You mean those couple of afternoons we killed?
Her laugh was genuine. That's certainly an answer. She turned to Dorothy, carrying glasses towards us. You'll have to get a robe that shade of blue, darling. It's very becoming to you.
I took one of the glasses from Dorothy and said I thought I had better get dressed.
7
When I came out of the bathroom, Nora and Dorothy were in the bedroom, Nora combing her hair, Dorothy sitting on the side of the bed dangling a stocking.
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.
Charles isn't a Greek name.
It's Charalambides, I explained. When the old man came over, the mugg that put him through Ellis Island said Charalambides was too longtoo much trouble to writeand whittled it down to Charles. It was all right with the old man; they could have called him X so they let him in.
Dorothy stared at me. I never know when you're lying. She started to put on the stocking, stopped. What's Mamma trying to do to you?
Nothing. Pump me. She'd like to know what you did and said last night.
I thought so. What'd you tell her?
What could I tell her? You didn't do or say anything.
She wrinkled her forehead over that, but when she spoke again it was about something else: I never knew there was anything between you and Mamma. Of course I was only a kid then and wouldn't have known what it was all about even if I'd noticed anything, but I didn't even know you called each other by your first names.
Nora turned from the mirror laughing. Now we're getting somewhere. She waved the comb at Dorothy. Go on, dear.
Dorothy said earnestly: Well, I didn't know.
I was taking laundry pins out of a shirt. What do you know now? I asked.
Nothing, she said slowly, and her face began to grow pink, but I can guess. She bent over her stocking.
Can and do, I growled. You're a dope, but don't look so embarrassed. You can't help it if you've got a dirty mind.
She raised her head and laughed, but when she asked, Do you think I take after Mamma much? she was serious.
I wouldn't be surprised.
But do you?
You want me to say no. No.
That's what I have to live with, Nora said cheerfully. You can't do anything with him.
I finished dressing first and went out to the living-room. Mimi was sitting on Jorgensen's knees. She stood up and asked: What'd you get for Christmas?
Nora gave me a watch. I showed it to her.
She said it was lovely, and it was. What'd you give her?
Necklace.
Jorgensen said, May I? and rose to mix himself a drink.
The doorbell rang. I let the Quinns and Margot Innes in, introduced them to the Jorgensens. Presently Nora and Dorothy finished dressing and came out of the bedroom, and Quinn attached himself to Dorothy. Larry Crowley arrived, with a girl named Denis, and a few minutes later the Edges. I won thirty-two dollarson the cufffrom Margot at backgammon. The Denis girl had to go into the bedroom and lie down awhile. Alice Quinn, with Margot's help, tore her husband away from Dorothy at a little after six and carried him off to keep a date they had. The Edges left. Mimi put on her coat, got her husband and daughter into their coats.
It's awful short notice, she said, but can't you come to dinner tomorrow night?
Nora said: Certainly.
We shook hands and made polite speeches all around and they went away.
Nora shut the door after them and leaned her back against it. Jesus, he's a handsome guy, she said.
8
So far I had known just where I stood on the WoIf-WynantJorgensen troubles and what I was doingthe answers were, respectively, nowhere and nothingbut when we stopped at Reuben's for coffee on our way home at four the next morning, Nora opened a newspaper and found a line in one of the gossip columns: Nick Charles, former Trans-American Detective Agency ace, on from Coast to sift the Julia Wolf murder mystery; and when I opened my eyes and sat up in bed some six hours later Nora was shaking me and a man with a gun in his hand was standing in the bedroom doorway.
He was a plump dark youngish man of medium height, broad through the jaws, narrow between the eyes. He wore a black derby hat, a black overcoat that fitted him very snugly, a dark suit, and black shoes, all looking as if he had bought them within the past fifteen minutes. 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 the child to be barn with
He smiled with his lower lip. You don't have to tell me you're tough. I heard about you. He put the pistol in his overcoat pocket. I'm Shep Morelli.
I never heard about you, I said.
He took a step into the room and began to shake his head from side to side. I didn't knock Julia off.
Maybe you didn't, but you're bringing the news to the wrong place. I got nothing to do with it.
I haven't seen her in three months, he said. We were washed up.
Tell the police.
I wouldn't have any reason to hurt her: she was always on the up and up with me.
That's all swell, I said, only you're peddling your fish in the wrong market.
Listen. He took another step towards the bed. Studsy Burke tells me you used to be 0. K. That's why I'm here. Do the
How is Studsy? I asked. I haven't seen him since the time he went up the river in '23 or '24.
He's all right. He'd like to see you. He's got a joint on West Fortyninth, the Pigiron Club. But listen, what's the law doing to me? Do they think I did it? Or is it just something else to pin on me?
I shook my head. I'd tell you if I knew. Don't let newspapers fool you: I'm not in this. Ask the police.
That'd be very smart. He smiled with his lower lip again. That'd be the smartest thing I ever did. Me that a police captain's been in a hospital three weeks on account we had an argument. The boys would like me to come in and ask 'em questions. They'd like it right down to the end of their blackjacks. He turned a hand over, palm up. I come to you on the level. Studsy says you're on the level. Be on the level.
I'm being on the level, I assured him. If I knew anything I'd
Knuckles drummed on the corridor door, three times, sharply. Morelli's gun was in his hand before the noise stopped. His eyes seemed to move in all directions at once. His voice was a metallic snarl deep in his chest: Well?
I don't know. I sat up a little higher in bed and nodded at the gun in his hand. That makes it your party. The gun pointed very accurately at my chest. I could hear the blood in my ears, and my lips felt swollen. I said: There's no fire-escape. I put my left hand out towards Nora, who was sitting on the far side of the bed.
The knuckles hit the door again, and a deep voice called: Open up. Police.
Morelli's lover lip crawled up to lap the upper, and the whitr s of his eyes began to show under the irises. You son of a bitch, he said slowly, almost as if he were sorry for me. He moved his feet the least bit, flattening them against the floor.
A key touched the outer lock.
I hit Nora with my left hand, knocking her down across the room. The pillow I chucked with my right hand at Morelli's gun seemed to have no weight; it drifted slow as a piece of tissue paper. No noise in the world, before or after, was ever as loud as Morelli's gun going off. Something pushed my left side as I sprawled across the floor. I caught one of his ankles and rolled over with it, bringing him down on me, and he clubbed my back with the gun until I got a hand free and began to hit him as low in the body as I could.