Cool & Lam 15 - Beware the Curves

that way.”
    “How does Citrus Grove do things?” I asked.
    “Citrus Grove,” she said, “is under the dominance of the mayor.”
    “And who is the mayor?”
    “Charles Franklin Taber. They had a reasonably honest government. They had a chief of police who was on the square. Taber made speeches. He gave interviews to the press.
    “Somebody’s behind Taber. I don’t know who it is, but there are too many brains being used to have everything originate with that lunk of a Taber.
    “Anyway a fairly competent mayor was defeated at the polls. Charles Franklin Taber was swept in on what he called a ‘wave of reform.’ He found an officer who was taking something on the side, and made it look like the whole police force was corrupt. The honest chief of police was fired. A new chief of police was imported so that he would be ‘free of local politics and free from local pressures.’ That was put in quotes.”
    “ Drude Nickerson?” I asked.
    “ Drude Nickerson was a cabdriver. He is a cousin of the mayor. Now Drude Nickerson goes in for bigger things. Drude Nickerson came to call on me. Nickerson knew about a lot of things. He knew all about the secret negotiations for the factory. He knew all about the property I had inherited.
    “I told Drude Nickerson about how much good the factory would do the city, about the payroll it would bring in, and the people who would come, the increase in building and all of that.”
    “And what did Nickerson say?” I asked.
    “Nickerson laughed. Nickerson told me not to be naïve. He told me that if I waited for the zoning ordinance to be changed I would wait a long, long time. He said business wasn’t being done on that kind of a basis.”
    “On what kind of a basis was it being done?”
    “On a cash basis.”
    “You donated?”
    “Eventually, yes.”
    “How much?”
    “Fifteen thousand, three payments of five thousand each.”
    I whistled.
    “Was I a sucker, Donald?”
    “Was the zoning ordinance changed?”
    “Not yet. I only gave him the money two weeks ago. He said he would only keep about a thousand for himself, that the rest of it had to be handled to build up political pressures, lobbying and things of that sort.“
    “And then?”
    “Then he went and got himself killed in a traffic accident.”
    “And what was your interest in the body?”
    “Not in the body. In the clothes the body was wearing at the time of the accident. He told me that he wouldn’t actually let go of the money until he was assured the ordinance would pass and that to protect me in case anything should happen to him he’d leave the cash in a safe-deposit box and the key to that box and a note saying the money was my property would be in his wallet.”
    “You believed that?”
    “I did at the time .“
    “ Was the note in his wallet?”
    “I don’t know. They gave me a regular bum’s rush out of Susanville. They said I’d have to take up my claim with the administrator of the estate.”
    “You didn’t see his wallet?”
    “They didn’t even let me get to first base.
    “Now then, Donald, I’ve put my cards on the table. I’ve tried to play it smart. I’ve tried to outwit you. I’ve tried to be seductive. I’ve tried to... shucks, I don’t know, I guess I’ve been doing business with crooks for so long I thought everyone was crooked. You’re square, and you... you’re decent.”
    “I can’t help you,” I told her.
    “Why?”
    “Because I’m working on something else for someone else. I can get information, but I can’t give it out. I’ll tell you one thing.”
    “What?”
    “Don’t shed any tears over Drude Nickerson’s unfortunate demise.”
    “Tears for that crook!” she blazed. “What I want to know is what’s going to happen to the zoning ordinance. I wouldn’t cry over that two-timing—
    “Wait a moment, I guess I’m not supposed to speak ill of the dead. It isn’t supposed to be the sporting thing to do.”
    “Go ahead and speak ill of him.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “He isn’t dead,” I told her.
    She looked at me with big eyes. “How do you know ?“
    “I don’t know. I’m guessing,” I said. “I don’t think he’s dead. I think the whole thing is a plant.”
    She sat very still for several minutes, thinking things over. Suddenly she looked up at me and said, “Donald, you’re a darling and you may kiss me good night. What’s more it’s not going to be a cold, chaste kiss. Get ready, Donald, for an experience.