1965 - The Way the Cookie Crumbles Read Online Free PDF

and then she would shut up. She had no money when Lewis died. They were planning to marry as soon as Muriel could get a divorce. She put the baby with foster parents and got a job as a hotel receptionist.’ Edris paused to finish his coffee. He poured more into his cup and pushed the jug over to Beigler. ‘She got into bad company. After a while she started on the needle. She got tossed out of the hotel. She hadn’t the money for a fix so she went on the streets. Some old guy set her up in an apartment. She lived pretty well for the next five years until he died. She sent Norena. that’s her daughter to boarding school. They only got together during the vacations. The drug habit really got her, and she quit New York and came here. Then Johnnie Williams showed up.’
    Edris again paused and looked at Hess. ‘Maybe you’d better talk to him. He knows more about Muriel than I do.’
    Hess poured himself another cup of coffee.
    ‘Williams is dead. She killed him. Why didn’t she tell you, Ticky? She told you everything, didn’t she? Why didn’t she tell you she put five slugs into him before she came to La Coquille?’
    Edris sat very still. His big eyes clouded. They looked like the eyes of a spaniel.
    ‘She didn’t tell me. I knew something pretty bad had happened, but she was drunk. I couldn’t get any sense out of her. So she killed him! Well, he had it coming. The dirty, double-crossing son of a bitch!’
    ‘Just why did he have it coming?’ Beigler asked.
    ‘She did everything for that slob. She kept him, bought him his clothes, let him have a room rent-free. She was crazy about him. He bled her white. During the last six months or so, he’s been going after the old women at the Palace Hotel. He found one with money. By now, Muriel was broke. She was so far gone on the needle, she couldn’t even get customers. She had the school bills and her regular fixes to pay for. Johnnie was really in the money. When she tried to borrow off him, he laughed at her. I guess he laughed once too often.’
    ‘How about the daughter? Does she have any idea what was going on?’
    ‘No. Muriel and she went away on sea trips during the vacations. She didn’t want Norena to come to her apartment too often. She was hoping to take her to the West Indies this vacation, but she had no money and Johnnie wouldn’t stake her.’
    ‘You being her best friend, you didn’t stake her, Ticky?’
    ‘She wouldn’t take it from me. I offered, but she couldn’t bring herself to take money from me.’
    ‘Why not? You were her best friend, weren’t you the guy she always confided in.’
    Edris looked thoughtfully at Hess, his eyes stony.
    ‘I guess she thought I was more to be pitied than her. She never looked on me as a human being. I was just someone, something, to talk to.’
    Hess sneered.
    ‘Did she say she pitied you?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Well, you saved your money, didn’t you, Ticky?’
    ‘I don’t have all that money to save,’ Edris said.
    ‘Oh, come on: with your cute tricks, I bet you pick up plenty of tips.’
    Beigler said impatiently, ‘Let’s skip it, Fred. This isn’t getting us anywhere.’
    ‘Oh, I don’t know. I think this freak is a shade too cute,’ Hess said, scowling at Edris. ‘Didn’t Muriel say one little thing that hinted she had killed Williams?’
    ‘No.’
    Hess began to unwrap a packet of gum.
    ‘Did she own a gun, Ticky?’
    ‘I don’t think so. She might have done. I wouldn’t know.’
    ‘Who was the pusher who gave her her fix?’
    ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘It wouldn’t be you?’
    ‘No.’
    Hess fed the gum into his mouth, stared at his fleshy hands for a long moment, then shrugged. He got to his feet.
    ‘I guess that’s all. You got anything that’s worrying you, Joe?’
    Beigler also got to his feet.
    ‘No.’
    ‘Well, let’s get out of here.’
    The two detectives walked to the door. Edris remained in the armchair, his feet on the foot stool, his eyes watching