Vengeance Man by Dan Marlowe

Author:Dan Marlowe [Marlowe, Dan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dan Marlowe Books, LLC
Published: 2011-09-22T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

GEORGE PIERSON’S death left me in a position with Lud where I didn’t know whether to back up or go ahead. Instinct told me to grab the cow by the udders; caution argued that my stance was poor. In the end, I did nothing but go to the funeral, as half the town did. If I was right in my estimate of the situation, I’d be hearing from Lud without any necessity on my part for pushing the issue.

I heard in a week. She called the house one afternoon when I was enmeshed in a maze of figures. I didn’t even recognize her voice. “Oh,” I said finally. “Lud. Yes. What d’you want?” The second it was out I realized that the tone of complete unawareness could only be considered lese majesty.

As it was. “I want you to come out to the house,” Lud said, slivers of ice crackling in every syllable.

All the former imperiousness was back in her voice. I was tempted to give her an argument—it had been that kind of day—but there didn’t seem to be any point in it. “I’ll be over,” I said. I hung up my T-square and went out front to the station wagon.

As I drove over to the Pierson house my thoughts weren’t pleasant. Until he was gone, I hadn’t realized what a buffer George Pierson had been between me and Lud. Despite her high-and-mighty indifference to public opinion, there were things even she couldn’t do. The number of these had been sharply diminished, and I didn’t care for the prospect of the consequences.

She received me in a black dress, whose color was its only concession to mourning. I could have spit through the fabric, which clung to her like wax to linoleum. “I’ve had a discreet investigation made,” she began without preliminary when we were installed in her upstairs sitting room. “There’s no question about it. Someone tampered with the steering knuckle on George’s Thunderbird.”

“We both know you didn’t need an investigation to find that out, Lud.”

She ignored it. “Facts have emerged that could lead the authorities to want to ask you some questions. If the facts were called to their attention.”

“Oh, I see. I killed George, is that it? Do you mind telling me my motive?”

“Revenge because he had turned down your application for a line of credit.”

That reached me. “Turned down—? What the hell are you talking about? George okayed my application.”

“You have it in writing, of course?”

“Of course.” I bluffed.

She smiled. “You must be a formidable poker player. George never signed anything before I looked over the details.”

The woman had had her husband killed. It would have made a lot of sense to her to arrange the facts so the evidence pointed toward me. “So?”

“So unless you marry me, I’m prepared to turn over the results of my investigation to the authorities.”

It probably should have had a greater impact on me than it did. I couldn’t stand a noise like this; my current odor in the community was bad enough.

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