The Postman Always Rings Twice - James M. Cain [19]
"You lied about being drunk."
"That's right. I was all full of booze, and ether, and dope that they give you, and I lied all right. But I'm all right now, and I got sense enough to know the truth is all that can get me out of this, if anything can. Sure, I was drunk. I was stinko. And all I could think of was, I mustn't let them know I was drunk, because I was driving the car, and if they find out I was drunk, I'm sunk."
"Is that what you'd tell a jury?"
"I'd have to, judge. But what I can't understand is how she came to be driving it. I started out with it. I know that. I can even remember a guy standing there laughing at me. Then how come she was driving when it went over?"
"You drove it about two feet."
"You mean two miles."
"I mean two feet. Then she took the wheel away from you."
"Gee, I _must_ have been stewed."
"Well, it's one of those things that a jury might believe. It's just got that cock-eyed look to it that generally goes with the truth. Yes, they might believe it."
He sat there looking at his nails, and I had a hard time to keep the grin from creeping over my face. I was glad when he started asking me more questions, so I could get my mind on something else, besides how easy I had fooled him.
"When did you go to work for Papadakis, Chambers?"
"Last winter."
"How long did you stay with him?"
"Till a month ago. Maybe six weeks."
"You worked for him six months, then?"
"About that."
"What did you do before that?"
"Oh, knocked around."
"Hitch-hiked? Rode freights? Bummed your meals wherever you could?"
"Yes sir."
He unstrapped a briefcase, put a pile of papers on the table, and began looking through them. "Ever been in Frisco?"
"Born there."
"Kansas City? New York? New Orleans? Chicago?"
"I've seen them all."
"Ever been in jail?"
"I have, judge. You knock around, you get in trouble with the cops now and then. Yes sir, I've been in jail."
"Ever been in jail in Tuscson?"
"Yes sir. I think it was ten days I got there. It was for trespassing on railroad property."
"Salt Lake City? San Diego? Wichita?"
"Yes sir. All those places."
"Oakland?"
"I got three months there, judge. I got in a fight with a railroad detective."
"You beat him up pretty bad, didn't you?"
"Well, as the fellow says, he was beat up pretty bad, but you ought to seen the other one. I was beat up pretty bad, myself."
"Los Angeles?"
"Once. But that was only three days."
"Chambers, how did you come to go to work for Papadakis, anyhow?"
"Just a kind of an accident. I was broke, and he needed somebody. I blew in there to get something to eat, and he offered me a job, and I took it."
"Chambers, does that strike you as funny?"
"I don't know how you mean, judge?"
"That after knocking around all these years, and never doing any work, or even trying to do any, so far as I can see, you suddenly settled down, and went to work, and held a job steady?"
"I didn't like it much, I'll own up to that."
"But you stuck."
"Nick, he was one of the nicest guys I ever knew. After I got a stake, I tried to tell him I was through, but I just didn't have the heart, much trouble as he had had with his help. Then when he had the accident, and wasn't there, I blew. I just blew, that's all. I guess I ought to treated him better, but I got rambling feet, judge. When they say go, I got to go with them. I just took a quiet way out."
"And then, the day after you came back, he got killed."
"You kind of make me feel bad now, judge. Because maybe I tell the jury different, but I'm telling you now I feel that was a hell of a lot my fault. If I hadn't been there, and begun promoting him for something to drink that afternoon, maybe he'd be here now. Understand, maybe that didn't have anything to do with it at all. I don't know. I was stinko, and I don't know what happened. Just the same, if she hadn't had two drunks in the car, maybe she could have drove better, couldn't she? Anyway, that's how I feel about it."
I looked