Hammett

34

It was Wednesday, August 29. Eighty-nine days since Molly Farr had jumped bail to start it all.

Hammett had spent the morning, as usual, passing details of the investigation to the grand jury in closed session. It wasn’t over yet, but it was drawing to a close.

The Mulligans already were under indictment on multiple felony counts of bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery, and conspiracy to commit extortion.

Gardner Shuman had resigned as police commissioner, and one of the city supervisors had committed suicide.

Fifty-seven policemen ranking from patrolman to captain had resigned quietly; fifteen more had been removed by dismissal and five had been indicted for perjury and extortion.

According to the tabloids, Laverty had killed himself while depressed over ill health, and Lynch had been murdered by an unknown assailant he had surprised rifling his home.

The probable hobo who had rolled and accidentally killed Victor Atkinson was still at large.

Famed ex-Pinkerton detective Jimmy Wright had been conducting a sweeping investigation of graft and corruption in San Francisco under the personal direction of Mayor Brendan Brian McKenna. The name of Dashiell Hammett had not appeared in the newspapers at all.

The bookies were still thriving. And the taxi houses. And the speakies. Rinaldo Pronzini had taken over his son’s club, which, thanks to its notoriety, was flourishing.

Hammett paused outside the hearing room to check his watch. Jimmy Wright, on his way in, stopped beside him. ‘Just had another photo-session with His Honor, Dash. Without his wife to point him in the right direction and tell him to smile…’

‘Yeah, but nobody’s going to stop him. He’s cleaning up San Francisco, he’s Irish, he’s handsome, he’s a hell of an orator, his wife has aged beautifully, and his best friend died defending the sanctity of the American home. Given all that, they’d make him governor if he was a hydrocephalic.’

‘Listen, Dash, I’ve closed the deal with Vic’s widow for the agency. That partnership offer is still…’

‘We can kick it around next week, Jimmy, okay?’

Ever since Jimmy Wright had walked into that basement charnel house to free him, Hammett had been immersed in the corruption that had spewed from the asbestos-lined filing cabinets hauled from Mulligan Bros Bailbonds. He was tired, worn out, sick of it. He was barely aware, as he went down the echoing marble-floored corridor, of the rushing attorneys, the nervous accused, the testifying cops and witnesses, the spectators and hangers-on congregated around the doorways of courts just convening for the afternoon sessions.

Then he passed a knot of reporters, and some of their remarks caught his ear.

‘… Brady promised the circus of the century, then he doesn’t even show up for the hearing…’

‘… veil, can’t even be sure it is Molly Farr…’

‘… Brass Mouth showed up…’

‘… anything for money…’

Molly Farr! Brass Mouth Epstein! Of course. Today must be the eighty-ninth day since she had jumped bail. It would be forfeit today if she didn’t show up for arraignment. Brass Mouth had said he’d have her in court. And had bet Hammett five bucks he’d get her off.

Hammett caught a passing reporter’s arm.

‘Whose court?’

‘Judge Kelly.’

Hammett paused in front of Room 306. He looked in through the round glass window. Yep. There was Brass Mouth. Beside him a shapeless veiled female form; apparently Molly Farr come for her arraignment on three counts of Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor.

But no crowds. It should have been bedlam after all the newspaper space Molly’s flight had generated. No reporters.

No Evelyn Brewster and her husband, there to savor the supreme moment of triumph.

And the most amazing fact, no District Attorney Matt Brady. The people were represented by Assistant District Attorney Michael Bender, on his first court appearance. Why, for God’s sake, Hammett wondered, as he slipped inside to take a seat on a rear bench in the nearly deserted chamber. Brady, as soon as he convicted Molly, could just about walk into the mayor’s office and sit down behind the desk.

Brass Mouth Epstein was just sitting down. He was impossibly dandy in a dark-blue double-breasted suit with a viciously subdued silver silk stripe. At his breast burst a white display handkerchief, on his chest glittered gold studs, on his soft rolled cuffs, gold links.

Now Bender was on his feet: a slender Irish lad with mobile features and blue eyes and a shock of gleaming black hair. He gestured at the demurely triple-veiled woman Epstein was defending.

‘I agree that’s a human being sitting next to distinguished counsel, but how’s anyone supposed to know whether it’s Molly Farr or not?’

