"It's kind of pointless any other way. The killers wouldn't be in a hu
"It's not your fault," I told him. "It happens even in good hotels."
"You make me laugh," the man said, not laughing. "You don't look at ro I looked back at her from the elevators. She was staring after me with She looked surprised and quite serious. "Why surely you can't know Dr. "I just didn't want you to lose your balance," I said. I smelled Los Angeles before I got to it. It smelled stale and old lik
We looked at each other with no particular expression. "Must be a different Dr. Zugsmith," I said. "And your name?" "I'm free, white and twenty-one," she said. "I've seen all the approac "Yeah," I said. "We're both stupid. Anybody's stupid that bothers with French said calmly: "Well, that takes a load off my mind. This punk ai There must have been several hundred dollars on that table.
"You know something," Hicks said politely, "you're a Goddamn liar." I could have told her how wrong she was. I just said: "Miss Gonzales, Tiny beads of sweat showed on Flack's lip above his little mustache. " Number 449 had a shallow, paintless front porch on which five wood and "Came in at 2.47 P.M.," he said. "Just today, that is. Nothing on his She tossed her head. "You are shocked?" Her eyes rolled. Her shoulders "Uh-huh. Now about Orrin. We've got him to California, and we've got h I made noise getting down off the porch and none whatever coming back "Now don't be like that, mister. Please don't be like that. I've got q
"George W. Hicks," I said. "It's in the register. Room 215. You just g "Oh no. This is Dr. Alfred Zugsmith, in Manhattan. Manhattan, Kansas, I reached up and twitched her glasses off. She took half a step back, I didn't have the heart to tell her I was just plain bored with doing
I leaned down and pulled the telephone towards me. "I'd better call Ch "It's kind of pointless any other way. The killers wouldn't be in a hu "Excuse me," he said quietly, "I'm afraid I'm in your way." "I trust you have carfare home," the contemptuous voice said behind me "I don't know that anything has. But in your position, knowing the kin "He coulda went somewhere without telling me," he mused. "Now wait a minute, Mr. Marlowe." He put his hand out. I slashed at it
So I went to a picture show and it had to have Mavis Weld in it. One o "Mr. Clausen tried to telephone you this morning," I said. "He was too Flack's small, intent eyes became round holes in a face washed clean o She stood up. "I hope mother won't think I've done wrong," she said, p French and Beifus both looked at me with the same expression of patien "It's a little late for a business call," the big man said and hid hal
He smiled mirthlessly. "Ain't been in town long, have you?" He held his hand out. I shook hands with him, but not as if I had been "No, you don't. You think I'm cute. And I think you're a fascinating l That took thought. She pressed her lips and pushed a fingertip around I didn't move an eyelash. She swung around and marched to the door and
"I've told you that. He came out to California just about a year ago. Joseph P. Toad gathered the five hundred-dollar bills together, lined "Wrong," I said. "I have had my dinner. I am now drinking whiskey. You "I think you are a very offensive person," she said. "Look, Flack. A man in my business makes enemies at times. You ought tWe went on staring at each other. It didn't get either of us anywhere.
"Could be." He flicked a finger at me airily. "Maybe we meet again som "Me?" I said. "I don't want to. I'm fed up with people telling me hist The Gonzales looked back at her slowly, levelly, and with a knife in h That took thought. She pressed her lips and pushed a fingertip around "I'd written to Orrin that I was coming but I didn't get any answer. T "But I do not live here," she said. "I live at the Chateau Bercy." "Isn't pipe-smoking a very dirty habit?" she asked. "Are you sure you can remember?" Mavis Weld asked her in exactly the s