Spade walked into his apartment and threw his overcoat on a chair, crossed to the sideboard, and poured himself a drink. The whiskey burned his throat and brought a little warmth back to him. He poured another before bothering to take off his hat. His wristwatch read 3:40 am.
He emptied his glass and put it and bottle on a table in his livingroom, which was also his bedroom, and sat on the edge of the bed with a fresh cigar. He stared out the window for a long time and not really seeing anything, before eventually getting up and pouring himself another drink.
He was pulling out a second thin cigar when the street doorbell rang. He looked at his watch. 4:35 am.
Spade sighed and, walking over to his aetherphone, pressed the button that would unlock the building's front door. He moved into the front hall and glared at the back of the door, waiting. Iva was the only one that would be coming to see him so late at night and that was a complication that he didn’t want or need right now.
But then he heard the heavy footsteps coming up the stairs at the end of the hall and his mood brightened. He opened the door and leaned against the frame, waiting for his visitors to crest the landing.
“Hi again Tom,” he called out when he saw them. “And Lieutenant Dundy, been a while. Come on in, both of you.
Tom Polhaus walked past Spade with a nod, but the lieutenant stopped and took a long look at Spade’s face. Spade just smiled and gestured inside. Dundy headed down the hall to the living room and Spade turned into the kitchen to get a pair of mismatched glasses.
He joined the other two men and poured them all a drink, then sat on the end of his bed and waited. He kept his face neutral and tried to hide the curiosity he felt about why they had come so late and not just waited until morning.
Polhaus sat on the sofa in front of the street windows and sipped his drink. Spade noticed the man’s hands were still covered in dried dirt. The lieutenant leaned back in a chair by the table, clicking his glass with a clean fingernail as he stared across the room at Spade.
The lieutenant was a squat man with a big head. He had short salt-and-pepper hair and mustache both. He had gold on his wrist and at his neck and a small elaborate diamond pin on his lapel. Spade wondered what secret society the pin represented. The brotherhood of corrupt cops perhaps.
“You had a lively evening,” the man said.
Spade touched his lip and smiled a thin smile. “So it seems.”
Polhaus spoke for the first time, “I noticed that earlier. Looks like somebody worked you over.”
“They tried. Actually, they mostly succeeded.”
Dundy removed his hat and set it on the table. “So you got in a fight. Where?”
“Hard to say really.”
“Hard to say? Why is your whereabouts hard to say?”
Spade gestured out the window. “Foggy night out there. Hard to see where you are. It was in an alley.”
Dundy pressed, “Who’d you fight?”
“Two fellows. Sorry, they didn’t introduce themselves. If I see them again though, I’ll be sure to ask before the next beating.” Spade took a sip of his whiskey.
The room was silent for a minute as Spade and Dundy stared at each other. Eventually Polhaus cleared his throat and asked “Lu, did you break the news to Mile’s wife?”
Spade turned away from his staring match with the lieutenant and said, “Sure.”
Dundy took over again. “And how’d she take it?”
Spade shook his head. “What do I know about women?”
Dundy paused, eyes glazing, then leaned forward, elbows on knees. He fixed Spade with a predatory stare and a small smile. “And what kind of gun do you carry Lu?”
Spade wondered what skill the lieutenant had just activated, but answered simply. “Gun? Don’t like them, don’t carry them. I had more than enough of guns in the war. We do keep some in the office for when we need them though.”
“Show me one,” Dundy said immediately.
“I just said I don’t have one. Come by the office any time and you can look to your heart’s content. In fact, throw my apartment upside down if you brought yourself a search warrant. I’ll just sit here and watch.”
“Come on Lu, you don’t have to get your back up. We’re not here to cause trouble,” Polhaus said, shifting uncomfortably on the sofa.
Except Spade was starting to get the impression that that was exactly what they were here for. “No? Did you look at that fancy gold wristwatch before you came over then? It’s closer to morning than the middle of the night. So what is it about, Dundy?”
“Lu, your lights were on, so we figured you were awake. We stopped by earlier but you weren’t in,” Polhaus said.
