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of extra time now.'
Stan smiled a little nervously. He was glad she had stopped
doing that low-paying job at the sales office, but he was afraid
hopefully. 'I'm sure you can find an easier way to make money.'
his lovely but lazy Susan might not try very hard to find another
Lazily, Susan stirred her coffee.
job. 'You'll have time to train for something better,' he said,
'Yes, dear.' She smiled. 'I probably can.'
72
The Gutting of Couffignal
A private detective at a wedding is supposed to look like any
The Gutting of Couffignal
other guest, but this is never possible. He has to spend most of
his time where he can see the presents, and what he is doing
DASHIEL HAMMETT
soon becomes obvious. Anyway, I recognized eight or ten of the
guests as clients or former clients of mine.
Soon after dark a wind smelling of rain began to pile storm
ouffignal is a two-hour ride from San Francisco. It is not a
clouds up over the bay. Those guests who lived some distance
Clarge island, and is joined to the mainland by a wooden
away, especially those who had water to cross, hurried off for
bridge. Its western shore is a high, straight cliff that comes up
their homes. Those who lived on the island stayed until the first
out of Pablo Bay. From the top of the cliff the island slopes
drops of rain began to fall. Then they left.
eastward to a beach, where there are piers and pleasure boats.
The Hendrixson house became quiet. Tired house servants
Couffignal's main street has the usual bank, hotel, movie
disappeared to their bedrooms. I found some sandwiches, a
theater and stores, but there are also trees and lawns, and no
couple of books and a comfortable chair, and took them up to
ugly flashing signs. The buildings seem to belong beside one
the room where the presents were now hidden under a gray-
another, as if they had been designed by the same person.
white sheet.
The streets that cross the main street run between rows of
Keith Hendrixson, the bride's grandfather (her parents were
neat cottages near the bottom of the slope, but higher up the
dead), put his head in at the door. 'Have you everything you
houses are larger and further apart. Most of the owners of these
need for your comfort?' he asked.
houses are rich, well-fed old men who will spend what is left of
'Yes, thanks.'
their lives nursing their health among their own kind. They admit
He said good night and went off to bed - an old man, but tall
to the island only as many storekeepers and working people as
and thin like a boy.
are needed to keep them comfortably served.
The wind was blowing and it was raining hard now. I pulled
That is Couffignal.
my chair close to a lamp, and put sandwiches, books, ashtray,
It was some time after midnight. I was in an upstairs room in
gun and flashlight on a small table beside it. I lit a cigarette,
Couffignal's largest house, surrounded by wedding presents
made myself comfortable in the chair and picked up a book.
whose value would add up to something between fifty and a
It was about a tough, violent man called Hogarth, whose
hundred thousand dollars. The ceremony had been performed
modest plan was to hold the world in one hand. There were
in a little stone church down the hill. Then the house had begun
robberies and murders, escapes from prisons, and diamonds as
to fill up with wedding guests, and had stayed filled until the
large as hats. It sounds crazy, but in the book it was as real as a
bride and her new husband had gone off to catch their train.
dollar.
74
75
The Gutting of Couffignal
American Crime Stories
and looking thinner and older than anybody could be, came into
Hogarth was still winning when the lights went out.
the room.
I pushed my cigarette into one of the sandwiches, put the
'Is i t . . . ?'
book down, picked up the gun and flashlight, and moved away
'I don't think it's an earthquake,' I said. That's the first disaster
from the chair. Listening for noises was no good. The storm
every Californian thinks of. 'The lights went off a little while
was making hundreds of them. I needed to know why the lights
ago. There have been a couple of explosions down the hill
had gone off. All the other lights in the house had been turned
since '
off some time ago, so the darkness of the hall told me nothing.
I stopped as I heard three shots, close together. Shots that
I waited. My job was to watch the presents. Nobody had
only the heaviest of rifles could make. Then, sharp and small in
touched them yet.
the storm, came the sound of a handgun firing.
Minutes went by, perhaps ten of them.
More feet were running in the hall. Excited voices whispered.
The floor moved under my feet. The windows shook violently.
A servant, partly dressed and carrying lighted candles, came in.
Then the sound of a heavy explosion filled the air, drowning
He put the candles on the table beside my sandwiches.
out the noises of wind and falling water. It was not near, but
'Brophy, will you try to find out what is the matter?'
nor was it off the island.
Hendrixson said to him.
I walked over to the window. I should have been able to see a
'I have tried, sir. The telephone is not working. Shall I send
few misty lights far down the hill. Not being able to see them
Oliver down to the village?'
meant that the lights had gone out all over Couffignal, and not
'No, I don't suppose it's that serious. Do you think it's
only in the Hendrixson house.
anything serious?' Hendrixson asked me.
That was better. Maybe the storm had put out the lights,
I said I didn't think so, but I had heard a thin scream that
caused the explosion. Maybe.
could have come from a distant woman, and the quick-firing of
I had an impression of great excitement down the hill, of
more shots. Then came the sound of the heavier guns again.
movement in the night. But it was all too far away for me to
The doorbell rang suddenly loud and long.
have seen or heard anything even if there had been lights. I turned
Brophy went away and came back.
away from the window.
'Princess Zhukovski,' he announced.
Another explosion spun me back to it. It sounded nearer than
She ran into the room - a tall Russian girl who I had seen
the first, maybe because it was stronger. Looking through the
earlier at the wedding reception. Her eyes were wide and dark
glass again, I still saw nothing.
with excitement. Her face was very white and wet.
The sound of bare feet hurrying came from the hall. A voice
'Oh, Mr Hendrixson!' She was like an excited child. 'The
was anxiously calling my name. I put my gun in my pocket and
bank is being robbed, and the chief of police is dead! When the
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