Don't be nasty.
I will be nasty. I'm not going to have you
I shut her mouth with a hand over it. I want to see the Jorgensens together at home, I want to see Macaulay, and I want to see Studsy Burke. I've been pushed around too much. I've got to see about things.
You're so damned pig-headed, she complained. Well, it's only five o'clock. Lie down till it's time to dress.
I made myself comfortable on the living-room sofa. We had the afternoon papers sent up. Morelli, it seemed, had shot metwice for one of the papers and three times for anotherwhen I tried to arrest him for Julia Wolf's murder, and I was too near death to see anybody or to be moved to a hospital. There were pictures of Morelli and a thirteen-year-old one of me in a pretty funny-looking hat, taken, I remembered, when I was working on the Wall Street explosion. Most of the follow-up stories on the murder of Julia Wolf were rather vague. We were reading them when our little constant visitor, Dorothy Wynant, arrived.
I could hear her at the door when Nora opened it: They wouldn't send my name up, so I sneaked up. Please don't send me away. I can help you nurse Nick. I'll do anything. Please, Nora.
Nora had a chance then to say: Come on in.
Dorothy came in. She goggled at me. B-but the papers said you
Do I look like I'm dying? What's happened to you? Her lower lip was swollen and cut near one corner, there was a bruise on one cheek-bane and two fingernail scratches down the other cheek, and her eyes were red and swollen.
Mamma beat me, she said. Look. She dropped her coat on the floor, tore off a button unbuttoning her dress, took an arm out of its sleeve, and pushed the dress down to show her back. There were dark bruises on her arm, and her back was criss-crossed by long red welts. She was crying now. See?
Nora put an arm around her. You poor kid.
What'd she beat you for? I asked.
She turned from Nora and knelt on the floor beside my sofa. Asta came over and nuzzled her. She thought I camecame to see you about Father and Julia Wolf. Sobs broke up her sentences. That's why she came over hereto find outand you made her think I didn't. Youyoa made her think you didn't care anything about what happenedjust like you made meand she was all right till she saw the papers this afternoon. Then she knewshe knew you'd been lying about not having anything to do with it. She beat me to try to make me tell her what I'd told you.
What'd you tell her?
I couldn't tell her anything. II couldn't tell her about Chris. I couldn't tell her anything.
Was he there?
Yes.
And he let her beat you like this?
But hehe never makes her stop.
I said to Nora: For God's sake, let's have a drink.
Nora said, Sure, picked up Dorothy's coat, laid it across the back of a chair, and went into the pantry.
Dorothy said: Please let me stay here, Nick. I won't be any trouble, honestly, and you told me yourself I ought to walk out on them. You know you did, and I've got nowhere else to go. Please.
Take it easy. This thing needs a little figuring out. I'm as much afraid of Mimi as you are, you know. What did she think you'd told me?
She must know somethingsomething about the murder that she thinks I knowbut I don't, Nick. Honest to Cod, I don't.
That helps a lot, I complained. But listen, sister: there are things you know and we're going to start with those. You come clean at and from the beginningor we don't play.
She made a movement as if she were about to cross her heart. I swear I will, she said.
That'll be swell. Now let's drink. We took a glass apiece from Nora. Tell her you were leaving for good?
No, I didn't say anything. Maybe she doesn't know yet I'm not in my room.
That helps some.
You're not going to make me go back? she cried.
Nora said over her glass: The child can't stay and be beaten like that, Nick.
I said: Sh-h-h. I don't know. I was just thinking that if we're going there for dinner maybe it's better for Mimi not to know
Dorothy stared at me with horrified eyes while Nora said: Don't think you're going to take me there now.
Then Dorothy spoke rapidly: But Mamma doesn't expect you. I don't even know whether she'll be there. The papers said you were dying. She doesn't think you're coming.
So much the better, I said. We'll surprise them.
She put her face, white now, close to mine, spilling some of her drink on my sleeve in her excitement. Don't go. You can't go there now. Listen to me. Listen to Nora. You can't go. She turned her white face around to look up at Nora. Can he? Tell him he can't.
Nora, not shifting the focus of her dark eyes from my face, said: Wait, Dorothy. He ought to know what's best. What is it, Nick?
I made a face at her. I'm just fumbling around. If you say Dorothy stays here, she stays. I guess she can sleep with Asta. But you've got to leave me alone on the rest of it. I don't know what I'm going to do because I don't know what's being done to me. I've got to find out. I've got to find out in my own way.
WTe won't interfere, Dorothy said. Will we, Nora?
Nora continued to look at me, saying nothing.
I asked Dorothy: Where'd you get that gun? And nothing out of books this time.
She moistened her lower lip and her face became pinker. She cleared her throat.
Careful, I said. If it's another piece of chewing-gum, I'll phone Mimi to come get you.
Give her a chance, Nora said.
Dorothy cleared her throat again. Cancan I tell you something that happened to me when I was a little child?
Has it got anything to do with the gun?
Not exactly, but it'll help you understand why I
Not now, Some other time. Where'd you get the gun?
I wish you'd let me. She hung her head.
Where'd you get the gun?
Her voice was barely audible. From a man in a speakeasy.
I said: I knew we'd get the truth at last. Nora frowned and shook her head at me. All right, say you did. What speakeasy?
Dorothy raised her head. I don't know. It was on Tenth Avenue, I think. Your friend Mr. Quinn would know. He took me there.
You met him after you left us that night?
Yes.
By accident, I suppose.
She looked reproachfully at me. I'm trying to tell you the truth, Nick. I'd promised to meet him at a place called the Palma Club. He wrote the address down for me. So after I said good-night to you and Nora, I met him there and we went to a lot of places, winding up in this place where I got the gun. It was an awful tough place. You can ask him if I'm not telling the truth.
Quinn get the gun for you?
No. He'd passed out then. He was sleeping with his head on the table. I left him there. They said they'd get him home all right.
And the gun?
I'm coming to it. She began to blush. He told me it was a gunman's hang-out. That's why I'd said let's go there. And after he went to sleep I got to talking to a man there, an awful tough-looking man. I was fascinated. And all the time I didn't want to go home, I wanted to come back here, but I didn't know if you'd let me. Her face was quite red now and in her embarrassment she blurred her words. So I thought perhaps if Iif you thought I was in a terrible fixand, besides, that way I wouldn't feel so silly. Anyhow, I asked this awful tough-looking gangster, or whatever he was, if he would sell me a pistol or tell me where I could buy one. He thought I was kidding and laughed at first, but I told him I wasn't, and then he kept on grinning, but he said he'd see, and when he came back he said yes, he could get me one and asked how much I would pay for it. I didn't have much money, but I offered him my bracelet, but I guess he didn't think it was any good, because he said no, he'd have to have cash, so finally I gave him twelve dollarsall I had but a dollar for the taxiand he gave me the pistol and I came over here and made up that about being afraid to go home because of Chris. She finished so rapidly her words ran together, and she sighed as if very glad to have finished.