Farewell, My Lovely

“Not a second, boss.”

“But he can be had,” I said, and laughed.

Mess-jacket took the smooth gliding step of a boxer and his fist lashed like a whip. It almost reached my temple. There was a dull thud. His fist seemed to melt in midair. He slumped sideways and clawed at a corner of the desk, then rolled on his back. It was nice to see somebody else get sapped for a change.

Brunette went on smiling at me.

“I hope you’re not doing him an injustice,” Brunette said. “There’s still the matter of the door to the companionway.”

“Accidentally open.”

“Could you think of any other idea?”

“Not in such a crowd.”

“I’ll talk to you alone,” Brunette said, not looking at anyone but me.

The gorilla lifted Mess-jacket by the armpits and dragged him across the cabin and his partner opened an i

“All right,” Brunette said. “Who are you and what do you want?”

“I’m a private detective and I want to talk to a man named Moose Malloy.”

“Show me you’re a private dick.”

I showed him. He tossed the wallet back across the desk. His wind-ta

“I’m investigating a murder,” I said. “The murder of a man named Marriott on the bluff near your Belvedere Club last Thursday night. This murder happens to be co

He nodded. “I’m not asking you yet what it has to do me. I assume you’ll come to that. Suppose you tell me how you got on my boat?”

“I told you.”

“It wasn’t true,” he said gently. “Marlowe is the name? It wasn’t true, Marlowe. You know that. The kid down on the stage isn’t lying. I pick my men carefully.”

“You own a piece of Bay City,” I said. “I don’t know how big a piece, but enough for what you want. A man named Sonderborg has been ru

“You’re simple,” Brunette said softly. “Supposing I wanted to hide him, why should I take the risk out here?” He sipped his drink. “After all I’m in another business. It’s hard enough to keep a good taxi service ru

“I could, but to hell with it.”

“I can’t do anything for you. So how did you get on the boat?”

“I don’t care to say.”

“I’m afraid I’ll have to have you made to say, Marlowe.” His teeth glinted in the light from the brass ship’s lamps. “After all, it can be done.”

“If I tell you, will you get word to Malloy?”

“What word?”

I reached for my wallet lying on the desk and drew a card from it and turned it over. I put the wallet away and got a pencil instead. I wrote five words on the back of the card and pushed it across the desk. Brunette took it and read what I had written on it. “It means nothing to me,” he said.

“It will mean something to Malloy.”

He leaned back and stared at me. “I don’t make you out. You risk your hide to come out here and hand me a card to pass on to some thug I don’t even know. There’s no sense to it.”

“There isn’t if you don’t know him.”

“Why didn’t you leave your gun ashore and come aboard the usual way?”

“I forgot the first time. Then I knew that toughie in the mess jacket would never let me on. Then I bumped into a fellow who knew another way.”

His yellow eyes lighted as with a new flame. He smiled and said nothing.

“This other fellow is no crook but he’s been on the beach with his ears open. You have a loading port that has been unbarred on the inside and you have a ventilator shaft out of which the grating has been removed. There’s one man to knock over to get to the boat deck. You’d better check your crew list, Brunette.”

He moved his lips soffly, one over the other. He looked down at the card again. “Nobody named Malloy is on board this boat,” he said. “But if you’re telling the truth about that loading port, I’ll buy.”

“Go and look at it.”

He still looked down. “If there’s any way I can get word to Malloy, I will. I don’t know why I bother.”

“Take a look at that loading port.”

He sat very still for a moment, then leaned forward and pushed the gun across the desk to me.

“The things I do,” he mused, as if he was alone. “I run towns, I elect mayors, I corrupt police, I peddle dope, I hide out crooks, I heist old women strangled with pearls. What a lot of time I have.” He laughed shortly. “What a lot of time.”

I reached for my gun and tucked it back under my arm. Brunette stood up. “I promise nothing,” he said, eyeing me steadily. “But I believe you.”

“Of course not.”

“You took a long chance to hear so little.”

“Yes.”

“Well — “ he made a meaningless gesture and then put his hand across the desk.

“Shake hands with a chump,” he said softly.

I shook hands with him. His hand was small and firm and a little hot.

“You wouldn’t tell me how you found out about this loading port?”

“I can’t. But the man who told me is no crook.”

“I could make you tell,” he said, and immediately shook his head. “No. I believed you once. I’ll believe you again. Sit still and have another drink.”

He pushed a buzzer. The door at the back opened and one of the nice-tough guys came in.

“Stay here. Give him a drink, if he wants it. No rough stuff.”

The torpedo sat down and smiled at me calmly. Brunette went quickly out of the office. I smoked. I finished my drink. The torpedo made me another. I finished that, and another cigarette.

Brunette came back and washed his hands over in the corner, then sat down at his desk again. He jerked his head at the torpedo. The torpedo went out silently.

The yellow eyes studied me. “You win, Marlowe. And I have one hundred and sixty-four men on my crew list. Well — “ he shrugged. “You can go back by the taxi. Nobody will bother you. As to your message, I have a few contacts. I’ll use them. Good night. I probably should say thanks. For the demonstration.”

“Good night,” I said, and stood up and went out.

There was a new man on the landing stage. I rode to shore on a different taxi. I went along to the bingo parlor and leaned against the wall in the crowd.

Red came along in a few minutes and leaned beside me against the wall.

“Easy, huh?” Red said softly, against the heavy clear voices of the table men calling the numbers.

“Thanks to you. He bought. He’s worried.”

Red looked this way and that and turned his lips a little more close to my ear. “Get your man?”

“No. But I’m hoping Brunette will find a way to get him a message.”

Red turned his head and looked at the tables again. He yawned and straightened away from the wall. The beak-nosed man was in again. Red stepped over to him and said: “Hiya, Olson,” and almost knocked the man off his feet pushing past him.

Olson looked after him sourly and straightened his hat. Then he spat viciously on the floor.

As soon as he had gone, I left the place and went along to the parking lot back towards the tracks where I had left my car.

I drove back to Hollywood and put the car away and went up to the apartment.

I took my shoes off and walked around in my socks feeling the floor with my toes. They would still get numb again once in a while.

Then I sat down on the side of the pulled-down bed and tried to figure time. It couldn’t be done. It might take hours or days to find Malloy. He might never be found until the police got him. If they ever did — alive.