The Golden Gizmo by Jim Thompson Read Free Book Online Page B

looked embarrassed. "Well, now," he mumbled. "Maybe it wasn't real smart, but-"
    "Smart!" snarled Donald. "You see what the son-of-a-bitch done to my nose?"
    "I met Donald on the way to Milt's shop. I went on down to the shop and checked in, then I went back to my room. I couldn't have been gone more than thirty or thirty-five minutes at the outside. When I went in I found the room turned upside down, I found Donald heading down the fire escape, and I found my wife on the bed… strangled with her own stockings."
    "Sss-strangled?… Y-you mean h-he…?"
    "I didn't!" Donald snapped, fearfully. "Dammit, Shake, why for would I do a thing like that?"
    "W-why for was you in Toddy's room?"
    "I-well, I-"
    "Spill it!"
    Donald edged toward the corner of the room, keeping a cautious eye on Toddy. "I j-just went up there to wait for him. Kind of surprise him, you know."
    "Yeah?"
    "I was-I was just goin' to cut him up a little when he came back."
    Shake sighed with relief. "You see, Toddy? Donald wouldn't of killed her. Donald ain't that kind of boy. He was just goin' to cut you up a little."
    "Uh-huh. And Elaine jumps him, so he gives her the business."
    "You're a goddam liar!"
    "Now you know better than that, Toddy," said Shake. "You been around too long to think a thing like that. In the first place, he ain't a killer. In the second place, he's a shiv man. Why for would he screw around with stockings when he had a shiv? It ain't his-his-" -modus operandi , Toddy supplied silently. It was true; the operation method of a criminal almost never changes. The police would have a hell of a time if it did. Still, Donald had had the opportunity. He'd been caught at the scene of the murder.
    "You think I'm-I'm immortal or somethin?" Donald demanded with genuine indignation. "You think I'm a pervert? You think I killed the Black Dahlia?"
    "I think you're a very sweet little boy," said Toddy. "The whole trouble is, people just don't understand you. Like me, for example. How'd you know it was safe to go into my room? How'd you know my wife wasn't in there… alive?"
    "I could look under the door an' see it was dark. I knocked an' didn't get no answer, so I went in."
    "The door was unlocked?"
    "I'm tellin' ya."
    "How long was this after you left me?"
    "Well… fifteen-twenty minutes maybe."
    "Just long enough to work your nerve up, huh? How long had you been there when I came in? It couldn't have been much more than ten minutes."
    "It wasn't." Donald scowled peevishly. "Look. Why don't you cut out the third degree an' let me tell you."
    "Okay. Keep it straight."
    "I knocked on the door," said Donald. "I knocked an' waited a minute. I thought I heard someone movin' around-kind of a rustlin' sound-and I almost took a powder. But I didn't hear it no more, then, after the first time, so I figured it must be the window shade flappin' or something like that. I opened the door just a crack an' slid in…"
    "Go on."
    "I"-Donald wiped sweat from his face-"I stood there by the door, hugging the wall and waiting… an'… an' I don't know. I begin to get kind of a funny feeling, like someone was staring at the back of my neck. Well, you know how it is in that room. You can't really see into it up there by the door. You can't see the bed or nothing hardly until you get past the bathroom. Not with the lights off, anyways…"
    "I know that," said Toddy impatiently.
    "Well, I got this feeling so… so I slide down along the wall until I'm out of that little areaway. I came even with the bed and my eyes are gettin' kind of used to the dark an' I can see. A little. I can see they's someone on the bed. I- I-Jesus! I can't even think what I'm doin'! All I can think of is lightin' a cigarette-I mean, I don't really think of it. I do it without thinkin'. And then the match flares up an' I see everything. I see what's happened. An' then I hear you at the door, an' I try to beat it down the fire escape an'-"
    Toddy nodded absently. Donald was in the clear. He'd been