Return Of The Thin Man Part 19

Lois tries to soothe MacFay, saying: "Mr. Charles is only trying to get it straight in his mind, Papa."

MacFay: "There's nothing to get straight. This man means to kill me and I am asking Mr. Charles not to let him do it. That's simple enough, isn't it, even for Mr. Charles?"

Nora shakes her head, no.

Mrs. Bellam, the placid housekeeper, puts her head in at the door and says: "The swimming pool is on fire."

Everybody jumps up from the table. The servants disappear.

Nora exclaims: "Nicky!" She starts upstairs to the baby.

Nick tells Freddie: "Better stay here with the Colonel and Miss MacFay."

Nick and Horn go out, Horn picking up a heavy walking-stick in the vestibule. They go out the front door, separating a little as they go around the side of the house toward where a wooden bathhouse is burning fiercely at one end of a large swimming pool.

The muzzle of a double-barreled shotgun is suddenly jabbed into Nick's face from a clump of bushes and a voice roars: "One move out of you and I'll blow your head right off the end of your neck. Hey, Barney! Hey, Slim! I got him!" A big man comes out of the bushes, holding the end of the shotgun within half an inch of Nick's nose.

Two other men with shotguns, yelling: "Hold him! Kill him if he bats a eye!" come running toward Nick and his captor.

Horn comes around the clump of bushes and says to the man with the shotgun: "Take that gun out of Mr. Charles's face and stop bellowing."

Nick: "I'm mighty glad to see you, Mr. Horn."

The man with the shotgun steps back, mumbling: "How was I going to know who he was?" He turns to his mates, who have arrived by then, and says: "It ain't the right one. It beats all how that fellers come and go without n.o.body seeing hide nor hair of them."

The three men with shotguns move off toward the fire.

Horn says to Nick: "The Colonel's guards. They've never seen anything and never will."

Nick spies Lois's collie lying on its side a short distance from the burning building and goes over to it.

Horn, following him, asks: "Dead?"

Nick: "Yes. Its head almost cut off."

Horn says in a somewhat choked voice: "He was a swell dog. This is going to be tough on Lois."

Nick: "Is this the kind of thing that's been going on?"

Horn, still looking gloomily down at the dog: "More or less. I don't know how seriously you're going to take it. Most of it's pretty silly, but it's nasty, too."

Lois comes running up and kneels beside the dead dog. Horn squats with an arm around her, trying to console her.

Nick goes over to where the three men are standing looking at some faint blurred prints in a damp patch of ground.

Nick: "Find anything?"

One of the guards: "Only them, and they don't look like nothing and don't lead nowhere."

Nick, looking at the prints: "Our man wore rags wrapped around his shoes."

The guard, suspiciously: "You know a lot about them things, mister."

Nick: "Back home I'm a scoutmaster." He suddenly thinks of something and goes back to Lois and Horn, asking them: "Wasn't Asta with this dog?"

Lois: "Yes, they were fed and let out together."

Nick begins to whistle and call to Asta, who after some time is found hiding in a folded beach umbrella with only the tip of his nose showing.

When Nick, Lois, and Horn return to the house, MacFay is still at the table, eating a meringue glace. Nora has returned to her place, holding Nick Jr. on her lap, and Freddie is awkwardly trying to play with him without any cooperation from the baby.

MacFay looks up as they come in and says: "If it's any more of that foolishness, I don't want to hear a single word about it. It'll only upset my stomach and these frozen desserts are unwholesome enough anyway."

Lois says: "Papa, they killed Sandy," and explains to Nora: "I've had him ever since he was a puppy." Then she sees Nick Jr., and goes over to play with him.

Nick Jr. regards her with his usual complete lack of interest.

Horn says: "They set fire to the bathhouse, too."

MacFay slams his spoon down on the table and stands up whining: "I'm tired of hearing about these things. I'm an old man and I'm sick and you should have some consideration for me. Freddie, bring the Consolidated Transportation correspondence upstairs. Good night! Good night! Good night!" He goes out, followed by Freddie.

Nick says: "He's a cheerful old fellow."

Horn laughs and Nora rises, saying: "I'm going to put Nicky to bed."

Lois says: "Let me help you!" and goes out with her.

In the living room, Nick and Horn are given coffee and brandy by a frightened servant.

Nick asks: "Is this Sam Church staying in the neighborhood?"

Horn answers: "Yes, he's rented the Kennedy cottage at the foot of the Hill Road."

Nick asks: "Have you tried talking to him?"

Horn says: "Yes, but that didn't do any good. I used to work under him and he seems to think I had a hand in sending him over. We never got along very well anyhow."

Nick asks: "What's he like?"

Horn replies: "He's all right, I suppose, but don't think you can frighten him off with rain on the roof. He's a tough baby."

Nick says: "Does MacFay really owe him anything?"

Horn says: "Not the way we look at it. His job was to get results without bothering the Colonel with too many details. We were trying to put over a, well, call it a public utilities enterprise-and some details that were pretty illegal were traced as far as Church, but not as far as the Colonel, and so Church went to jail."

Nick says: "In other words, if everything goes okay, the Colonel gets the profits, and if they go wrong, Church gets the blame."

Horn says cheerfully: "That's about it."

Nick continues: "And that's your job with the Colonel now?"

Horn answers: "Something like it."

Nick: "This deal that Church got tripped up on-where did it happen?"

Horn, beginning to smile: "Out West-California."

Nick: "Ten years ago, huh?"

