Part 29 (1/2)
Sitting opposite Nick is a fat man the others call Cookie. He is very tight and talkative and none of the others seems to like him.
Cookie: ”I could tell you right now who killed most of the guys that get themselves killed in this man's town. A fellow that gets around as much as I do and keeps his eyes open and can put two and two together don't have to wait to read things in newspapers.”
One of the men, contemptuously: ”Okay, big lard, who knocked off A. R.?”
Cookie: ”Don't think I don't know, but you don't have to think I'm putting the finger on guys. Listen, I could . . .” As he goes on, the orchestra begins to play again; one of the men at the table rises and bows to Nora, who gets up and goes off with him to dance, the money she took from Nick wadded in one hand. Dancing past the musician who had signaled her, she drops the money into his instrument.
Back at the table, Cookie is telling Nick: ”And I could tell you plenty about Sam Church, too. Many's the bottle him and me killed in this joint and over in that gal's flat he run around with, too.”
Nick: ”What girl? Smitty?”
Cookie: ”No-Linda Mills-the one he ditched, or got ditched by, before he took up with Smitty. A cute-looking kind of doll, I guess, under all that war-paint, but too plenty tough for me. Too plenty tough, I guess, for most guys-the way she didn't hold on to any of 'em very long. Lives over in the Chestevere Apartments.”
Nick: ”He must move around fast. I thought he'd only been back from Cuba ten days or so.”
Cookie: ”If you call this Cuba. He's been around these joints ever since he got out of stir. Say, you don't know no more about him than the police; and it's a cinch they're plenty wrong about him if they say Sam was mixed up in anything down on the Island last night. I seen him going in Vogel's at-”
Dum-Dum suddenly jumps up, reaches for his knife, which is not in its usual place at his waistband, then hits Cookie in the face with his fist. A waiter swings his tray high in the air with both hands and bangs it down on Cookie's head. As Cookie falls down on all fours another man hits him with a bottle, and then half a dozen are making flying leaps at him as the lights go out.
The orchestra, in the manner of a well-trained orchestra in a joint, continues, playing a little louder than usual. When the lights go on, Nora is one half of the only couple still dancing. Nick is the other half of the couple. Nora's former partner is coming out from under a table. Police are coming into the place. Cookie has disappeared.
Nick: ”Shall we rejoin our guests, Mrs. Charles?”
Before Nora can reply, her former partner comes up to her holding one side of his jaw, saying: ”Are you all right? Something b.u.mped into me something terrible.”
Nick looks down at the knuckles of his right hand, but does not say anything.
They return to their table. Their uneaten dinner is a smeary mess. The police are trying to find out what happened.
Dum-Dum: ”It is that Cookie. Always he want to start something-always a fight.”
Nick: ”I didn't see him do anything.”
Waiter: ”Aw, you can't wait till he does anything. It's too late then. You got to get the jump on him.”
Another man: ”That's right. It's a kind of look he gets in his eye.”
Nick gives it up. He and Nora start to leave. Nick gets his hat and they start down the stairs.
Nora, stopping: ”Oh, Asta. I checked Asta.”
Nick returns to the hatcheck room and gets Asta, who has been sleeping on a pile of coats. When Asta gets up from them the hatcheck girl calmly begins to pick them up one at a time to hang them carefully on hangers.
As Nick and Nora go downstairs, Nick: ”Before we get outside, darling. We have a baby-remember? You didn't check that, did you?”
Nora: ”I left Nicky home with the policemen.”
Nick, as they go into the street: ”Oh, the policemen, of course. What policemen?”
Nora: ”That Lieutenant Guild sent up to the hotel to guard him. Oh, there's the park. Let's give Asta a little run in it before we go home.”
Nick, as they walk toward the park: ”Did you have a chance to count the policemen?”
Nora: ”I counted both of them.”
Nick: ”I'm glad there are only two.”
Nora: ”So am I, because they said they were going to stay with us till things quieted down if it took six months, and that they wouldn't be any trouble at all-we could just treat them like members of the family.”
They turn Asta loose in the park and sit down wearily on a bench, where Nora immediately falls asleep. Nick is thinking. He makes up his mind, calls Asta, ties him to the bench, gets up quietly, and leaves Asta and Nora there.
At the Chestevere Apartments Nick knocks on Linda Mills's door. There is the sound of movement in the apartment, but n.o.body opens the door. Nick knocks again.
The Chestevere landlady comes out of another apartment. She is a frowsy, middle-aged woman with the sniffles. In one hand she carries a newspaper, in the other a handkerchief.
Landlady: ”At this time of morning, mister, she's either asleep or ain't home yet.”
She peers sharply at Nick, then down at the newspaper in her hand.
Nick cranes his neck to see his picture in the paper, then strikes the pose shown in the picture.
Landlady, all agog: ”Say, you're him, ain't you?”
Nick bows.
Landlady, dabbing her nose with her handkerchief: ”Well, I declare. What are you-” She lowers her voice to a noisy whisper. ”Say, is she involved?”
Nick: ”Who?” he whispers. The next seven lines are spoken in whispers that would be audible at a distance of twenty feet or more.
Landlady, gesturing toward the door with her handkerchief: ”Mills.”
Nick: ”What makes you think she might be-involved, as you put it?”
Landlady: ”You being here-and then that friend of hers.”
Nick: ”What friend?”
Landlady, raising paper to show Church's picture-rogues' gallery picture: ”Him.”
Nick: ”Do you know him?”
Landlady: ”I seen him coming in and out.”
Nick: ”When's the last time you seen him?”
Landlady: ”I don't know. Maybe a couple of weeks. But that don't mean nothing. Sometimes I don't see my tenants for that long-them that ain't behind in their rent.”
Nick: ”What does Linda Mills do for a living?”
Landlady: ”What do you think these girls do? I don't run no Y.M.C.A. She's been here a couple of years and she's good pay. That's all I care about. That's what I tell some of the others when they kick about her throwing noisy parties sometimes and having fights in her flat.”