A red-throated hummingbird went into a scarlet bush beside the door, shook the long tubular blooms around a little, and zoomed off so fast he simply disappeared in the air.
The door opened, the Filipino poked my card at me. I didn’t take it.
“What you want?”
It was a tight crackling voice, like someone tiptoeing across a lot of eggshells.
“Want to see Mrs. Morny.”
“She not at home.”
“Didn’t you know that when I gave you the card?”
He opened his fingers and let the card flutter to the ground. He grinned, showing me a lot of cut-rate dental work.
“I know when she tell me.”
He shut the door in my face, not gently.
I picked the card up and walked along the side of the house to where the chauffeur was squirting water on the Cadillac sedan and rubbing the dirt off with a big sponge. He had red rimmed eyes and a bang of corn-colored hair. A cigarette hung exhausted at the corner of his lower lip.
He gave me the quick side glance of a man who is minding his own business with difficulty. I said:
“Where’s the boss?”
The cigarette jiggled in his mouth. The water went on swishing gently on the paint.
“Ask at the house, Jack.”
“I done asked. They done shut the door in mah face.”
“You’re breaking my heart, Jack.”
“How about Mrs. Morny?”
“Same answer, Jack. I just work here. Selling something?” I held my card so that he could read it. It was a business card this time. He put the sponge down on the running board, and the hose on the cement. He stepped around the water to wipe his hands on a towel that hung at the side of the garage doors. He fished a match out of his pants, struck it and tilted his head back to light the dead butt that was stuck in his face.
His foxy little eyes flicked around this way and that and he moved behind the car, with a jerk of the head. I went over near him.
“How’s the little old expense account?” he asked in a small careful voice.
“Fat with inactivity.”
“For five I could start thinking.”
“I wouldn’t want to make it that tough for you.”
“For ten I could sing like four canaries and a steel guitar.”
“I don’t like these plushy orchestrations,” I said.
He cocked his head sideways. “Talk English, Jack.”
“I don’t want you to lose your job, son. All I want to know is whether Mrs. Morny is home. Does that rate more than a buck?”
“Don’t worry about my job, Jack. I’m solid.”
“With Morny—or somebody else?”
“You want that for the same buck?”
“Two bucks.”
He eyed me over. “You ain’t working for him, are you?”
“Sure.”
“You’re a liar.”
“Sure.”
“Gimme the two bucks,” he snapped.
I gave him two dollars.
“She’s in the backyard with a friend,” he said. “A nice friend. You got a friend that don’t work and a husband that works, you’re all set, see?” He leered.
“You’ll be all set in an irrigation ditch one of these days.”
“Not me, Jack. I’m wise. I know how to play ‘em. I monkeyed around these kind of people all my life.”
He rubbed the two dollar bills between his palms, blew on them, folded them longways and wideways and tucked them in the watch pocket of his breeches.
“That was just the soup,” he said. “Now for five more—”
A rather large blond cocker spaniel tore around the Cadillac, skidded a little on the wet concrete, took off neatly, hit me in the stomach and thighs with all four paws, licked my face, dropped to the ground, ran around my legs, sat down between them, let his tongue out all the way and started to pant.
I stepped over him and braced myself against the side of the car and got my handkerchief out.
A male voice called: “Here, Heathcliff. Here, Heathcliff.” Steps sounded on a hard walk.
“That’s Heathcliff,” the chauffeur said sourly.
“Heathcliff?”
“Cripes, that’s what they call the dog, Jack.”
“Wuthering Heights?” I asked.
“Now you’re double-talking again,” he sneered. “Look out—company.”
He picked up the sponge and the hose and went back to washing the car. I moved away from him. The cocker spaniel immediately moved between my legs again; almost tripping me.
“Here, Heathcliff,” the male voice called out louder, and a man came into view through the opening of a latticed tunnel covered with climbing roses.
Tall, dark, with a clear olive skin, brilliant black eyes, gleaming white teeth. Sideburns. A narrow black mustache. Sideburns too long, much too long. White shirt with embroidered initials on the pocket, white slacks, white shoes. A wristwatch that curved halfway around a lean dark wrist, held on by a gold chain. A yellow scarf around a bronzed slender neck.
He saw the dog squatted between my legs and didn’t like it. He snapped long fingers and snapped a clear hard voice:
“Here, Heathcliff. Come here at once!”
The dog breathed hard and didn’t move, except to lean a little closer to my right leg.
“Who are you?” the man asked, staring me down.
I held out my card. Olive fingers took the card. The dog quietly backed out from between my legs, edged around the front end of the car, and faded silently into the distance.
“Marlowe,” the man said. “Marlowe, eh? What’s this? A detective? What do you want?”
“Want to see Mrs. Morny.”
He looked me up and down, brilliant black eyes sweeping slowly and the silky fringes of long eyelashes following them.
“Weren’t you told she was not in?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t believe it. Are you Mr. Morny?”
“No.”
“That’s Mr. Vannier,” the chauffeur said behind my back, in the drawled, over-polite voice of deliberate insolence. “Mr. Vannier’s a friend of the family. He comes here quite a lot.”
