Shell Game – Chapter 44 – Fallback

Claire buried her face in her hands. Her whole body shook under the sobs.

“You need to get yourself together,” Evan said. “The police will be here soon, and we still don’t have the story straight.”

She turned to look at him. “Why are you accusing me?”

“Because we’re both looking down the barrel of prison time. Likely the chair, if you can’t pull it together to tell me the truth for once.”

Between her convulsions and weeping, Claire managed, “I didn’t mean… I didn’t mean to do it… I’m not a killer.”

“Maybe not,” Evan said with coolness in his tone, “but you are a liar.” Claire looked at him with tears flowing freely down her face. “You hired us,” he said. “You said you wanted us to handle the case alone and not hire it out. You didn’t want strange faces because you needed to know who to show off to Charles. As far as I know, you’d lifted the Russian gun from his room even before you came to meet us. It was easy to locate. It was a unique-looking gun, and Charles was a creature of some habits. Likely hid it in a similar place no matter where he stayed. We were just the last detail to get lined up to set your trap.”

“You’re right,” Claire sniffled, “I am a liar. I’m a habitual liar of the worst kind. I’ve been able to master all kinds of things in my life but telling the truth has never worked out.”

“I’m sure that’s been pretty helpful for you, given the backstabbing double-crossers you partner with,” Evan said. “My guess is you hoped Charles would see Silver, get spooked, and the two of them would get in a fight. As far as Charles would know, Jimmy Carrollo had put a hit on him, and Charles would have to kill or be killed, isn’t that right? A win-win for you. If Charles kills Silver, he goes to prison and out of your hair. If you’re clever, maybe ol’ Eye Patch loses track of you, so you fly free. But, even if Silver kills Charles, you’re also off the hook. I’m right, aren’t I?” Evan stared his unblinking eyes at her. She avoided his look.

Katherine gave a faint moan and shifted her weight. Evan looked at his wounded and sleeping wife and wondered how she would ever forgive him if they were all to make it out of this in one piece. He shifted his eyes back to Claire.

“Well?”

“It’s close enough,” she mumbled.

“But they didn’t get in a fight, did they? Your perfect mousetrap didn’t spring, so you had to take things into your own hands.”

Claire nodded.

“This was your fallback, wasn’t it? Kill Gabe and frame Jason for it. You’re pretty good at having a fallback plan in case it all goes south.”

She nodded again. “I thought Jason would be in jail at least long enough for me to get the pearl and get out of town before-”

“Before your one-eyed boss found you? Well, if you had only known he was faster on your heels than you suspected. If you’d known he was already in town, you probably wouldn’t have killed off your bodyguard so fast, huh? But then Charles turned up dead anyway, and you got wise. You got wise real fast. You knew Eye Patch was in town.” Evan chuckled bitterly, “At least you knew Margo was in town, which meant Eye Patch wasn’t far behind. You were exposed, so you bopped back over to see me. So scared, so frail.”

“Yes, but,” she jumped in, “but I also wanted to see you again.”

Evan looked at her and held her face in his hands. “Maybe that’s true, and maybe it isn’t,” he said. “Doesn’t much matter now. If you’re good and can keep your nose clean in prison, you can be out in, say, twenty years. But,” he pointed to Katherine, “this is my wife, so I wouldn’t spend any time in prison pining away for me.”

A look of horror blanketed her face as she stood up and backed away from Evan.

“You’re not going to hand me over, are you? Not after what we’ve meant to each other. Not after what we’ve been through?”

“Meant to each other? Really? I’ve only tried to keep this a professional relationship, and you’ve only lied to me. I’m sorry, Claire, but this is the way it’s got to be. As far as the police are concerned, it’s either you or me, and I’m not going down for this one.”

She stepped back to him.

“But I thought… we… have you only been pretending to… care about me?”

“I care about everyone. It’s one of the ironic things about this line of work. You care for people, so you want to protect them. But they resist the protection, and you get jaded. The difference between me and all the other chumps you’ve sidled up to is I’m not taking the fall for anyone but myself. You can bat your pretty eyes all you want, but I’m sorry, this is the way it is.”

Claire lashed out, “But that’s not fair!”

“Fair? You spend your time trying to distract me with one red herring after another, all the while hoping I’m so twisted up I can’t see straight to ask the important questions.”

“What a thing to accuse me of!”

“You worked with that bunch to lure me here tonight. Don’t give me that look. I’m not saying it wasn’t clever, but you can’t say you’re innocent. You and your friends cooked up that wild goose chase making me think you might be in real danger. Then I show up here. You, waiting outside like a damaged bird, while up here you knew Eye Patch, and the rest of them lay in wait for me. You clung to my arm. You clung to my arm and said, ‘I’m so scared, Evan. I don’t know what to do.’ We walked up here, your head on my shoulder, so even if I’d been carrying a gun, I couldn’t have reached it. I mean, can’t even you see that the only reason your boss didn’t ask you to tag along when he left is that he’s finished with you? You’ve spun too many stories. As far as he’s concerned, I bet he hopes I’m as much a chump as the rest of them, that I take the rap for you. If I can’t hurt you, there’s no way I could hurt him.”

“Now who’s the liar?” Claire hit back. “You’ve made all this up to hide the fact that you have feelings for me, that you want to be with me, that you love me. Admit it for once. You love me.”

