Part 4 (1/2)
”Okay. He wanted to be tucked away.”
”Hyzer reasoned that if somebody was out to kill Frank Baither, Baither would have ambushed them rather than hide in jail. Hyzer checked out the big scores made anywhere in the country just before Baither set himself up for a felony conviction. He kept coming back to the money truck in Miami. Baither was medium height with a bull neck and very broad thick shoulders. As a kid he had worked for his uncle who operated a little yard, making cement block, and he had carried enough tons of mix and tons of finished block to give him that muscular overdevelopment. Hyzer reasoned that Frank Baither had somehow tricked his partners, eased out with the track money, hid it well, then set himself up for free room and board for a long time, counting on the odds that the partners on the outside would not last long enough to be waiting when he got out. The hard-case operators have very few productive years, Trav. Then they are tucked away, underground or behind the walls. Frank had about two weeks between the money-truck job and landIng in the Cypress County jail, a.s.suming he was involved. Hyzer wanted more to go on. He arranged to get word from Raiford on Frank's activities in prison. By the end of the first year he learned that Frank had cultivated a few Latin Americans there. He was diligently studying Spanish. And it looked as If he would become reasonably fluent. The parts fitted together. Get out, pick up the money, and go. And live like a Greek s.h.i.+powner for the rest of his life, with enough Spanish to learn who to bribe, and enough money to guarantee immunity.”
”He told you a lot, Lennie.”
”Some of it he told me, some of it he hinted at, and some of it is what I came up with to fill in the blanks. That sheriff went over every inch of the Baither place, and came up empty every time. Now here is another part. Somebody gave Frank a good rap on the head and taped him to a chair, and wound his head with tape, leaving a hole over one ear, and a hole over the mouth. Then they worked on him. They spoiled him. He had to know he was done, and so with nothing left to save except a little more agony, he talked. Then they shoved a rusty ice pick into his heart.”
”a.s.sumption?”
”A finality about it. End of interview. From the look of the rest of him, they would have kept going until he died of the special attentions.”
”So Hyzer,” I said wearily, ”buys the idiot idea that we teamed with Frank Baither and took the money truck and we kept track of him, knew when he got out of Baiford, and set up this complicated cover story, got to him, tortured him and killed him, left an incriminating envelope behind, lost my old car in the ca.n.a.l, and then... For G.o.d's sake, Lennie! Can't you straighten him out? Where's the money?”
”Right where Frank Baither hid it. But now you and Meyer know where it is, and you can take your time picking it up.”
He made me go over the incident we should have reported and didn't. Lots of questions. Estimates of elapsed time.
He paced in the constricted s.p.a.ce, glowering. ”The only way to defend a case is to build an alternate possibility up to the stature of reasonable doubt, McGee. There was a girl in the mud beside the ca.n.a.l. Let's say she was the young girl who played waitress. Let's say Frank Baither was prowling after her in the night. Hutch is the big one who fits your description. Orville fits Meyer's description. They came after Frank Baither last night. The girl got away. Baither got in his old truck and went cruising looking for Orville and Hutch. You went in the ca.n.a.l at ten o'clock. The shots were fired a little after eleven. He thought he hit Hutch in the head. He offered to make a deal with Orville. He drove back to his place, off guard because he thought he knew where Hutch and Orville were. He got back and they jumped him. Maybe they had a car hidden away nearby, and maybe the two of them and the girl are five hundred miles gone by now, laughing and singing, with the trunk packed with money. But that d.a.m.ned envelope, Trav. That is physical evidence. You are absolutely positive about what you did with it?”
”Beyond any doubt.”
”Then the deputy he posted at the Baither place has to be lying when he told Hyzer n.o.body entered the place. Can you remember the deputy's name?”
”Arnstead, I think. But why would somebody...”
”'Why' comes way down the list, client. It comes after 'how', 'when', 'where', and 'what'. 'How' is the big word.”
He opened the door and whistled. Priskitt took me back after Lennie Sibelius wished me a nice night's sleep, saying he didn't count on getting much himself.
As Priskitt caged me, I asked him about Meyer. ”Feeling much better. Fascinating man. It's guests like you two who make this almost a civilized occupation, McGee. Nighty night.”
They had the cell lights on a rheostat. At ten o'clock they faded from white glare to yellow glow. You can't help wondering what it would feel like to be in such a box for the next dozen years, and wonder if you could handle it, and walk out of it still reasonably sane.
