No Flowers for the General by Basil Copper

Author:Basil Copper
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: detective, mystery, hard-boiled
ISBN: 9780754085980
Publisher: Chivers North Amer
Published: 2001-01-01T18:39:44+00:00

Chapter Nine – Two-Handed Showdown

Clark held the door open for me. I got in and sat beside him. ‘Satisfied?’ he said quietly.

I turned to face him in the narrow confines of the front passenger seat.

‘That General Diaz had nothing to do with the two kills, yes,’ I said.

‘I asked you to leave the General alone,’ he said mildly. ‘He saw me anyway,’ I answered.

‘Only on my O.K.,’ said Clark. ‘Who did you think the lodge-keeper was ringing before he let you in? Woodrow Wilson? If I hadn’t given the word you’d still be dusting the seat of your pants outside the gates right now.’

‘So the two of you work together,’ I said. ‘But let’s get one thing straight. We’re both on the same side?’

Clark didn’t reply at once. Then he got out his old briar, started filling it. He grinned suddenly.

‘It’s time we leveled,’ he said. ‘Shall I begin or will you?’

‘I think we got two different things here,’ I said. ‘Leaving aside Holgren for the moment, the Benson girl’s death was an accident. For some reason or other she was on top of Diaz’ wall and stopped a bullet meant for the General. There’s a guest house opposite; from the front windows there’s a direct line-up with the big room on the top floor of The Palisades. Anyone with a high-powered rifle could have picked off the old boy; anyone with a grudge, that is. But the top of the wall’s in the line of fire. If the girl had been on the wall, she could have got between at the critical moment. Sounds crazy, I know . . . ’

Clark sat with his eyes closed, puffing at his pipe. ‘Go on,’ he said. ‘Doc says the girl’s got bruising, like she fell from a height. It adds up.’

‘I went out here to the guest house this morning,’ I said. ‘In Room fifty-nine I found the dressing table had been moved from the window, maybe to give a better sight for the trigger boy. There were traces of powder burns on the window frame.’

Clark sat up straight with his eyes wide open.

‘You were going to report this, of course?’

‘It was only a hunch,’ I said. ‘But there was so much holding-out going on from your side that I figured you probably knew already.’

Clark grinned again. ‘Go on,’ he said. ‘Any more conclusions?’

I shook my head. ‘I didn’t pump the old lady at the guest house but she could probably describe the guests, even at this distance in time. She struck me as being that type. It might give you something to go on.’

Clark rubbed his hands. ‘You done well, Mr. Faraday. Real well. And we’ll overlook some of the little peculiarities of your methods. Like getting over people’s walls. Or forgetting to report things. A P.I. can stick his neck out where we run up against red tape. I think you got something important here. And I won’t forget it. Now I’m goin’ to be equally frank.’

He tapped his pipe into the car ash tray and looked across at the lodge gates of The Palisades.

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