Bill Pronzini - The Bughouse Affair

The cabin’s occupant heard or felt his presence; the banjo twanged and went silent, and a moment later the cabin door burst open and a bear of a man, naked to the waist, stepped out with a belaying pin clenched in one hand.

Quincannon snapped, “Stand fast!” and brought the pistol to bear. The scruff pulled up short, blinking and glowering. He was thirtyish, sported a patchy beard and hair that hung in matted ropes. The cold bay wind blew smells of “four-bit micky” and body odor off him in such a ripe wave that Quincannon’s nostrils pinched in self-defense.

“Who in foggy hell’re you?”

“My name is of no matter to you. Drop your weapon.”

“Huh?”

“The belaying pin. Drop it, O’Bannon.”

“Like hell I will.”

“There’ll be hell to pay if you don’t.”

Salty Jim gaped at him, rubbing at his scraggly beard with his free hand, his mouth open at least two inches-a fair approximation of a drooling idiot. “What’s the idee comin’ on my boat? You ain’t the goddamn fish patrol.”

“It’s your cousin I want, not you.”

“Cousin?”

“Dodger Brown.”

“Huh? What you want with him?”

“That’s none of your concern,” Quincannon said. “If he’s here, call him out. If he’s not, tell me where I can find him.”

“I ain’t gonna tell you nothin’.”

“You will, or you’ll find a lead pellet nestling in your hide.”

The oyster pirate’s mean little eyes narrowed to slits. He took a step forward and said with drunken belligerence, “By gar, nobody’s gonna shoot me on my own boat.”

“I’m warning you, O’Bannon. Drop your weapon and hold hard, or-”

Salty Jim was too witless and too much taken with drink to be either scared or intimidated. He growled deeply in his throat, hoisted the belaying pin aloft, and mounted a lumbering charge.

Quincannon had no desire to commit mayhem if it could be avoided. He took two swift steps forward, jabbed the Navy’s muzzle hard and straight into the rough bird’s sternum.

Salty Jim said an explosive, “Uff!” and rounded at the middle like an archer’s bow. The blow took the force out of his downsweeping arm; the belaying pin caromed more or less harmlessly off the meaty part of Quincannon’s shoulder. Another jab with the Colt, followed by a quick reverse flip of the weapon, and then with the butt end he fetched O’Bannon a solid thump on the crown of his empty cranium. There was another satisfying “Uff!” after which Salty Jim stretched out on the scaly deck for a nap. Rather amazingly he even commenced to make snoring noises.

The brief skirmish brought no one else out of the cabin. Nor were there any sounds from within to indicate another’s presence on board. Quincannon holstered the Navy, prodded the pirate with the toe of his boot; the nap and the snores continued unabated. A frisk of O’Bannon’s apparently never-washed trousers and shirt netted him nothing except a sack of Bull Durham, some papers to go with the tobacco, and a greasy French postcard of no artistic merit whatsoever.

Quincannon picked up the belaying pin, tossed it overboard. After a moment’s hesitation he sent the French postcard sailing after it. A frayed belt that held up the pirate’s filthy trousers served to tie his hands behind his back. Quincannon then stepped over the unconscious man and entered the cabin.

He had been in hobo jungles and opium dens that were tidier and less aromatic. Breathing through his mouth, he searched the confines. It was evident from the first that two men lived here recently. Verminous blankets were wadded on each of two bunks, and there were empty bottles of Salty Jim’s tipple, the cheap and potent white-line whiskey also known as four-bit micky and Dr. Hall, and empty flasks of the foot juice favored by Dodger Brown. The galley table, however, bore remnants of a single meal of oyster stew and sourdough bread, one tin coffee mug, one dirty glass, and one half-empty jug of Dr. Hall.

Under one of the bunks was a pasteboard suitcase. Quincannon drew it out, laid it on the blankets, snapped the cheap lock with the blade of his pocketknife, and sifted through the contents. Cheap John clothing of a size much too small to fit Salty Jim. An oilskin pouch that contained an array of lock picks and other burglar tools. An old Smith amp; Wesson revolver wrapped in cloth, unloaded, no cartridges in evidence. And a larger, felt-lined sack that rattled provocatively as he lifted it out.

When he upended the sack onto the blanket, out tumbled a variety of jewelry, timepieces, small silver and gold gewgaws. Pay dirt! A quick accounting told him that he was now in possession of the remaining stolen goods from Dodger Brown’s first three robberies.

There was one other item of interest in the suitcase, which he’d missed on his first look. It lay on the bottom, facedown, caught under a torn corner. He fished it out, flipped it over. A business card, creased and thumb-marked, but not of the sort he himself carried. He had seen such discreet advertisements before; they had grown more common in the Uptown Tenderloin, handed out by the more enterprising businesswomen in the district. This one read:

FIDDLE DEE DEE

MISS LETTIE CAREW PRESENTS

BOUNTIFUL BEAUTIES FROM EXOTIC LANDS

MAISON DE JOIE

244 O’FARRELL STREET

Well, now. Such a relatively refined establishment as the Fiddle Dee Dee was hardly the type of bawdy house Salty Jim would want or be permitted to patronize. The card, therefore, must belong to Dodger Brown. Quincannon was certain of it when he turned the card over and found pencil-scrawled on the back: Chinee girls!!

He considered. Was it possible that the Dodger wasn’t in quite as much hurry to flee the Bay Area as it had seemed from his visit to Luther Duff yesterday? That a different urge had prompted his eagerness for cash, and was the reason why the rest of his ill-gotten gains were still stashed here and he hadn’t spent last night on this scabrous tub?

A likely prospect. As was the Dodger’s eventual return. But when would that be? Salty Jim might know, but he was bound to be even more uncommunicative when he awoke from his nap. And the prospect of a long and possibly fruitless vigil in the pirate’s company held no appeal. After a few moments of reflection, Quincannon decided to follow his hunch and pay a call on Miss Lettie Carew in her maison de joie.

He returned the swag to its felt-lined nest and added the sack to the one he’d pocketed in Duff’s Curio Shop, after which he stepped onto the deck with Dodger Brown’s revolver in hand. Salty Jim was still non compos, but now starting to stir a bit. Quincannon left him bound where he lay, dropped the pistol into the bay, and further coppered his bet by untying and setting the pirate’s rowboat adrift. Then, whistling “The Brewers Big Horses Can’t Run Over Me,” one of his favorite temperance songs, he climbed down into the rented skiff and rowed briskly back to the wharf.

SABINA

Inside the house Penelope Costain’s voice said angrily, “And just what did you expect to find in my home, Mr. Holmes? The police went over every inch of the premises last night.”

“Clues to the unfortunate events that took place here.”

“And you found none that the police overlooked, I’m sure. If you’ve disturbed or taken anything, I’ll have you arrested.”

“Tut, tut. Nothing has been disturbed or removed.”

“I should have you arrested for trespassing anyway, but I won’t if you leave at once.”

“As you wish, madam. Au revoir. ”

Footsteps sounded inside. Sabina had just enough time to back down onto the path before the door opened and the cape-and-deerstalker Englishman emerged, his blackthorn walking stick in hand. He hesitated when he spied her, and glanced behind him. The door remained closed, Mrs. Costain still inside.