Toddy chuckled unwillingly and Donald spewed out outraged obscenities.
"All right, then!" Shake said. "You just get them clothes back on before you catch cold. And, Toddy, maybe you better…"
Toddy nodded slowly. "Here it is," he began. "Donald hit me up for protection again tonight, and I gave him a brush-off. One that he'd remember. Then-"
"But that was just business, Toddy! Just because a man's ambitious and wants to expand, it don't prove-"
"It proves you're stupid enough to try anything. Jesus-" Toddy shook his head in wondering disgust. "Trying to shake down a gold- buyer! A bunch of cheap hoods like you. Why the hell don't you work out on Mickey Cohen?"
Shake looked embarrassed. "Well, now," he mumbled. "Maybe it wasn't real smart, but-"
"Smart!" snarled Donald. "You see what the son-of-a-bitch done to my nose?"
"I met Donald on the way to Milt's shop. I went on down to the shop and checked in, then I went back to my room. I couldn't have been gone more than thirty or thirty-five minutes at the outside. When I went in I found the room turned upside down, I found Donald heading down the fire escape, and I found my wife on the bed… strangled with her own stockings."
"Sss-strangled?… Y-you mean h-he…?"
"I didn't!" Donald snapped, fearfully. "Dammit, Shake, why for would I do a thing like that?"
"W-why for was you in Toddy's room?"
"I-well, I-"
"Spill it!"
Donald edged toward the corner of the room, keeping a cautious eye on Toddy. "I j-just went up there to wait for him. Kind of surprise him, you know."
"Yeah?"
"I was-I was just goin' to cut him up a little when he came back."
Shake sighed with relief. "You see, Toddy? Donald wouldn't of killed her. Donald ain't that kind of boy. He was just goin' to cut you up a little."
"Uh-huh. And Elaine jumps him, so he gives her the business."
"You're a goddam liar!"
"Now you know better than that, Toddy," said Shake. "You been around too long to think a thing like that. In the first place, he ain't a killer. In the second place, he's a shiv man. Why for would he screw around with stockings when he had a shiv? It ain't his-his-" -modus operandi, Toddy supplied silently. It was true; the operation method of a criminal almost never changes. The police would have a hell of a time if it did. Still, Donald had had the opportunity. He'd been caught at the scene of the murder.
"You think I'm-I'm immortal or somethin?" Donald demanded with genuine indignation. "You think I'm a pervert? You think I killed the Black Dahlia?"
"I think you're a very sweet little boy," said Toddy. "The whole trouble is, people just don't understand you. Like me, for example. How'd you know it was safe to go into my room? How'd you know my wife wasn't in there… alive?"
"I could look under the door an' see it was dark. I knocked an' didn't get no answer, so I went in."
"The door was unlocked?"
"I'm tellin' ya."
"How long was this after you left me?"
"Well… fifteen-twenty minutes maybe."
"Just long enough to work your nerve up, huh? How long had you been there when I came in? It couldn't have been much more than ten minutes."
"It wasn't." Donald scowled peevishly. "Look. Why don't you cut out the third degree an' let me tell you."
"Okay. Keep it straight."
"I knocked on the door," said Donald. "I knocked an' waited a minute. I thought I heard someone movin' around-kind of a rustlin' sound-and I almost took a powder. But I didn't hear it no more, then, after the first time, so I figured it must be the window shade flappin' or something like that. I opened the door just a crack an' slid in…"
"Go on."
"I"-Donald wiped sweat from his face-"I stood there by the door, hugging the wall and waiting… an'… an' I don't know. I begin to get kind of a funny feeling, like someone was staring at the back of my neck. Well, you know how it is in that room. You can't really see into it up there by the door. You can't see the bed or nothing hardly until you get past the bathroom. Not with the lights off, anyways…"
"I know that," said Toddy impatiently.
"Well, I got this feeling so… so I slide down along the wall until I'm out of that little areaway. I came even with the bed and my eyes are gettin' kind of used to the dark an' I can see. A little. I can see they's someone on the bed. I- I-Jesus! I can't even think what I'm doin'! All I can think of is lightin' a cigarette-I mean, I don't really think of it. I do it without thinkin'. And then the match flares up an' I see everything. I see what's happened. An' then I hear you at the door, an' I try to beat it down the fire escape an'-"
Toddy nodded absently. Donald was in the clear. He'd been pretty sure right from the beginning. But under the circumstances, there'd been nothing to do but grab him.
Donald stepped to the table, poured out a water glass of sherry, and killed it at a gulp. Shake stroked his chins and stared interestedly at Toddy.
"If you was so sure Donald killed your wife," he said, "why didn't you just call the cops? That's what cops is for, to arrest criminals."
"So that's it," said Toddy. "I often wondered."
"You know what I think?"
"Yes."
"I think you killed her yourself. You either bumped her off before you left the room or-"
"-Or I went up the fire escape and did it, then beat it down and came up the front way." Toddy's tone was light, satirical, but there was a heavy feeling around his heart. Something seemed to struggle there, to fight up toward the hidden recesses of his mind. "Sure. That's what the cops will think. That's what I'll say after they work me over a few days."
Shake shook his head with a complete lack of sympathy. "They sure swing a mean hose in this town. You wouldn't believe what it does to a man's kidneys. I had a pachuco workin' for me; you remember him, Donald-Pedro? You remember how he went around after the cops had him? All bent together like a horseshoe. Had to take off his collar to pee."
"Think of that," said Toddy.
"Me an' Donald has got a duty to do, Toddy. The only thing is, how long should we take to do it? Now if we was real busy-say, we had some money to count-"
"Huh-uh."
"Huh-uh?"
"In spades."
"Too bad." Shake stared at the telephone. "That certainly is too bad, ain't it, Donald?"
"Oh, it's not too bad yet," said Toddy. "Let's see, now. It would take your pachucos a couple of minutes to get up here. That's not much, but I don't think you and Donald can take much. I really don't think you can, Shake. Of course, if you'd like to find out…"
He spread his hands, beaming at them mirthlessly. Shake drew the back of his hands across his mouth.
"So you'll sit here the rest of your life?" he burbled.