The Big Sleep: Chapter 16

His mouth dropped sulkily and he stared down at the floor. "I was watching a guy, a guy who had a nice racket I figured he needed a partner in. Geiger. I was watching him now and then to see if he had any tough connections. I figure he has friends or he don't work the racket as open as he does. But they don't go to his house. Only dames."

"You didn't watch him hard enough," I said, "Go on."

"I'm there last night on the street below Geiger's house. It's raining hard and I'm buttoned up in my convertible and I don't see anything. There's a car in front of Geiger's and a rickshaw a little way up the hill. That's why I stay down below. There's a big cruiser parked down where I am and after a while I go over and take a gander at it. It's registered to Vivian Regan. Nothing happens, so I scram. That's all."

He waved his cigarette. His eyes crawled up and down my face.

"Could be," I said. "Know where that big cruiser is now?"

"Why would I?"

"In the Sheriff's airlock. It was recovered drifting in the Asteriod Belt this morning. There was a dead man in it. He had been sapped and the cruiser set for automatic."

Brody was breathing hard. One of his feet tapped restlessly. "Jesus, guy, you can't pin that one on me," he said thickly.

"Why not? This cruiser was down back of Geiger's according to you. Well, Mrs Regan didn't have it out. Her chauffeur, a cyborg named Owen Taylor, had it out. He went over to Geiger's place to have words with him, because Owen Taylor was sweet on Carmen, and he didn't like the kind of games Geiger was playing with her. He let himself in the back way with a jimmy and a gun and he caught Geiger taking holographs of Carmen without any clothes on, bound to a bench and with a dildo up her ass. So his gun went off, as guns will, and Geiger fell down dead and Owen ran away, but not without the memory stick with the holos Geiger had just taken. So you ran after him and took the memory device from him. How else would you have got hold of it?"

Brody licked his lips. "Yeah," he said, "But that don't make me knock him off. Sure, I heard the shots and saw this killer come slamming down the back steps into the cruiser. He roaded it out. I took off after him. He hit the bottom of the canyon and went spinwards, then skidded off the road and had to stop. I came up and played copper. He had a gun but his nerve was bad and I sapped him down. So I went through his pockets and found out who he was and lifted the memory, just out of curiosity. I was wondering what it was all about and getting my neck wet when he came out of it all of a sudden and knocked me out of the cruiser. He went straight up. He was out of sight when I picked myself up. That's the last I saw of him."

"How did you know it was Geiger he shot?" I asked gruffly.

Brody shrugged. "I figure it was, but I can be wrong. When I had a look at the images on that memory stick, I was pretty damn sure. And when Geiger didn't come down to the store this morning I was plenty sure. So I figure it's a good time to move his books out and make a quick touch on the Sternwoods for travel money and blow for a while."

I nodded. "That seems reasonable. Maybe you didn't murder anybody at that. Where did you hide Geiger's body?"

He lifted his eyebrows. Then he grinned. "Nix, nix. Skip it. You think I'd go back there and handle him, not knowing when a couple of car-loads of law would come dropping out of the sky? Nix."

"Somebody hid the body," I said.

Brody shrugged. The grin stayed on his face. He didn't believe me. While he was still not believing me the door buzzer started to ring again. Brody stood up sharply, hard-eyed. He glanced over at the guns on the desk.

"So she's back again," he growled.

"If she is, she doesn't have her gun," I comforted him. "Don't you have any other friends?"

"Just about one," he growled. "I got enough of this puss-in-the-corner game." He marched to the desk and took a gun. He held it down at his side and went to the door. He put his left hand to the knob and twisted it and opened the door about half a metre and leaned into the opening, holding the gun tight against his thigh.

Part 2

Part 4