«Phone him,» Henry said, pointing to the instrument which stood on the shabby office desk.
«Phone is bad,» Gandesi objected thoughtfully.
«So is sap poison,» Henry said.
Gandesi sighed and turned his thick body in the chair and drew the telephone towards him. He dialed a number with an inky nail and listened. After an interval he said: «Joe? … Lou. Couple insurance guys tryin’ to deal on a Carondelet Park job … Yeah … No, marbles … You ain’t heard a whisper, huh?… O.K., Joe.»
Gandesi replaced the phone and swung around in the chair again. He studied us with sleepy eyes. «No soap. What insurance outfit you boys work for?»
«Give him a card,» Henry said to me.
I took my wallet out once more and withdrew one of my cards from it. It was an engraved calling card and contained nothing but my name. So I used my pocket pencil to write, Chateau Moraine Apartments, Franklin near Ivar, below the name. I showed the card to Henry and then gave it to Gandesi.
Gandesi read the card and quietly bit his finger. His face brightened suddenly. «You boys better see Jack Lawler,» he said.
Henry stared at him closely. Gandesi’s eyes were now bright and unblinking and guileless.
«Who’s he?» Henry asked.
«Runs the Penguin Club. Out on the Strip — Eighty-six Forty-four Sunset or some number like that. He can find out, if any guy can.»
«Thanks,» Henry said quietly. He glanced at me. «You believe him?»
«Well, Henry,» I said, «I don’t really think he would be above telling us an untruth.»
«Haw!» Gandesi began suddenly. «A gut-buster! A —»
«Can it!» Henry snarled. «That’s my line. Straight goods, is it, Gandesi? About this Jack Lawler?»
Gandesi nodded vigorously. «Straight goods, absolute. Jack Lawler got a finger in everything high class that’s touched. But he ain’t easy to see.»
«Don’t worry none about that. Thanks, Gandesi.»
Henry tossed the black club into the corner of the room and broke open the breech of the revolver he had been holding all this time in his left hand. He ejected the shells and then bent down and slid the gun along the floor until it disappeared under the desk. He tossed the cartridges idly in his hand for a moment and then let them spill on the floor.
«So long, Gandesi,» he said coldly. «And keep that schnozzle of yours clean, if you don’t want to be looking for it under the bed.»
He opened the door then and we both went out quickly and left the Blue Lagoon without interference from any of the employees.
FIVE
My car was parked a short distance away down the block. We entered it and Henry leaned his arms on the wheel and stared moodily through the windshield.
«Well, what you think, Walter?» he inquired at length.
«If you ask my opinion, Henry, I think Mr. Gandesi told us a cock-and-bull story merely to get rid of us. Furthermore I do not believe he thought we were insurance agents.»
«Me too, and an extra helping,» Henry said. «I don’t figure there’s any such guy as this Melachrino or this Jack Lawler and this Gandesi called up some dead number and had himself a phony chin with it. I oughta go back there and pull his arms and legs off. The hell with the fat slob.»
«We had the best idea we could think of, Henry, and we executed it to the best of our ability. I now suggest that we return to my apartment and try to think of something else.»
«And get drunk,» Henry said, starting the car and guiding it away from the curb.
«We could perhaps have a small allowance of liquor, Henry.»
«Yah!» Henry snorted. «A stall. I oughta go back there and wreck the joint.»
He stopped at the intersection, although no traffic signal was in operation at the time; and raised a bottle of whiskey to his lips. He was in the act of drinking when a car came up behind us and collided with our car, but not very severely. Henry choked and lowered his bottle, spilling some of the liquor on his garments.
«This town’s getting too crowded,» he snarled. «A guy can’t take hisself a drink without some smart monkey bumps his elbow.»
Whoever it was in the car behind us blew a horn with some insistence, inasmuch as our car had not yet moved forward. Henry wrenched the door open and got out and went back. I heard voices of considerable loudness, the louder being Henry’s voice. He came back after a moment and got into the car and drove on.
«I oughta have pulled his mush off,» he said, «but I went soft.» He drove rapidly the rest of the way to Hollywood and the Chateau Moraine and we went up to my apartment and sat down with large glasses in our hands.
«We got better than a quart and a half of hooch,» Henry said, looking at the two bottles which he had placed on the table beside others which had long since been emptied. «That oughta be good for an idea.»
«If it isn’t enough, Henry, there is an abundant further supply where it came from,» I drained my glass cheerfully.
«You seem a right guy,» Henry said. «What makes you always talk so funny?»
«I cannot seem to change my speech, Henry. My father and mother were both severe purists in the New England tradition, and the vernacular has never come naturally to my lips, even while I was in college.»
Henry made an attempt to digest this remark, but I could see that it lay somewhat heavily on his stomach.
We talked for a time concerning Gandesi and the doubtful quality of his advice, and thus passed perhaps half an hour. Then rather suddenly the white telephone on my desk began to ring. I hurried over to it, hoping that it was Ellen Macintosh and that she had recovered from her ill humor. But it proved to be a male voice and a strange one to me. It spoke crisply, with an unpleasant metallic quality of tone.
«You Walter Gage?»
«This is Mister Gage speaking.»
«Well, Mister Gage, I understand you’re in the market for some jewelry.»
I held the phone very tightly and turned my body and made grimaces to Henry over the top of the instrument. But he was moodily pouring himself another large portion of Old Plantation.
«That is so,» I said into the telephone, trying to keep my voice steady, although my excitement was almost too much for me. «If by jewelry you mean pearls.»
«Forty-nine in a rope, brother. And five grand is the price.»
«Why that is entirely absurd,» I gasped. «Five thousand dollars for those —»
The voice broke in on me rudely. «You heard me, brother. Five grand. Just hold up the hand and count the fingers. No more, no less. Think it over. I’ll call you later.»
The phone clicked dryly and I replaced the instrument shakily in its cradle. I was trembling. I walked back to my chair and sat down and wiped my face with my handkerchief.
«Henry,» I said in a low tense voice, «it worked. But how strangely.»
Henry put his empty glass down on the floor. It was the first time that I had ever seen him put an empty glass down and leave it empty. He stared at me closely with his tight unblinking green eyes.
«Yeah?» he said gently. «What worked, kid?» He licked his lips slowly with the tip of his tongue.
«What we accomplished down at Gandesi’s place, Henry. A man just called me on the telephone and asked me if I was in the market for pearls.»
«Geez.» Henry pursed his lips and whistled gently. «That damn dago had something after all.»
«But the price is five thousand dollars, Henry. That seems beyond reasonable explanation.»
«Huh?» Henry’s eyes seemed to bulge as if they were about to depart from their orbits. «Five grand for them ringers? The guy’s nuts. They cost two C’s, you said. Bugs completely is what the guy is. Five grand? Why, for five grand I could buy me enough phony pearls to cover an elephant’s caboose.»