The blonde didn't say anything.
I let them chew on it.
Brody's face cleared slowly, with a sort of grayish relief.
He put his Colt down on the end table beside his chair but kept his right hand close to it.
He knocked ash from his cigar on the carpet and stared at me with eyes that were a tight shine between narrowed lids. "I guess you think I'm dumb," Brody said.
"Just average, for a grifter.
Get the pictures."
"What pictures?"
I shook my head. "Wrong play, Joe.
Innocence gets you nowhere.
You were either there last night, or you got the nude photo from somebody that was there.
You knew she was there, because you had your girl friend threaten Mrs. Regan with a police rap.
The only ways you could know enough to do that would be by seeing what happened or by holding the photo and knowing where and when it was taken.
Cough up and be sensible."
"I'd have to have a little dough," Brody said.
He turned his head a little to look at the green-eyed blonde.
Not now green-eyed and only superficially a blonde.
She was as limp as a fresh-killed rabbit.
"No dough," I said.
He scowled bitterly.
"How'd you get to me?"
I flicked my wallet out and let him look at my buzzer.
"I was working on Geiger — for a client.
I was outside last night, in the rain.
I heard the shots. I crashed in.
I didn't see the killer. I saw everything else."
"And kept your lip buttoned," Brody sneered.
I put my wallet away.
"Yes," I admitted.
"Up till now.
Do I get the photos or not?"
"About these books," Brody said. "I don't get that."
"I tailed them here from Geiger's store.
I have a witness."
"That punk kid?"
"What punk kid?"
He scowled again.
"The kid that works at the store.
He skipped out after the truck left.
Agnes don't even know where he flops."
"That helps," I said, grinning at him. "That angle worried me a little.
Either of you ever been in Geiger's house — before last night?"
"Not even last night," Brody said sharply. "So she says I gunned him, eh?"
"With the photos in hand I might be able to convince her she was wrong.
There was a little drinking being done."
Brody sighed.
"She hates my guts.
I bounced her out.
I got paid, sure, but I'd of had to do it anyway.
She's too screwy for a simple guy like me." He cleared his throat. "How about a little dough?