Vannier looked past my shoulder, his eyes furious. The chauffeur came around the car and spit the cigarette stub out of his mouth with casual contempt.
“I told the shamus the boss wasn’t here, Mr. Vannier.”
“I see.”
“I told him Mrs. Morny and you was here. Did I do wrong?”
Vannier said: “You could have minded your own business.”
The chauffeur said: “I wonder why the hell I didn’t think of that.”
Vannier said: “Get out before I break your dirty little neck for you.”
The chauffeur eyed him quietly and then went back into the gloom of the garage and started to whistle. Vannier moved his hot angry eyes over to me and snapped:
“You were told Mrs. Morny was not in, but it didn’t take. Is that it? In other words the information failed to satisfy you.”
“If we have to have other words,” I said, “those might do.”
“I see. Could you bring yourself to say what point you wish to discuss with Mrs. Morny?”
“I’d prefer to explain that to Mrs. Morny herself.”
“The implication is that she doesn’t care to see you.”
Behind the car the chauffeur said: “Watch his right, Jack. It might have a knife in it.”
Vannier’s olive skin turned the color of dried seaweed. He turned on his heel and rapped at me in a stifled voice: “Follow me.”
He went along the brick path under the tunnel of roses and through a white gate at the end. Beyond was a walled-in garden containing flowerbeds crammed with showy annuals, a badminton court, a nice stretch of greensward, and a small tiled pool glittering angrily in the sun. Beside the pool there was a flagged space set with blue and white garden furniture, low tables with composition tops, reclining chairs with footrests and enormous cushions, and over
all a blue and white umbrella as big as a small tent.
A long-limbed languorous type of showgirl blond lay at her ease in one of the chairs, with her feet raised on a padded rest and a tall misted glass at her elbow, near a silver ice bucket and a Scotch bottle. She looked at us lazily as we came over the grass. From thirty feet away she looked like a lot of class. From ten feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from thirty feet away. Her mouth was too wide, her eyes were too blue, her makeup was too vivid, the thin arch of her eyebrows was almost fantastic in its curve and spread, and the mascara was so thick on her eyelashes that they looked like miniature iron railings.
She wore white duck slacks, blue and white open-toed sandals over bare feet and crimson lake toenails, a white silk blouse and a necklace of green stones that were not square cut emeralds. Her hair was as artificial as a nightclub lobby.
On the chair beside her there was a white straw garden hat with a brim the size of a spare tire and a white satin chinstrap. On the brim of the hat lay a pair of green sunglasses with lenses the size of doughnuts.
Vannier marched over to her and snapped out: “You’ve got to can that nasty little red-eyed driver of yours, but quick. Otherwise I’m liable to break his neck any minute. I can’t go near him without getting insulted.”
The blond coughed lightly, flicked a handkerchief around without doing anything with it, and said:
“Sit down and rest your sex appeal. Who’s your friend?”
Vannier looked for my card, found he was holding it in his band and threw it on her lap. She picked it up languidly, ran her eyes over it, ran them over me, sighed and tapped her teeth with her fingernails.
“Big, isn’t he? Too much for you to handle, I guess.”
Vannier looked at me nastily. “All right, get it over with, whatever it is.”
“Do I talk to her?” I asked. “Or do I talk to you and have you put it in English?”
The blond laughed. A silvery ripple of laughter that held the unspoiled naturalness of a bubble dance. A small tongue played roguishly along her lips.
Vannier sat down and lit a gold-tipped cigarette and I stood there looking at them.
I said: “I’m looking for a friend of yours, Mrs. Morny. I understand that she shared an apartment with you about a year ago. Her name is Linda Conquest.”
Vannier flicked his eyes up, down, up, down. He turned his head and looked across the pool. The cocker spaniel named Heathcliff sat over there looking at us with the white of one eye.
Vannier snapped his fingers. “Here, Heathcliff! Here, Heathcliff! Come here, sir!”
The blond said: “Shut up. The dog hates your guts. Give your vanity a rest, for heaven’s sake.”
Vannier snapped: “Don’t talk like that to me.”
The blond giggled and petted his face with her eyes.
I said: “I’m looking for a girl named Linda Conquest, Mrs. Morny.”
The blond looked at me and said: “So you said. I was just thinking. I don’t think I’ve seen her in six months. She got married.”
“You haven’t seen her in six months?”
“That’s what I said, big boy. What do you want to know for?”
“Just a private enquiry I’m making.”
“About what?”
“About a confidential matter,” I said.
“Just think,” the blond said brightly. “He’s making a private enquiry about a confidential matter. You hear that, Lou? Busting in on total strangers that don’t want to see him is quite all right, though, isn’t it, Lou? On account of he’s making a private enquiry about a confidential matter.”
“Then you don’t know where she is, Mrs. Morny?”
“Didn’t I say so?” Her voice rose a couple of notches.
“No. You said you didn’t think you had seen her in six months. Not quite the same thing.”
“Who told you I shared an apartment with her?” the blond snapped.
“I never reveal a source of information, Mrs. Morny.”
