“Three.”
“Who were they?”
“The night clerk, a girl who runs a cigar counter, and some woman who saw him standing in the door.”
“All right, get those people, put them side by side in three chairs, and tell them not to make any comments until after the whole line-up has filed past. Then ask them separately if anybody in the line-up was the man they saw there the night of the murder.”
The D.A.’s man lowered his voice. “Now, listen,” he said, “you sound like a good egg. Let me give you the low-down. The old girl that was in the upper corridor saw this man standing in the doorway. She had her glasses off. She could see him all right, but — well, you know how it is, brother. She wears glasses during the daytime, and she didn’t have them on. A slick lawyer could catch her on that. The minute we run you into the hoosegow, the newspaper men are going to be on the job. They’ll take flashlight photographs of you, and there’ll be big headlines. ‘POLICE ARREST PRIVATE DETECTIVE ON SUSPICION OF MURDER.’ Then in case the identification falls down, we’re sunk. Now, if you are guilty, go ahead and rely on all your constitutional rights. More power to you. We’ll send you to the gas chamber just as sure as hell. If you aren’t guilty, for God’s sake, have a heart and co-operate.”
I said, “I’m not guilty, but you know what’s going to happen. That pin-head clerk has identified a photograph of Donald Lam as being the man who came in and got the room. You tell him that you’re going to get Donald Lam and bring him in. You come through the door dragging me in, and that clerk’s going to say, ‘That’s the guy,’ before he even gets his eyes focused.”
The D.A.’s man hesitated.
“Of course he is,” Bertha Cool said indignantly. “I saw his picture in the paper. He looks like just that sort of a nitwit, a long, thin drink of water, all mouth and Adam’s apple. What the hell can you expect of a goof like that?”
Somebody in the outskirts of the crowd gave a belly laugh. One of the cops turned around and said, “Beat it, you guys. Go on. Get out of here.”
No one paid any attention to him.