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Hammett went into hiding all of five city blocks south, at the Sutton Club Hotel on 56th Street. He lived there for eight months, living with his long-term lover, the brilliant playwright Lillian Hellman, working hard to finish the novel he had already borrowed quite heavily against.
Dick and Dora Charleston.
We found a table. Nora said: “She’s pretty.” “If you like them like that.” She grinned at me. “You got types?” “Only you, darling—lanky brunettes with wicked jaws.”
“Only you, darling—lanky brunettes with wicked jaws.”
“Do you suppose he killed her?” Nora asked when I put the paper down again. “Wynant? I wouldn’t be surprised. He’s batty as hell.” “Did you know her?” “Yes. How about a drop of something to cut the phlegm?” “What was she like?” “Not bad,” I said. “She wasn’t bad-looking and she had a lot of sense and a lot of nerve—and it took both to live with that guy.” “She lived with him?” “Yes. I want a drink, please. That is, it was like that when I knew them.” “Why don’t you have some breakfast first? Was she in love with him or was it just business?” “I don’t know. It’s too early for breakfast.”
“Don’t let that worry you. Lots of people don’t like their relatives.” “Do you like them?” “My relatives?” “Mine.” She scowled at me. “And stop talking to me as if I was still twelve.” “It’s not
can’t discuss it over the phone, Mr. Charles, but if you will give me half an hour of your time, I can promise—” “Sorry,” I said. “I’m pretty busy and—” “But, Mr. Charles, this is—” Then there was a loud noise: it could have been a shot or something falling or anything else that would make a loud noise. I said, “Hello,” a couple of times, got no answer, and hung up. Nora had Dorothy over in front of a looking-glass soothing her with powder and rouge. I said, “A guy selling insurance,” and we went into the living-room for a drink.
“Where’d you find the little blonde?” “Used to bounce it on my knee.” “Which knee?” he asked. “Could I touch it?”
What in the hell boner joke is this
“Darling,” I said, “my guess is that Wynant killed her, and the police’ll catch him without my help. Anyway, it’s nothing in my life.” “I didn’t mean just that, but—” “But besides I haven’t the time: I’m too busy trying to see that you don’t lose any of the money I married you for.” I kissed her. “Don’t you think maybe a drink would help you to sleep?” “No, thanks.” “Maybe it would if I took one.” When I brought my Scotch and soda back to bed, she was frowning into space.
“She’s cute, but she’s cuckoo. She wouldn’t be his daughter if she wasn’t. You can’t tell how much of what she says is what she thinks and you can’t tell how much of what she thinks ever really happened. I like her, but I think you’re letting—” “I’m not sure I like her,” Nora said thoughtfully, “she’s probably a little bastard, but if a quarter of what she told us is true, she’s in a tough spot.” “There’s nothing I can do to help her.” “She thinks you can.” “And so do you, which shows that no matter what you think, you can always get somebody else to go along with you.” Nora sighed. “I wish
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“You’ll have to keep them anyway, because the man at the Aquarium said he positively wouldn’t take them back. He said they’d...
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Nora screwed up her dark eyes at me and asked slowly: “What are you holding out on me?” “Oh, dear,” I said, “I was hoping I wouldn’t have to tell you. Dorothy is really my daughter. I didn’t know what I was doing, Nora. It was spring in Venice and I was so young and there was a moon over the—” “Be funny. Don’t you want something to eat?” “If you do. What do you want?” “Raw chopped beef sandwich with a lot of onion and some coffee.” Dorothy arrived while I was telephoning an all-night delicatessen.
All night delicatessen!
The doorbell rang. I went to the door. Eight years had done no damage to Mimi’s looks. She was a little riper, showier, that was all.
Dorothy came in from the bedroom. “I squared it.” She kissed her mother on the mouth and sat down beside her. Mimi, looking in her compact-mirror to see her mouth had not been smeared, asked: “She wasn’t peevish about it?” “No, I squared it. What do you have to do to get a drink?” I said: “You have to walk over to that table where the ice and bottles are and pour it.” Mimi said: “You drink too much.” “I don’t drink as much as Nick.” She went over to the table.
