Free The Blue Movie Murders by Ellery Queen Page B

yesterday.”
    â€œGo away. Not now.”
    â€œThere’s no better time than now. Let me in, George.”
    There was silence for a long moment, as the black man behind the curtain considered the request. Finally he said, “All right. But no tricks now.”
    McCall heard the click of the door being unlocked and opened and then he stepped into the darkened house. “Are you alone here?” he asked.
    â€œI sent the wife and kids to stay with her family for a few days. Anybody toss a fire bomb at this house during the night they’d all be dead in five minutes. I don’t want that.”
    McCall seated himself gingerly on a lumpy sofa. There was the flare of a match across the room, and he saw George Watts’ pushed-in nose and gleaming teeth as the black man lit a cigarette. The shotgun was resting casually across his knees, pointed at the far wall. “Why would they toss a fire bomb at you, George?”
    â€œYou know why. Same reason Tanner tried to bash me last night.”
    â€œBecause you were in a film with a white girl, George?”
    The room was dark again, but McCall heard the squeaking of springs as he shifted position on the sofa.
    â€œYeah, I figured you knew. I was goin’ to tell you last night anyway. I don’t want any of that business. I shouldn’t of done it anyway.”
    â€œWhat—made love to a white girl?”
    â€œHell no! Let them take pictures of me doin’ it! Them dirty movies—they’re no good.”
    â€œTell me how it was, George. Who approached you? How did it happen?”
    â€œI guess it was about three months ago, during the winter. I’d heard about the movies. Word like that gets around. They used to shoot them after hours, up in the film-test studio. It was a real organized business, and they’d mostly bring in actors and actresses from New York or other places. Sometimes they even got people from Hollywood who wanted to do work on them.”
    â€œDirectors?”
    â€œYeah, I guess so. Anyway, like I say, they used mostly out-of-town people, but once in a while if they needed somebody special for a certain role they’d get a local guy. They asked me back in February, I guess.”
    â€œWho asked you?” McCall cursed himself for not bringing his tape recorder along.
    â€œI guess Tanner knew about it, but he didn’t ask me. It was the plant manager—Chuck Verry—who said they needed a black actor. At first I didn’t understand what he meant. Sometimes I know they use blacks to test the film, to see if it’ll photograph them all right. You know, the lighting has to be different and stuff. The guy that directed me was complaining because blacks are hard to light for colour film, especially in scenes with white folks.”
    â€œYou’re getting ahead of yourself. Just what did Verry offer you?”
    â€œFive hundred dollars for one night’s work. Hell, I couldn’t turn that down—not and come home to my kids and this house.”
    â€œWas Xavier Mann in on this?”
    â€œHe never showed, but we all knew it was his money behind the thing.”
    â€œSo you did it.”
    Another match flared, and McCall saw the black face nod. “I did it. One night around the first of March. Verry told me to stay on for some overtime work. Then he took me upstairs to the colour labs and the studio. There were some people I didn’t know and a photographer who works for Mann. They had a big movie camera, and they fooled around a long time with the lights. This girl came in. She was young and good-looking, but sort of hard. She didn’t even speak to me before the scene. It was just a job to her.”
    Watts paused and McCall had to urge him. “Go on.”
    â€œWell, they told me to take off my clothes. There was this big brass bed in the room, and a set that looked like an apartment. The girl got into bed, and when I was naked they turned on the