Free Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler Page A

"Three highballs and three sticks of tea and it took a pipe wrench to get him off the chandelier."
    "Hold the light steady."
    There was a rustling pause. Then she spoke again.
    "I'm sorry." She handed the case down again and I slipped it back in his pocket. That seemed to be all. All it proved was that he hadn't been cleaned out.
    I stood up and took my wallet out. The five twenties were still in it.
    "High class boys," I said. "They only took the large money."
    The flash was drooping to the ground. I put my wallet away again, clipped my own small flash to my pocket and reached suddenly for the little gun she was still holding in the same hand with the flashlight. She dropped the flashlight, but I got the gun. She stepped back quickly and I reached down for the light. I put it on her face for a moment, then snapped it off.
    "You didn't have to be rough," she said, putting her hands down into the pockets of a long rough coat with flaring shoulders. "I didn't think you killed him."
    I liked the cool quiet of her voice. I liked her nerve. We stood in the darkness, face to face, not saying anything for a moment. I could see the brush and light in the sky.
    I put the light on her face and she blinked. It was a small neat vibrant face with large eyes. A face with bone under the skin, fine drawn like a Cremona violin. A very nice face.
    "Your hair's red," I said. "You look Irish."
    "And my name's Riordan. So what? Put that light out. It's not red, it's auburn."
    I put it out. "What's your first name?"
    "Anne. And don't call me Annie."
    "What are you doing around here?"
    "Sometimes at night I go riding. Just restless. I live alone. I'm an orphan. I know all this neighborhood like a book. I just happened to be riding along and noticed a light flickering down in the hollow. It seemed a little cold for love. And they don't use lights, do they?"
    "I never did. You take some awful chances, Miss Riordan."
    "I think I said the same about you. I had a gun. I wasn't afraid. There's no law against going down there."
    "Uh-huh. Only the law of self preservation. Here. It's not my night to be clever. I suppose you have a permit for the gun." I held it out to her, butt first.
    She took it and tucked it down into her pocket. "Strange how curious people can be, isn't it? I write a little. Feature articles."
    "Any money in it?"
    "Very damned little. What were you looking for--in his pockets?"
    "Nothing in particular. I'm a great guy to snoop around. We had eight thousand dollars to buy back some stolen jewelry for a lady. We got hijacked. Why they killed him I don't know. He didn't strike me as a fellow who would put up much of a fight. And I didn't hear a fight. I was down in the hollow when he was jumped. He was in the car, up above. We were supposed to drive down into the hollow but there didn't seem to be room for the car without scratching it up. So I went down there on foot and while I was down there they must have stuck him up. Then one of them got into the car and dry-guiched me. I thought he was still in the car, of course."
    "That doesn't make you so terribly dumb," she said.
    "There was something wrong with the job from the start. I could feel it. But I needed the money. Now I have to go to the cops and eat dirt. Will you drive me to Montemar Vista? I left my car there. He lived there."
    "Sure. But shouldn't somebody stay with him? You could take my car--or I could go call the cops."
    I looked at the dial of my watch. The faintly glowing hands said that it was getting towards midnight.
    "No."
    "Why not?"
    "I don't know why not. I just feel it that way. I'll play it alone."
    She said nothing. We went back down the hill and got into her little car and she started it and jockeyed it around without lights and drove it back up the hill and eased it past the barrier. A block away she sprang the lights on.
    My head ached. We didn't speak until we came level with the first house on the paved part of the street. Then she said:
    "You need a drink.