DOUBLE IDENTITY
By Charles F. Myers
Grant Dermitt's stories showed remarkable
creative ability. His hero, Fleetwood Cassidy,
was the greatest fictional character--alive!...
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy
June 1951
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
_He demonstrated again that rangey reach of his and slammed a fistful
of hard knuckles into the putty face in front of him. Mario went down
on the thick carpet, his fat nose spurting blood like a drinking
fountain for vampires. He was just another one of those larded slobs
and, true to the type, he began to blubber. The blonde in the corner
froze in place like a lead statue in a snow storm._
_"Wait!" Mario whined. "Wait a minute, Cassidy. I'm not stalling. I
just want to make a deal, that's all."_
_"You've made a deal," Fleetwood snapped. "How do you like it, fat
boy? Now where's the stuff?"_
_Mario lolled his head to one side, holding his hand to his nose.
Fleetwood raised his foot, and he came around fast._
_"Don't!" he said. "Over there on the mantle, in the ivory box."_
_Fleetwood kept them both covered and crossed to the mantle. He picked
up the box and flipped back the lid. Expensive fire, the cold kind of
fire that comes from stones, flashed out at him. He closed it again and
dropped it into his pocket._
_"Look, Cassidy," Mario said, still sitting on the floor, "look, I took
the rocks, I admit that, but I didn't rod Blanchard. Somebody else
cooled him before I ever got to the dump...."_
_"Sure, Mario, sure," Fleetwood nodded, "you're the neat type. You just
ran over in your dust cap to tidy up the death room. My client will be
tickled to pieces to find out what a nice orderly vulture you turned
out to be." He swiveled around toward the blonde. "And you'd better get
yourself a new playmate, lamb-chop. This one won't even be able to keep
you in rompers from now on." He gave Mario one last glance, to warn him
to stay down, and legged it for the door. This was the kind of place
and the kind of people he loved to leave behind._
_She must have pole-vaulted across the room to have made it so fast; he
was just reaching for the knob when her perfume pressed in on him from
behind. He turned around, left his hand resting on the knob._
_"Yeah?" he said._
_"What you said," she drawled in a lazy, boudoir voice, "I mean about
me getting myself a new playmate. You're right about that, Cassidy...."
She held the idea out to him, waiting for him to take it up on the
beat. He let it lay. She smiled, but her eyes turned as hard as a
bride's biscuits. "Anyway, you could be right."_
_"And so...?" Fleetwood asked._
_The smile stayed fixed, but she shrugged. "So maybe the music we'd
make together wouldn't exactly be Brahms. But it wouldn't be Guy
Lombardo, either. You've got the rocks, but your client doesn't know a
thing about that unless you tell her. I have ... other things. And I
can be sweet when I want." She moved closer and planted an arm around
his neck, leaning in to make herself comfortable. "I can be so sweet
you almost couldn't stand it. Almost."_
_"So can a cyanide soda," Fleetwood said dully. "Sweet and final." He
lifted her arm away from his neck, and it might have been a noose. He
let it drop._
_When he went out the door her smile had got itself all bent._
* * * * *
The hallways of the Grande Apartments were carpeted as thickly as
the living quarters. It was the only place in town where you could
sneak up on someone at a dead trot. Fleetwood plushed along in the
direction of the elevators. He was nearly there, just abreast of a
drinking fountain, when it hit him, just like it had those other times
before. He stopped and reached out a hand to steady himself against the
fountain.
In a moment his head began to clear a little and he straightened,
running a lean, trembling hand through his carrot-colored hair. Even
so he clung to the fountain a bit longer and when he finally let go it
was only to free his hand so he could check his pulse. The attacks were
coming closer together now, he reflected. But so were the events which
usually led up to them--the incidents of violence, the sight of blood.
It was crazy, a sort of general softening and mellowing, the kind of
thing that makes you bait for the boys with the cushiony couches and
the expensive ears. It was downright absurd. He had to get hold of
himself.
He searched his mind warily for his own thoughts, as an agent might
search for saboteurs. He looked for those innermost stirrings of the
soul, the ones that breathe of fear and anxiety. But there was nothing.
And that was crazy too. It was as though he'd never had a thought in
his life, or even an experience from which to draw a thought. It was
like amnesia, and yet it wasn't amnesia at all. He knew that he was
Fleetwood Cassidy and he knew that he was a private investigator who
worked independently. But that was where he ran into the wall. But the
really frightening part of it was the veiled feeling that even if he
should manage to scale the wall and look behind it, he'd find--exactly
nothing!
Of course, he told himself, the thing to do was to think back to that
place in time where the spells--the softening--had begun. There lay the
real clue. But it was so much easier said than done. He could project
his thoughts backwards, after some effort, to the day before when he
had jumped into a taxi, shouted to the driver to "follow that car,"
then found himself in a nervous panic lest they were travelling at a
rate of speed in excess of the legal limit. But that was just another
small, humiliating example--by no means the beginning.
* * * * *
He forced his thoughts back still farther, but it was rather like
ramrodding a rifle with a ballbat. He arrived finally, by dint of the
most extreme concentration, back in the apartment of that sloe-eyed,
full-lipped and tempestuous beauty, Dolores Nobella. He had given
her a hundred dollars for evidence against her mother, and she had
lifted her skirts with a graceful, crimson-taloned hand and inserted
the bills deftly in the top of her stocking. All of a sudden it had
come to Fleetwood that Dolores, even for a girl with long legs, wore
disturbingly tall stockings--and he had turned away, coloring at the
collar. He, Fleetwood Cassidy, had blushed, and what was more, now that
he thought of it he blushed again.
