I said, “I figure it had to be either here or at the Cabanita. I tried this first because it’s nearer and was an easier place to get rid of the car; but I’m not certain but what we’ll find the answer in the Cabanita.”
Sellers moved his hand and winced with sudden pain. The numbness was beginning to leave and the slivers of bone in his shattered thumb were grating every time he moved the elbow.
Bertha watched him sympathetically. “You’d better have a good shot of hooch,” she said.
Sellers said, “You’ve got something there. Let’s get that waiter.”
“I’ll find him,” I said. “What do you want?”
“Double brandy,” Sellers said, and dropped his head back against the cushion. His face suddenly went white and his eyes closed. There were marks of pain around the corners of his mouth.
I slid out of the booth and had taken half a dozen steps before Sellers opened his eyes and suddenly straightened.
“Hey,” he said, “not you! Bertha can go. You come back here.”
Somewhere a woman screamed.
It was a peculiar muffled scream which seemed to come from back of the bar somewhere.