Horn: "Closer to twelve; it took a little while to catch him and convict him." His smile broadens. "I know what's worrying you. Your wife's father was alive then. You'd like to know whether he was in on it with the Colonel or whether the Colonel was playing a lone hand."

Nick: "Well?"

Horn: "I don't know the answer. I don't suppose anybody does but the Colonel. There were no records to show anything-that's why Church took the fall alone."

Nick, after a thoughtful pause: "What do you think is behind all these Halloween tricks? What do you think Church is really up to?"

Horn says: "Trying to scare the Colonel into coming across with money."

Nick asks: "Do you think he'll do it?"

Horn says: "I don't know. The Colonel scares easily, but I've never seen it cost him anything."

Nick asks: "If he doesn't come across, will Church kill him?"

Horn replies: "That's hard to say. He'd kill you-like that-" he snaps his fingers, "for profit, and he might do it for fun, but I can't see him brooding much over revenge."

Nick asks: "Could any of the people on the inside here be working with him?"

Horn says: "I don't think so. The servants aren't much good, but I imagine they're honest."

Nick asks: "How about the secretary?"

Lois, coming into the room behind them, says lightly: "I won't have you suspecting Freddie of things. He's a nice boy."

Horn, rising to give her his chair, says: "All men who are in love with you are nice," and explains to Nick, "He's my rival. He only puts up with the Colonel's nonsense so he can be around Lois." He sits on the arm of her chair and puts his arm around her.

Lois asks Nick: "Do all fiances have these pet jokes, and does the girl have to keep on laughing at them?"

Nick says: "Only until she gets him to the altar. Did you and Nora get the Charles offspring tucked in?"

Lois says: "Oh yes-isn't he the loveliest baby?"

Nick says modestly: "We'll do better when we've had more practice," and rises adding: "I'd better go up and see him. He never closes an eye until I say good night to him."

Nick goes up to his bedroom, where Nick Jr. is peacefully sleeping beside Nora, who is reading in bed.

Nick asks: "What's he doing in here?"

Nora says: "You don't suppose I'm going to have him out of my sight again in this place? And we're going back to New York tomorrow morning."

Nick says: "That's all right with me. I ought to get hold of some accountants and maybe we should cut the trip short and go back to the Coast."

He begins to undress.

Nora asks: "What are you talking about?"

Nick says: "Money-your property-our property-that Colonel's been managing. A day like this begins to make you lose faith in your fellow man. I'd hate to wake up some morning and find that I'd married you for a fortune that MacFay had either stolen or got messed up so that somebody could take it away from us by due process of law."

Nora: "I love you, but you're an awful silly man sometimes."

Nick: "I'm not silly, I'm just timid. Some men are afraid of airplanes and some are afraid of thunderstorms-I'm afraid of losing money. I'd better go have a talk with this Church fellow in the morning."

Nora: "What for?"

Nick: "He worked for MacFay back when your father was alive. Maybe he can tell me whether your father was mixed up in this-"

Nora, interrupting him indignantly: "Of course he wasn't mixed up in it if it was anything wrong! My father was just as honest as yours!"

Nick laughs. "Some day you'll find out what a hot recommendation that is. But, sweetheart, I'm not trying to write dirty words on your old man's tombstone. I've just got to find out where we stand."

Nora: "All right, but leave my father out of it. You're a fine one to talk, anyway. I still remember when you were working for Father as a private detective, every time you took me out you charged it up to him on your expense account, and he never knew it till after we were married."

Nick: "Ah, I was a brilliant young man!"

The next morning Nick takes a walk accompanied by Asta. A countryman they meet on the road tells him how to find the Kennedy house. "You can't miss it," he says, "it's got a terra-cotta roof and sits back from the road to the left on the other side of the hill."

Nick and Asta climb the hill and as they start down the other side, pa.s.s an expensive coupe parked a little off the road, partly hidden by foliage. Nick starts to go on, then stops and goes cautiously over to examine the parked car. Finding nothing of interest there, he looks around and discovers that twigs have been broken by someone forcing his way through the bushes. He pushes the bushes aside and sees a man lying facedown on a rock on the hillside, looking through field gla.s.ses at a house at the foot of the hill. The house has a terra-cotta roof.

The man is large, tough-looking, middle-aged, wearing very thick rimless spectacles. He takes the field gla.s.ses from his eyes and rolls over on one elbow to scowl at Nick, asking in a hoa.r.s.e voice: "Now what are you sticking your pretty nose in here for, chum?"

Nick says: "Sorry. The door was open."

The hoa.r.s.e-voiced man says: "All right, you made your joke. Now pull your freight." He takes a police badge in a leather case from his pants pocket, shows it to Nick briefly. "Get going."

Nick salutes, says: "Just as you say, Chief," and backs out through the bushes again, takes a step or two on his way, stops to write down the license number of the automobile, and then continues on to the cottage at the foot of the hill.

When he knocks on the door, it is opened by a good-looking young Negro (the one he saw in the road the previous night), who smiles, and, speaking with a Spanish accent, says: "Good morning, sir. Mr. Church waiting breakfast for you." He bends down to scratch Asta's head.

Nick says: "You're going to catch pneumonia lying in damp roads after dark."

The Negro laughs and says: "No sir-I dress warm in this country."

He ushers Nick into a room where a man and woman put down newspapers and rise to meet him.

The man is perhaps forty years old, big, hard-faced, sunburned.

The woman is twenty-seven, quite six feet tall, muscular, and attractive.