"There's your scientific-trained mind," said Stuart. "Well, it's like this, Lieutenant. I just took over here about six months ago, see. The guy who'd been managing the joint, Whalen his name was, Andy Whalen, well, Mr. Goldstein-he's the owner-he found he wasn't leveling, there was rebates to wholesalers and that kind of thing. So Whalen got the heave-ho and I came in. O.K. Well, I hadn't been here very long-some time in September, wasn't it, Johnny?"
"September the twelfth," said Laidlaw.
"Yeah, well, Johnny comes in one night and says a customer's kicking up a row-it was about midnight I remember-and so I go out front to settle it. And here's this guy here,” he tapped the print, "raising hell over his check. He's just leaving, see, he's got this blonde dame with him-Johnny says he'd seen them in here before-and when he gets the check he don't like it. I say, what's the beef, and he says can he talk to me private. Now that I don't like so good, because it usually means the guy's caught short on cash and wants to leave his watch or something-but what can you do, I say O.K. and bring him in here. And first thing he says is, ‘What's with Whalen?' When he hears Whalen's out, he gets mad all over again. He says Whalen's a pal of his, always made him a cut price, see. I says that's one of the reasons Whalen's out, and I pointed out to him that I'm no pal, and it's a shame he's stuck for more than he expected, but just one of those things, and what about the thirty-four something he owes? Same time, if you get me, I did think it was kind of funny. I didn't know Whalen, but what the boys here've said, he wasn't no good-time Charlie who'd let his friends in for free."
"That he wasn't," said Laidlaw thoughtfully.
"But that wasn't any of my business. The guy didn't like it, but he paid up. I didn't need a blueprint to figure he'd been a regular here on account of the deal with Whalen, and the blonde didn't have a glimmer of that, thought he was just free with his money, and naturally he didn't want to look cheap in front of her. Anyway, he paid up and out he goes, and that was the only time I ever laid eyes on him. And can't say I'm sorry. But I was kind of curious, and so I got Bob Trimming-that's our regular cashier-in and asked him about it. I didn't get an awful lot out of him, to make sense. You see, the boys, well, they'd got kind of used to the manager acting nasty with them, and catching 'em out for little things all the time, see, and besides-well, now you tell the gent what you know, Johnny."
"Now just as it happened," said Laidlaw leisurely-he sat with arms folded across his chest, at magnificent ease, and spoke serenely-"I'd seen that fellow in here, but I'd never waited on him until that night. When he started to kick up the row, Bob called me in on it because I could back up the check, you see. And later on Mr. Stuart asked me to sound Bob out, see if he knew any more about it, as he might talk more openly to me. And I might say I was curious about it too, and I did. Bob's pretty close-mouthed anyway, he doesn't tell all he knows just to be talking, and he'd kept quiet on this, for one reason, because Mr. Whalen isn't a man you'd want to get across. But he knows I don't go talking much either, and he told me the whole thing. I realize, Lieutenant, that all this is hearsay and won't do you any good as evidence, but maybe you'll be interested anyway. What Bob said was this. This fellow came in here quite a bit, once a week at least and sometimes a lot oftener, and he never paid out anything but the tips-and he wasn't a very good tipper. The customer doesn't pay the waiters, as you know, but the cashier out there in the lobby. Bob's on duty, eight to closing time, six nights a week, so he was in a position to see what happened every time this customer came in. The first time he saw the fellow, there was a check for eighteen something, and Mr. Whalen's name signed across it. The customer just tossed it onto the desk and said, ‘That's O.K.,' or something like that. Well, Bob wasn't going to take a chance that way, and he called Mr. Whalen. I might add that the fellow had a blonde with him that night too, whether the same one or not I couldn't say, but she'd stepped into the powder room. Mr. Whalen said to Bob, ‘Oh, yes, that's 0. K. on the house'-but he didn't look as if he liked saying it, so Bob says. And later on that night, after we closed, Bob asked him how to cancel out that check for the accounts, and Mr. Whalen made up the cash out of his own pocket. Well, I don't want to drag this out too long-"
"You're not boring me," Mendoza told him.
"-But the point was, every time this customer came in the same thing happened, and it ran into quite a little money Mr. Whalen was paying out to make up the tabs for the accounts. Now, about six weeks before Mr. Whalen was fired, one night Bob wanted to make a phone call on his break, and he slipped into the phone booth in the lobby, as there wasn't a customer in it at the time. You notice where it is?-well, it's down a little corridor toward the men's room, past the check stand-and as he was standing there in the booth, out of sight, you know, sorting out a dime for the call, he heard Mr. Whalen talking to this customer. The customer had just come out of the men's room, and maybe Mr. Whalen was waiting for him. Anyway, Mr. Whalen was mad, and told him he'd got to stop coming in here so often, fun was fun but he couldn't afford it. And the customer just laughed and said Mr. Whalen surely didn't mind standing a few drinks to an old pal now and then, it was cheap at the price when it meant Mr. Whalen's job, because he didn't figure Mr. Whalen would like his boss to know about that taxi he'd done back in Pennsy."
Mendoza uttered a little exclamation. "Are you quoting this Bob, or were those the actual words?"
“That's what Bob heard, Lieutenant. Neither of us knew exactly what the fellow might have meant, but it sounded like a threat, which is why it stayed in Bob's mind. In fact, several things that were said sounded like double talk to both of us, and thinking it over I came to the conclusion they must be criminal or professional slang of some sort. The customer told Mr. Whalen not to be such a ringtail, for one thing. And Mr. Whalen said back at him that two could fill in that game, maybe the customer wouldn't like his boss to know he'd done a sleep as a cadet-”
"Ah," said Mendoza pleasedly. "Which doesn't surprise me. Yes, go on."
"-And the customer laughed again and said he didn't give a damn, it'd make no difference to him. There was a little more argument, and finally Mr. Whalen got to sounding really desperate, so Bob said, and he said to the customer he'd better not play so deep-meaning, I take it, not to drop in so often for a free ride-if he wasn't looking for a South Gate discharge."
" Lindo, muy linda, oh, very pretty," said Mendoza. "This I like. And?"
"That's about all, Lieutenant. Reason Bob remembered it, you see, was that it sounded a little nasty, threats and so on. Nobody liked Mr. Whalen much, and it didn't come as a surprise when he got fired. And so, as you've heard, the next time the customer dropped in, Bob was going to make him pay, and there was this row. Well, when I'd heard all this, I thought Mr. Stuart ought to know it-"
"And as you can see," said Stuart, "what the hell, it was water under the bridge, and I knew damn well the guy'd never come back again-which he didn't. None of my business what he had on Whalen. But just now, when you come in asking questions, Johnny thought I'd better hear about it, because by all this, both Whalen and this other guy, whoever he is, might be mixed up with some funny characters-if you see what I mean. No offense, Lieutenant, I hope-"
"No offense," said Mendoza. He was looking rather amused. "I suppose neither of you would know Whalen's whereabouts now?… No, I couldn't expect it. But you've been very helpful, thanks. I may want formal statements from both of you and this Bob."
"Any time, sir," said Laidlaw. "Glad to oblige you."
"Oh, sure," said Stuart, "not that I'd like to have to testify or anything, don't look so good in this business, snitching on a customer, whatever kind, but I guess it's up to all of us to help the law when we can. I suppose you can't tell us what this is all about."