That was the end. Or rather the beginning--the beginning of Fleetwood's
strange new emotional pattern.
At any rate he felt better having at least established the point
of departure, even if it didn't make the riddle of his growing
metamorphosis one whit clearer. He boosted himself away from the
drinking fountain and continued along the hallway with the eerie
feeling that he was moving toward some prearranged meeting with Destiny.
He was still a soul adrift, so to speak, when he pushed his way out of
the Grande and stood pondering in the afternoon sun. The sidewalk,
the street, the traffic, the confused and crowded skyline--all of
these things, in turn, presented new problems of identification and
orientation, as though he was seeing them all for the first time and
didn't know quite what to make of them. And yet.... And yet--what?
It was as though his mind had made another sudden turning and again
brought him up against the blank wall. The past, even the immediate
past that included the events in the Grande Apartments, slipped away
from him and were lost. When he tried to think back there were only
words in his mind in place of faces, places, events--words like caper,
rod, dame, murder. They brought with them no mental association with
anything real or experienced. He passed a hand slowly over his eyes.
Surely he was losing his mind.
With heavy concentration he forced his attention to the row of
automobiles along the curb. He had the feeling that one of them
belonged to him, but he hadn't the slightest idea of which one it might
be. He closed his eyes and waited. The spell would pass. The others had.
* * * * *
He opened his eyes and hopefully surveyed the row of cars for a second
time. There was something about the blue convertible. He moved forward,
thinking to check the registration slip, when a smart-looking woman in
green tweed walked up to the car, got inside, glanced at him curiously
and quickly started the engine. He edged back, coloring about the neck
and ears.
He waited a bit longer but the lost feeling didn't leave him. If
anything it only grew stronger. He turned aimlessly back toward the
Grande Apartments, then started with a gasp of dismay.
The Grande Apartments were gone, and in their place was an
establishment called The Handy Drug Store! Fleetwood tried to think
clearly, more clearly than he ever had before. It wasn't any good;
there wasn't any logical answer. Warily, he approached the store and
went inside.
He by-passed the cigarette counter and the magazine racks, noted their
contents curiously, and climbed aboard a stool at a long counter. At
least it was a place to sit down and rest. A girl approached from the
other side of the counter and made a quick pass at the area in front of
him with a paper napkin.
"Yes?" she inquired.
Fleetwood turned and looked at her, and it happened. His eyebrows shot
up, his heart stood still. He felt faintly ill in a surprised, elated
sort of way. Never had he dreamed that there could be such a creature.
This girl, this ... this fragment of heaven! She couldn't possibly be
real. She was so extraordinarily ordinary!
"What would you like?" the girl said, and Fleetwood tingled anew just
at the sound of her voice; its tone was so enchantingly flat and nasal.
Never had he dreamed that it was possible for any woman to speak with
so little innuendo. He was shaken to the very core. He realized that
because of this girl something very important was happening to him, but
he couldn't quite put his finger on it. The mystery of the disappearing
Grande Apartments faded from his mind.
"I beg your pardon?" he murmured in an effort to induce the girl to
speak again.
"I said, what do you want?" the girl repeated, and her grey-brown eyes
looked into his unconcernedly.
It was too good to be true! Here she was, this extraordinary female
person, apparently eager, even impatient, to fulfill his slightest
wish, just for the naming. Fleetwood took a firm grip on the edge
of the counter. If this was a dream he didn't want to interrupt it
by being too rash. His eyes dwelt on her hair, tabulating the exact
measure of its fascinating dullness.
"Bourbon and water?" he said cautiously. "Double?" He couldn't remember
exactly what it meant, but it seemed a likely entry.
"Huh?" the girl said. "What was that?"
* * * * *
Fleetwood's heart sank; he'd said the wrong thing, and the first
crack out of the box, too. Obviously, he had blundered somehow into a
strange land where people spoke in prepared dialogues, and the moment
he'd opened his mouth he'd gone up in his lines. There was a proper
response to the question, "what do you want?" but "bourbon and water"
was not it. He glanced around nervously as two young women arrived at
the magazine racks behind him and simultaneously picked up copies of
the _New York Toast_. Neither returned his glance or even gave the
slightest indication that they were aware of his existence, much less
his dilemma. He looked back at the girl who had now begun to eye him
rather curiously. Plainly she was waiting for him to get on with it; he
had to try again, no matter how much he might disappoint both of them.
"Scotch and soda?" he offered timorously.
"Gosh," the girl said, "where do you think you are?"
"I don't know," Fleetwood said and attempted what he hoped was the sort
of glance that pleads understanding. "I mean to say...."
"Are you being funny about a cup of coffee, or do you really think
you're in a bar somewhere?"
"Coffee?" Fleetwood said. He seized upon the word as a drowning man
might snatch at a drifting life preserver. Besides, it dinged a small
bell of recognition somewhere in the back of his mind. "Yes," he
murmured, "coffee, please."
"Okay, then," the girl said, and left.
Fleetwood reflected on this exchange in a thickening mood of
perturbation. Retracing, haltingly, its tangled bypaths, it seemed
to lack in retrospect those bright glimmerings of reason that one
looks for in a friendly conversation. The end result appeared to
be that he was merely about to receive coffee, which his confused
faculties identified only as something murky and brown, of undetermined
usefulness. He had hoped for more. As he thought on it, however, voices
reached to his inner ear. The girls at the magazine racks had tuned up
conversationally. Chit-chat was their medium, of the sort that, for all
its lack of substance, takes on a certain penetration after a time. In
the end, Fleetwood found himself slipping, no matter how unwillingly,
into the role of the eavesdropper. As it was, though, he couldn't have
selected a more illuminating moment in which to fall from grace.