Spade set the glass down on the floor and got to his feet. He ignored Polhaus and stared at Dundy, who sat up straighter in his chair. “I don’t buy it. What are you here for and what are you trying to hang on me? Archer? I was busy getting a beat down when he died. Did you check his hands? Any bruises or cuts there? Blood? No?”
“Sit down Lu.” Dundy growled.
“It’s my damned apartment so I’ll sit or stand as I please,” Spade said, not moving.
“Come on Lu,” Polhaus said pleadingly. “You brought this on yourself. I asked you earlier about this Wedby and you got all cagey. You may be a detective and have your clients, but we’re the police. You can’t just go around us when you feel like it.”
Lieutenant Dundy leapt out of his chair as Polhaus spoke and moved into Spades' space. He looked up at the taller man and pointed a finger at him. “I’ve warned you before that you walk too close to the edge, Spade, and this time you’ve gone and slipped over the edge.” He smiled broadly. “We’ve got you this time.”
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Spade rolled his eyes. “Seeing as I’ve done nothing tonight but…” He lifted a hand and counted off fingers, “take a beating, talk to you clowns, oh, and a bit of light shopping,” Spade stared down at his fingers in an exaggerated look, like he was trying to figure out what else he might have gotten up to, “yeah, no, that’s it. So, seeing as that’s all I’ve done tonight, I think I’ll be just fine. So why don’t you two go and take your leave and let me get to bed?”
“Who’s Wedby?” Dundy demanded, ignoring Spade’s words.
“I already told Tom everything I know. I’m sure he filled you in.”
“You barely told Tom anything about him.”
“I barely know anything about him.”
“So why were you tailing him then?”
“I wasn’t, but you know that already,” Spade said, annoyed now.
“Right, sorry, why was Miles tailing him then?” Dundy pressed.
“Oh, it was for this old fashioned reason Lieutenant. Just a little thing we thought we’d try in the office this week. We went out and got this new client who paid good Republic money to have us tail him.”
“Sure you did. Who is this client then?”
Spade took a step back from the man and schooled his features. He scowled down at Dundy and answered, “You know I can’t tell you that. My client has privileges. I can talk to them and find out if they want to talk to you, but it’ll have to be tomorrow.”
“You’ll tell me now or we’ll drag you downtown,” Dundy said. He was yelling now. “This is a murder investigation and your client might be a suspect."
Spade laughed and looked over at Polhause. “Is your lieutenant serious Tom?” He looked back at Dundy. “Right. Murder. You’ve got us. We had a client that paid us good money to lure Miles out in the middle of the night so they could shoot him.” He looked down at the shorter man. “You take me in for that crap and your cop friends will have a good laugh. But, you know… Keep on yelling at me Lieutenant, maybe I'll break down and cry for you. Just don’t expect me to sing.”
Polhaus rested his face in the palm of one hand and shook his head. “Lu, how do you expect us to solve Mile’s killing if you don’t give us anything?”
Spade picked up his glass and poured himself a couple fingers worth. “I don’t expect you to solve anything Tom. I can take care of my own problems.”
“Isn’t that exactly what I said, Tom?” Dundy said, sitting back in his chair. “Lu Spade is exactly the sort of man to take care of his own troubles. He doesn’t need the police when he can just keep it in the office. Didn’t I say that Tom?”
Spade rolled his eyes again. He still wasn’t quite sure what the goal here was, but he was half sure they were just running him around in circles to see if something would fall out. Either that or they were trying to trap him in something.
“Here’s the thing, smart guy,” Dundy continued, already jumping back up again. He took two quick steps across the small room and jabbed Spade’s chest as he said, “we found Wedby. Lying on the ground in a pool of blood outside his hotel. And the whole thing went down barely forty minutes after you left Tom back in that alley.”
There it was, Spade thought. They didn’t want to pin Archer's murder on him, but Wedby’s. He looked down at Dundy and growled, “get your fingers off me unless you want them broken, damn you.”
Dundy took half a step back but didn’t lose any of the heat in his voice. “And we know you didn’t go see the wife,” he continued. “We called her up and that girl from your office was there. So you lied about where you were going.”
Spade nodded. He could see the thread now. It strung up unconnected pieces, but that was Dundy for you… Always jumping on the quick, easy answer so he could get that pat on the back and move on to the next thing. He looked over at Tom who just shrugged in response.
