The Thin Man

“What’d you do with it?” I asked.

“He made me give it back to him and he doesn’t believe me, but, honestly, that’s the only reason I took it.”

“I believe you.”

“Will you tell Gil, then? If you believe me, he will, because he thinks you know all about things like that.”

“I’ll tell him as soon as I see him,” I promised.

There was a pause, then she asked: “How’s Nora?”

“Looks all right to me. Want to talk to her?”

“Well, yes, but there’s something I want to ask you. Did—did Mamma say anything about me when you were over there today?”

“Not that I remember. Why?”

“And did Gil?”

“Only about the morphine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure,” I said. “Why?”

“It’s nothing, really—if you’re sure. It’s just silly.”

“Right. I’ll call Nora.” I went into the living-room. “Dorothy wants to talk to you. Don’t ask her to eat with us.”

When Nora returned from the telephone she had a look in her eye. “Now what’s up?” I asked.

“Nothing. Just ‘how are you’ and all that.”

I said: “If you’re lying to the old man, God’ll punish you.”

We went over to a Japanese place on Fifty-eighth Street for di

A dozen or more people were there when we arrived. Tip introduced us to the ones we did not know and then backed me into a corner. “Why didn’t you tell me that those people I met at your place Christmas were mixed up in a murder mystery?” she asked, tilting her head to the left until her ear was practically resting on her shoulder.

“I don’t know that they are. Besides, what’s one murder mystery nowadays?”

She tilted her head to the right. “You didn’t even tell me you had taken the case.”

“I had done what? Oh, I see what you mean. Well, I hadn’t and haven’t. My getting shot ought to prove I was an i

“Does it hurt much?”

“It itches. I forgot to have the dressing changed this afternoon.”

“Wasn’t Nora utterly terrified?”

“So was I and so was the guy that shot me. There’s Halsey. I haven’t spoken to him yet.”

As I slid around her to escape she said: “Harrison’s promised to bring the daughter tonight.”

I talked to Edge for a few minutes—chiefly about a place in Pe

“Let her get it out of Dorothy,” I said. “She’s coming with Qui

“I know.”

Larry said: “He’s nuts over that girl, isn’t he? He told me he was going to divorce Alice and marry her.”

Nora said, “Poor Alice,” sympathetically. She did not like Alice.

Larry said: “That’s according to how you look at it.” He liked Alice. “I saw that fellow who’s married to the girl’s mother yesterday. You know, the tall fellow I met at your house.”

“Jorgensen?”

“That’s it. He was coming out of a pawnshop on Sixth Avenue near Forty-sixth.”

“Talk to him?”

“I was in a taxi. It’s probably polite to pretend you don’t see people coming out of pawnshops, anyhow.”

Tip said, “Sh-h-h,” in all directions, and Levi Oscant began to play the piano. Qui

She came over to me and whispered: “I want to leave when you and Nora do.”

I said: “You won’t be here for breakfast.”

Tip said, “Sh-h-h,” in my direction. We listened to some more music.

Dorothy fidgeted beside me for a minute and whispered again: “Gil says you’re going over to see Mamma later. Are you?”

“I doubt it.”

Qui

“Got a little money there.”

“Get it out, boy. I heard tonight they’re plenty shaky.”

“All right. I haven’t got much there, though.”

“No? What do you do with all your money?”

“Me and the French hoard gold.”

He shook his head solemnly. “It’s fellows like you that put the country on the bum.”

“And it’s fellows like me that don’t go on the bum with it,” I said. “Where’d you get the skinful?”

“It’s Alice. She’s been sulking for a week. If I didn’t drink I’d go crazy.”

“What’s she sulking about?”

“About my drinking. She thinks—” He leaned forward and lowered his voice confidentially. “Listen. You’re all my friends and I’m going to tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to get a divorce and marry—”

He had tried to put an arm around Dorothy. She pushed it away and said: “You’re silly and you’re tiresome. I wish you’d leave me alone.”

“She thinks I’m silly and tiresome,” he told me. “You know why she don’t want to marry me? I bet you don’t. It’s because she’s in—”

“Shut up! Shut up, you drunken fool!” Dorothy began to beat his face with both hands. Her face was red, her voice shrill. “If you say that again I’ll kill you!”

I pulled Dorothy away from Qui

We had what audience there was. Tip came ru

I said: “Just a couple of playful drunks. They’re all right. I’ll see that they get home all right.”

Tip was not for that: she wanted them to stay at least until she had a chance to discover what had happened. She urged Dorothy to lie down awhile, offered to get something—whatever she meant by that—for Qui

Nora and I took them out. Larry offered to go along, but we decided that was not necessary. Qui

Alice opened the door when I rang. She had on green pyjamas and held a hairbrush in one hand. She looked wearily at Qui