shoot the car over the edge. So she jumped and you were caught. You think a jury won't believe that, do you? It'll believe it, because I'll prove every word of it, from the beach trip to the hand throttle, and when I do, there won't be any clemency for you, boy. It'll be the rope, with you hanging on the end of it, and when they cut you down they'll bury you out there with all the others that were too goddam dumb to make a deal when they had the chance to keep their neck from being broke."

      "Nothing like that happened. Not that I know of."

      "What are you trying to tell me? That _she_ did it?"

      "I'm not trying to tell you that anybody did it. Leave me alone! Nothing like that happened."

      "How do you know? I thought you were stinko."

      "It didn't happen that I know of."

      "Then you mean she did it?"

      "I don't mean no such a goddam thing. I mean what I say and that's all I mean."

      "Listen, Chambers. There were three people in the car, you, and she, and the Greek. Well, it's a cinch the Greek didn't do it. If you didn't do it, that leaves her, doesn't it?"

      "Who the hell says anybody did it?"

      "I do. Now we're getting somewhere, Chambers. Because maybe you didn't do it. You say you're telling the truth, and maybe you are. But if you are telling the truth, and didn't have any interest in this woman except as the wife of a friend, then you've got to do something about it, haven't you? You've got to sign a complaint against her."

      "What do you mean complaint?"

      "If she killed the Greek, she tried to kill you too, didn't she? You can't let her get away with that. Somebody might think it was pretty funny if you did. Sure, you'd be a sucker to let her get away with it. She knocks off her husband for the insurance, and she tries to knock off you too. You've got to do something about that, haven't you?"

      "I might, if she did it. But I don't know she did it."

      "If I prove it to you, you'll have to sign the complaint, won't you?"

      "Sure. _If_ you can prove it."

      "All right, I'll prove it. When you stopped, you got out of the car, didn't you?"

      "What? I thought you were so stinko you didn't remember anything. That's the second time you've remembered something now. I'm surprised at you."

      "Not that I know of."

      "But you did. Listen to this man's statement: 'I didn't notice much about the car, except that a woman was at the wheel and one man was inside laughing when we went by, and another man was out back, sick.' So you were out back a few minutes, sick. That was when she crowned Papadakis with the bottle. And when you got back you never noticed anything, because you were stinko, and Papadakis had passed out anyhow, and there was hardly anything to notice. You sat back and passed out, and that was when she slid up into second, kept her hand on the hand throttle, fed with that, and as soon as she had slid out on the running board, shot the car over."

      "That don't prove it."

      "Yes it does. The witness Wright says that the car was rolling over and over, down the gully, when he came around the bend, _but the woman was up on the road, waving to him for help!_"