James Hadley Chase - Just another sucker

I

When they released me at eight oclock on a July morning, it was raining fit to drown a duck.

It was a pretty odd sensation to walk out into the world that, for me, had stood still for three and a half long years. I approached it warily, walking a few yards from the iron studded doors, then pausing to get the feel of freedom.

There would be a Greyhound bus at the corner to take me home, but for the moment, I didnt feel like going home. I just wanted to stand on the edge of the sidewalk, to feel the rain against my face and to let the fact sink in that I was now free, that I wouldnt have to spend another night in a cell and I wouldnt any longer have to share my life with thugs, criminals and sex perverts as I had been doing for all these months.

The rain made puddles in the road. It beat down on my four year old hat and my five year old raincoat: warm rain, coming from a cloud-swollen sky as dark and as bitter as myself.

A glittering Buick Century slid up beside me and the electrically driven off-side window rolled down.

Harry!

The car door swung open as I bent to stare in at the driver.

John Renick grinned at me.

Come on in youre getting wet, he said.

I hesitated, then I got into the car and slammed the door shut. Renick grabbed my hand and squeezed it. His dark lean face showed as nothing else could how pleased he was to see me.

How are you, you old sonofagun? he asked. How does it feel to be out?

Im all right, I said, disentangling my hand from his. Dont tell me Im getting a police escort back home.

His smile slipped a little at my tone: his grey shrewd eyes searched my face.

You didnt imagine I wasnt coming, did you? Ive been counting the days.

I didnt imagine anything. I looked at the ornate dashboard of the car. Is this yours?

You bet. I bought it a couple of months ago. Shes a honey, isnt she?

So the Palm City cops are still keeping themselves well heeled. Congratulations.

His mouth tightened and there was a sudden flash of anger in his eyes.

Look, Harry, if any other guy but you had made that crack, I would have taken a poke at him.

I shrugged.

Go ahead if you feel that way. Im used to cops taking pokes at me.

He drew in a deep breath, then he said: Just for the record, Im the D.A.s Special officer now, and I have had a pretty substantial rise. Ive been off the regular Force for more than two years.

I was irritated to feel the blood rise to my face.

I see Im sorry I didnt know.

How could you? He grinned and shifted into gear. The Buick drifted away from the kerb. A lot of things have changed, Harry, since youve been inside. The old gang has gone. We have a new D.A.

hes a good man.

I didnt say anything.

What are your plans? he asked abruptly.

I havent any. I want to look around. You know the Heralds washed me up?

I heard. There was a pause, then he went on: Its going to be a little rough for you at first. You know that, dont you?

Oh sure. When a guy kills a cop even accidentally, hes not allowed to forget it. I know how rough it is going to be.

You wont have any trouble with the police. I didnt mean that, but you may have to look around for a new career. Cubitt carries a lot of weight. He has his knife in you. If he can stop you, youre not getting back into the newspaper world.

You let me worry about that.

I might be able to help.

I dont want any help.

Oh sure, but theres Nina

And I can take care of Nina.

There was a long pause while he stared through the rain-soaked windshield, then he said: Look, Harry, you and I are friends. Weve known each other a heck of a long time. I know how you are feeling, but dont treat me as if I were one of your enemies. Ive talked to Meadows about you. Hes the new D.A. Theres nothing fixed yet, but theres a chance we can use you in the office.

I looked at him.

I wouldnt work for the Palm City Administration if it was the last job left on earth.

Ninas had a pretty rough time, Renick said awkwardly. She

Ive also had a pretty rough time, so that makes the two of us. I dont want anyones help. Thats final!

Well, okay, Renick said. He made a helpless gesture with his hands. Dont imagine I dont understand, Harry. I guess Id be bitter too if I had been framed the way you were, but whats dones done. You have your future to think of now Ninas future too.

What else do you imagine I have been thinking about all the time I have been in a cell? I stared out of the car window at the sea, grey in the rain, pounding against the sea wall. Yes, Im bitter all right. I have had time to realise just what a goddam sucker Ive been. I should have taken the ten thousand dollars the Police Commissioner offered me to keep my mouth shut. Well, one thing I have learned since I have been in jail: Im not ever going to be a sucker again.

Youre just sounding off, Renick said sharply. You know you did the right thing. The cards were stacked against you. If you had taken that rats bribe, you would never have been able to live with yourself, and you know it.

Think so? Dont kid yourself its going to be all that pleasant to live with myself now. Three and a half years sharing a cell with a child rapist and two thugs with habits that would sicken a pig does something to you. At least if I had taken that bribe I wouldnt be now an ex-jailbird without a job. Id probably be owning a car like yours.

Renick shifted uneasily.

Thats no way to talk, Harry. Youre getting me worried. For Petes sake, get hold of yourself before you see Nina.

Suppose you mind your own business? I snarled at him. Nina happens to be my wife. Shes taken me for better or worse. Well, okay. You let me worry about her.

I think you were wrong, Harry, when you wouldnt let her attend the trial or even visit you in jail or write to you. You know as well as I do, she wanted to share this thing with you, but you turned her into an outsider.

My hands closed into fists as I continued to stare at the rain-soaked beach.

I knew what I was doing, I said. Do you imagine I wanted her to be photographed by those vultures in the court room? Do you imagine I wanted her to see me in that prison rig behind wire and glass? Do you imagine I wanted that jerk of a Warden reading her letters before I got them? Just because I acted like a sucker, there was no need for her to be dragged into it.

You were wrong, Harry. Didnt it occur to you she wanted to be with you, Renick said impatiently.

It was as much as I could do to persuade her not to come with me this morning.

We were approaching Palm Bay, the swank residential district of Palm City. The long line of de luxe bathing cabins looked forlorn in the driving rain. The beach was deserted. The Cadillacs, the Rolls and the Bentleys stood in their parking squares outside the luxury hotels.

At one time Palm Bay had been my hunting ground. It seemed a long time now since I had been the gossip columnist of the Herald, the newspaper with the biggest circulation in California. Then, my column had been syndicated to over a hundred minor newspapers. I had been earning good money. I had lived well and had enjoyed my work. After a while, I had married Nina and bought a bungalow just outside Palm Bay where we set up home. I was doing all right, and looked set for life; then one night, when I was in the bar of the Beach Hotel, I happened to overhear a snatch of conversation between two strangers who had been hitting the bottle and had become indiscreetly loud.

Those few words put me onto something that was as hot and as dangerous as an exploding volcano. It took me two months of secret and patient investigation before I got the complete story. It was a story that would hit the headlines of the