it I don’t know and can’t say I care, the way money goes these days-'
'Billy?' said Hackett. 'Is he here?'
'Last I looked, watchin’ TV and drinkin’ the last o’ my beer. Cops!' said Mrs. Mullarkey bitterly. 'That damn Leo! Always makin’ trouble-I could wish I’d never married that bum-' She stared resentfully at them as they came past her into the house.
Billy Mullarkey was a big beefy young man in stained T-shirt and jeans, sprawled in an armchair wolfing pretzels and beer, watching a game show. He stared up at Hackett and Higgins, and the badge momentarily mesmerized him.
'How about it, Bill?' said Hackett. 'Leo gave you some cigarettes when he was here, didn’t he? You had them on you when you decided to find out if it was so, old Mrs. Faber kept lots of money around? You were up early, weren’t you? About seven-thirty that morning, you walked in there, she was just open, and you-'
'What the hell are you talkin’ about?' asked Mrs. Mullarkey.
Without saying a word, Billy stumbled up to his feet and ran blindly for the door. The two big men were more than a match for him, and wrestled him down before he got there. He began to swear, and then he started to cry, and as they hauled him up to his feet and got the cuffs on he sobbed, 'It was all her fault, Goddamn it! I wouldn’t ’a’ hurt her, but she wouldn’t tell me where all the rest was-a lousy forty-two bucks I got-if she’d ’a’ told me I wouldn’t ’a’ hurt her-it was all her Goddamned fault-'
EIGHT
After they got him into the car they asked if he’d make a statement, and he said he wasn’t going to say nothing more, embellishing that with various obscenities, so they took him straight down to the Alameda jail. They had enough to get a warrant, and it was to be hoped the charge would stick. After it was passed to the D.A.’s office it was out of their hands.
They got back to the office, nearly at the end of shift. Palliser and Conway were in, nobody else. 'It almost had to go back to the restaurant,' Conway was saying. 'The time element. So this says so all over again, John. Between us we’ve talked to all the other witnesses, and what the hell do they all say?'
'The boss here?' asked Hackett.
'Oh, he took off.' Palliser grinned. 'Jase had a bright idea on Buford, and when I passed it on our Luis went all absentminded and wandered out-having the same hunch Jase had, I gather. I expect we’ll hear about it. Rich thinks we’ve got somewhere on Ames, which would be gratifying?
'Well, what did we hear?' Conway flung himself back in the desk chair and lit a cigarette. 'Talk about nebulous! Which wasn’t surprising, when Ames himself didn’t know he’d been stabbed, apparently. They said they didn’t notice him at all, or just casually saw him come in and sit down-a couple of them recognized him from seeing him there before, didn’t know him-why should anybody have noticed him? But the night watch got all the names and addresses down, and there they are all present and correct to talk to, until I come to this Tom Sawyer. Address turns out to be an empty lot. And all I say-'
'Yes, and I’d agree with you,' said Palliser. 'It’s too late to do anything about it today, but I think we get back to Mallow on it, and see if Piggott or Shogart can give us any description. You look self-satisfied,' he added to Hackett. 'Been doing any good?'
'Breaking a case. The Faber thing. Routine does sometimes pay off. What was Jase’s little idea?'
'Interesting,' said Palliser thoughtfully. 'At least our Luis thought so.'
Mr. Sam McAllister was about sixty-five, tall and angular, with a few wisps of gray hair. He was retired from the personnel department of The Broadway department store. He was regarding Mendoza rather sheepishly, and he said, 'Now how’d you come to hear about that?'
'Mr. Reinke was annoyed,' said Mendoza, grinning back at him. 'Never mind. Did you do any good?'
'Well, Millie was annoyed too,' said McAllister, involuntarily looking over his shoulder toward the kitchen where an emphatic banging of pans betrayed Millie’s presence. This was a neat little stucco house in the middle of an old block of neat homes, minute lawns in front. 'Not too bad, I come out a little ahead. Lordy, but I don’t know when I’ve done such a thing, not in years. We all kind of got carried away, I suppose. Old Charlie fussing about it being illegal-guess he had a point. Tell you one thing, I was bushed when I got home that night-not so young as I used to be!' He laughed.
'Your nephew was in on it too, wasn’t he? Reinke said, a young sailor.'
McAllister nodded. 'Young Ted Nygard, my niece’s boy. Dropped a little too-I was sorry about that later. He just joined up a while back, green kid from the farm, it was his first leave out here. He’s on a cruiser, real proud of it.'
He added the name; he looked at Mendoza with some belated caution; at first he’d just been glad of an audience. 'Did I understand, you’re with the state board, something to do with Charlie’s license? Lordy, he did say something, but I just never thought-I sure hope you aren’t going to blame Charlie. It was all my fault we got started, come to think.'
'Wel1, we’ll overlook it this time,' said Mendoza casually.
'I wouldn’t want to think I got Charlie in any trouble,' said McAllister.
Mendoza looked at him, the simple and honest-and rather stupid-old man. 'You needn’t worry about that, Mr. McAl1ister.'
'That’s good. Oh, Lordy, there’s Millie-don’t like to rush you off, but she likes to be regular with dinner-'
'I was just leaving.' Mendoza clapped on his hat against the slight mist; it was already dusk, and trying to work up to rain again. He was going to be late home.
The night watch came on, and not long after Shogart had switched the radio on Mendoza called. He wanted the phone number of the captain in Harbor division. 'I think his name’s Noble, Matt. I’ll hang on.'
Curious, Piggott consulted the main desk and passed it on. 'Now what’s that about?' he asked Schenke.
'Couldn’t say. Look, E. M., tune that thing down, will you? Both of us rode a squad long enough it’s no novelty, you know.' Shogart glowered at him but complied. They got their first call at nine-twenty, a heist at a seven-to-eleven dairy store on Hoover. The young fellow alone in the place was scared green; it was only his second week on the job. 'I mean, one thing I thought when I took this job,' he said to Piggott, 'it’s not like a liquor store, a drugstore, where you’re liable to get held up! My gosh! A dairy store! I mean, it’s crazy.'
'A lot of things are these days. Could you tell me what he looked like?'
'My gosh, no! He had a ski mask on, covered his face, and a cap-I couldn’t say anything except he was big, about six feet. He got all the cash, about sixty bucks.'
So there wasn’t much to do about that but write a report.
When Mendoza came into the kitchen Alison was sitting at the table, hiccuping over coffee. The cats were weaving around her feet, and in the backyard the twins were galloping around with Cedric and Mrs. MacTaggart in pursuit.
'Children!' said Alison with loathing. 'Hic! Those little devils know they have to get ready for-hic!-the school bus, why they have to make so much trouble for M-oh, damn!' She leaped up and fled for the bathroom, and the cats dispersed in all directions, El Senor spitting furiously.
Mrs. MacTaggart came in, herding the twins before her breathlessly, and he said, 'You don’t think there’s anything wrong, Mairi? I know what the doctor said, but-'
'Ach, doctors!' said Mairi. 'She’ll be fine in a bit, it’s just she didn’t expect it, having it easy the first time.
