The girl stood up. Grinnell took her out. She went out without looking at anyone.
Isham said: “Marty couldn’t have known Carl Owen was dead. But he was sure he’d try to hide out. By the time we got to him Marty would have collected from Dravec and moved on. I think the girl’s story sounds reasonable.”
Nobody said anything. After a moment Isham said to me: “You made one bad mistake. You shouldn’t have mentioned Marty to the girl until you were sure he was your man. That got two people killed quite unnecessarily.”
I said: “Uh-huh. Maybe I better go back and do it over again.”
“Don’t get tough.”
“I’m not tough. I was working for Dravec and trying to save him from a little heartbreak. I didn’t know the girl was as screwy as all that, or that Dravec would have a brainstorm. I wanted the pictures. I didn’t care a lot about trash like Steiner or Joe Marty and his girl friend, and still don’t.”
“Okay. Okay,” Isham said impatiently. “I don’t need you any more tonight. You’ll probably be panned plenty at the inquest.”
He stood up and I stood up. He held out his hand.
“But that will do you a hell of a lot more good than harm,” he added dryly.
I shook hands with him and went out. M’Gee came out after me. We rode down in the elevator together without speaking to each other. When we got outside the building M’Gee went around to the right side of my Chrysler and got into it.
“Got any liquor at your dump?”
“Plenty,” I said.
“Let’s go get some of it.”
I started the car and drove west along First Street, through a long echoing tunnel. When we were out of that, M’Gee said: “Next time I send you a client I won’t expect you to snitch on him, boy.”
We went on through the quiet evening to the Berglund. I felt tired and old and not much use to anybody.
NEVADA GAS
1
Hugo Candless stood in the middle of the squash court bending his big body at the waist, holding the little black ball delicately between left thumb and forefinger. He dropped it near the service line and flicked at it with the long-handled racket.
The black ball hit the front wall a little less than halfway up, floated back in a high, lazy curve, skimmed just below the white ceiling and the lights behind wire protectors. It slid languidly down the back wall, never touching it enough to bounce out.
George Dial made a careless swing at it, whanged the end of his racket against the cement back wall. The ball fell dead.
He said: “That’s the story, chief. 12—14. You’re just too good for me.”
George Dial was tall, dark, handsome, Hollywoodish. He was brown and lean, and had a hard, outdoor look. Everything about him was hard except his full, soft lips and his large, cow-like eyes.
“Yeah. I always was too good for you,” Hugo Candless chortled.
He leaned far back from his thick waist and laughed with his mouth wide open. Sweat glistened on his chest and belly. He was naked except for blue shorts, white wool socks and heavy sneakers with crÍpe soles. He had gray hair and a broad moon face with a small nose and mouth, sharp twinkle eyes.
“Want another lickin’?” he asked.
“Not unless I have to.”
Hugo Candless scowled. “Okey,” he said shortly. He stuck his racket under his arm and got an oilskin pouch out of his shorts, took a cigarette and a match from it. He lit the cigarette with a flourish and threw the match into the middle of the court, where somebody else would have to pick it up.
He threw the door of the squash court open and paraded down the corridor to the locker room with his chest out. Dial walked behind him silently; catlike, soft-footed, with a lithe grace. They went to the showers.
Candless sang in the showers, covered his big body with thick suds, showered dead-cold after the hot, and liked it. He rubbed himself dry with immense leisure, took another towel and stalked out of the shower room yelling for the attendant to bring ice and ginger ale.
A Negro in a stiff white coat came hurrying with a tray. Candless signed the check with a flourish, unlocked his big double locker and planked a bottle of Johnny Walker on the round green table that stood in the locker aisle.
The attendant mixed drinks carefully, two of them, said: “Yes, suh, Mista Candless,” and went away palming a quarter. George Dial, already fully dressed in smart gray flannels, came around the corner and lifted one of the drinks.
“Through for the day, chief?” He looked at the ceiling light through his drink, with tight eyes.