"I've been following him for years," one of the girls said as Fleetwood
dialed in full strength. "I watch for him every time he comes out."
"Fleetwood Cassidy?" the second girl responded. "Oh, sure. I'm always
watching for him."
* * * * *
At this exchange, the back of Fleetwood's neck could not have
bristled more smartly had someone begun currying operations with a
pair of spiked boots. He straightened rigidly on his stool, twitched
significantly about the ears and nose and, in short, affected all
the most usual aspects of a beagle alerted to the first whiff of a
super-scented fox. Coming as it did in the exact moment of his greatest
befuddlement, this overheard snatch of conversation had a telling
effect. All at once it posed questions, suggested half-answers and
plunged him headlong into a whole new field of bewildering conjecture.
It all came too suddenly, however, for him to know how to react to it.
For a moment he simply froze to his stool and stared straight ahead
like a hypnotized hen.
It was this reactional delay, then, which bogged him down at the
decisive moment. By the time he jarred himself into action and twisted
around on the stool, the girls had already moved away. One of them, in
fact, was well along in the act of handing over the cash for a copy of
the _Saturday Morning Call_ to the cashier by the door.
"Hey!" Fleetwood said weakly. "Here, there...!"
But time had drained out. The girl completed her transaction with the
cashier, joined her friend at the door, and the two of them legged it
in unison out to the sidewalk and into the burgeoning sunset. By the
time Fleetwood had reached the doorway they had lost themselves in the
crowd.
"Hey," Fleetwood murmured with limp regret and turned back to find that
the girl had returned to the counter and placed a steaming cup at his
place. She was watching him with worried interest.
"You want this joe, don't you?" she asked as he returned.
"Yes," Fleetwood said, settling himself and gazing dully into the
cup. "Yes, I want it." He lifted the cup and sampled the coffee which
suddenly tasted quite familiar to him. But the greater part of his
mind was concerned with other things. He looked up at the waitress who
was still standing before him.
"I wonder," he said, "did you notice those two young women who were
just here? The ones standing there at the magazine racks?"
The girl inclined her head thoughtfully for a moment, then nodded.
"Clare and Connie?" she said.
"You know them?"
"Uh-huh. Sort of."
"Who are they?"
"Who _are_ they? Clare and Connie?"
"Yes. What about them?"
"Well, that's their names, Clare and Connie," the girl said. "That's
all I know."
"But what do they do?" Fleetwood said, trying it another way. "Have you
ever heard?"
"Oh," the girl said. "They're telephone operators. They come in here
all the time."
"Telephone operators?" Fleetwood did his best to digest this patently
indigestible piece of information. No matter how he chewed it it still
didn't fit with what had just happened. He drummed his fingers on
the counter for a moment. "Are you sure you couldn't be mistaken?"
he asked. "It couldn't be that maybe they work for some sort of
investigator or the government, could it?"
"Oh, no," the girl said positively. "Why should they do that?"
"Well," Fleetwood said, watching her closely, "I overheard them talking
just now, and they were saying something about following someone
called Fleetwood Cassidy."
"Oh, sure," the girl said and smiled in a way that didn't in the least
degree mar her expression of profound placidity. "Everyone follows him."
Fleetwood gaped. "Huh?" he said.
"Uh-huh," the girl said. "The _Call_...."
She broke off as an elderly man hailed her from the other end of the
counter. "Hey, Kitty," he pleaded. "I haven't got all night, you know."
"Sure, Max," Kitty answered amiably, and departed.
"Wait!" Fleetwood said, but she didn't turn back.
* * * * *
Fleetwood furrowed his brow and pondered her last words. The call ...
she had said. The call. The call of what? The call _to_ what, for that
matter. Then it struck him like a coarsely threaded bolt flung out of
the blue.
The _Call_! Of course! The _Saturday Morning Call_! The very magazine
which one of the girls, Clare or Connie, had bought and tucked so
conspicuously under her arm on leaving the store. Fleetwood's mind
raced. It was perfectly plain, cut and dried like an apricot in season.
The _Call_ was the signal, the emblem of some secret society or
organization which, for their own sinister purposes, was keeping tabs
on him. The members made themselves known and communicated with each
other through displaying the _Call_ under their arms. But why? It was
absurd; by his very profession he was supposed to be a watcher, not a
watchee.
As he pondered this latest and newest equation he turned his gaze
automatically to the magazine racks and the several issues of the
_Call_ which were on display there. He looked, and fell back aghast,
unable to believe his eyes But there it was nonetheless, in spite of
his disbelief:
BEGINNING IN THIS ISSUE! the banner across the cover gasped
breathlessly, FLEETWOOD CASSIDY AND THE KIPPERED CAPER!
As well he might, after taking this in, Fleetwood went limp on his
stool, washed through with conflicting emotions. It was plain that
either he or the world had lost all sanity. He closed his eyes and
commanded his head to stop reeling. Even so, it was some moments before
he regained sufficient composure to reopen his eyes and bend down to
take up one of the magazines for a closer inspection. And when he did,
it rattled and flapped about in his grip like a struggling egret in a
blizzard.
He maneuvered the magazine to the counter and eased an elbow onto it to
hold it still. He gazed at it hollowly for some moments before, taking
his courage in his hands, he opened it and churned through it to the
first page of THE KIPPERED CAPER.
