THE SIMPLE ART OF MURDER by Raymond Chandler Copyright ...

EIGHT
I felt sure that when he awakened he would need it.
It was past ten o'clock when I returned home to my apartment, but I at once went to the telephone and called Ellen Macintosh.
"Darling!" I cried. "I have the pearls."
I caught the sound of her indrawn breath over the wire. "Oh darling," she said tensely and excitedly, "and you are not hurt? They did
not hurt you, darling? They just took the money and let you go?"
"There were no 'they,' darling," I said proudly. "I still have Mr. Gallemore's money intact. There was only Henry."
"Henry!" she cried in a very strange voice. "But I thought--Come over here at once, Walter Gage, and tell me--"
"I have whiskey on my breath, Ellen."
"Darling! I'm sure you needed it. Come at once."
So once more I went down to the street and hurried to Carondelet Park and in no time at all was at the Penruddock residence. Ellen
came out on the porch to meet me and we talked there quietly in the dark, holding hands, for the household had gone to bed. As simple
as I could I told her my story.
"But darling," she said at last, "how did you know it was Henry? I thought Henry was your friend. And this other voice on the
telephone--"
"Henry was my friend," I said a little sadly, "and that is what destroyed him. As to the voice on the telephone, that was a small matter
and easily arranged. Henry was away from me a number of times to arrange it. There was just one small point that gave me thought.
After I gave Gandesi my private card with the name of my apartment house scribbled upon it, it was necessary for Henry to communicate
to his confederate that we had seen Candesi and given him my name and address. For of course when I had this foolish, or perhaps
not so very foolish idea of visiting some well-known underworld character in order to send a message that we would buy back the
pearls, this was Henry's opportunity to make me think the telephone message came as a result of our talking to Gandesi, and telling
him our difficulty. But since the first call came to me at my apartment before Henry had had a chance to inform his confederate of our
meeting with Gandesi, it was obvious that a trick had been employed.
"Then I recalled that a car had bumped into us from behind and Henry had gone back to abuse the driver. And of course the
bumping was deliberate, and Henry had made the opportunity for it on purpose, and his confederate was in the car. So Henry, while
pretending to shout at him, was able to convey the necessary information."
"But, Walter," Ellen said, having listened to this explanation a little impatiently, "that is a very small matter. What I really want to know
is how you decided that Henry had the pearls at all."
"But you told me he had them," I said. "You were quite sure of it. Henry is a very durable character. It would be just like him to hide
the pearls somewhere, having no fear of what the police might do to him, and get another position and then after perhaps quite a long
time, retrieve the pearls and quietly leave this part of the country."
Ellen shook her head impatiently in the darkness of the porch. "Walter," she said sharply, "you are hiding something. You could not
have been sure and you would not have hit Henry in that brutal way, unless you had been sure. I know you well enough to know that."
"Well, darling," I said modestly, "there was indeed another small indication, one of those foolish trifles which the cleverest men
overlook. As you know, I do not use the regular apartmenthouse telephone, not wishing to be annoyed by solicitors and such people.
The phone which I use is a private line and its number is unlisted. But the calls I received from Henry's confederate came over that
phone, and Henry had been in my apartment a great deal, and I had been careful not to give Mr. Gandesi that number, because of
course I did not expect anything from Mr. Gandesi, as I was perfectly sure from the beginning that Henry had the pearls, if only I could get
him to bring them out of hiding."
"Oh, darling," Ellen cried, and threw her arms around me. "How brave you are, and I really think that you are actually clever in your
own peculiar way. Do you believe that Henry was in love with me?"
But that was a subject in which I had no interest whatever. I left the pearls in Ellen's keeping and late as the hour now was I drove at
once to the residence of Mr. Lansing Gallemore and told him my story and gave him back his money.
A few months later I was happy to receive a letter postmarked in Honolulu and written on a very inferior brand of paper.
Well, pal, that Sunday punch of yours was the money and I did not think you had it in you, altho of course I was not set for it. But it
was a pip and made me think of you for a week every time I brushed my teeth. It was too bad I had to scram because you are a sweet
guy altho a little on the goofy side and I'd like to be getting plastered with you right now instead of wiping oil valves where I am at which is
not where this letter is mailed by several thousand miles. There is just two things I would like you to know and they are both kosher. I did
fall hard for that tall blonde and this was the main reason I took my time from the old lady. Glomming the pearls was just one of those
screwy ideas a guy can get when he is dizzy with a dame. It was a crime the way they left them marbles lying around in that bread box
and 1 worked for a Frenchy once in Djibouty and got to know pearls enough to tell them from snowballs. But when it came to the clinch
down there in that brush with us two alone and no holds barred I just was too soft to go through with the deal. Tell that blonde you got a
loop on I was asking for her.
YRS. as ever,
HENRY EICHELBERGER (Alias)
P. S. What do you know, that punk that did the phone work on you tried to take me for a fifty cut on that C note you tucked in my vest. I
had to twist the sucker plenty.
Yrs. H. E. (Alias)
PICKUP ON
NOON STREET
52