‘I am Molly Farr, you black Irish-’

Hammett recognized her voice even as Epstein cut her off. ‘You hired me to do the talking.’ To the bench, he said, ‘This is Molly Farr, Your Honor.’

‘I continue to oppose restoration of bail,’ said Bender.

Epstein was on his feet to yell, ‘In all my years practicing law, this is the first time I’ve known the district attorney to oppose release of bail when the defendant has returned to surrender voluntarily. Why is he trying to crucify this unfortunate lady?’

‘Your Honor-’

But Epstein now was in full tongue. He shot his cuffs, he danced like a welterweight on the Friday night card at the Winterland Rink on Steiner Street.

‘I could stand on the steps of the Hall of Justice and throw a handful of buckshot, Your Honor, and hit so many houses of prostitution that the district attorney would be kept busy for a year. So why is he picking on Molly?’

‘I object!’ yelped Bender. ‘I object, I object, I obj-’

‘Objection sustained.’ Kelly said to Epstein, ‘Counselor, you are not giving your closing argument to a jury. I would like to get down to the matter before this court. How do you plead your client to the charges?’

‘We plead guilty to one misdemeanor count of Contributing, and not guilty to two felony counts of Contributing.’

The judge, shaken, looked from one attorney to the other. He said, ‘Misdemeanor?’ He fixed on Bender. ‘Mr District Attorney-’

‘So stipulated, Your Honor.’ Bender was nearly inaudible.

‘Counsel will approach the bench.’

Hammett swallowed the laughter that bubbled up inside him. Epstein had muzzled the wolves snapping at his client’s heels. Hammett owed him five bucks. With a single misdemeanor charge against her, Molly might get off with…

Epstein’s voice, still angry, rose. ‘… not acceptable to Your Honor, then I will plead my client innocent of all charges. It will not only cost this county a great deal of money, but certain people will be called upon to-’

‘No!’ cried Bender in alarm. ‘No, the misdemeanor charge is sufficient to establish…’

His voice became inaudible. The attorneys retreated from the bench. Molly was called forward. Was she willing to waive her right to plead innocent? Was she willing to accept the sentence of the court to the single charge of misdemeanor Contributing? Epstein dug an elbow into her ribs.

‘I am, Your Honor.’

‘Then the court must agree, Mr Bender, with the defense contention that, although the defendant has pleaded guilty, she might very well have been acquitted of all charges in open court. Therefore, I find the defendant guilty of one count of misdemeanor Contributing, I assess defendant five hundred dollars, and I remand her to the women’s section of County Jail Number Two in San Mateo County for one year; the latter portion of this punishment to be suspended upon condition that the fine is paid and that the defendant discontinue her present occupation.’ He leaned forward to regard Molly from behind his massive hardwood desk. ‘Have you any other means of employment in mind, young lady?’

‘I do, Your Honor. I am going abroad as paid companion to a wealthy heiress.’

‘Counselor?’

‘That is correct, Your Honor,’ said Epstein. ‘I have just finished representing the heiress in the matter of her estate, and she has expressed her eagerness to have Miss Farr accompany her in this capacity.’

Judge Kelly slapped his gavel down. ‘Court is adjourned.’

‘All rise.’

Hammett pushed past the spectator barrier as Kelly retired to his chambers.

‘Congratulations, Molly.’

‘Hammett!’

Epstein watched sourly as the tall blonde, now freed of her triple veil, threw her arms around the lean detective and kissed him passionately on the mouth.

‘I get her off, he gets kissed!’

‘We were in love with each other one afternoon,’ said Molly.

Hammett handed the attorney a five-dollar bill. ‘Brass Mouth, you made the DA crumble up and blow away, just like you said you would. But I’m damned if I know how you did it.’

‘Because I understand Evelyn Brewster — also like I told you.’ He rammed a repeated forefinger into Hammett’s spare gut for emphasis. ‘This morning at seven A.M., a crew of my process servers simultaneously delivered subpoenas to Mr and Mrs Dalton W. Brewster, Mr and Mrs Edmund N. Calloway, and Mr and Mrs C. Gerald Gordon, informing them that they, as well as their teenage sons, were to appear for the defense in the case of The People v. Molly Farr.’