He stared in silent wonder. There, rendered in natural tints, staring
back at him with all the sweep and grandeur purchaseable from the hand
of a top flight commercial artist, was his own face.
"Awrr!" said Fleetwood. "Uphh!" And for the moment that comprised his
entire comment on the discovery.
Time lost all meaning to Fleetwood. For all he knew whole hours might
have slipped by as he sat there staring down at the illustration. There
was one thing, though, about which he was positive; he had never posed
for the portrait in the magazine. But then how could they have gotten
such an exact likeness? And there was his name too. Something more than
weird coincidence was involved here, he was certain of it. He started
violently as the voice sounded in his ear.
"More coffee?"
The girl Kitty was standing before him again, the _Silex_ poised
expertly over his cup. Fleetwood stared up at her with haunted eyes.
His mouth worked loosely for several moments before he produced
intelligible sound.
"L--look!" he said, twisting the magazine around in her direction.
"Look at that!"
Kitty put down the _Silex_ and studied the picture with grave interest.
"Seems familiar," she murmured. Then she made a quick clucking noise of
recognition. "Of course! That's Fleetwood Cassidy, the fellow in the
story. But just for a moment it looked like somebody else I've seen
around...." She looked up at Fleetwood. "It's you, isn't it? You pose
for Fleetwood Cassidy!"
"No," Fleetwood said despairingly. "That's just the trouble. I don't
pose for Fleetwood Cassidy. I've never heard of Fleetwood Cassidy. I
mean I _am_ Fleetwood Cassidy. Anyway...."
* * * * *
But Kitty's attention had already gone back to the illustration. "I
always thought this fellow, Grant Dermitt, just made you up out of his
head. You a good friend of his?"
"Grant Dermitt?" Fleetwood asked. "Who's he?"
"The guy who writes about you," Kitty said. "Oh, you know; you're
kidding me." She smiled down at the illustration, unaware that just
beyond her nose its flesh-and-blood counterpart had become distorted
with a look of slack-mouthed stupefaction. "Just listen here to what
it says about you." She began to read from the page opposite the
illustration:
_Fleetwood shoved Caroline away from him, and she plumped down on the
sofa like a mail bag heaved off a passing train, soft and sullen._
_"Save it for the next sucker," he drawled. "When I'm ready to go
shopping for coffins I'll let you know. But I'm not ready, not just
yet."_
_Her face became a white mask of anger. "I'll kill you, Cassidy!" she
shrilled. "You can't push me around and not bleed for it sooner or
later. I'll kill you, damn you!"_
_"You'll try," Fleetwood nodded with a wry smile. "But take a tip,
sugar, when you come gunning for me don't wear that negligee. It
doesn't give you any place to hide the weapon. In fact it doesn't give
you any place to hide anything."_
_When he sauntered out the door she was still staring at him, her face
twisted and mottled in the firelight like an artist's paint rag._
"Gosh!" Kitty said, looking up from the magazine. "Gee!"
But Fleetwood didn't hear her. Suddenly a lot of things were falling
into place and it was like deciphering a coded letter only to find
out that the message you'd been working so hard to unsnarl was one
telling you you'd never been born, that you were just a figment of
your own imagination. He remembered the face in the firelight--and the
negligee--and all the rest of it. But it wasn't a _real_ memory. It was
only the shadow of something that hadn't really happened at all, merely
the phantom remembrance of a reverie or a dream.
* * * * *
Suddenly a dazed, trance-like expression clouded his eyes. He shoved
himself away from the stool, turned and started toward the door.
"Hey!" Kitty yelled. "Hey, just a minute! You owe me ten cents!"
But Fleetwood continued to the door, stepped out to the sidewalk, and
glanced purposefully down the row of parked cars....
"Just imagine!" Kitty breathed. "Just feature you being real!"
"No," Fleetwood murmured. "No." He looked up at her, beyond her, his
eyes filled with a shocking realization. "No, I'm not real. I...."
* * * * *
_The grey coupe ground to a stop in the drive and Fleetwood got out.
As he rounded the shrubs he could see that there were lights on in the
house. That was good; Evelyn was home. It was a nice lay-out, swank and
beautiful but very refined, like Evelyn herself. He could hear the wash
and roll of the ocean from somewhere beyond and below. He patted his
pocket, felt the box, and legged it up the steps._
_Maybe Evelyn wouldn't exactly fall in his arms--her good training
would blow the whistle on that one--but maybe she'd lean in his
direction a little, especially when she saw that the stones were still
all there. He reached out and put his finger to the buzzer._
As he waited, a qualm crossed his mind, the ghost of something he
couldn't quite remember. There was a dim, fleeting glimpse of another
world, a world made up of a counter, the face of a girl, a magazine....
But it wouldn't focus properly; his memory couldn't make the hurdle.
The door opened and Evelyn Anders was standing before him.
_"Fleetwood," she said. She held her hand out to him and smiled.
