“Where does he live?”
“On Post Street,” she said, and gave a number.
“And you haven’t seen him since?”
“No. He was shy, you know, about having been in prison — ” She finished the sentence with a gesture of one hand.
Spade addressed Mrs. Hooper: “You’ve seen him since?”
“No, sir.”
He pursed his lips, asked slowly, “Either of you know he was here this afternoon?”
They said, “No,” together.
“Where did-?”
Someone knocked on the door.
Dundy said, “Come in.”
Tom opened the door far enough to stick his head in. “His brother’s here,” he said.
The girl leaning forward, called, “Oh, Uncle Ted!”
A big blond man in brown appeared behind Tom. He was sunburned to an extent that made his teeth seem whiter, his clear eyes bluer, than they were.
He asked, “What’s the matter, Miriam?”
“Father’s dead,” she said, and began to cry.
Dundy nodded at Tom, who stepped out of Theodore Bliss’s way and let him come into the room.
A woman came in behind him, slowly, hesitantly. She was a tall woman in her late twenties, blonde, not quite plump. Her features were generous, her face pleasant and intelligent. She wore a ‘small brown hat and a mink coat.
Bliss put an arm around his niece, kissed her forehead, sat on the bed beside her. “There, there,” he said awkwardly.
She saw the blonde woman, stared through her tears at her for a moment, then said, “Oh, how do you do, Miss
Barrow.”
The blonde woman said, “I’m awfully sorry to —” Bliss cleared his throat, and said, “She’s Mrs. Bliss now.
We were married this afternoon.”
Dundy looked angrily at Spade. Spade, making a cigarette, seemed about to laugh.
Miriam Bliss, after a moment’s surprised silence, said, “Oh, I do wish you all the happiness in the world.” She turned to her uncle while his wife was murmuring “Thank you” and said, “And you too, Uncle Ted.”
He patted her shoulder and squeezed her to him. He was looking questioningly at Spade and Dundy.
“Your brother died this afternoon,” Dundy said. “He was murdered.”
Mrs. Bliss caught her breath. Bliss’s arm tightened around his niece with a little jerk, but there was not yet any change in his face. “Murdered?” he repeated uncompre-hendingly.
“Yes.” Dundy put his hands in his coat pockets. “You were here this afternoon.”
Theodore Bliss paled a little under his sunburn, but said, “I was,” steadily enough.
“How long?”
“About an hour. I got here about half past two and — ” He turned to his wife. “It was almost half past three when I phoned you, wasn’t it?”
She said, “Yes.”
“Well, I left right after that.”
“Did you have a date with him?” Dundy asked.
“No. I phoned his office” — he nodded at his wife — “and was told he’d left for home, so I came on up. I wanted to see him before Elise and I left, of course, and I wanted him to come to the wedding, but he couldn’t. He said he was expecting somebody. We sat here and talked longer
than I had intended, so I had to phone Elise to meet me at the Municipal Building.”
After a thoughtful pause, Dundy asked, “What time?”
“That we met there?” Bliss looked inquiringly at his wife, who said, “It was just quarter to four.” She laughed a little. “I got there first and I kept looking at my watch.”
Bliss said very deliberately, “It was a few minutes after four that we were married. We had to wait for Judge Whitefield — about ten minutes, and it was a few more before we got started — to get through with the case he was hearing. You can check it up — Superior Court, Part Two, I think.”
Spade whirled around and pointed at Tom. “Maybe you’d better check it up.”
Tom said, “Oke,” and went away from the door.
“If that’s so, you’re all right, Mr. Bliss,” Dundy said, “but I have to ask you these things. Now, did your brother say who he was expecting?”
“No.”
“Did he say anything about having been threatened?”
“No. He never talked much about his affairs to anybody, not even to me. Had he been threatened?”