There might be a small contribution.
You won't count it in grands, though.
Now where did you get the picture?"
"A guy slipped it to me."
"Uh-huh.
A guy you just passed in the street. You wouldn't know him again. You never saw him before."
Brody yawned.
"It dropped out of his pocket," he leered.
"Uh-huh.
Got an alibi for last night, poker pan?"
"Sure. I was right here.
Agnes was with me.
Okey, Agnes?"
"I'm beginning to feel sorry for you again," I said.
His eyes flicked wide and his mouth hung loose, the cigarette balanced on his lower lip.
"You think you're smart and you're so goddamned dumb," I told him.
"Even if you don't dance off up in Quentin, you have such a bleak long lonely time ahead of you."
His cigarette jerked and dropped ash on his vest.
"Thinking about how smart you are," I said.
"Take the air," he growled suddenly. "Dust. I got enough chinning with you.
Beat it."
"Okey."
I stood up and went over to the tall oak desk and took his two guns out of my pockets, laid them side by side on the blotter so that the barrels were exactly parallel. I reached my hat off the floor beside the davenport and started for the door.
Brody yelped:
"Hey!"
I turned and waited.
His cigarette was jiggling like a doll on a coiled spring.
"Everything's smooth, ain't it?" he asked.
"Why, sure.
This is a free country.
You don't have to stay out of jail, if you don't want to.
That is, if you're a citizen.
Are you a citizen?"
He just stared at me, jiggling the cigarette.
The blonde Agnes turned her head slowly and stared at me along the same level.
Their glances contained almost the exact same blend of foxiness, doubt and frustrated anger.
Agnes reached her silvery nails up abruptly and yanked a hair out of her head and broke it between her fingers, with a bitter jerk.
Brody said tightly:
"You're not going to any cops, brother.
Not if it's the Sternwoods you're working for.
I've got too much stuff on that family.
You got your pictures and you got your hush.
Go and peddle your papers."
"Make your mind up," I said. "You told me to dust, I was on my way out, you hollered at me and I stopped, and now I'm on my way out again.
Is that what you want?"
"You ain't got anything on me," Brody said.
"Just a couple of murders.
Small change in your circle."
He didn't jump more than an inch, but it looked like a foot.
The white cornea showed all around the tobacco-colored iris of his eyes.