Evan looked into Claire’s sad and searching eyes and shook his head. “How have you deluded yourself this far to think I’m going to be manipulated by you? You can bat your doe eyes at me all you want, but at the end of the day, what does it matter? You set a trap for Charles, but it fell apart. You killed Gabe, and for what? A lousy double-cross? Does a man’s life mean so little to you? The man had a wife. Kids. You’ve double-crossed everyone in your path: Eye Patch, Huber, Charles. You have never played straight with anyone for any length of time. Why on earth should I ever trust you?”

Claire sat on the sofa dry-eyed and deflated.

“You shouldn’t,” Claire said finally. “You’re right. I’m a disaster.”

“Yeah, well,” Evan soothed, “we’re all disasters in one way or another. But, I’m sorry, I just can’t take the fall for you. You killed Gabe Silver, and you’re going to prison. Maybe I could have hung this on the bigger fish if they had stuck around, but here we are. My hands are tied on this. Justice has a way of finding itself out.”

“I understand,” Claire said. Then, “I understand that you won’t help me. I even understand why you won’t. But please,” her desperate face snapped over to Evan, “Evan, please… just… let me slip away. Let me make a break before the police come. I know how to look out for myself out there. Let me take my chances.”

Evan shook his head. “I can’t take the rap for you. The police think I did these crimes, and I need to hand them the guilty parties. That’s how we play this game in Athens. I’m not going to jail for a crime I didn’t commit.”

“Why are you doing this to me?” Claire whimpered. “You told me yourself you didn’t even like Gabe.”

Evan let out a burst of laughter, “Ha! Listen, I’m not going to pretend Gabe and I were good friends or even friends at all. I wouldn’t have been surprised, the way things were, if he and I weren’t split up by the end of the year.”

“So why are you doing this?”

“There’s a code. It’s not written down anywhere, but there’s a code. You feel it when you show up at the police academy. You see it in the actions of the good men in blue. It’s not written down, but everyone knows it by heart. Your partner gets killed; you’re supposed to make it right. It’s not about liking them or loyalty to them; it’s about doing the right thing because it’s the right thing. Plus, I let a criminal back out on the street; it’s bad for business. Plus, I let you go, then they come for me, and I get the chair. Plus, let’s say in some crazy way we all make it out of this in one piece; how could I ever trust you? You’d have this over me my whole life. And, since I know the truth, you’d know I have something on you, so how would I know you wouldn’t double-cross me someday?”

“Would you still be doing this to me if you’d kept the pearl away from him?” Claire asked.

“Doesn’t matter now,” Evan said. “I let her down. She says I didn’t, but I didn’t keep up my end. I know that, but I’ll think about that later. She has her own fight to fight. My guess is she can hold her own. Doesn’t matter now.”

Evan shoved his hands in his pockets and snorted, “For all your calculations, the biggest mistake you made was assuming I was as corrupt as the reputation of guys in my line of work.”

Just then, there was a knocking at his door. Evan walked up to the door, opened it, and let in Abrams and Short.
“Hello, officers. Were you able to get the rest of them?” Evan asked.

“It’s a wash,” Abrams said. “We found the three of them together, as you said. The woman was already dead. Shot, I guess, though the wounds don’t look right.”

“Almost nothing in this case looks right,” Evan said. He took Claire by the elbow and walked her over to Abrams. “This is the person you want. She’s the one who killed Gabe.”

Abrams looked Claire over and pulled out his cuffs. “Wouldn’t think a dame this fancy-looking would be capable.”

“Well, it takes all kinds,” Evan said.

Abrams nodded. Evan marked the look of reality that hit Claire’s face as the cuffs clicked shut.

“Who’s she?” Short asked, pointing to Katherine’s body.

“That’s my wife. She might need a doctor,” Evan said.

Short walked to the phone. “I’ll call up an ambulance.”

“Did you ever find out what all this was about?” Abrams asked.

Evan pointed to the broken coffee table, and the sparkling pearl dust spread out on the carpet. “It was all about that glittering stuff. Something precious once, but now is just dust. Ain’t that something?”

“Ambulance is on the way,” Short said. “Now, I need you to tell me your side of all this.”

“Yeah. I bet the story that one-eyed goon fed you was pretty hard to swallow.”

Abrams said, “Nah. He didn’t tell us nothing. We got the story from, what’s his name, H-something, Huber. As for your guy in black, strangest thing. We had him dead to rights. Dead girl and all. Then he just lit up like a flashbulb and vanished into thin air.”

“Should’ve seen that coming,” Evan mumbled.

“What was that?” Abrams asked.

“That’s weird. Maybe he’s into magic. I’m sure he’s around somewhere.”

“Maybe. Strangest thing I ever saw,” Abrams said, shaking his head. “Anyway, sorry for the trouble, Gold. You mind coming down to the station and giving us a statement? Maybe fill in some gaps for us?”

“Sure thing, fellas,” he said. “I’ll be down there later on.” Then Evan looked into Claire’s dry eyes and remembered something, “I’ll take that envelope back now. You know, payment for services rendered.” Evan reached to Claire’s jacket pocket and pulled out the envelope Eye Patch gave him. “See you around, Miss Porter.”

Lt. Abrams guided Claire out of the apartment, followed by Lt. Plain. Evan shut the door behind them and checked his watch. Four o’clock.

Ten minutes later, the doctors arrived to carry Katherine to the hospital. Evan rode in the back with her, holding his wife’s hand the whole way.