"Please come in, won't you?"_
_Maybe it was something in those cool blue eyes of hers, or maybe it
was just that the harsh light over the door made her look pale; he got
the idea that behind her gracious manner there was a sharp edge of
nervousness. He got it stronger as she released her hand and made one
of those small, miscellaneous gestures toward her hair._
_"Hello, Ev," he said. "I know it's not manners to just drop in like
this, but I've got something to show you."_
_She didn't answer as she moved aside to let him in. He stepped into
the hallway and waited for her to close the door. As she did so, he
took in the jade green dinner gown and reflected that it was the kind
of yardage that gave you the idea but let you think you'd gotten it all
by yourself. Evelyn had class with a soft "a," but it wasn't stuffy,
not on her._
_"My maid's off tonight," she said, putting her arm through his and
leading him toward the living room. "You can talk freely."_
_She maneuvered him to the divan in front of the fireplace and managed
it so that they sat down in graceful unison. She leaned back and
suddenly the dinner dress had a neckline._ The qualm flipped again on
the surface of Fleetwood's mind, like a minnow breaking the mirrored
calm of a mountain pool. He edged away from Evelyn. She was saying
something, but suddenly her voice had a senseless, clattering sound.
"What?" he said desperately. "What are you saying?"
_"... so I hope you have something nice to show me," she was saying as
his senses suddenly cleared. "I could use a dash of something nice just
now."_
_"Oh, yes," Fleetwood said and reached into his pocket. He took out
the ivory box and held it out to her._
_"The case!" she said, and he noticed that her hand trembled as she
took it. "Are they ... are the stones all right?"_
_"They're all there," Fleetwood said and waited for the touch, the
glance that he had hoped would be his reward. "You may jump a little,
though, when I tell you where I got them."_
_"Oh?" she murmured. Her gaze remained fixed on the box and its
contents._
_"Mario," Fleetwood said. "He lifted them the night of the killing." He
sat back and waited._
_There wasn't a touch or a glance. There wasn't even a flicker of
surprise. He should have gotten it straight right there, but it wasn't
until she turned and glanced back over her shoulder that he really
tumbled. He jumped up, but Mario was already in the doorway. The gun in
Mario's hand was only the companion piece to the cold ruthlessness in
his eyes._
_Evelyn got up from the divan and faded back into the shadows beside
the fireplace. She still had class, cowering there in the dimness, but
you could sound the "a" through your nose._
_"So that's how things match up," Fleetwood said. He turned away from
Mario and stared at Evelyn, a dumb move, the kind of thing a guy does
when he finds out that the angel in his life got her halo from the
local tinsmith. "You're wasting yourself, Ev," he said softly. "You
didn't have to team up with a rotten slob like that, not a gal like
you. It's like pitting platinum buttons on a suit of flannel drawers--"_
* * * * *
He stopped short and swung about. It was more than a qualm this time;
it was a full-blown mental flip-flop. What the hell was he thinking
about, turning his back on a guy with a loaded gun in his hand? Maybe
it was romantic as the devil to stand around orating to a beautiful
woman on manners and morals in the face of death and destruction but it
certainly wasn't good sense. And now that he came to think of it, what
in heaven's name was he doing in a preposterous situation like this
anyway? Whatever was going on it certainly couldn't be allowed to go
any further.
"Now, look, fella," he said soothingly, turning back to Mario, "let's
cut out all this nonsense before someone gets hurt."
_Mario came toward him, his putty face impassive. Evelyn started from
the shadows._
_"You're not going to kill him?" she cried. "Mario!"_
"No, Mario!" Fleetwood said with a feeling of complete madness. "No.
You musn't get yourself worked up like this!"
_"Shut up!" Mario snapped. "Maybe you gave out the invitations, honey,
but it's still my party."_
_"You said you wouldn't!" Evelyn said. "You promised, Mario!"_
"Yes, Mario," Fleetwood murmured worriedly, staring at the gun, "you
promised."
_"How stupid can you broads get?" Mario sneered. "You think I'm going
to let him talk?"_
_"No, Mario! No!"_
"She's right, Mario," Fleetwood said, nodding in vigorous accord. "You
should listen to her. Besides I won't talk. I wouldn't even know what
to say."
_"Turn around, Rover Boy," Mario said, motioning with his gun._
Fleetwood fully realized by now that he couldn't possibly make himself
heard to them, but the situation demanded at least a try. He turned to
Evelyn. "Talk to him," he urged. "Do something. Call the police!"
_"Mario!" Evelyn cried, and covered her face with, her hands. "Not
here! Please don't do it here!" She began to cry hysterically._
_There was a pause, then a grunt from Mario that might have meant
anything. A battalion of ants began to crawl up and down Fleetwood's
spine. Mario's plodding footsteps sounded directly behind him. He
tensed against whatever was about to happen. Then, in a rush, a small
whirring sound descended swiftly behind his ear and his head split
with pain. The floor opened into a black abyss in front of him and he
plunged toward it headfirst._
* * * * *
In the same moment, the counter, the girl, the magazine, and the world
that contained them became blindingly vivid and real. His mind suddenly
cleared and he picked himself up from the floor in a mood of fretful
indignation.
Of course he hadn't dropped into any black abyss of unconsciousness;
he'd merely stumbled and fallen from sheer nervousness. And a damned
thick bit of business it was too. It made you look like a fool. As a
matter of fact, now that he had a moment to collect his thoughts, he'd
had quite enough of this prosey nonsense and he was fully prepared to
assert himself against it. He got up, brushed himself off with careful
deliberation, and turned defiantly to his companions.
"Look, you two," he said firmly, "I'm sick and tired of this childish
sketch, and it's about time you knew it. You can go on with all the
melodramatic clap-trap you like, but for my part I'm...."
The rest of it jammed up tight in his throat.
The two were not listening; in fact they were no longer in any
condition to listen, even if they wanted to. They stood frozen,
transfixed in positions of action--and jarringly two-dimensional! They
were precisely like life-sized cardboard cut-outs of themselves. They
stood, supported by heaven only knew what means, staring at the spot
where he had fallen.