“Wedby’s hotel is over on Geary street, close enough to downtown that you could easily have walked over there after leaving Miles’ body with plenty of time left to make your phone call and then wait around until Wedby showed back up.”
“And I knew where the hells he lived?” spat Spade. “Then why was Miles following the guy from St. Marks over on the other side of the hill? Why set up a meeting so we could tail him? Why not just send Miles right to the guy’s suite?” Spade yelled, on a roll now. “And then I’m supposed to know he shot Miles and was going straight back to this hotel I knew nothing about? You’re way out on a limb here Dundy.”
Spade took a deep breath. He hated getting worked up, but Dundy had a way of pushing his buttons. He rolled his shoulders and walked back over to the bed, sitting down again. They had nothing and he didn’t need to treat it like they might. He took a deep breath and thought about his next words.
“I went for a walk after. Simple as that. Miles just died. You expect me to be fine with that and then just go home and crawl between the sheets? I walked. I stopped at a store and bought a drink,” Spade said, waving at the paper bag and bottle of whiskey on the table.
Neither Dundy nor Polhaus turned to look. They already knew it was there. Dundy just glaree at Spade, but Polhaus looked up at the ceiling and sighed. He looked tired.
The room was quiet after that for a time, with Dundy clearly trying to think up his next play. Spade didn’t care about that. Now that he knew what Dundy was trying to throw on him, it was easy enough to step out of the way. He was more interested in the new piece of information.
“So, Wedby's dead then? Sure it’s him?”
Dundy just continued his glare.
“Yah. It’s him. We system ID’d him, “Polhaus said.”
Dundy stirred then. “Silenced one might even say, huh Spade?”
Spade didn’t even turn around to acknowledge Dundy, he just said, “I thought we were past that. I didn’t know where he was at. And I don’t know what he was up to. Or do you have something else you aren’t sharing? Ready to take me downtown yet Dundy?” Spade pulled a wooden match out of his shirt pocket and relit the cigar that had long since gone out. He took a long drag.
“Come on Lu, we didn’t come here to arrest you. Just see what you knew about it all,” Polhaus said.
“Right, sure.” Spade looked up at the ceiling like he was considering Polhaus’ words. Then looked back at the man, pointed at Dundy and said, “did you tell him that before you came in?”
Polhaus groaned. “Be reasonable Lu.”
“Sure, I’m a reasonable guy Tom, you know that. But tell me, how was I supposed to have killed Wedby again? I’ve forgotten what I did earlier.”
Polhaus rolled his eyes but before he could respond Dundy said, “Shot four times in the back. With a .45 probably. He had just opened the front doors of the hotel and was one step inside.”
“And he had a gun in a shoulder-holster,” Polhaus said. Spade cocked an eye towards him and he continued, “It's a Valmere Arms, not a Whitlock & Fairbairn. And no bullets missing either way.”
Spade turned on the bed and focused on Polhaus. “What else did you find out about him?” Polhaus raised an eyebrow and Spade continued, “Come on Tom, I obviously didn’t kill the guy and I have a case too.”
Polhause looked over at his lieutenant first but the man was still glaring at Spade. “Nothing. He’d been at the hotel about a week, no visitors.”
“Anything else on him? Did you search the room?” Spade asked.
Dundy spoke up again now, “Why Spade, what did you expect us to find?”
Spade turned slowly back to the man and smiled. “Oh, I don’t know, lieutenant. Maybe something to tell you who he was, or what he was up to?”
“We were hoping you could tell us a little more about that, Spade.” Dundy held a wicked grin on his face and glared up at the taller man.
Spade looked back and forth between the two men and said in the most innocent voice he could muster up, “But I’ve never seen Wedby before. Not dead OR alive.”
Dundy shook his head and took a couple of steps towards the front hall. Polhaus stood up more slowly and tried to not yawn. “Spade, you’re hiding something and we’re going to find out what. If you decide you need to confess anything, you come see me. We’ll give you a fair shake.”
Spade did not roll his eyes.
Dundy and Polhaus went out. Spade closed the door behind them and stood there a moment listening to their footsteps fade down the stairwell. Then he returned to the chair and started to pour another drink before deciding that he should probably just try to get a little sleep.