“Sweetheart, you’re fussy enough to be a dance director. I should tell you everything, you should tell me nothing.”
“The position is quite different,” I said. “I’m a hired hand obeying instructions. The lady has no reason to hide out, has she?”
“Who’s looking for her?”
“Her folks.”
“Guess again. She doesn’t have any folks.”
“You must know her pretty well, if you know that,” I said.
“Maybe I did once. That don’t prove I do now.”
“Okay,” I said. “The answer is you know, but you won’t tell.”
“The answer,” Vannier said suddenly, “is that you’re not wanted here and the sooner you get out, the better we like it.”
I kept on looking at Mrs. Morny. She winked at me and said to Vannier: “Don’t get so hostile, darling. You have a lot of charm, but you have small bones. You’re not built for the rough work. That right, big boy?”
I said: “I hadn’t thought about it, Mrs. Morny. Do you think Mr. Morny could help me—or would?”
She shook her head. “How would I know? You could try. If he don’t like you, he has guys around that can bounce you.”
“I think you could tell me yourself, if you wanted to.”
“How are you going to make me want to?” Her eyes were inviting.
“With all these people around,” I said, “how can I?”
“That’s a thought,” she said, and sipped from her glass, watching me over it.
Vannier stood up very slowly. His face was white. He put his hand inside his shirt and said slowly, between his teeth: “Get out, mugg. While you can still walk.”
I looked at him in surprise. “Where’s your refinement?” I asked him. “And don’t tell me you wear a gun with your garden clothes.”
The blond laughed, showing a fine strong set of teeth. Vannier thrust his hand under his left arm inside the shirt and set his lips. His black eyes were sharp and blank at the same time, like a snake’s eyes.
“You heard me,” he said, almost softly. “And don’t write me off too quick. I’d plug you as soon as I’d strike a match. And fix it afterwards.”
I looked at the blond. Her eyes were bright and her mouth looked sensual and eager, watching us.
I turned and walked away across the grass. About halfway across it I looked back at them. Vannier stood in exactly the same position, his hand inside his shirt. The blonde’s eyes were still wide and her lips parted, but the shadow of the umbrella had dimmed her expression and at that distance it might have been either fear or pleased anticipation.
I went on over the grass, through the white gate and along the brick path under the rose arbor. I reached the end of it, turned, walked quietly back to the gate and took another look at them. I didn’t know what there would be to see or what I cared about it when I saw it.
What I saw was Vannier practically sprawled on top of the blond, kissing her.
I shook my head and went back along the walk.
The red-eyed chauffeur was still at work on the Cadillac. He had finished the wash job and was wiping off the glass and nickel with a large chamois. I went around and stood beside him.
“How you come out?” he asked me out of the side of his mouth.
“Badly. They tramped all over me,” I said.
He nodded and went on making the hissing noise of a groom rubbing down a horse.
“You better watch your step. The guy’s heeled,” I said. “Or pretends to be.”
The chauffeur laughed shortly. “Under that suit? Nix.”
“Who is this guy Vannier? What does he do?”
The chauffeur straightened up, put the chamois over the sill of a window and wiped his hands on the towel that was now stuck in his waistband.
“Women, my guess would be,” he said.
“Isn’t it a bit dangerous—playing with this particular woman?”
“I’d say it was,” he agreed. “Different guys got
different ideas of danger. It would scare me.”
“Where does he live?”
“Sherman Oaks. She goes over there. She’ll go once too often.”
“Ever run across a girl named Linda Conquest? Tall, dark, handsome, used to be a singer with a band?”
“For two bucks, Jack, you expect a lot of service.”
“I could build it up to five.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know the party. Not by that name. All kinds of dames come here, mostly pretty flashy. I don’t get introduced.” He grinned.
I got my wallet out and put three ones in his little damp paw. I added a business card.
“I like small close-built men,” I said. “They never seem to be afraid of anything. Come and see me some time.”
“I might at that, Jack. Thanks. Linda Conquest, huh? I’ll keep my ear flaps off.”
“So long,” I said. “The name?”
“They call me Shifty. I never knew why.”
“So long, Shifty.”
“So long. Gat under his arm—in them clothes? Not a chance.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “He made the motion. I’m not hired to gunfight with strangers.”
“Hell, that shirt he’s wearing only got two buttons at the top. I noticed. Take him a week to pull a rod from under that.” But he sounded faintly worried.
“I guess he was just bluffing,” I agreed. “If you hear mention of Linda Conquest, I’ll be glad to talk business with you.”
“Okay, Jack.”
I went back along the black driveway. He stood there scratching his chin.
6
I drove along the block looking for a place to park so that I could run up to the office for a moment before going on downtown.
A chauffeur-driven Packard edged out from the curb in front of a cigar store about thirty feet from the entrance to my building. I slid into the space, locked the car and stepped out. It was only then that I noticed the car in front of which I had parked was a familiar-looking sand-colored coupe. It didn’t have to be the same one. There were thousands of them. Nobody was in it. Nobody was near it that wore a cocoa straw hat with a brown and yellow band.
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