‘Jesus Christ!’ breathed Hammett as the beautiful implications sank in. ‘Everyone in town would know their kids had been the ones caught in Molly’s cathouse-’

‘Parlor house,’ said the ex-madam.

‘No wonder Brady didn’t show up in person. I’ll bet he had a hell of a morning assuring all the ladies he’d let the whole case die this afternoon.’ His laughter was bitter. He could hear Evelyn Brewster’s words again. We are here from a moral commitment… no matter who is hurt or what hardships fall upon their families…

‘So much for civic duty.’ Hammett chuckled.

Hammett stepped off the Sacramento cable and crossed the intersection to the three-story brownstone corner apartment house, 1155 Leavenworth. In his mailbox was a single envelope.

He trudged up to the third floor with deliberate slowness, slipping a forefinger under the flap of Goodie’s letter. It bore a Crockett postmark and her parents’ return address.

Goodie. He missed her. Missed her so much that he’d finally moved out of 891 Post Street, trying to convince himself that he was doing it because too many policemen knew where he lived and might try to take him out of the investigation.

He’d meant to get up to Crockett to see her, but he’d been so damned busy. As for writing to her… well…

He stopped, key hand outthrust in front of his door, as he finished reading.

She was getting married in two months. Son of the foreman at the sugar refinery. She hoped that Hammett would always feel she was his friend and she hoped that when she and Fairfax were married, Hammett would come to visit with them and…

He opened the door with a flat brass key, went through the foyer and into the living room.

A petite impeccably groomed woman rose from the chair she had turned to the front window. She was superbly clad in a City of Paris frock of beige satin with rich brown trim at the hips, throat, and pockets; brown leather pumps with gun-metal silk ornamentation; and in her left hand soft brown leather gloves. On her breast glowed a deep-blue sapphire brooch. Her hat was a Dobbs cloche of Army blue felt.

‘Hello, Hammett,’ she said in a demure voice.

Only then, impaled by the huge dark eyes that dominated the face, did he realize he was looking at Crystal Tam. The transformation had been complete, from the inside out. She was into another role. Superbly, of course. Probably because for her there were only roles.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, ‘for a moment I thought the manager had let a lady into the apartment.’

Crystal laughed her tinkling laugh and sat down on the front edge of the chair, alert and erect as befit a smart young society matron.

‘Do you really hate me so much? After all, I let you live, did I not? With nothing more than a small scare?’ She giggled. ‘I realized it was important that you be alive to testify, if it ever became necessary, that little Crystal killed no one, no one at all.’

‘I could lie about what happened.’

‘But you would not.’ Her clear laughter rippled again. She stood up. ‘That is why I am invulnerable. You are the only man of absolute integrity I have ever met.’

‘Then we’re even. You’re the only woman of absolute evil I’ve ever-’

‘We are back to that? Evil?’ She shrugged. ‘Of course. Only the man to whom evil is a concern would see me in that way. Any other man …’

She completed her sentence by arching the beautifully shaped body in its exquisite frock into a blatantly sexual pose. Hammett found himself physically stirred, as always, by her. Her knowing laughter taunted him.

‘Poor Hammett! The frustrated manhunter…’

He sat down on the edge of the bed and leaned back against the wall with his hands locked behind his head.

‘Just about finished with the manhunting, Crystal.’

‘You will always be a manhunter.’

‘Nope.’

She walked over to stand in front of him, legs slightly apart, hips thrust slightly forward, her hands on them. She put her head to one side while looking down at him solemnly. The eyes were huge in the delicately boned face.

‘Then your integrity can sleep,’ she said softly.

‘It doesn’t work that way, sweetheart.’

She spun away with a burst of her innocent, joyous laughter. She leaned back against the edge of the table, and her body arched again in its explicit sexual offering as if she were an exotic tropical bird creating a complicated mating ritual. ‘I can offer you sensual experiences, physical sensations, that you do not know exist. Possess me to know total fulfillment-’

‘Like Daddy Lynch?’

‘Daddy Lynch was pathetic.’

‘Most men are, with their pants down.’

Her pose shifted and she was once more the young matron, matter-of-factly drawing on her gloves. Her eyes were flat and unreadable as they watched her busy fingers. ‘Did you really believe I was making a genuine offer?’

