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They were two state troopers, smart and young and very nice. Id almost forgotten such people existed. They saluted me as if I was royalty. “Miss Vivienne Michel?” The senior, a lieutenant, did the talking while his Number Two muttered quietly into his radio, announcing their arrival.
“Yes. ”
“Im Lieutenant Morrow. We hear you had some trouble last night. ” He gestured with his gloved hand at the ruins. “Seems like we heard right. ”
“Oh, thats nothing,” I said disdainfully. “Theres a car in the lake with a corpse in it and another corpse behind cabin Number 3. ”
“Yes, Miss. ” There was a hint of disapproval at my levity. He turned to his companion, who had clipped back the microphone to the set behind his saddle. “ODonnell, take a look round, would you?”
“Okay, loot. ” ODonnell strode off across the grass.
“Well, lets go and take a seat somewhere, Miss Michel. ” The lieutenant bent down to one of his saddlebags and produced a carefully wrapped package. “Brought along some breakfast. Fraid its only coffee and doughnuts. That suit you?” He held out the package.
I gave him a full-candlepower smile. “Thats terribly kind of you. Im starving. There are some seats over by the lake. We can choose one thats out of sight of the sunk car. ” I led the way across the grass, and we sat down. The lieutenant took off his cap and produced a notebook and pencil and pretended to go through his notes to give me a chance to get started on a doughnut.
He looked up and produced his first smile. “Now dont worry about this, miss. Im not taking a statement. The captains coming up himself for that. Should be along any time now. When they gave me the hurry call I got down the bare facts. But whats worrying me is that that radio just hasnt left me alone since then. Had to cut down my speed the whole way here from Route 9 to keep on listening to instructions from the station—that Albany was interested in the case, that even the top brass in Washington was breathing down our necks. Never heard such a load coming over the air. Now, miss, can you tell me how its come about that Washingtons mixed up in this, and within a bare couple of hours of Glens Falls getting the first report?”
I couldnt help smiling at his earnestness. I could almost hear him calling over to ODonnell as they roared along, “Hell, well have Jack Kennedy on our tails any moment now!” I said, “Well, theres a man called James Bond whos involved. He saved me and shot these two gangsters. Hes some kind of an English agent, secret service or something. He was driving from Toronto to Washington to report on a case, and he got a flat and ended up at the motel. If he hadnt, Id be dead by now. Anyway, I guess he must be someone pretty important. He told me he wanted to make sure this Mr. Sanguinetti didnt get away to Mexico or somewhere. But thats more or less all I know about him, except that—except that he seemed a wonderful guy. ”
The lieutenant looked sympathetic. “Guess so, miss. If he got you out of this trouble. But hes certainly got a fix in with the F. B. I. They dont often tangle in a local case like this. Unless theyre called in, that is, or theres some federal angle. ” The thin wail of sirens sounded far down the road. Lieutenant Morrow got to his feet and put his cap on. “Well, thanks, miss. I was just satisfying my curiosity. The captain will be taking over from here. Dont you worry. Hes a nice kind of a guy. ” ODonnell came up. “If youll excuse me, miss. ” The lieutenant moved off with ODonnell, listening to his report, and I finished the coffee and followed slowly, thinking of the gray Thunder-bird that would now be hammering out the miles southward, and of the sunburned hands on the wheel.
* * *
It was quite a cavalcade that came sweeping up the road between the pines—a squad car with outriders, an ambulance, two other police cars, and a recovery truck that came toward me across the grass and went on down to the lake. Everyone seemed to have had their orders, and very soon the whole area was covered with moving figures in olive-green or dark blue.
The heavily built man who soon came forward to meet me, followed by a junior officer who turned out to be the stenographer, looked every inch the detective-captain of the films—slow-moving, kindly-faced, purposeful. He held out his hand. “Miss Michel? Im Captain Stonor from Glens Falls. Lets go somewhere where we can have a talk, shall we? One of the cabins, or shall we stay out in the open?”
“Ive had about enough of the cabins, if you dont mind. Why not over there—my breakfast table. And by the way, thank you very much for your thoughtfulness. I was starving. ”
“Dont thank me, Miss Michel. ” The Captains eyes twinkled frostily. “It was your English friend, Commander Bond, who suggested it”—he paused—“among other things. ”
So he was a commander. It was the only rank I liked the name of. And of course he was bound to have put the captains back up—an Englishman with all this authority. And with the C. I. A. and F. B. I, of all people! Nothing would irritate the regular police more. I decided to be extremely diplomatic.
We sat down and, after the usual police preliminaries, I was asked to tell my story.
It took two hours, what with Captain Stonors questions and men coming up from time to time to whisper hoarsely into his ear, and at the end of it I was exhausted. Coffee was brought and cigarettes for me (“Not while Im on duty, thank you, Miss Michel”), and then we all relaxed and the stenographer was sent away. Captain Stonor sent for Lieutenant Morrow and took him aside to radio a preliminary report to headquarters, and I watched the wreck of the black sedan, that had by now been hauled up the cliff, being towed over the lawn to the road. There the ambulance was driven over beside it, and I turned away as a wet bundle was carefully lifted out onto the grass. Horror! I remembered again those cold, red-flecked eyes. I felt his hands on me. Could it have happened?
