CHAPTER 5

    

    Captain Gregory of the Missing Persons Bureau shifted his heavy body in his swivel chair and looked at me as carefully as he did everything else.

    "How you been, Marlowe?" he said.

    He had a thick bulldog pipe in his hands and was packing tobacco into the bowl from a canister on his desk.

    "Nobody's hit me with a sap this month," I said.

    "Surprising," Gregory said.

    "Month's not over yet," I said.

    Gregory had the pipe packed the way he wanted it. He put it in his mouth and lit it with a kitchen match, moving the match carefully over the surface of the tobacco to make sure it was evenly lit. He drew in a big draught of smoke and blew the match out with it. Behind him through his office window I could see the hall of justice maybe half a mile away.

    "Never found Rusty Regan, I guess," Gregory said.

    "Never laid eyes on him," I said.

    Gregory got the pipe settled in the corner of his mouth and leaned a little further back in the chair and folded his hands over his stomach.

    "Whaddya need?" he said.

    "You remember Carmen Sternwood?" I said.

    "The General's daughter," Gregory said without emotion, "the nympho."

    "She was in a sanitarium," I said, "being treated, and she disappeared."

    "Resthaven," Gregory said. "The butler called us."

    "You looked into it?"

    "I gave them a call," Gregory said.

    "And?"

    "And they say the butler is misinformed and there's no problem, and I ask to speak to her, and they say she's not well enough to speak to anyone, and I suggest we send a nurse over from the county health association to take a look at her, and they say that will not be acceptable and they hang up."

    "Who'd you talk to?" I said.

    "Guy in charge, Bonsentir."

    "And you left it?" I said. "Just like that?"

    "I called the sister, what's her name?"

    "Vivian," I said.

    "Right. The frail that's been toe dancing around town with Eddie Mars. I call her and she says nothing to worry about. That she is not looking for her sister and feels that the butler was out of line calling us."

    Gregory moved his hands from his stomach to lace them behind his head. He took in some smoke and blew it out easily around the pipestem in his mouth.

    "And?" I said.

    "And nothing. I got enough people that are actually missing to keep most of us pretty busy down here."

    I couldn't see the sky outside Gregory's window. All I could see was a part of the hall of justice. As I stared out at it, a cloud must have floated past the sun, because a shadow fell on the building and then, almost as soon as it fell, it disappeared, and the hall was in sunshine again. Gregory sat in heavy silence while I observed this phenomenon. He was in no hurry. He had forever. Something would turn up.

    I got a cigarette out and got it going and blew a little smoke at the window.

    "Something wrong here," I said. "I know that most coppers aren't looking for a bigger caseload. But most coppers don't let some quack tell them to take the breeze either."

    "What's your interest in this?" Gregory said.

    "I'm looking for Carmen," I said.

    "Got a client?"

    "Norris," I said. "The butler."

    "I figured Vivian fired him."

    "I figure she can't," I said. "I figure the General left things that way."

    "In the will," Gregory said.

    "Sure."

    Gregory nodded. He took the pipe out of his mouth and looked at the bowl and nodded again and put the pipe back in his mouth.

    "Lot of different people are cops," Gregory said. "Some of them are better, some worse." He puffed some more smoke. "A lot of them are worse. But mostly, better or worse, when they do things that you don't expect them to do it's coming from above."

    "Bonsentir's connected," I said.

    Gregory shrugged. He took the pipe out of his mouth again, leaned forward slowly, and spat carefully into his wastebasket. Then he sat back slowly and just as carefully put the pipe back in his mouth.

    "Bonsentir is a dead issue, Marlowe. He's fenced off, wrapped up. You can't get close enough to see him clearly."

    "And if Carmen Sternwood is missing?" I said.

    Gregory shrugged a slow shrug.

    "Or in trouble?" I said.

    "Marlowe, you're a big boy. I try to help because last time we did business you played it pretty straight for a peeper, and Ohls in the sheriff's department says you're jake. But don't sit in my office and talk fairy tales we're both too old to believe in. If I tell you Claude Bonsentir has got juice, you can believe it. I'm not going to say this again, and outside this office I'll deny I said it. But you go up against Bonsentir you're a dead man, and I can't help you and Ohls can't help you."

    I stood up.

    "Nice talking to you, Captain," I said. "If Bonsentir calls, tell him I'm home filing the front sight on my machine gun."

    Gregory didn't speak. He sat perfectly still, with a narrow blue ribbon of smoke wavering up from his pipe. I turned and went out and closed the door gently.