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Shaking hands fumbled with the chain on the catch on the door.
The door opened.
«Come in, come in,» Fisk said.
The little group walked into the room-a bedraggled place with a cheap, sagging bed, a paper-thin carpet in which holes had been worn in front of the cheap, pine dresser, its wavy mirror distorting reflections.
There was one cushioned chair, one cane-bottomed, straight-backed chair.
Fisk said, «What is it? You fellows have got to give me protection.»
Mason said, «What was the idea of framing Virginia Baxter on that dope, and why did you go to the Saint's Rest and take her car?»
«Who are you?» Fisk asked.
«I'm her lawyer.»
«Well, I don't need your type of mouthpiece.»
«I'm not a mouthpiece,» Mason told him. «I'm a lawyer. And here, my friend, is a subpoena for you to appear in court tomorrow and testify as a witness in the case of Peopie versus Baxter.»
«Say, what kind of a dodge are you pulling on me?» Tnagg asked. «Getting me down here just so you could serve a subpoena.»
«That's all,» Mason told him cheerfully, «unless you want to use your head. If you do, you can cover yourself with glory.»
«You can't serve me with any subpoena,» Fisk said. «I only opened the door for the law.»
«How come your fingerprints are all over Virginia Baxter's car?» Mason asked.
«Phooey, you won't find a fingerprint on the thing.»
«And,» Mason said, «when the officers went to Virginia Baxter's apartment to search it on the strength of your representation that there was dope hidden there, you managed to fix the door so you could get back in with the person who did the typewriting on Virginia's typewriter.»
«Words, words, words,» Fisk said. «I get so tired of having people try to frame things on me. Listen, lawyer, I've been worked over by experts. You amateurs don't stand a chance.»
«You wore gloves in handling Virginia Baxter's car,» Mason said, «but you didn't have gloves on in the Saint's Rest Motel. Your fingerprints are all over the room.»
«So what? Sure, I admit I was at the Saint's Rest Motel.»
«And registered under an assumed name.»
«Lots of people do that.»
«And gave a phony license number.»
«I wrote it down according to the best way I could remember it.»
Mason, looking at the man, said suddenly, «Good heavens, no wonder! There's a family resemblance. What's your relationship to George Eagan?»
For a moment the black eyes looked at Mason with cold defiance.
«That,» Mason said, «is something we can check.»
Fisk seemed to grow smaller inside of his coat, «All right,» he said. «I'm his half-brother. I'm the black sheep of the family.»
«And,» Mason said, «you switched license numbers with Eagan's automobile and of course Eagan didn't notice-that was just in case anyone tried to identify you through the license number.»
«Got any proof?» Fisk asked.
«I don't need it,» Mason said. «By the time I put you on the witness stand tomorrow and the newspapers publish your picture and the history of your activities as a stool pigeon and double-crosser, the underworld will take care of you a lot better than I can. Come on, folks, let's go.»
Mason turned and started to the door.
For a long moment Fisk stood there, then he grabbed Mason's coat sleeve. «No, no! Now, look, look, we can square this thing.»
He turned from Mason to Lieutenant Tragg. «I've given you folks the breaks,» he said. «You folks can help me out. Get this mouthpiece off my neck. Get me out of town.»
Tragg, studying the man intently, said, «You tell us the whole story and we'll see what we can do. But we're not buying anything blindfolded.»
Fisk said, «Look, I've been in trouble, lots of trouble, lots of times in trouble. George had to get me out of it once when I was in bad trouble.»
«Who's George?» Tragg asked.
«George Eagan, Lauretta Trent's chauffeur.»
Mason and Tragg exchanged glances, then Tragg turned to Fisk and said, «All right, come on, what happened?»
«Well, I lost out with the police and lost all my co
«What woman?»
«The nurse, A
«Go on,» Tragg said.
«She was teamed up with Kelvin. Kelvin thought he was going to get the bulk of the Trent estate-he and his brother-in-law, and their wives, of course. So he got this nurse to hurry the old gal over the divide.
«They made three passes with arsenic. They didn't dare to kill her with arsenic, but she had a bad pump and the idea was that all the upchucking from a small dose would make the pump give out.
«Then while the old dame was being sick the last time, Kelvin found the will. He damn near dropped dead from the shock.
«So he had to change the will. They tracked down the lawyer's typewriter. The nurse was a good typist. If she had plenty of time she swore she could make a forgery they'd never detect, but she needed the lawyer's typewriter and stationery.
«That meant they wanted not only to get Virginia Baxter discredited so she couldn't spill their apples if she remembered the terms of the real will, but they wanted her in the cooler.
«They also wanted to either get Ba
«Anyhow, first thing was to get this Baxter woman in the clink and get her convicted of a dope charge.
«Well, I did what I was supposed to. I bribed a guy to let me out to the plane to get my baggage on the ground; that it was an important shipment. I spotted the broad's bag as soon as it came off the plane; then said I'd lost my tags. They told me I had to identify the contents, so I got the suitcases opened and then said I'd made a mistake and, in the confusion, managed to plant the stuff I was to put in the suitcase.
«I thought that was all I was going to have to do.
«But that's the way it is with a broad. You get tangled up with them and they're always on your neck. So I had to take this girl's automobile and wait until George came along and then ram the car. I hated to do it, but George had been high-hatting me of late and-Well, a guy has to live.»
«All right,» Tragg said, «what did you do?»
«I did what I was told to,» Fisk said, trembling. «I was to give it a good sideswipe. I didn't know it was going out of control and-I thought I was just framing a hit-andrun… Well, that's the truth and now I've got it off my chest.»
«That was Virginia Baxter's car you were using?» Mason asked.
«That's right. I was told she'd be up at the Saint's Rest and given the license number of her automobile. She hadn't much more than got into her room and got settled down than I left my car and took hers. Then, as soon as I'd done the job, I came back up and parked her car and took mine.
«The parking stall her car had been in had been taken by somebody else, so I had to park the Baxter car in a new stall. I was told to be awfully careful with that car, to give the Lauretta Trent car a shove with the front end of the car, but to hit it hard with the back end so the Baxter car would run all right.»
«And how much did you get for that?» Mason asked.
«Promises. I was hot. I've got enemies and I've got to get where they can't take me for a one-way ride. This broad promised me twenty-five hundred, and she gave me two hundred in cash. I don't know how you found out about me, but… by God, if you put me on a witness stand and the newspapers publish this stuff, my life won't be worth a snap of my fingers… Hell, they're gu