But that wasn't the worst of it. They were incomplete representations
of themselves into the bargain. Neither of them had mouths; the woman's
face was simply a sketched outline, Mario's a drawing of an irregular
lump of putty. Fleetwood stared at them; he didn't know what he had
expected--perhaps that they would be transformed like himself. The last
piece of the puzzle fell into place. He looked about.
The room had become a vague, unreal area in time, containing only
a fireplace, a divan and two doorways. Looking on its clouded grey
confines, he felt himself hovering crazily between fact and fancy. But
this time he wasn't puzzled or frightened by the sensation. Turning, he
forced himself to move against the room and away from it, out of the
house. It was hard to make progress in a world where space and distance
stretched and contracted in alternate convulsions, where substance did
not exist upon which to gain a footing....
* * * * *
"Well for Pete's sake!" Kitty sputtered. "So you came back!"
Fleetwood glanced up and shook his head. She was gazing at him from
across the counter.
"Uh-huh," he said vaguely.
"Well, you still owe me ten cents." She held out her hand. "The way you
pop in and out of here like you were magic, I'm not taking any more
chances. Pay up."
Fleetwood fished about in his pocket and, much to his own surprise,
withdrew a coin. He held it out for Kitty's critical inspection.
"Four bits," she said. "I'll bring you your change." She went to the
cash register and, after the necessary manipulations, returned with
three smaller coins. "I had you figured for a deadbeat," she said.
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay Kitty," Fleetwood said.
"Kitty?" she said, then shrugged. "Well, okay, I guess."
Fleetwood gazed at her absently, his mind on other things for a moment.
"What's the matter?" Kitty asked. "You look worried. You looked kind of
dopey before, but now you look worried too."
"This Grant Dermitt," Fleetwood said. "What do you know about him?"
"Grant Dermitt?" Kitty said.
"The fellow who writes about me. You know."
"Oh, yeah. Grant Dermitt. What about him?"
"That's what I want to know," Fleetwood said. "What about him?"
"I don't know why I enjoy talking to you," Kitty said. "It never gets
us anywhere. What do you want to know about this Grant Dermitt? Not
that I can tell you anyway."
"I want to see him," Fleetwood said. "I have to get in touch with him."
"Why don't you call him up on the telephone? He lives somewhere here in
town. I heard at the Towers. What do you have to see him about?"
"I really don't know," Fleetwood said, "not for sure."
"You're funny," Kitty said.
"Yeah, I guess I am," Fleetwood reflected. He left the counter and
crossed to the phone booths. Picking up the directory he turned to the
T's. He looked back at Kitty.
"You can bring me some coffee, if you want."
"Okay," she nodded and departed in the direction of the urns.
* * * * *
Finding the listing for the Towers, Fleetwood turned to the telephone
and reached toward it. Then he checked himself. He left the booth and
returned to the counter where Kitty and the coffee were waiting for him.
"Find your number?" Kitty asked.
"Uh-huh." He nodded and stared down into the brown liquid in the cup.
"Yeah."
"Aren't you going to call?"
"Yeah. Only all of a sudden I feel funny about it. It's something I've
got to do, only I don't know just how to do it, to make it come out
right. It's awfully important." He looked up at her quite suddenly. "Do
you like me, Kitty?"
She smiled with slow confusion. "Sure. I like lots of people."
"No," Fleetwood said, shaking his head. "That's not what I mean. Do you
_like_ me?"
Her gaze moved thoughtfully over his face. "You're funny, like I said,"
she murmured. "You act--well, kind of daffy. And your ears stick out.
But...." She nodded with sudden decision. "Sure, I like you, Fleetwood.
I like you fine."
Fleetwood grinned at her and realized by the strangeness of it that he
was enjoying the sensation for the first time in his life. It was nice
to grin at someone. And all at once he knew quite certainly what he had
to do--and that it was the right thing to do. He spun around on the
stool and started away. Then he stopped and turned back for a moment.
"I like you too, Kitty," he said and went into the phone booth.
"Well, for Pete's sake!" Kitty said and turned and looked at herself
unbelievingly in the mirror behind the register. "Gee whiz!"
The Towers was apparently the sort of establishment which believes in
bending every effort to prevent the telephone and the English language
from going any further than they have to as a means of communication.
"And who shall I say is calling?" the supercilious voice of the Towers
enquired.
"Fleetwood Cassidy," Fleetwood told the Towers. "_Mr._ Fleetwood
Cassidy."
"Very well, Mr. Cassidy, just one mo.... Did you say _Fleetwood_
Cassidy?"
"I did," Fleetwood said. "And tell Mr. Dermitt it's a matter of life
and death."
"I see," the Towers mused with modulated forebearance, "it's a little
joke, eh? Who shall we say is _really_ calling?"
"Never mind," Fleetwood said. "Just say it's a friend on a matter of
extreme urgency. Snap into it."
"Oh, very well," the Towers said, plainly piqued, "if you insist."
* * * * *
A silence followed, punctuated by several non-committal clicks and an
intermittent buzzing. Finally the voice of the Towers resumed.
"Mr. Dermitt will speak to you, sir," it announced regretfully. "Please
hold on while he changes instruments."
There was a final click and the voice of the Towers was supplanted by
the voice of Grant Dermitt. It expressed an even blend of harassment
and vexation.
"Now, look here, Paul," it said, getting right down to brass tacks,
"this isn't the time for you to be calling up with your bum jokes,
telling the clerk you're Fleetwood Cassidy. I'm in a jam with this yarn
and I haven't got time to be cute. Now, what's on your mind?"
