She is wearin' a lemon coloured suit that comes from some place where they know how to cut 'em. She is wearin' a brown silk shirt, a lemon panama wIth a brown silk band, brown an' white buckskin shoes an' tan silk stockin's.
She sits down in the chair that they have put for her on the other side of the big desk an' I see her lookin' at my hat which I have got well over one eye. The two highway cops go out an' leave us.
'Good morning, Lemmy,' she says, like we was very old friends. She smiles at me. 'What's happening?' she goes on. 'Am I under arrest? An' I do wish you'd take your hat off to a lady.'
'Nuts, sister,' I tell her. 'An' get a load of this. Whether I'm goin' to pinch you this mornin', or hold you as a material witness, or just grill you, I ain't quite decided. But I don't have to take my hat off when I'm talkin' to suspected crooks if I don't wanta, an' you can can all that nice stuff because you are beginnin' to make me tired. Got that?'
She looks as if she had been hit with a black-jack. Is she surprised? An' I don't wonder at it. Last night she is doin' a big act wIth me an' maybe thinks that she has got me where she wants me an' this mornin' I come back with some tough stuff that shakes her plenty. Wouldn't you be surprised?
'I've got it,' she says finally, sorta cold. 'And where do we go from there?'
'Just this far, sweetheart,' I tell her. 'I've decided to have the investigation into your husband's death reopened. I've come to the conclusion that Granworth Aymes was murdered, an' I think that maybe you know a durn sight more about it than you'd like to tell. I am also inclined to believe that you are holdin' out on me over this counterfeitin' business. I may also bring charges against you for endeavouring to pass here, at this Bank in Palm Springs, a counterfeit United States Registered Dollar Bond, knowin' at the time that it was phoney, an' how do you like that?'
'It doesn't interest me very much,' she says. 'But I don't like it and I don't like you at all today. You're behaving like a pig. I suppose you think that after last night...
'Can it, Henrietta,' I tell her. 'Why don't you turn that stuff off. Say, do you think that dames haven't tried to make me before. That's old hooey. You thought that I was gettin' after you; that maybe I was goin' to make a pinch, so you try that soft stuff last night an' think that I'm goin' to go all goofy. You remember that guys can play dames just as well as dames can play guys.'
'I see,' she says. 'I suppose that's why you thrashed Fernandez. You wanted to get the idea into my head that you were a decent sort of man instead of a cheap, blustering Federal cop. All right, I'm wise now.'
'Swell, sister,' I say, 'an' so am I. Now you get a load of this an' just answer my questions, otherwise I'm goin' to make things hot for you.'
'Are you?' she says sorta insolent. 'And supposing I don't want to answer them. Supposing I refuse to answer any questions unless I have a lawyer here?'
'OK,' I say. 'If you wanta lawyer you get one, but I'm tellin' you this, if you getta lawyer around here I'm goin' to send you back to New York so that the police there can grill hell outa you, so if you wanta getta mouthpiece you get busy.'
She smiles again - a sorta sneering smile. She looks at me like I was something that crawled out from under some rock.
'All right,' she says. 'I'll answer your questions. But I wish I were a man. I'd like to thrash you until all that cheap lousy conceit was knocked right out of you. Do you get that? Another thing,' she goes on, sorta gettin' into her stride, 'I've got a better name for you. They made a mistake when they called you Lemmy-they should have called you Lousy, it would have matched up better'
'You don't say,' I tell her. 'Just thinka that now. OK. Well, now, if you've had your little say, I'll get busy an' then you can get outa here an' try some of that soft stuff on somebody else - Maloney or Periera or Fernandez or anbody else that's around. But in the meantime I just wanta know this an' I advise you to make it straight too. I wanta know just how you was dressed on the evenin' of the 12th January, the time you had your last talk with Granworth? Now get busy.'
I take a sheet of paper an' a pencil an' I wait. When I look up I see that she has opened her bag an' is takin' a cigarette out.
'An' you can cut that out too,' I tell her. 'This is a police station an' you ain't smokin' here. Put it away.'
She flushes red an' puts the case back inta her bag. As she does this I take out a packet of Camels an' give myself one. She watches me light it an' if she coulda murdered me at that moment she woulda done it an' liked it.
'Come on now, Henrietta,' I say. 'Quit stallin' an' cash in. What were you wearin' when you come up to New York from Connecticut on the 12th January? Start at the top with your hat.'
She smiles. This dame can certainly be annoym'.
'I may not be able to remember,' she says, 'but I'll try. I suppose you want to know everything - even to the colour of my step-ins.
She hands me out another sarcastic smile that was just poison.
'To tell you the truth I hadn't thought about your under-wear,' I crack, 'but since you mention it you can tell me about that too!'
She gets up.
'You cheap gorilla,' she says. She is white with rage.
'I...
'Sit down an' take it easy, sister,' I say. 'Cash in with the description includin' colour of underwear - remember you suggested it, not me-an' get busy. If you don't I'll seriously consider handin' you over to the woman warder here an' getting her to search, strip an' photograph you for birthrnarks. So just play along before I get really tough.'
Henrietta sits down. She is almost chokin' with rage.
'Now, honeybunch,' I say nice an' soothin'. 'Here we go. Start at the top. What sorta hat was it?'
It is a coupla minutes before Henrietta can talk. She is near speechless an' I can see her hands 'tremblin'. Finally she gets going.
'I was wearing a hat made of Persian lamb,' she says, an her voice is shakin', 'a toque - but you probably wouldn't know what that means. Also I had on a Persian lamb swagger coat and underneath I was wearing a black suit with a white silk shirt. I had on beige stockings, black patent shoes with french heels and silver Louis buckles, and black suede gauntlet gloves.'
'An' very nice too,' I tell her. 'I woulda like to have seen you, I reckon you musta looked swell, an' what about the step-ins?'
I look at her dead serious an' she looks up an' our eyes meet. She goes red an' drops hers. Then she sticks her chin out an' says:
'They were eau-de-nil-but you wouldn't know how to spell it.'
'Oh, yeah,' I crack, 'I know. I've known dames before who used to wear eau-de-nil step-ins, only they wasn't so secret about it.
I ring the bell an' after a minute a copper comes in. Henrietta thinks that I am through with her, an' she gets up an' picks up her bag an' is just turning for the door when I start talkin'.
'Take Mrs Aymes to the record office an' fingerprint her, officer,' I say. 'Then when you've done that have her photographed, front and side faces, with an' without hat.'
Henrietta spins around. Her eyes are blazin', an' for a moment I thought she was comm' for me with her bare hands, but the State policeman puts his fist out, grabs her an' starts to hustle her off.
She looks at me over her shoulder.
'You... you heel!' she hisses.
'Now, now, now, Henrietta,' I tell her, shakin' my finger at her. 'You mustn't talk like that to your little playmate, Lemmy! Bring her back when you're through,' I tell the officer.
When they are gone I look at my watch. It is just after twelves. I ring the bell again an' another State copper comes in-it looks like Metts is keepin' 'em hangin' around for me-and says what do I want.
