The D.A. Breaks an Egg

“On the road to Yuma it turned out that he was already married. He’d married a girl in France when he was overseas. He told me that he knew it would be all right, and that he could send her money and she’d get a French divorce. He was perfectly willing to go ahead and marry me there in Yuma, but I had visions of what would happen. That French girl would learn he had married again. She’d make trouble and... well, you can see what a position I’d be in. The bride of a bigamist — no binding ceremony — and somehow I had an idea that that might be a very bad position to be in with Darwin Jerome. A girl who is going to toss everything away in order to marry Darwin wants to be darn certain she’s got him, and that he’s tied up good and tight legally.”

“So what did you do?” Brandon asked.

She said, somewhat regretfully, “Oh, well, I let my head dominate my heart. I told him nothing doing. I told him to take me back home, and... well, he wanted me to spend the night in Yuma and we had an argument, and that was that. We separated.”

“Then what?” Horace prompted.

“Then,” she said, “I was in a fix. I simply had to get back, and I had to get where I could communicate with Connie and tell her what had happened. I could have taken the bus, but I knew Darwin would be down at the bus station looking for me. I just left him flat. I started to hitchhike.

“I walked across the bridge over the river into California and saw a lot of cars lined up at the California checking station. I just stood around as though waiting for the car in which I was riding to be cleared. Finally I saw a man with whom I thought I could take a chance. A nice-looking young fellow who was all alone. I walked up to him and... well, anyway, he gave me a ride. He was Frank Grannis.

“Frank Grannis was a perfect gentleman. Naturally I wasn’t foolish enough to tell him any of my story or to give him a name. I told him that I had to get to Los Angeles to see about a job, and that I had to be there by nine o’clock in the morning in order to land the job. It was quite a line I handed him. He had planned to stop in Brawley all night, but after he heard my story he decided that he’d keep on driving.”

Selby, listening with frowning concentration, said, “Wait a minute. How did Darwin Jerome know that you were riding with Frank Grannis? And as I size things up, he must have known.”

She said, “I’m coming to that. Darwin waited around the bus depot at Yuma. When I didn’t show up, he finally realized what must have happened. He passed us on the road, driving like the wind. I recognized the car. He must have been going at least eighty-five or ninety miles an hour.”

“Well?” Selby asked.

She said, “He wasn’t so dumb. He knew that I was going to have to get home to Madison City some way. He thought he stood a chance. There’s no question but what Darwin is — or was — completely infatuated with me. He had been looking forward to a marriage ceremony which wouldn’t be binding, and a honeymoon which would. I upset his calculations. Darwin is a happy-go-lucky individual, but when it comes to a showdown, and if anyone crosses him, he becomes hard as nails.”

“What happened?” Selby asked.

“As it turned out, he thought the reason I’d refused to go ahead was because of some other man who had come between us. When I didn’t go to the bus depot, he felt certain — and he’s insanely jealous.

“There’s a boulevard stop just before you come to Madison City with a bright overhead light. Darwin was waiting there. He spotted us when we drove up. I knew that he had, but Frank Grannis didn’t. Frank said he simply couldn’t go on and wanted to know where I wanted to get out. I’d been making him sleepy for the last half-hour by repeatedly yawning. I told him to put me out any place and I’d keep on hitchhiking. So he stopped the car at the auto camp. I kissed him good-by — just a friendly kiss, the way a regular hitchhiker would treat a nice boy who had given her a long ride, and started walking ostensibly to invite another ride.

“Darwin, of course, had seen me kiss Frank good-by. He’d seen Frank go to the motel. He was jealous and angry and hurt. He really thought Frank had followed us to Yuma and was the reason I’d refused to marry him. I simply couldn’t convince him Frank wasn’t an old friend. I slapped his face, and we quarreled again and then finally he took me home.

“He was willing to do that much to keep up appearances. I told Mother that I’d been taken violently ill, and thought I’d better come back home, and the next day I called Connie and fixed things up so that she’d back up my story.”

“And how did Carr enter the picture?” Selby asked.