The Big Sleep: Chapter 25

"I'm coming to what isn't. So Regan blew. I used to see him every afternoon in a bar downtown drinking Irish whiskey and staring at the wall. He don't talk much any more. He'd give me a bet now and then, which is what I was there for - to pick up bets for Puss Walgreen."

"Go on," I said levelly.

"Well, about the middle of September I don't see Regan any more. I don't notice it right away. You know how it is. A guy's there and you see him and then he ain't there and you don't see him until something makes you think of it. What makes me think about it is I hear a guy say laughing that Eddie Mars's woman lammed out with Rusty Regan and Mars is acting like he was best man, instead of being sore. So I tell Joe Brody and Joe was smart."

"Like hell he was," I said.

"Not copper smart, but still smart. He's out for the dough. He gets to figuring could he get a line somehow on the two lovebirds he could maybe collect twice - once from Eddie Mars and once from Regan's wife. Joe knew the family a little."

"Five mills' worth," I said. "He nicked them for that a while back."

"Yeah?" Harry Jones looked mildly surprised. "Agnes ought to have told me that. There's a frail for you. Always holding out. Well, Joe and me watch the news reports and we don't see anything, so we know old Sternwood has a blanket on it. Then one day I see Lash Canino in the bar. Know him?"

I shook my head.

"There's a boy that is tough like some guys think they are tough. He does a job for Eddie Mars when Mars needs him - trouble shooting. He'd bump a guy off between drinks. When Mars don't need him he don't go near him. And he don't stay in this habitat. Well it might be something or it might not. Maybe they got a line on Regan and Mars has just been sitting back with a smile on his puss, waiting for the chance. Then again it might be something else entirely. Anyway I tell Joe and Joe gets on Canino's tail. He can tail. Me, I'm no good at it. I'm giving that one away. No charge. And Joe tails Canino out to the Sternwood place and Canino parks outside the estate and a ground car pulls up beside him with a girl in it. They talk for a while and Joe thinks the girl passes something over, like maybe dough. The girl beats it. It's Regan's wife. Okay, she know Canino and Canino knows Mars. So Joe figures Canino knows something about Regan and is trying to squeeze a little on the side for himself. Canino blows and Joe loses him. End of Act One."

"What does this Canino look like?"

"Short, heavy set, brown hair, brown eyes, and always wears brown clothes. Even wears a brown suede raincoat. Drives a brown convertible. Everything brown for Mr Canino."

"Let's have Act Two," I said.

"Without some dough, that's all."

"I don't see two hundred thousand in it. Mrs Regan married an ex-gunrunner out of the joints. She'd know other people of his sort. She knows Eddie Mars well. If she thought anything had happened to Regan, Eddie would be the very man she'd go to, and Canino might be the man Eddie would pick to handle the assignment. Is that all you have?"

"Would you give the two hundred grand to know where Eddie's wife is?" the little man asked calmly.

He had all my attention now. I almost cracked the arms of my chair leaning on them.

"Even if she was alone?" Harry Jones added in a soft, rather sinister tone. "Even if she had never run away with Regan at all, and was being kept now in this very habitat in a hideout - so the law would keep on thinking she had dusted with him? Would you pay two hundred thou for that, shamus?"

I licked my lips. They tasted dry and salty. "I think I would. Where?"

"Agnes found her," he said grimly. "Just by a lucky break. Saw her out riding and managed to tail her home. Agnes will tell you where that is - when she's holding the money in her hand."

I made a hard face at him. "You could tell the coppers for nothing, Harry. They've got some pretty good brain scanners down at Central these days. If they killed you trying, they still have Agnes."

"Let ‘em try," he said. "I ain't so brittle."

"Agnes must have something I didn't notice."

"She's a grifter, shamus. I'm a grifter. We're all grifters. So we sell each other out for a dollar. Okay. See if you can make me." He reached for another of my cigarettes, placed it neatly between his lips and lit it. He puffed evenly and stared at me level-eyed, a funny little hard guy I could have thrown from home plate to second base. A small man in a big man's world. There was something I liked about him.

"I haven't pulled anything in here," he said steadily. "I come in talking two Kays. That's still the price. I come because I thought I'd get a take it or leave it, one right gee to another. Now you're waving cops at me. You oughta be ashamed of yourself."

I said: "You'll get the two hundred grand - for that information. I have to get the money myself first."

He stood up and nodded and pulled his worn little tweed coat tight around his chest. "That's okay. After dark is better anyway. It's a leery job, buckin' guys like Eddie Mars. But a guy has to eat. The book's been pretty dull lately. I think the big boys have told Puss Walgreen to move on. Suppose you come over to the office, Fudwider Building. You bring the money, I'll take you to Agnes."

"Can't you tell me yourself? I've see Agnes."

"I promised her," he said simply. He buttoned his overcoat, nodded again and strolled to the door. He went out. His steps died along the corridor.

I went down to the bank and deposited my five-hundred-thousand-dollar cheque and drew out two hundred in currency. I went upstairs again and sat in my chair thinking about Harry Jones and his story. It seemed a little too pat. It had the austere simplicity of fiction rather than the tangled woof of fact. Captain Gregory ought to have been able to find Mona Mars, if she was that close to his beat. Supposing, that is, he had tried.

I thought about it most of the day. Nobody came into the office. Nobody called me. It kept on raining.

Part 2

Chapter 26: Poisoned Deal