“And don’t be so damn southern,” I said. “I’ve been knee deep in hotel hops for a lot of years. If I’ve met one who wouldn’t pull a gag, that’s fine. But you can’t expect me to expect to meet one that wouldn’t pull a gag.”
He grinned slowly and nodded quickly. He picked the snapshot up again and looked at me over it.
“This gent takes a solid photo,” he said. “Much more so than the lady. But there was another little item that made me remember him. I got the impression the lady didn’t quite like him walking up to her so openly in the lobby.”
I thought that over and decided it didn’t mean anything much.
He might have been late or have missed some earlier appointment.
I said: “There’s a reason for that. Did you notice what jewelry the lady was wearing? Rings, ear-pendants, anything that looked conspicuous or valuable?”
He hadn’t noticed, he said.
“Was her hair long or short, straight or waved or curly, natural blonde or bleached?”
He laughed. “Hell, you can’t tell that last point, Mr. Marlowe. Even when it’s natural they want it lighter. As to the rest, my recollection is it was rather long, like they’re wearing it now and turned in a little at the bottom and rather straight. But I could be wrong.” He looked at the snapshot again. “She has it bound back here. You can’t tell a thing.”
“That’s right,” I said. “And the only reason I asked you was to make sure you didn’t over-observe. The guy that sees too much detail is just as unreliable a witness as the guy that doesn’t see any. He’s nearly always making half of it up. You check just about right, considering the circumstances. Thanks very much.”
I gave him back his two dollars and a five to keep them company. He thanked me, finished his drink and left softly. I finished mine and washed off again and decided I would rather drive home than sleep in that hole. I put my shirt and coat on again and went downstairs with my bag.
The redheaded rat of a captain was the only hop in the lobby. I carried my bag over to the desk and he didn’t move to take it off my hands. The egg-headed clerk separated me from two dollars without even looking at me.
“Two bucks to spend the night in this manhole,” I said, “when for free I could have a nice airy ashcan.”
The clerk yawned, got a delayed reaction, and said brightly: “It gets quite cool here about three in the morning. From then on until eight, or even nine, it’s quite pleasant.”
I wiped the back of my neck and staggered out to the car. Even the seat of the car was hot, at midnight.
I got home about two-forty-five and Hollywood was an icebox.
Even Pasadena had felt cool.
14
I dreamed I was far down in the depths of icy green water with a corpse under my arm. The corpse had long blond hair that kept floating around in front of my face. An enormous fish with bulging eyes and a bloated body and scales shining with putrescence swam around leering like an elderly roue. Just as I was about to burst from lack of air, the corpse came alive under my arm and got away from me and then I was fighting with the fish and the corpse was rolling over and over in the water spinning its long hair.
I woke up with a mouth full of sheet and both hands hooked on the head-frame of the bed and pulling hard. The muscles ached when I let go and lowered them. I got up and walked the room and lit a cigarette, feeling the carpet with bare toes. When I had finished the cigarette, I went back to bed.
It was nine o’clock when I woke up again. The sun was on my face. The room was hot. I showered and shaved and partly dressed and made the morning toast and eggs and coffee in the dinette. While I was finishing up there, was a knock at the apartment door.
I went to open it with my mouth full of toast. It was a lean, serious looking man in a severe gray suit.
“Floyd Greer, lieutenant, Central Detective Bureau,” he said and walked into the room.
He put out a dry hand and I shook it. He sat down on the edge of a chair, the way they do, and turned his hat in his hands and looked at me with the quiet stare they have.
“We got a call from San Bernardino about that business up at Puma Lake. Drowned woman. Seems you were on hand when the body was discovered.”
I nodded and said, “Have some coffee?”
“No thanks. I had breakfast two hours ago.”
I got my coffee and sat down across the room from him.
“They asked us to look you up,” he said. “Give them a line on you.”
“Sure.”
“So we did that. Seems like you have a clean bill of health so far as we are concerned. Kind of coincidence a man in your line would be around when the body was found.”
“I’m like that,” I said. “Lucky.”
“So I just thought I’d drop around and say howdy.”
“That’s fine. Glad to know you, lieutenant.”
“Kind of coincidence,” he said again, nodding. “You up there on business, so to speak?”
“If I was,” I said, “my business had nothing to do with the girl who was drowned, so far as I know.”
“But you couldn’t be sure?”
