Sinful Woman by Cain James M

Author:Cain, James M. [Cain, James M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Crime, Mystery
ISBN: 9781453291641
Amazon: B0CJ613CF4
Goodreads: 17239577
Publisher: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road
Published: 1947-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

MR. LAYTON HAD BARELY left the room when Tony leaped at Dmitri, caught him by the arm and began shaking him savagely. “Are you nuts? Listen, fellow, you can’t trifle with this thing! What’ll they think of us, cooking up a dilly like we told them already, and then saying it isn’t so? Spiro, you dealt these cards, and there’s no way now to make it a misdeal! You’ve got to play them!”

“Didn’t you hear what he said?”

“Couldn’t you make a deal?”

“Didn’t you hear me try? What happened?”

“Couldn’t you sock him in the jaw?”

“Me? He was a big guy. You sock him.”

“Taking it lying down—”

“Wait a minute, fellow—wait a minute. This wasn’t just a guy. He was from a big insurance company. What good would it do to sock him?”

“It would do plenty of good. A cheap jack of an agent comes out here, lights a cigar, and scares you so bad you turn around and pitch it all out, what’s been done. Don’t you get it? I’m in on it too! I’ve been your witness, I’ve stood for what had to be said to put across accident. Look where that puts me in this town if you go around and tell them it’s all just a lie you thought up.”

Mr. La Bouche spoke in a quiet, worried way. “We think we been getting away with it, but who says we have? Who says that mug is from an insurance company at all? Who says he’s not a cop’s stool pigeon?”

“But switching, that’ll fix it, hey?”

They all sat in gloom for a few minutes. Then Dmitri picked up the letter. “And besides this note can’t go to the Sheriff. It must be another note. Because who knows what this says? Maybe some fool thing. Maybe something about Hezzel. Maybe cracks it wide open.”

“Can’t you burn it?”

Mr. La Bouche explained patiently to Tony that if it had been merely an ordinary letter, burning was possible, but with the postoffice having a record of the delivery, to say nothing of the hotel, burning would be wholly risky. Substituting another letter, one that indicated Vicki intended to take his own life, was the best solution all around. And Dmitri added: “We don’t switch, nothing like that. We tell the same thing. Just like we told it before. Except we remember now, it was Vicki who say, ‘I must have a real one.’ Was Vicki who say, ‘I don’t get this thing till you make it plain.’ We know nothing about a note. The Sharf opens the note, says it must be suicide. Then all see it was suicide, the insurance goes kaput, company no have to pay.”

Tony stormed, pleaded, called Dmitri names. But Benny, the first forger of his time, went out, and when he returned he had the bar’s small electric coffee machine. Filling it with water from the cooler he plugged it in, and while he was waiting for it to steam he looked at the letter. “Green ink, pals. That’s the first thing.

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