"I don't know Paul," Fleetwood said, "so I'm in no position to speak
for him. But I'll be very happy to tell you what's on my mind. And
that's plenty. In fact I'm only calling to warn you I'm on my way over
to tell you about it right now."
"What?" Grant Dermitt said. "Who is this anyway?"
"Fleetwood Cassidy," Fleetwood said, "that's who. And don't tell me I
can't be, because I am."
"Now, just a minute," Grant Dermitt broke in. "Whoever you are, you've
got a lousy sense of humor. And if you've got anything important to
say, which I dismiss as a serious possibility, you'd better get on with
it before I hang up, which I am just about to do."
"Okay," Fleetwood said. "I'll run over the facts, touching lightly on
the high spots. We'll shoot in the details later when I see you. My
name is Fleetwood Cassidy. I'm six feet tall, have red hair, grey-green
eyes and ears that noticeably protrude. I've been going through a lot
of damnfool nonsense for quite some time because of you and I'm fed
up to the teeth with it. I'd like to see you in order to turn in my
resignation in person, but if you prefer, I'll be just as pleased to
send it to you through the mails. If you don't believe...."
"You're crazy," Dermitt interrupted. "I'm hanging up."
"Just a minute," Fleetwood said firmly. "There's more and it gets more
interesting as it goes along. I've just come from being deceived by a
woman named Evelyn who has class, alternately pronounced with a hard
and soft 'a', slugged behind the ear by a putty-faced gunman named
Mario and pitched headfirst into a black abyss. But I decided the whole
sequence was too corny, so I got up off the floor, dusted myself off
and called you up just to say hello. Does any of that ring a bell with
you, Dermitt?"
"What!" Dermitt yelped. "How do you know about all that? You
couldn't.... Why, I just this minute.... Who _are_ you?"
"Fleetwood Cassidy," Fleetwood said blandly. "Do I come over and see
you?"
There was a sputtering sound at the other end of the line, then a wash
of confused silence.
"Do I?" Fleetwood persisted.
"Y-yes," Dermitt said in a greatly reduced tone of voice. "I guess so."
There was another beat of silence, then a spate of false laughter. "Of
course I still think this is all just a gag."
"Sure," Fleetwood said, "you'll be sick with laughter."
* * * * *
Grant Dermitt lived on the ninth floor of the Towers, where, as
Fleetwood observed, the swank began in the foyer and increased, from
floor to floor, as you went up. The brocaded elevator attendant glided
in for a smooth landing, slid back the doors and confided in muted
tones that Mr. Dermitt's digs lay due north and could best be reached
by taking a steady heading in that direction. Fleetwood nodded with
thanks and proceeded on schedule and according to plan.
He presented himself at the door marked 9-B and pressed the buzzer,
not, however without a pause first for a deep meditative breath. There
was no question in his mind that his next step, the one that would take
him across Mr. Grant Dermitt's door-sill, would be the most decisive
in his entire life. He poised himself, therefore, in an appropriate
attitude of semi-military vigilance and waited for the encounter to
take place.
There was hardly any lapse between the sound of the buzzer inside the
apartment and the echo of rapidly approaching footsteps. The footsteps,
however, for all their orderly progression, stopped abruptly just
short of the inner side of the door. In the pause that followed,
Fleetwood reflected with understanding sympathy that he was not alone
in the need to brace himself against the impending interview, and he
found courage in this fact. Then the door opened and zero hour had
arrived.
Never had Fleetwood seen a larger, blacker pair of spectacles, nor
indeed had he even suspected that there was such a pair in existence.
In fact it was not until he had recovered from the shock of these
spectacular glasses that he was able to give their wearer so much as a
thought. It was only then that he came to the decision that perhaps it
wasn't so much that the glasses were large but that Grant Dermitt was
small.
Dermitt could not have been over five and a half feet tall, and his
head was large and flat on top so as to give him an odd, hammered-down
appearance. Though he was obviously somewhere in the mid-thirties, his
face had retained the alarming pinkness of adolescence. Through his
glasses he peered up at Fleetwood with a sort of thoughtful horror.
"Oof!" he said by way of greeting. "Uhhhh!"
Fleetwood understood perfectly; it was probably quite a shock to the
little fellow. He nodded in affable reply and filtered through the door
into the entry.
As his host finally managed to rattle the door into a closed position,
he made his way into the living room which was straight ahead. A wall
of glass, to the left, afforded an unbroken and dramatic view of the
city. The furniture was functionally modern, and to the right was a
sort of alcove containing a desk, typewriter and three file cabinets.
The over-all effect was very glittering, very urbane.
"You've got a nice lay-out here," Fleetwood commented chattily.
* * * * *
Quivering visibly in the doorway, his host, however, was in no frame of
mind for conversational hanky-panky about interior decoration.
"You...!" he erupted. "You _are_!"
"Of course," Fleetwood nodded. "I told you I was, didn't I?"
"But you can't be!"
"I had a hunch you were going to say that," Fleetwood said.
"Oh, my word!" Grant Dermitt made his way to the nearest chair and
plumped himself down into it. "My word!" he repeated. He stared at
Fleetwood lengthily, plainly engaged in an inward struggle with his
own senses. "But it's only a resemblance," he said finally. "That's
all it _could_ be, just a fantastic coincidence." His gaze entreated
Fleetwood. "Isn't it?"