“Guess so,” Candless said largely. “Guess I’ll go home and give the little woman a treat.” He gave Dial a swift, sidewise glance from his little eyes.
“Mind if I don’t ride home with you?” Dial asked carelessly.
“With me it’s okey. It’s tough on Naomi,” Candless said unpleasantly.
Dial made a soft sound with his lips, shrugged, said: “You like to burn people up, don’t you chief?”
Candless didn’t answer, didn’t look at him. Dial stood silent with his drink and watched the big man put on monogrammed satin underclothes, purple socks with gray clocks, a monogrammed silk shirt, a suit of tiny black and white checks that made him look as big as a barn.
By the time he got to his purple tie he was yelling for the Negro to come and mix another drink.
Dial refused the second drink, nodded, went away softly along the matting between the tall green lockers.
Candless finished dressing, drank his second highball, locked his liquor away and put a fat brown cigar in his mouth. He had the Negro light the cigar for him. He went off with a strut and several loud greetings here and there.
It seemed very quiet in the locker room after he went out. There were a few snickers.
It was raining outside the Delmar Club. The liveried doorman helped Hugo Candless on with his belted white slicker and went out for his car. When he had it in front of the canopy he held an umbrella over Hugo across the strip of wooden matting to the curb. The car was a royal blue Lincoln limousine, with buff striping. The license number was 5A6.
The chauffeur, in a black slicker turned up high around his ears, didn’t look around. The doorman opened the door and Hugo Candless got in and sank heavily on the back seat.
“’Night, Sam. Tell him to go on home.”
The doorman touched his cap, shut the door, and relayed the orders to the driver, who nodded without turning his head. The car moved off in the rain.
The rain came down slantingly and at the intersection sudden gusts blew it rattling against the glass of the limousine. The street corners were clotted with people trying to get across Sunset without being splashed. Hugo Candless grinned out at them, pityingly.
The car went out Sunset, through Sherman, then swung towards the hills. It began to go very fast. It was on a boulevard where traffic was thin now.
It was very hot in the car. The windows were all shut and the glass partition behind the driver’s seat was shut all the way across. The smoke of Hugo’s cigar was heavy and choking in the tonneau of the limousine.
Candless scowled and reached out to lower a window. The window lever didn’t work. He tried the other side. That didn’t work either. He began to get mad. He grabbed for the little telephone dingus to bawl his driver out. There wasn’t any little telephone dingus.
The car turned sharply and began to go up a long straight hill with eucalyptus trees on one side and no houses. Candless felt something cold touch his spine, all the way up and down his spine. He bent forward and banged on the glass with his fist. The driver didn’t turn his head. The car went very fast up the long dark hill road.
Hugo Candless grabbed viciously for the door handle. The doors didn’t have any handles—either side. A sick, incredulous grin broke over Hugo’s broad moon face.
The driver bent over to the right and reached for something with his gloved hand. There was a sudden sharp hissing noise. Hugo Candless began to smell the odor of
almonds.
Very faint at first—very faint, and rather pleasant. The hissing noise went on. The smell of almonds got bitter and harsh and very deadly. Hugo Candless dropped his cigar and banged with all his strength on the glass of the nearest window. The glass didn’t break.
The car was up in the hills now, beyond even the infrequent street lights of the residential sections.
Candless dropped back on the seat and lifted his foot to kick hard at the glass partition in front of him. The kick was never finished. His eyes no longer saw. His face twisted into a snarl and his head went back against the cushions, crushed down against his thick shoulders. His soft white felt hat was shapeless on his big square skull.
The driver looked back quickly, showing a lean, hawk-like face for a brief instant. Then he bent to his right again and the hissing noise stopped.
He pulled over to the side of the deserted road, stopped the car, switched off all the lights. The rain made a dull noise pounding on the roof.
The driver got out in the rain and opened the rear door of the car, then backed away from it quickly, holding his nose.
He stood a little way off for a while and looked up and down the road.
