Max Bliss’s body had been removed. Besides the man at the secretaire and the gray-faced man, two Filipino boys in plum-colored uniforms were in the room. They sat close together on the sofa.
Dundy said, “Mack, I want to find a green necktie. I want this house taken apart, this block taken apart, and the whole neighborhood taken apart till you find it. Get what men you need.”
The man at the secretaire rose, said “Right,” pulled his hat down over his eyes, and went out.
Dundy scowled at the Filipinos. “Which of you saw the man in brown?”
The smaller stood up. “Me, sir.”
Dundy opened the bedroom door and said, “Bliss.”
Bliss came to the door.
The Filipino’s face lighted up. “Yes, sir, him.”
Dundy shut the door in Bliss’s face. “Sit down.”
The boy sat down hastily.
Dundy stared gloomily at the boys until they began to fidget. Then, “Who else did you bring up to this apartment this afternoon?”
They shook their heads in unison from side to side. “Nobody else, sir,” the smaller one said. A desperately ingratiating smile stretched his mouth wide across his face.
Dundy took a threatening step towards them. “Nuts!” he snarled. “You brought up Miss Bliss.”
The larger boy’s head bobbed up and down. “Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I bring them up. I think you mean other people.” He too tried a smile.
Dundy was glaring at him. “Never mind what you think I mean. Tell me what I ask. Now, what do you mean by
‘them’?”
The boy’s smile died under the glare. He looked at the floor between his feet and said, “Miss Bliss and the gentleman.”
“What gentleman? The gentleman in there?” He jerked his head toward the door he had shut on Bliss.
“No, sir. Another gentleman, not an American gentleman.” He had raised his head again and now brightness came back into his face. “I think he is Armenian.”
“Why?”
“Because he not like us Americans, not talk like us.”
Spade laughed, asked, “Ever seen an Armenian?”
“No, sir. That is why I think — ” He shut his mouth with a click as Dundy made a growling noise in his throat.
“What’d he look like?” Dundy asked.
The boy lifted his shoulders, spread his hands. “He tall, like this gentleman.” He indicated Spade. “Got dark hair, dark mustache. Very” — he frowned earnestly — “very nice clothes. Very nice-looking man. Cane, gloves, spats,| even, and—”
“Young?” Dundy asked.
The head went up and down again. “Young, yes, sir.”
“When did he leave?”
“Five minutes,” the boy replied.
Dundy made a chewing motion with his jaws, then asked, “What time did they come in?”
The boy spread his hands, lifted his shoulders again. “Four o’clock — maybe ten minutes after.”
“Did you bring anybody else up before we got here?”
The Filipinos shook their heads in unison once more.
Dundy spoke out the side of his mouth to Spade: “Get her.”
Spade opened the bedroom door, bowed slightly, said, “Will you come out a moment, Miss Bliss?”
“What is it?” she asked wearily.
“Just for a moment,” he said, holding the door open. Then he suddenly added, “And you’d better come along, too, Mr. Bliss.”
Miriam Bliss came slowly into the living-room followed
by her uncle, and Spade shut the door behind them. Miss Bliss’s lower lip twitched a little when she saw the elevator boys. She looked apprehensively at Dundy.
He asked, “What’s this fiddlededee about the man that came in with you?”
Her lower lip twitched again. “Wh-what?” She tried to put bewilderment on her face. Theodore Bliss hastily crossed the room, stood for a moment before her as if he intended to say something, and then, apparently changing his mind, took up a position behind her, his arms crossed over the back of a chair.
“The man who came in with you,” Dundy said harshly, rapidly. “Who is he? Where is he? Why’d he leave? Why didn’t you say anything about him?”
The girl put her hands over her face and began to cry. “He didn’t have anything to do with it,” she blubbered through her hands. “He didn’t, and it would just make trouble for him.”