I heard the captain say, “And copies to Albany and Washington. Right?” And then he was back sitting opposite me.
He looked at me kindly and said some complimentary things. I looked appreciative and said, “No, no. ” I asked when he thought I could get on.
Captain Stonor didnt answer immediately. Instead he slowly reached up and took off his cap and put it on the table. The armistice gesture, a copy of the lieutenants made me smile inside. Then he rummaged in his pockets and took out cigarettes and a lighter. He offered me one and then lit his own. He smiled at me, his first non-official smile. “Im going off duty now, Miss Michel. ” He sat back comfortably and crossed his legs, resting his left ankle on his right knee and holding the ankle. He suddenly looked like a middle-aged man with a family, taking it easy. He took his first long draw on his cigarette and watched the smoke drift away. He said, “You can be going any time now, Miss Michel. Your friend Commander Bond was anxious that you should be put to as little trouble as possible. And Im glad to accommodate him—and you. And”—he smiled with unexpected humor and irony—“I didnt need Washington to add their wishes in this matter. Youve been a brave girl. You got involved in a bad crime and you behaved like Id wish any child of mine to behave. Those two hoodlums are both wanted men. Ill be putting in your name for the rewards. Likewise to the insurance company, who will certainly be generous. Weve booked those Phanceys on a preliminary charge of conspiracy to defraud, and this Mr. Sanguinetti is already on the run, as the Commander suggested this morning he would be. We checked with Troy, as we would have checked anyway, and the normal police machinery is in motion to pick him up. There will be a capital charge against Mr. Sanguinetti, if and when we catch up with him, and it may be that you will be needed as a material witness. The state will pay for you to be brought from wherever you may be, housed, and taken back again. All this”—Captain Stonor made a throwaway gesture with his cigarette—“is normal police routine, and it will look after itself. ” The astute blue eyes looked carefully into mine and then veiled themselves. “But that doesnt quite end the case to my satisfaction. ” He smiled. “That is, now that Im off duty, so to speak, and theres only just you and me. ”
I tried to look just interested and nonchalant, b
ut I wondered what was coming.
“Did this Commander Bond leave you any instructions, any letter? He told me that he had left you asleep early this morning. That he had gone off around six and had not wanted to wake you up. Quite right, of course. But”—Captain Stonor examined the end of his cigarette— “your evidence and the Commanders is to the effect that you shared the same cabin. Quite natural in the circumstances. You wouldnt have wanted to be alone any more last night. But it seems rather an abrupt good-by—after an exciting night like that. No trouble with him, I suppose? He didnt, er, try to get fresh with you, if you get my meaning?” The eyes were apologetic, but they probed into mine.
I blushed furiously. I said sharply, “Certainly not, Captain. Yes, he did leave a letter for me. A perfectly straightforward one. I didnt mention it because it doesnt add anything to what you know. ” I ran down the zip on my front and reached inside for the letter, blushing even worse. Damn the man!
He took the letter and read it carefully. He handed it back. “A very nice letter. Very, er, businesslike. I dont get the bit about the soap. ”
I said shortly, “Oh, that was only a joke about the motel soap. He said it was too strongly scented. ”
“I see. Yes, sure. Well, thats fine, Miss Michel. ” The eyes were kindly again. “Well, now. Dyou mind if I say something personal? Talk to you a minute as if you might be my own daughter? You could be, you know— almost my granddaughter if Id started early enough. ” He chuckled cozily.
“No. Please say anything you like. ”
Captain Stonor took another cigarette and lit it. “Well, now, Miss Michel, what the Commander says is right. Youve been in the equivalent of a bad motor accident and you dont want to have any nightmares about it. But theres more to it than that. Youve been suddenly introduced, out of the blue, so to speak, and violently, to the underground war of crime, the war thats going on all the time and that you read about and see in movies. And, like in the movies, the cop has rescued the maiden from the robbers. ” He leaned forward across the table and held my eyes firmly in his. “Now dont get me wrong about this, Miss Michel, and if Im speaking out of turn, just forget what Im going to say. But it would be unreasonable of you not to create a hero out of the cop who saved you, perhaps build an image in your mind that thats the sort of man to look up to, even perhaps to want to marry. ” The captain sat back. He smiled apologetically. “Now the reason Im going into all this is because violent emergencies like what youve been through leave their scars. Theyre one hell of a shock to anyone—to any dam citizen. But most of all to a young person like yourself. Now I believe”—the kind eyes became less kind— “I have good reason from the reports of my officers to believe, that you had intimate relations with Commander Bond last night. Im afraid its one of our less attractive duties to be able to read such signs. ” Captain Stonor held up his hand. “Now Im not prying any more into these private things, and theyre none of my business, but it would be perfectly natural, almost inevitable, that you might have lost your heart, or at any rate part of it, to this personable young Englishman who has just saved your life. ” The sympathy in the fatherly smile was edged with irony. “After alls said and done, thats what happens in the books and in the movies, isnt it? So why not in real life?”