In the back of the limousine Hugo Candless didn’t move.
2
Francine Ley sat in a low red chair beside a small table on which there was an alabaster bowl. Smoke from the cigarette she had just discarded into the bowl floated up and made patterns in the still, warm air. Her hands were clasped behind her head and her smoke-blue eyes were lazy, inviting. She had dark auburn hair set in loose waves. There were bluish shadows in the troughs of the waves.
George Dial leaned over and kissed her on the lips, hard. His own lips were hot when he kissed her, and he shivered. The girl didn’t move. She smiled up at him lazily when he straightened again.
In a thick, clogged voice Dial said: “Listen, Francy. When do you ditch this gambler and let me set you up?”
Francine Ley shrugged, without taking her hands from behind her head. “He’s a square gambler, George,” she drawled. “That’s something nowadays and you don’t have enough money.”
“I can get it.”
“How?” Her voice was low and husky. It moved George Dial like a cello.
“From Candless. I’ve got plenty on that bird.”
“As for instance?” Francine Ley suggested lazily.
Dial grinned softly down at her. He widened his eyes in a deliberately innocent expression. Francine Ley thought the whites of his eyes were tinged ever so faintly with some color that was not white.
Dial flourished an unlighted cigarette. “Plenty—like he sold out a tough boy from Beno last year. The tough boy’s half-brother was under a murder rap here and Candless took twenty-five grand to get him off. He made a deal with the D.A. On another case and let the tough boy’s brother go up.”
“And what did the tough boy do about all that?” Francine Ley asked gently.
“Nothing—yet. He thinks it was on the up and up, I guess. You can’t always win.”
“But he might do plenty, if he knew.” Francine Ley said, nodding. “Who was the tough boy, Georgie?”
Dial lowered his voice and leaned down over her again. “I’m a sap to tell you that. A man named Zapparty. I’ve never met him.”
“And never want to—if you’ve got sense, Georgie. No, thanks. I’m not walking myself into any jam like that with you.”
Dial smiled lightly, showing even teeth in a dark, smooth face. “Leave it to me, Francy. Just forget the whole thing except how I’m nuts about you.”
“Buy us a drink,” the girl said.
The room was a living room in a hotel apartment. It was all red and white, with embassy decorations, too stiff. The white walls had red designs painted on them, the white venetian blinds were framed in white box drapes, there was a half-round red rug with a white border in front of the gas fire. There was a kidney-shaped white desk against one wall, between the windows.
Dial went over to the desk and poured Scotch into two glasses, added ice and charged water, carried the glasses back across the room to where a thin wisp of smoke still plumed upward from the alabaster bowl.
“Ditch the gambler,” Dial said, handing her a glass. “He’s the one will get you in a jam.”
She sipped the drink, nodded. Dial took the glass out of her hand, sipped from the same place on the rim, leaned over holding both glasses and kissed her on the lips again.
There were red curtains over a door to a short hallway. They were parted a few inches and a man’s face appeared in the opening, cool gray eyes stared in thoughtfully at the kiss. The curtains fell together again without sound.
After a moment a door shut loudly and steps came along the hallway. Johnny De Ruse came through the curtains into the room. By that time Dial was lighting his cigarette.
Johnny De Ruse was tall, lean, quiet, dressed in dark clothes dashingly cut. His cool gray eyes had fine laughter wrinkles at the corners. His thin mouth was delicate but not soft, and his long chin had a cleft in it.
Dial stared at him, made a vague motion with his hand. De Ruse walked over to the desk without speaking, poured some whiskey into a glass and drank it straight.
He stood a moment with his back to the room, tapping on the edge of the desk. Then he turned around, smiled faintly, said: “ ‘Lo, people,” in a gentle, rather drawling voice and went out of the room through an inner door.
He was in a big over-decorated bedroom with twin beds. He went to a closet and got a tan calfskin suitcase out of it, opened it on the nearest bed. He began to rob the drawers of a highboy and put things in the suitcase, arranging them carefully, without haste. He whistled quietly through his teeth while he was doing it.
