The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories

Finally he said, dryly: “Thanks for the vote of confidence, Miss Jordan. Just tell Mr. Kirkwood for me that I’m not worried. In the first place, I have reasons to believe he won’t expose me. In the second place, if he does, it can’t really harm me.”

For the first time some feeling showed on his dark face. He put down the figure of the three apes, spread his hands and said, “Has it occurred to the pair of you that I may be quite sincere in my philosophy of Man’s Triumph Over Evil? I’m quite frank in saying that in the past I’ve been an evil man. I’ll even admit that in the beginning I founded my school of thought with something evil — the lust for money — in my mind. But I discovered I had stumbled onto the truth, and in convincing others I have convinced myself. If I don’t relish having my pupils know that I am an ex-convict, it is only because it will handicap me in importing my philosophy to them, not because of any fear for myself. For I know that if I refuse to recognize the existence of evil, then no evil can really harm me. Do I make myself clear?” He really sounded as though he meant what he said.

Sue said gravely, “Doctor, I believe you’re sincere. But Mr. Kirkwood is just as determined as you are sincere. Why can’t a compromise be worked out? I’m sure he’d be satisfied if you merely went on a nice vacation — six months or so. By the time you got back, his mother-in-law would have another enthusiasm and everyone would be happy.”

The doc shook his head. “That’s quite ridiculous, Miss Jordan. After all, while Mrs. Woodring is a charming woman and one of the most prominent members of my little circle, she is only one of quite a number to whom I am bringing my message. I have no intention of giving up my work and Mr. Kirkwood had better think carefully before he exposes me. You can tell him for me that even a good man isn’t entirely helpless against an evil man and that he who speaks evil often brings evil upon himself.”

I said, “Listen, Eddie, we’re using a lot of dollar words here. Can you put that in ordinary English?”

He smiled. “Kirkwood will understand. And I’m like the first of my three little monkeys here: I’d rather speak no evil.”

“I still think you’re shadow-boxing,” I said.

He bowed as though he didn’t care what I thought. The conference seemed to be over and I tracked Sue through the curtains, feeling clumsy-footed compared to his quiet sureness. Jane College met us outside the study, flat-heeled ahead of us to the front door.

Under her breath, Sue said, “At least I win five bucks.”

“It was an act,” I said. “Wait forty-eight hours and see.”

We were half-way through the front door when things started to go boom-boom back in the study. There was one shot before I could get around, another while I was turning and a third by the time I got my feet going. Sue was behind me and I had a vague impression that Jane College was under way in our wake.

I got through the black curtains and the picture smacked me in the face. The doc was on his knees by the desk, clawing at the top, trying to pull himself up. He didn’t have a chance of making it and while I was still a dozen feet away, he caved and went down in a heap. His clawing hand pulled objects off the desk onto him, among them the large figure of the apes. The phone was already on the floor, receiver off. The three small monkeys, the ones he’d been playing with a few minutes before, lay on the rug beside the phone.

He coughed, retched and the brightness of blood jumped across his chin. And he died while I was easing him into a less tortured position. No wounds showed in front and I figured he’d been shot in the back, while he was sitting at the desk.

Beside me, Sue said, “The poor guy!”

“Anyway,” I said, getting up, “he was right on one angle. He’ll speak no evil from now on, not even about the guy that gunned him.”

Behind us, Jane College was tuning up with hysterics. She had her hands over her eyes and her mouth open, making lots of noise. I thought what a swell thing it would be if she weren’t around, for more reasons than one, and I got ideas. Between her screams, I tried to find out from her if there was another phone in the house. She paid no attention until I grabbed her shoulders, shook her.

“Is there another phone in the house, another outside wire?” I said.

“W-what?”

I said it over and she told me, still looking half-witted from fright, that there was a phone upstairs in the doctor’s bedroom.

“Then get on it and call the cops,” I said. “We can’t use this one. We can’t touch anything in here until the cops arrive.”

She looked as though she finally understood and I let go of her. She streaked out through the curtains.

I gave Sue a shove, said, “Out there with her. Keep her away from this room as long as you can.”

Sue didn’t argue. She went. I snapped on more lights, cased the room with my eyes in a hurry. Down the room a door was open, a door that hadn’t been open before. I looked through the doorway, saw the room was a small, bare one, furnished only with a big chair, a couple of straight-backed chairs, as though the doc had used it as a sort of confessional for folks who didn’t like talking in a big room. The thing that interested me was that the room opened to a patio and the patio door swung gently in the night wind. The picture was clear. Somebody — perhaps they’d been in this small room while we were talking — had opened the door to the study, shot the doc through the back and beat it through the patio.