cigarette. “Not that it was necessary. She's had no other mood recently.” The light blue eyes flicked back to Johnny. “I suppose you wonder why I put up with it?”
“That's your business,” Johnny said shortly.
Willie smiled. “But you don't approve? You're as transparent as glass.” He shifted into a more comfortable position. “In a way, I don't approve myself, if it's any consolation to you.”
“Well, what the hell, then, Willie-” Johnny stared down at the slender man. “If you feel that way-I thought she had you on the hip.”
“She has.” The voice took on a brittle edge. “Perhaps I should have said that my intellect does not approve, but that I can't say the same for my emotions.” Willie lifted his head and smiled, this time the quick, flashing smile that Johnny knew so well.
“You find that a little difficult to believe?”.
“Well, knowin' you-” Johnny paused uncomfortably.
“She's a pretty thing, Johnny.”
And at the substantial understatement Johnny knew all that he needed to know; inwardly he was amazed. The man on his bed may not have had his pick of the world, but he hadn't missed it by much. Johnny had seen them come and go in Willie's life, the ladies and the others, and now here was the fastidious Willie trying to justify his feeling for a beautiful face that Johnny could no longer disassociate from a needle-punctured thigh…
He spoke abruptly. “Let's take a little ride.”
“Where?” There was no interest in the inquiry.
“Friend of yours wants to say hello.”
This time the head came around. “A friend? Of mine?”
“Yeah. Joe Dameron.”
Willie made a wry face. “I couldn't work up much enthusiasm over that visit. Joe and I never did see exactly eye-to-eye.”
“This is business.”
The blue eyes narrowed. “What kind of business? Do you have something on the fire with Joe?”.
“We been playin' cops and robbers around here since you left.”
“Well?”
“I'd rather have Joe tell you.”
Willie sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed; his hands energetically attacked his loosened tie and paused as his head swiveled toward Johnny again. “Are you in trouble? You been throwing your weight around?”
“No more'n usual. Joe'll brief you.”
Willie considered him shrewdly for a moment and then shrugged. He dressed quickly, and in deference to his business suit Johnny slipped into a sports jacket. Willie maintained combat silence on the way down to the street, and he spoke only once in the cab. “Has this something to do with the hotel?”
“Yeah.” They finished the ride in silence again, and Johnny led the way up the worn white steps and turned left inside to the high desk presided over by the white-maned patriarch, who regarded them bleakly.
“To see who, is it now?”
“The keeper of the zoo,” Johnny told him. “Mr. Martin to see Lieutenant Dameron.”
Deliberately the old man picked up the phone. “Lieutenant? A Mr. Martin to see you, sor. Wit' that big moose was here the other afternoon. Yes, sir.” He replaced the phone and looked at them.
“Second door on the left,” Johnny said for him before he could speak, and the thin mouth tightened, but he nodded.
Lieutenant Dameron met them in the hall. “Willie!” he exclaimed, hand outstretched. “Good to see you again. I'd heard you were in Europe; really hadn't hoped to see you this soon. What brought you back to town?”
“My sinful nature,” Willie replied drily, shaking hands and glancing from one to the other of the two big men. “This is turning out to be quite a production. What's on your mind, Joe?”
“Johnny didn't tell you? Come on inside. We can't talk out here.” He led the way into the familiar, dingy room and motioned them to chairs as he closed the door. “Sorry about the appearances, but the city doesn't believe in wasting money on us non-revenue producing agencies.” He dropped down in his swivel chair behind the cluttered desk, propped his elbows on its surface and looked at Johnny over his steeple-shaped pressed-together hands under his chin in the gesture Johnny had come to associate with him. “You didn't tell him anything?” Johnny shook his head. “Okay. Here's a fast rundown for you. Willie.”
Johnny sat and listened to the ruddyfaced man quickly sketch the sequence of events at the hotel, beginning with Max Armistead's original proposition and Johnny's session with him on the elevator through all the ins and outs of the subsequent developments down to the point of the discovery that Ronald Frederick was not Ronald Frederick at all but had obtained the job for some purpose of his own through the use of another man's name.
Johnny watched the changing expressions on Willie Martin's aristocratic face as he listened to the rapid recital, and when the lieutenant had finished the slender man sat quietly for a moment, lost in thought. When he spoke his voice was brisk. “I imagine you boys had a specific reason for lugging me in here and spoonfeeding this to me, but how about a couple of questions first?”
“Go right ahead,” Lieutenant Dameron invited him, and Willie Martin frowned absently, leaned back in his chair, and looked up at the ceiling a moment before looking back at the big man behind the desk.
“This might sound a little silly to you, Joe, but are you sure you haven't gotten your wires crossed on Freddie?”
The lieutenant stared, but Johnny cut in ahead of him before he could reply. “Not a chance, Willie. Joe got the word from the coast.”
“I know, I know.” The slender man straightened in his chair, and his tone was impatient. “Joe got the word. Now let me tell you something. An hour ago I finished reading the first comprehensive report I've had from my auditor and my lawyer since I put Frederick in there, and both of these reasonably disinterested businessmen assure me that he's doing a better job for me down there than anyone I've had in a long time. Now I wouldn't try to convince you that the hotel is the biggest or most complicated operation of its kind, but on the other hand it doesn't run itself. One of us is barking up the wrong tree, Joe.”
Again Johnny spoke first. “You haven't seen this thing break wide open the way we have.”
“Johnny's right,” the lieutenant chimed in heavily. “We have to believe it's him from what we've developed to date.”
Willie spread his hands placatingly. “Yet we have this suspect, this imposter, successfully operating a fairly specialized business. It's a little difficult to reconcile. Well, let's get to it. Why am I here?”
The red-faced man cleared his throat. “I want you to prefer charges against this so-called Ronald Frederick.”
Willie sat silent so long that Johnny shifted uneasily in his chair; the slim man leaned forward finally, face thoughtful. “Can you blame me if the first thought that comes to mind is that if there were a legitimate charge you'd be making it yourself?”
“You're the injured party, Willie.” The lieutenant's face was bland.
“Exactly where or how am I injured? Let's tighten it up a little-with what am I supposed to charge him?”
“My boys upstairs'll find you half a dozen things, based on the misuse of the name.”
“I'm no lawyer, Joe. Is it criminal? And if it isn't, in view of what I've already told you about his work, if there're no loose ends, no damages, no loss… well, I personally don't see where there's a civil action, either. This is no hood you can push around, Joe; this is an educated man who knows his rights.”
Lieutenant Dameron drew a long breath, and his face hardened. “Are you turning me down, Willie? We look for a little more cooperation than that from our more prominent taxpayers.”
Johnny could see Willie's face stiffen in turn. “Don't threaten me, Joe. Even indirectly.” His tone turned sardonic. “I don't like to be put in the position of defying a duly constituted authority-”
“For God's sake, Willie,” Johnny broke in. He had been sitting more and more uneasily on the edge of his chair. “What the hell's the matter with you? This is serious. There's a goddamn volcano set to go off around the place we don't get the lid on. You sound like an old woman. How come you're so persnickety all of a sudden? I've seen the time you defied a bunch of duly constituted authority would send Joe and me both runnin' for the