When the suitcase was packed he snapped it shut and lit a cigarette. He stood for a moment in the middle of the room without moving. His gray eyes looked at the wall without seeing it.
After a little while he went back into the closet and came out with a small gun in a soft leather harness with two short straps. He pulled up the left leg of his trousers and strapped the holster on his leg. Then he picked up the suitcase and went back to the living room.
Francine Ley’s eyes narrowed swiftly when she saw the suitcase.
“Going some place?” she asked in her low, husky voice.
“Uh-huh. Where’s Dial?”
“He had to leave.”
“That’s too bad,” De Ruse said softly. He put the suitcase down on the floor and stood beside it, moving his cool gray eyes over the girl’s face, up and down her slim body, from her ankles to her auburn head. “That’s too bad,” he said. “I like to see him around. I’m kind of dull for you.”
“Maybe you are, Johnny.”
He bent to the suitcase, but straightened without touching it and said casually: ‘Remember Mops Parisi? I saw him in town today.”
Her eyes widened and then almost shut. Her teeth clicked lightly. The line of her jawbone stood out very distinctly for a moment.
De Ruse kept moving his glance up and down her face and body.
“Going to do anything about it?” she asked.
“I thought of taking a trip,” De Ruse said. “I’m not so scrappy as I was once.”
“A powder,” Francine Ley said softly. “Where do we go?”
“Not a powder—a trip,” De Ruse said tonelessly. “And not we—me. I’m going alone.”
She sat still, watching his face, not moving a muscle.
De Ruse reached inside his coat and got out a long wallet that opened like a book. He tossed a tight sheaf of bills into the girl’s lap, put the wallet away. She didn’t touch the bills.
“That’ll hold you for longer than you’ll need to find a new playmate,” he said, without expression. “I wouldn’t say I won’t send you more, if you need it.”
She stood up slowly and the sheaf of bills slid down her skirt to the floor. She held her arms straight down at the sides, the hands clenched so that the tendons
on the backs of them were sharp. Her eyes were as dull as slate.
“That means we’re through, Johnny?”
He lifted his suitcase. She stepped in front of him swiftly, with two long steps. She put a hand against his coat. He stood quite still, smiling gently with his eyes, but not with his lips. The perfume of Shalimar twitched at his nostrils.
“You know what you are, Johnny?” Her husky voice was almost a lisp.
He waited.
“A pigeon, Johnny. A pigeon.”
He nodded slightly. “Check. I called copper on Mops Parisi. I don’t like the snatch racket, baby. I’d call copper on it any day. I might even get myself hurt blocking it. That’s old stuff. Through?”
“You called copper on Mops Parisi and you don’t think he knows it, but maybe he does. So you’re running away from him…That’s a laugh, Johnny. I’m kidding you. That’s not why you’re leaving me.”
“Maybe I’m just tired of you, baby.”
She put her head back and laughed sharply, almost with a wild note. De Ruse didn’t budge.
“You’re not a tough boy, Johnny. You’re soft. George Dial is harder than you are. Gawd, how soft you are, Johnny”
She stepped back, staring at his face. Some flicker of almost unbearable emotion came and went in her eyes.
“You’re such a handsome pup, Johnny. Gawd, but you’re handsome. It’s too bad you’re soft.”
De Ruse said gently, without moving: “Not soft, baby—just a bit sentimental. I like to clock the ponies and play seven card stud and mess around with little red cubes with white spots on them. I like games of chance, including women. But when I lose I don’t get sore and I don’t chisel. I just move on to the next table. Be seem’ you.”
He stooped, hefted the suitcase, and walked around her. He went across the room and through the red curtains without looking back.
Francine Ley stared with stiff eyes at the floor.
3
Standing under the scalloped glass canopy of the side entrance to the Chatterton, De Ruse looked up and down Irolo, towards the flashing lights of Wilshire and towards the dark quiet end of the side street.