«A gut-buster,» Henry drawled. «A comedian. Wait’ll I loosen my belt.»
Gandesi rolled over and got to his feet very slowly and painfully and stood swaying and passing his hand up and down his face. His clothes were covered with dust.
«This here’s a sap,» Henry said, showing me the small black club. «He hit me with it, didn’t he?»
«Why, Henry, don’t you know?» I inquired.
«I just wanted to be sure,» Henry said. «You don’t do that to the Eichelbergers.»
«O.K., what you boys want?» GandeSi asked abruptly, with no trace whatever of his Italian accent.
«I told you what we wanted, dough-face.»
«I don’t think I know you boys,» Gandesi said and lowered his body with care into a wooden chair beside a shabby office desk. He mopped his face and neck and felt himself in various places.
«You got the wrong idea, Gandesi. A lady living in Carondelet Park lost a forty-nine bead pearl necklace a couple of days back. A box job, but a pushover. Our outfit’s carrying a little insurance on those marbles. And I’ll take that C note.»
He walked over to Gandesi and Gandesi quickly reached the folded bill from his pocket and handed it to him. Henry gave me the bill and I put it back in my wallet.
«I don’t think I hear about it,» Gandesi said carefully.
«You hit me with a sap,» Henry said. «Listen kind of hard.»
Gandesi shook his head and then winced. «I don’t back no petermen,» he said, «nor no heist guys. You got me wrong.»
«Listen hard,» Henry said in a low voice. «You might hear something.» He swung the small black club lightly in front of his body with two fingers of his right hand. The slightly too-small hat was still on the back of his head, although a little crumpled.
«Henry,» I said, «you seem to be doing all the work this evening. Do you think that is quite fair?»
«O.K., work him over,» Henry said. «These fat guys bruise something lovely.»
By this time Gandesi had become a more natural color and was gazing at us steadily. «Insurance guys, huh?» he inquired dubiously.
«You said it, dough-face.»
«You try Melachrino?» Gandesi asked.
«Haw,» Henry began raucously, «a gut-buster. A —» but I interrupted him sharply.
«One moment, Henry,» I said. Then turning to Gandesi, «Is this Melachrino a person?» I asked him.
Gandesi’s eyes rounded in surprise. «Sure — a guy. You don’t know him, huh?» A look of dark suspicion was born in his sloeblack eyes, but vanished almost as soon as it appeared.
«Phone him,» Henry said, pointing to the instrument which stood on the shabby office desk.
«Phone is bad,» Gandesi objected thoughtfully.
«So is sap poison,» Henry said.
Gandesi sighed and turned his thick body in the chair and drew the telephone towards him. He dialed a number with an inky nail and listened. After an interval he said: «Joe? … Lou. Couple insurance guys tryin’ to deal on a Carondelet Park job … Yeah … No, marbles … You ain’t heard a whisper, huh?… O.K., Joe.»
Gandesi replaced the phone and swung around in the chair again. He studied us with sleepy eyes. «No soap. What insurance outfit you boys work for?»
«Give him a card,» Henry said to me.
I took my wallet out once more and withdrew one of my cards from it. It was an engraved calling card and contained nothing but my name. So I used my pocket pencil to write, Chateau Moraine Apartments, Franklin near Ivar, below the name. I showed the card to Henry and then gave it to Gandesi.
Gandesi read the card and quietly bit his finger. His face brightened suddenly. «You boys better see Jack Lawler,» he said.
Henry stared at him closely. Gandesi’s eyes were now bright and unblinking and guileless.
«Who’s he?» Henry asked.
«Runs the Penguin Club. Out on the Strip — Eighty-six Forty-four Sunset or some number like that. He can find out, if any guy can.»
«Thanks,» Henry said quietly. He glanced at me. «You believe him?»
«Well, Henry,» I said, «I don’t really think he would be above telling us an untruth.»
«Haw!» Gandesi began suddenly. «A gut-buster! A —»
«Can it!» Henry snarled. «That’s my line. Straight goods, is it, Gandesi? About this Jack Lawler?»
Gandesi nodded vigorously. «Straight goods, absolute. Jack Lawler got a finger in everything high class that’s touched. But he ain’t easy to see.»
«Don’t worry none about that. Thanks, Gandesi.»
Henry tossed the black club into the corner of the room and broke open the breech of the revolver he had been holding all this time in his left hand. He ejected the shells and then bent down and slid the gun along the floor until it disappeared under the desk. He tossed the cartridges idly in his hand for a moment and then let them spill on the floor.
«So long, Gandesi,» he said coldly. «And keep that schnozzle of yours clean, if you don’t want to be looking for it under the bed.»
He opened the door then and we both went out quickly and left the Blue Lagoon without interference from any of the employees.
FIVE
My car was parked a short distance away down the block. We entered it and Henry leaned his arms on the wheel and stared moodily through the windshield.
«Well, what you think, Walter?» he inquired at length.
«If you ask my opinion, Henry, I think Mr. Gandesi told us a cock-and-bull story merely to get rid of us. Furthermore I do not believe he thought we were insurance agents.»
«Me too, and an extra helping,» Henry said. «I don’t figure there’s any such guy as this Melachrino or this Jack Lawler and this Gandesi called up some dead number and had himself a phony chin with it. I oughta go back there and pull his arms and legs off. The hell with the fat slob.»
«We had the best idea we could think of, Henry, and we executed it to the best of our ability. I now suggest that we return to my apartment and try to think of something else.»
«And get drunk,» Henry said, starting the car and guiding it away from the curb.
«We could perhaps have a small allowance of liquor, Henry.»
«Yah!» Henry snorted. «A stall. I oughta go back there and wreck the joint.»
He stopped at the intersection, although no traffic signal was in operation at the time; and raised a bottle of whiskey to his lips. He was in the act of drinking when a car came up behind us and collided with our car, but not very severely. Henry choked and lowered his bottle, spilling some of the liquor on his garments.
«This town’s getting too crowded,» he snarled. «A guy can’t take hisself a drink without some smart monkey bumps his elbow.»
Whoever it was in the car behind us blew a horn with some insistence, inasmuch as our car had not yet moved forward. Henry wrenched the door open and got out and went back. I heard voices of considerable loudness, the louder being Henry’s voice. He came back after a moment and got into the car and drove on.