Nora made a kiss at me in the dressing-table mirror. She looked very happy. “You like Nick a lot, don’t you, Nora?” Dorothy asked. “He’s an old Greek fool, but I’m used to him.”
on the cuff—from
So far I had known just where I stood on the Wolf-Wynant-Jorgensen troubles and what I was doing—the answers were, respectively, nowhere and nothing—but
The gun, a blunt black .38-calibre automatic, lay comfortably in his hand, not pointing at anything. Nora was saying: “He made me let him in, Nick. He said he had to—” “I got to talk to you,” the man with the gun said. “That’s all, but I got to do that.” His voice was low, rasping. I had blinked myself awake by then. I looked at Nora. She was excited, but apparently not frightened: she might have been watching a horse she had a bet on coming down the stretch with a nose lead. I said: “All right, talk, but do you mind putting the gun away? My wife doesn’t care, but I’m pregnant and I don’t want
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“I got to talk to you,” the man with the gun said. “That’s all, but I got to do that.” His voice was low, rasping. I had blinked myself awake by then. I looked at Nora. She was excited, but apparently not frightened: she might have been watching a horse she had a bet on coming down the stretch with a nose lead. I said: “All right, talk, but do you mind putting the gun away? My wife doesn’t care, but I’m pregnant and I don’t want the child to be born with—”
He moved his feet the least bit, flattening them against the floor.
No noise in the world, before or after, was ever as loud as Morelli’s gun going off.
Nora glared at me. “You damned fool,” she said, “you didn’t have to knock me cold. I knew you’d take him, but I wanted to see it.” One of the coppers laughed. “Jesus,” he said admiringly, “there’s a woman with hair on her chest.”
“You damned fool,” she said, “you didn’t have to knock me cold. I knew you’d take him, but I wanted to see it.” One of the coppers laughed. “Jesus,” he said admiringly, “there’s a woman with hair on her chest.”
The doctor—a colorless wisp of a man with the snuffles—came in, clucked and sniffed over my side, got the bleeding stopped and a bandage on, and told me I would have nothing to worry about if I lay still for a couple of days. Nobody would tell the doctor anything. The police would not let him touch Morelli. He went away looking even more colorless and vague.
“Can—can I tell you something that happened to me when I was a little child?”
Sure, and I’ll tell you where to get off
“Men are such idiots,” Mimi said. She put an arm around me. “They either make mountains out of nothing or utterly neglect things that may— But come in. Here, let me help you.”
Jorgensen and Nora had put Bach’s “Little Fugue” on the phonograph.
Anger was a very pretty thing in Mimi’s blue eyes.
“How do you feel?” “Terrible. I must’ve gone to bed sober.”
Nora was inviting Guild to have lunch while we had breakfast. He said it was mighty kind of her. I said I ought to have a drink before breakfast. Nora went to order meals and pour drinks. Guild shook his head and said: “She’s a mighty fine woman, Mr. Charles.” I nodded solemnly.
just as lief
in a pet,”
She stared at him dully and said: “I don’t like crooks, and even if I did, I wouldn’t like crooks that are stool-pigeons, and if I liked crooks that are stool-pigeons, I still wouldn’t like you.” She turned to the outer door.
stool-pigeons,
“I don’t believe it,” she said. “You made it up. There aren’t any people like that. What’s the matter with them? Are they the first of a new race of monsters?”
earysipelas
“She’s mean medicine.”
somebody could do something with that cluck if they took hold of her right.”
I put cold water on my face and hands, brushed my teeth and hair, and went back to the living-room. “He’s coming up,” I told Nora. “He’s had breakfast, but you’d better order some coffee for him. I want chicken livers.” “Am I invited to your party or do I—” “Sure. You’ve never met Macaulay, have you? He’s a pretty good guy. I was attached to his outfit for a few days once, up around Vaux, and we looked each other up after the war. He threw a couple of jobs my way, including the Wynant one. How about a drop of something to cut the phlegm?” “Why don’t you stay sober today?” “We didn’t come to
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“Have it your own way,” she said, “but I always thought detectives waited until they had every little detail fixed in—” “And then wonder why the suspect’s had time to get to the farthest country that has no extradition treaty.” She laughed. “All right, all right. Still want to leave for San Francisco tomorrow?” “Not unless you’re in a hurry. Let’s stick around awhile. This excitement has put us behind in our drinking.”
