“Of course you wouldn’t, if you knew he was dead,” he said casually.
She was silent.
“You knew he was dead?” he asked.
She raised her eyes and looked blankly at him. “But he was dead,” she said.
He smiled. “Of course; but what I’m getting at is, did you make sure before you phoned?”
j6
THE ADVENTURES OF SAM SPADE
She put a hand to her throat. “I don’t remember what I did,” she said earnestly. “I think I just knew he was dead.”
He nodded understandingly. “And if you phoned the police it was because you knew he had been murdered.”
She worked her hands together and looked at them and said, “I suppose so. It was awful. I don’t know what I thought or did.”
Spade leaned forward and made his voice low and persuasive. “I’m not a police detective, Miss Bliss. I was engaged by your father — a few minutes too late to save him. I am, in a way, working for you now, so if there is anything I can do — maybe something the police wouldn’t — ” He broke off as Dundy, followed by the Blisses and the housekeeper, returned to the room. “What luck?”
Dundy said, “The green tie’s not there.” His suspicious gaze darted from Spade to the girl. “Mrs. Hooper says the blue tie we found is one of half a dozen he just got from England.”
Bliss asked, “What’s the importance of the tie?”
Dundy scowled at him. “He was partly undressed when we found him. The tie with his clothes had never been worn.”
“Couldn’t he have been changing clothes when whoever killed him came, and was killed before he had finished dressing?”
Dundy’s scowl deepened. “Yes, but what did he do with the green tie? Eat it?”
Spade said, “He wasn’t changing clothes. If you’ll look
at the shirt collar you’ll see he must’ve had it on when he
was choked.”
Tom came to the door. “Checks all right,” he told Dundy. “The judge and a bailiff named Kittredge say they were there from about a quarter to four till five or ten minutes after. I told Kittredge to come over and take a look at them to make sure they’re the same ones.”
Dundy said, “Right,” without turning his head and took the penciled threat signed with the T in a star from his pocket. He folded it so only the signature was visible. Then he asked, “Anybody know what this is?”
Miriam Bliss left the bed to join the others in looking at it. From it they looked at one another blankly.
“Anybody know anything about it?” Dundy asked. Mrs. Hooper said, “It’s like what was on poor Mr. Bliss’s chest, but — ” The others said, “No.”
“Anybody ever seen anything like it before?” They said they had not.
Dundy said, “All right. Wait here. Maybe I’ll have something else to ask you after a while.”
Spade said, “Just a minute. Mr. Bliss, how long have you known Mrs. Bliss?”
Bliss looked curiously at Spade. “Since I got out of prison,” he replied somewhat cautiously. “Why?”
“Just since last month,” Spade said as if to himself. “Meet her through your brother?”
“Of course – in his office. Why?” “And at the Municipal Building this afternoon, were you together all the time?”
“Yes, certainly.” Bliss spoke sharply. “What are you
getting at?”
Spade smiled at him, a friendly smile. “I have to ask
things,” he said.
Bliss smiled too. “It’s all right.” His smile broadened. “As a matter of fact, I’m a liar. We weren’t actually together all the time. I went out into the corridor to smoke a cigarette, but I assure you every time I looked through the glass of the door I could see her still sitting in the courtroom where I had left her.”
Spade’s smile was as light as Bliss’s. Nevertheless, he asked, “And when you weren’t looking through the glass you were in sight of the door? She couldn’t’ve left the courtroom without your seeing her?”
Bliss’s smile went away. “Of course she couldn’t,” he said, “and I wasn’t out there more than five minutes.”
Spade said, “Thanks,” and followed Dundy into the living-room, shutting the door behind him. Dundy looked sidewise at Spade. “Anything to it?” Spade shrugged.