Jonathan Craig - The Case of the Petticoat Murder

“No more than that?”

“Well, it said she'd been killed.”

“How do you feel about it?”

“Not so good.”

“Is that all? Just 'not so good'?”

“I sure hate that it happened. I feel real bad about it.”

“But you're not exactly all broken up about it, are you?”

He sighed and reached for the bottle again.

“Lay off the booze until we finish here, Hutchins,” I said.

“A man can take a drink in his own room, I guess.”

“He can also do his talking at the station house,” I said. “Lay off the jug.”

He shrugged. “You're the boss-man,” he said. “A fella can't afford to mess with cops in this town.”

I studied him for a moment. The bartender at the Hi-Lo had thought he was about thirty; to me, he looked much more like twenty — five but a twenty-five with a lot of fairly hard living behind it.

“You know anyone with either the first or last name of Clifford?” I asked. “And if you don't, do you know whether Nadine did?”

“Clifford?… No, I sure don't. I can't say about Nadine.”

“I'm told you were Mrs. Ellison's boy friend,” I said.

“Mrs. Ellison?”

“You didn't know she was married?”

“I sure'n hell didn't,” he said. “Well, I'll be damned”

“You never even suspected it?”

“No, sir, I sure didn't.”

“How long had you known her?”

“Not too long.”

“How long is that?”

“About two months. That's all the time I've been in New York.”

“Where are you from?”

“Florida.” He shook his head. “So that gal was married all the time. Well, what do you know.”

“You see quite a bit of her, did you?”

“Yes.”

“When was the last time you saw her?”

“It was along about ten o'clock yesterday morning.”

“You sure of that?”

“Just as sure as I'm sitting here wishing I had a drink.”

“All right,” I said. “Take it, and then get your mind off it for a while. This is a pretty serious business, Hutchins.”

“Man, I know it,” he said, reaching for the bottle again.

“I know it better'n almost anybody. That's why I need a little extra medicine.”

“You didn't see her after ten o'clock A.M. yesterday?”

“I didn't even think of her after that. I ran into this little old girl over on Waverly, and from then on I didn't waste time thinking about anything else at all. I reckon you might say I just more or less had my hands full, if you know what I mean.” He took a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, fished around in another pocket for a lighter, and glanced at me questioningly. “Smoke?”

I shook my head, thinking about the way the bartender at the Hi-Lo had described Hutchins' treatment of the long-shoreman who had tried to mimic Hutchins' accent.

Hutchins started to thumb the lighter, dropped it, then picked it up, tried again, and dropped it a second time. “Aw, to hell with it,” he said, flicking the cigarette beneath a chair and dropping the lighter down beside him on the bed. “It'd probably taste awful, anyway.”

“Little nervous, Mr. Hutchins?” I asked.

“A little,” he said. “Hangover jitters, I guess. I get them every time.”

“Where do you work?”

“Nowhere, right at the moment. I had me a little money saved up before I came North.” He shook his head. “But it's running out pretty fast. I didn't have any idea it cost so much to live up here.”

“Did you know Nadine was in the assignation business?”

“What?”

“Don't stall me, Hutchins. She rented out her apartment to couples who wanted to bed down for an hour or two. You knew all about it.”

He shook his head. “No, I didn't, either. It's a complete surprise to me.”

“Come off it, Hutchins.”

“I'm telling you the God's truth. I didn't know one thing about any carrying-on like that, and that's a fact.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

“I don't expect you to believe anything. I'm just telling you, that's all.”

“How'd you meet Nadine?”

“In a tavern.”

“Tell me about it.”

“I don't know whether it's exactly right or not, seeing as she's dead now.” He paused. “Down where I come from, we—”

“Never mind all that,” I said. “What about this meeting?”

“Like I said — you're the boss-man. If you make me tell it, I will.”

I didn't say anything.

“She was sitting on the next stool,” he said. “I noticed she was kind of showing her legs, and all, and so I started up a conversation. She was wearing these round garters, and I said a person didn't see them much any more, and then — well, you know how one thing leads to another. We talked up a storm, and what with buying each other drinks and all, it wasn't too long before we both got pretty polluted.”

“And you took her home?”

“She asked me to. I kind of had the same thing in mind myself, of course. But when she came right out and asked me that way, I got a little leary. You know. I figured she might be looking to charge me a little something, or that maybe she might take me some place where she had a fella waiting to hit me on the head and rob me. I'd read about how much of that went on up here, and I guess I got a little jumpy.”

“But you took her home, just the same?”

“It was the way she kept showing her legs and all. After a couple hours of that, I figured I just had to take the chance.”

“And then you and Nadine started going around together?”

“Yeah. We started hitting it off pretty good. Right at first, there, I still figured she might be fixing to ease me out of some money. But she never did. She wouldn't let me spend any money on her at all.”

“She have dates with anyone else?”

“Not that I know of. She said she didn't, anyhow.”

“She didn't work anywhere, Hutchins, and yet she always had money. How did you think she got it?”

“I didn't know where she got it. I still don't. That business about her renting her apartment to people is news to me.”

“Were you pretty fond of her?”

“I was for a while. Lately, though, she'd been getting me down a little.”

“In what way?”

“Oh, hell, I don't know. It was her lying, more than anything else. She couldn't say two things in a row without one of them being a lie. I don't like to talk about dead people, but that girl could outlie anybody I ever heard of in all my born days. I mean it. She'd break off right in the middle of one lie to start another. And when she'd get through with the second one, she'd come back and finish up the first one.”

“I see.”

“It got so bad that I had to tune her out half the time. I'd just sit there and nod my head now and then and not hear a word she said.” He paused. “And then there was the way she kept carrying on about babies.”

“Babies?”

“Yeah — and it didn't make any difference whose or what kind, either. If we saw one in a movie or on television, I knew the minute the show was over she'd be off again. I used to think she was hinting around about us getting married or something, but she wasn't.” He shook his head. “The worst was when we'd pass one on the street. Nadine, she'd stop and goo-goo-goo around and make funny noises until it was enough to turn your stomach.”

“Funny you'd go with her so long,” I said.

“Nothing funny about it,” he said. “That Nadine Ellison was the one best-looking woman I ever got next to. She had a body on her would drive you crazy. And besides, she wasn't costing me a dime. I figured, hell, she's beautiful, and she's free, and where's a guy ever going to do any better?”

“Was she wearing her sapphire earrings when you saw her yesterday morning?”