The brown skin of his face took on a greenish tinge in the lamplight.
Blonde Agnes let out a low animal wail and buried her head in a cushion on the end of the davenport.
I stood there and admired the long line of her thighs.
Brody moistened his lips slowly and said:
"Sit down, pal.
Maybe I have a little more for you.
What's that crack about two murders mean?"
I leaned against the door.
"Where were you last night about seven-thirty, Joe?"
His mouth drooped sulkily and he stared down at the floor.
"I was watching a guy, a guy who had a nice racket I figured he needed a partner in.
Geiger.
I was watching him now and then to see had he any tough connections.
I figure he has friends or he don't work the racket as open as he does.
But they don't go to his house.
Only dames."
"You didn't watch hard enough," I said. "Go on."
"I'm there last night on the street below Geiger's house.
It's raining hard and I'm buttoned up in my coupe and I don't see anything.
There's a car in front of Geiger's and another car a little way up the hill.
That's why I stay down below.
There's a big Buick parked down where I am and after a while I go over and take a gander into it.
It's registered to Vivian Regan.
Nothing happens, so I scram.
That's all." He waved his cigarette. His eyes crawled up and down my face.
"Could be," I said. "Know where that Buick is now?"
"Why would I?"
"In the Sheriff's garage.
It was lifted out of twelve feet of water off Lido fish pier this a.m. There was a dead man in it.
He had been sapped and the car pointed out the pier and the hand throttle pulled down."
Brody was breathing hard. One of his feet tapped restlessly.
"Jesus, guy, you can't pin that one on me," he said thickly.
"Why not?
This Buick was down back of Geiger's according to you.
Well, Mrs. Regan didn't have it out.
Her chauffeur, a lad named Owen Taylor, had it out.
He went over to Geiger's place to have words with him, because Owen Taylor was sweet on Carmen, and he didn't like the kind of games Geiger was playing with her.
He let himself in the back way with a jimmy and a gun and he caught Geiger taking a photo of Carmen without any clothes on.
So his gun went off, as guns will, and Geiger fell down dead and Owen ran away, but not without the photo negative Geiger had just taken.
So you ran after him and took the photo from him.
How else would you have got hold of it?"
Brody licked his lips.
"Yeah," he said. "But that don't make me knock him off.
Sure, I heard the shots and saw this killer come slamming down the back steps into the Buick and off.
I took out after him.
He hit the bottom of the canyon and went west on Sunset.
Beyond Beverly Hills he skidded off the road and had to stop and I came up and played copper.
He had a gun but his nerve was bad and I sapped him down.
So I went through his clothes and found out who he was and I lifted the plateholder, just out of curiosity.
I was wondering what it was all about and getting my neck wet when he came out of it all of a sudden and knocked me off the car.