“You mean yes and no?”
This time there was just a nod.
“Do you have any idea who might have done this to you? Anybody at all.”
There was no response. Whatever Jake’s private thoughts on the subject might be, they were staying that way. Which wasn’t a whole lot of help to me. I noticed the nurse was taking a lot of interest, so I leaned close to his ear and whispered.
“You told me Brookman was into you for eight grand. Was that just talk money? I mean was it really less?”
He shook his head decisively.
“Really, I don’t think you can talk to him any more.”
The nurse was quite firm this time, and seemed to be getting ready to throw me out.
“One last thing,” I said. “Jake, can I trust Rose? I mean, all the way?”
He felt so strongly about it, he didn’t use signs. In a thin, croaking voice he said.
“All the way.”
“Well, I’ll come and see you again. You’re going to be O.K. they tell me. Don’t worry about things outside. Half the town is rooting for you.”
He managed a feeble grin, and I turned away. It was time I was moving in any case. I didn’t care for an interview with an irate policeman.
“Thank you nurse,” I told her politely. “You’ll be sure not to leave him, till the officer gets back?”
“You may be quite sure of that. And now, if you don’t mind.”
She looked pointedly towards the door and I went through it with a grin.
At the hospital entrance I met a red-faced patrolman coming in at the run. He didn’t pay me any attention, and I didn’t hang around for him to come looking. Instead I went to Eddie’s Bar and Grill for one of his famous salt beef sandwiches and a mug of beer. Eddie’s is one of my favorite spots, because apart from the sandwiches, there are usually one or two people around I know. Especially newspaper people. They seem to have a special affinity with bars in general, and in particular bars where the salt beef sandwiches come highly recommended.
Today was no exception. I saw one or two reporters around, but they weren’t the ones I wanted to see. I managed to find a corner where I could watch the door. Today was Tuesday, and with luck, Tip Brannigan would be in. Brannigan covers the crime beat for the Record, and though that particular sheet is no favorite of mine, it didn’t change the fact he had the best crime nose in town. Sure enough, when I was half-way down my second beer, he came in through the door. I managed to catch his eye and wave him over. He nodded to show he’d seen me, collected his order and brought it to where I was sitting.
“Well well, the poor man’s Sherlock Holmes. Shouldn’t you ought to be out looking for clues?”
He took an enormous bite of the sandwich, and sat munching happily away.
“Not me,” I hedged. “I keep away from the real crime, leave all that stuff to you guys. With me it’s just missing jewelry, runaway wives, stuff like that.”
“Ha, ha,” he said between bites. “Not what they tell me. Not what they tell me at all.”
“And you? What about all these killings going on all over town? I’m surprised you can find time for these big lunches.”
He mopped at his mouth with a huge handkerchief, then dipped his nose into the foaming beer.
“Man that’s good,” he announced. “You know, I’ve had practically no sleep in thirty-six hours.”
“Insomnia?”
He snorted derisively, and helped himself to an Old Favorite from the pack I’d carelessly left on the table.
“What’s with all the shadow-boxing?” he demanded. “You read the papers. You know what I’m doing.”
“Let’s say I could probably make a guess.”
“I’ll bet you could. Matter of fact, I’m sort of glad I ran into you. How about making with a little truth. You know, those facts you have you didn’t tell Randall about.”
“I told him all I know.”
“Yah. It’s only natural you should be the one standing next to Jake the Take when they blasted him. What were you talking about?”
“Now, let’s see. I think I said it was a fine night, and if I recall it right. Jake said it sure was. Then somebody out in the fine night put the blast on him, and that was the end of the conversations.”
Brannigan shrugged, and flicked ash on the floor.
“Naturally, if you don’t want to cooperate with the press——”
“If I knew who shot him and why, I’d be down at headquarters telling Randall,” I returned evenly. “I’m not the kind of hero to keep that information to myself. The guy might take it into his head to put me away too.”
He nodded eagerly.
“Boy, yeah. That would make a swell story. I could get most of a page out of you, with all those little things you been mixed up in all these years. Yeah. A honey.”
“Thanks for the interest,” I said bitterly. “Maybe I should carry a little card saying ‘in the event of my violent death, first contact Brannigan of the Record 7 .”
“It’s a thought, a generous thought.”
I took a sip at the beer, and he was watching me shrewdly as I did so.
“In any case,” I countered, “That’s just a little shooting. I mean Jake’s not even in any danger. I would have thought you’d be far more interested in that guy, the one they tossed over the Point. And the girl yesterday. The way I read it, those two could go together, and that’s more of a story in your line.”
“Ah,” he flapped his hands in dismissal. “A two-day wonder. A nobody guy, and a dame who seems to be a piece of genuine flotsam. There’s no public appeal. I have to have names, big names. Or a nice little vice ring, something to drag the public in. I mean the girl wasn’t even assaulted.
“And who said she was murdered?”
He slipped the last question