‘I believe you were getting a hell of a kick out of whatever you were doing.’

‘I came to tell you about the final condition I imposed on Daddy Lynch.’

And Hammett knew what it was, could hear again the scene in Judge Kelly’s courtroom that afternoon.

‘I’ll be damned. You’re the heiress. Lynch made you his legal heir!’

She was above time, beyond morality. Neither he nor anyone else would ever touch her, arouse in her normal human feeling. Nothing but death would reach her.

‘The estate was just settled,’ he went on. ‘Rushed through by your attorney, Phineas Epstein, I’ll bet.’

‘Molly told me he was the best,’ she said demurely.

‘And now you’re a wealthy young heiress, ready to travel. With a paid companion, of course, as is proper for young ladies traveling alone.’

‘Don’t you find me irresistible?’ she asked in a bubbly voice.

Hammett didn’t say. ‘Does poor old Molly Farr know what she’s letting herself in for?’

‘I will tell her a story.’ She shrugged. ‘Molly is sentimental.’

‘Yeah. The whore with the heart of gold.’

‘Perhaps I will make her my lover,’ Crystal said thoughtfully. A cold finger touched Hammett’s spine. ‘We will go to the East. The exotic East with its exotic perversions. You know what my wealth will buy me, Hammett? The knowledge that no one will ever again touch my body unless I want him to.’

‘Not until the embalmer gets you, anyway,’ he agreed. He glanced down to hook a cigarette from the pack in his pocket. ‘If they use embalmers in the exotic East…’

He looked up. She was gone. He lit a cigarette and squinted through the smoke. The door stood open.

‘Don’t ever get her mad at you, Molly me darling,’ he muttered. To the empty room, he added, aloud, ‘I wonder what in Christ’s name she’s going to be like by the time she turns sixteen?’

Hammett realized he had never shut the door. As he did, someone knocked on it. He found a boy Crystal’s age who hadn’t yet outgrown his pimples and would never outgrow his freckles.

‘Yeah?’

‘I’m from the Crocker-Langley San Francisco Directory, sir. We’re gathering statistics for the 1929 directory. Your landlady said you had recently moved in…’

‘Hammett. First name, Dashiell.’

‘How do you spell those, sir?’

‘ H-A-M-M-E-T-T. D-A-S-H-I-E-L–L.’

The young census-taker, writing laboriously, left the second l off Dashiell, but Hammett didn’t bother to correct him. He wouldn’t be around San Francisco much longer. Write to his sister, Reba, suggest that they share an apartment in New York for a while. The ideas of somewhere else, and of family, seemed to appeal at the moment.

‘And could I have your occupation, sir?’

‘Writer.’ Then he added, ‘ W-R-I-T-E-R.’

He shut the door. He leaned against it for a moment, then burst out laughing and went back into the living room.

Writer. He’d snatched enough hours to finish the revision of The Dain Curse in the past couple of months, but The Maltese Falcon would have to wait for final revision until after the investigation was completed. Maybe even until after he’d left San Francisco.

But meanwhile he thought he had an idea for a new book. A corrupt city, unnamed — hell, not San Francisco, he’d had a bellyful of this burg for a while, but — why not Baltimore? The Baltimore of his childhood? Corruption and politics and murder and friendship and love. Not a detective novel. Hell no. He’d had a bellyful of that, too.

A political hanger-on. There’d be a girl, of course. Not a Crystal, not an Oriental — he’d never be able to write Crystal. But still, a woman who would use other people just as she pleased. Bent on vengeance, for some reason he could work out…

And in extracting her vengeance, use everybody. Except the hero. Nobody would be able to use… Ned? Sure. Ned. Base him physically on Fingers LeGrand. Maybe even his character a little bit, too.

But nobody could use him unless he wanted them to. Cynical, hard-drinking, always loyal, and never corruptible…

Sure, he thought, beginning to pace the length of the living room from window to door and back again, sure. That was going to work. That was going to work just swell.

But the vast majority of it is the result of remarkable original scholarship by Professor William Godshalk of the University of Cincinnati. He simply handed over to me all of his original Hammett research. This novel would not have its present depth of background without Professor Godshalk’s stunning generosity. He has in progress (to be published by Twayne Press) a critical biography of Hammett that should prove to be the major academic source for years to come.