Fleetwood shook his head and settled himself comfortably into the
chair opposite. "Shall I tell you the plot of your present story?" he
drawled. "Or would the experience be too painful?"
"Oh, dear!" Grant Dermitt said, making a small random gesture with his
hand. "There is that, too, isn't there? No one could have known those
things you told me on the telephone...."
"No one but me," Fleetwood said. "And who would know them better?"
"I simply don't know what to make of it," Dermitt moaned. "It's too
crazy to believe, but...." He looked up at Fleetwood. "When did this
happen?"
Fleetwood told him of the qualms, the spells, the small awakenings
which had culminated in the final, major one that evening.
"I see," Dermitt said when he had finished. "In a way it begins to make
sense. It checks with all the trouble you've been giving me lately."
"I've been giving _you_ trouble!" Fleetwood said self-righteously.
"What about the trouble you've been giving me? And not just lately. To
date, under your gentle auspices, I have sustained twelve broken noses,
seventeen crushed ribs, nine bullet wounds in the shoulders--five
right, four left--three skull fractures and a sprained thumb. As for
the black eyes, superficial lacerations, burns and random bruises,
we'll just pass those by as too numerous and picayune to inventory
at this time. However--and I wish to make this abundantly clear--I'm
stuffed to the glottis with the whole muggy business. In fact, to be
perfectly honest with you, Dermitt, my nerves won't stand any more of
it. You can't imagine how it shakes me to face a loaded gun anymore,
let alone turn my back on one, as you had me do this evening. If I
should ever have to repeat such a performance I wouldn't be a bit
surprised if I broke down and had a severe attack of the vapors. You
may call me a sissy if you like, but the wear and tear on my nervous
system is beginning to tell in my emotional reactions and I don't want
any more of it."
"Yes," Dermitt said, momentarily overwhelmed. "I suppose I have been a
little rough on you, but I...."
* * * * *
"Exactly," Fleetwood cut in. "And never a hint of any sort of
compensation or old age retirement. Not that that's the main
consideration. If you had made me into one of those gentleman,
garden-party type detectives, that would be an entirely different
matter. Those boys go to all the best places, rub elbows with the
cream of society and live off the fat of the land. They have a chance
to improve themselves socially and prosper in the bargain. But this
other routine, this rowdyism and mucking about with the absolute scum
of the earth--well, let me tell you, it takes it out of a man and puts
nothing back in return. So you'll understand when I say I'm quitting
and getting out."
"Quitting!" Dermitt half rose from his chair, his eyes large enough
to almost fill the circles of his enormous glasses. "Do you mean you
actually intend--"
"I do," Fleetwood nodded emphatically. "Now that I have the chance to
get out of the thing and take up a real life for myself I mean to do
so. I felt it was only fair, though, to look you up first and explain
my reasons."
"But you can't!" Dermitt squeaked. "You're just a fictional character!
You can't do that to me!" He swallowed excitedly, held out a hand of
supplication. "I didn't mean to be so hard on you, Cassidy. Believe me,
if I had only known...."
"I know," Fleetwood said. "And I don't bear any grudges. As far as that
goes I'm exceedingly grateful to you in a way. After all, if it weren't
for you I might never have seen the light of day at all. In fact, if
you don't mind, there are moments when I'm somewhat inclined to regard
you in much the same way as a son might regard his father."
"Oh, my God, no!" Dermitt exploded, leaving his chair entirely. "This
is madness! It can't be happening, it simply can't!" He whirled about
suddenly and fixed Fleetwood with an anguished eye. "Who sent you here
to do this to me?"
"No one," Fleetwood said. "I just came. You've got to believe...."
"This is a gag--a trick!"
"Oh, hell," Fleetwood sighed dejectedly, "now we're right back where we
started."
"You'd better tell me who sent you," Dermitt said shakenly. "You've got
to, because I can't stand any more of it!"
"My view exactly," Fleetwood put in gently.
"I'll go crazy! I'll go to pieces right here in front of you! I'll
shatter like a crystal! Would you like that?"
"No," Fleetwood said. "Doesn't sound pleasant at all." He looked at
Dermitt with speculation. "Do you mean you actually could disintegrate
right here at my feet? Is it really possible for people to do that sort
of thing?"
"Oh, Lord!" Dermitt shrieked. "Tell me who sent you. Please, _please_!"
"I really don't know what to say," Fleetwood sympathized. "I'd love to
tell you this is only a joke, since it seems to mean so much to you,
but I honestly can't. I'm strapped by the facts, if you see what I
mean."
* * * * *
Fleetwood's tone seemed to soothe Dermitt a trifle, for he returned to
his chair and fell limply into it. For a space, he sat staring down at
the carpet in a markedly haunted way, his hands twitching in his lap.
Finally he looked up.
"I don't believe you," he murmured, and if he had anything more to say
he was obviously quite beyond saying it for the moment. There was a
prolonged silence in which Fleetwood became restive. He cleared his
throat. Dermitt jumped.
"Look," Fleetwood said, seeing that any further negotiations were
entirely up to him, "we've got to settle this business one way or
the other. I want to get out of this fiction racket. In fact, I
must. That's why I came here. But, obviously, if I'm going to quit
successfully you're going to have to extend a certain amount of
cooperation. At least you're going to have to stop using me in your
stories. Along those lines I can't see any possibility of an agreeable
settlement until you are convinced beyond any doubt that I am actually
me. I suppose I'm going to have to prove it to you."
Dermitt rallied a bit at this. "And you'll never do that," he said,
"not to my satisfaction. I just won't believe it. I refuse."