I remembered reading a sentence long ago, I know not where or when, or who wrote it. It said, ”The only thing that prisons demonstrably cure is heteros.e.xuality.”
Back to the envelope. It had to be an unplanned act on someone's part. An improvisation. Away to muddy the water. Somebody made the decision after Sheriff Hyzer and Deputy Cable had driven off with us. A customer or an employee. Or the boss. Al Storey, or the big young dull-looking one named Terry. Or the older one who had arrived late in the blue Rambler. Henry... The one with all the white teeth. Or somebody who came on duty later. Al, Terry, and Henry had all heard Hyzer say that Frank Baither had been killed. His att.i.tude made it evident he thought Hyzer and I were involved.
I dug away at my chigger bites. Get me out, Lennie. Get us out of here.
Six.
Up UNTIL eleven o'clock it was a very dull morning. Then Priskitt arrived, humming happily, carrying a hanger with freshly cleaned and pressed slacks and s.h.i.+rt thereon. He had my toilet kit in the other hand.
He unlocked the cell door and said, ”Priskitt at your service, sir. You will wish to shower? You are free to go right ahead, by yourself.”
”Those clothes were...”
”In your suitcase which was in your car, and so was the toilet kit. Still damp, but not at all bad. Compliments,of Cypress County, Mr. McGee. I'll be along with shoes and socks and underwear.”
”Where is my friend?”
”Under the shower, one might expect.”
But Meyer was out of the shower, standing at the sink, and carefully, tenderly, shaving the black stubble from his swollen and discolored face. He turned and said, ”Don't make me laugh, please.”
”How bad is it?”
”It will add up to a good dental bill. The thing that worries me is a persistent headache, dizziness, some double vision. And something seems to grate in my cheek. Lennie is going to fly me back to Lauderdale and I'll go in for observation.”
”Who did it?”
”A large fellow with big cheekbones and small dark eyes and very long sideburns. I wondered why he was putting a leather glove on. You'd mentioned a few useful things one could do under those circ.u.mstances. I tried them and they didn't work very well.”
”Who was there at the time?”
”Deputy Cable. Objecting.”
”Making any physical attempt to stop him?”
”Finally, yes. But at first I would say he was merely whining at the fellow, something about Mister Norm getting upset. He called the sideburned fellow Lew. I discovered the whole name later on. Deputy Lew Arnstead.”
”Where was Sturnevan? The big sloppy one.”
”He had stepped out. Lew didn't take long. It seemed long. Maybe fifteen or twenty seconds. By then I wasn't aware of whether Sturnevan came back or not, but I think he was one of the two men who helped me to the cell.”
”Meyer?”
”Mmmm?”
”I'm sorry about this.”
He turned and looked solemnly at me, puffy eyes staring out of the big yellow-blue-green-purple face. ”Where is any man's immunity from the unexpected, McGee? I could deny myself the pleasure of your friends.h.i.+p, and decrease the chance of the unexpected. But there is a case on record of a woman in her own bed being struck on the thigh by a bounding chunk of red hot iron, a meteorite that came whistling in from G.o.d only knows what corner of the galaxy. I value that night hike, Travis. And the way the dawn looked, and the feeling of beIng alive after being shot at. I am a grown-up, making choices. And sufficiently grown up to live with the choices I make. My face hurts and my head aches, and I would like to kill that sideburned fellow with anything I could lift. I feel outraged, humiliated, and very very tired. But I'm glad I came along.”
”You do go on.”
”Do us both a favor and get out of that garment.” He was ready and I was almost ready when Sturnevan came to get us. He clucked and turned Meyer toward the light and gave him a close inspection. ”And you weren't very pretty to start with, Professor.”
”King,” I said, ”I might get a chance to strike up an acquaintance with Lew Arnstead when he's off duty.”
”Which is now sort of one hundred percent of the time, I hear. You serious, McGee?”
”Serious enough to ask you how to do it.”
”He's a strong boy. He likes all the odds his way. With somebody your size, he'd try to fix the odds fast, like a quick kick in the b.a.l.l.s. What you do is, you make it look as if he can get away with it. He's right-handed. He'll kick with his right leg. Watch for the weight s.h.i.+ft, sidestep the kick and get his ankle, and swing it on top. Then if you can hurt him fast anough and bad enough, he'll be all through.”
”Thanks, King.”