The chief hurled the cigar butt viciously in the general direction of a brass spittoon, and stood up heavily.
“Book Miss Hamilton on the basis of her confession, Hagen,” he said in a weary voice. “I’m going home and get a few hours’ sleep.”
Chapter five
Michael Shayne left his hotel through the side door unobserved and long-legged it to the row of garages at the rear of the building. The faint light from a low-hanging moon afforded enough light for him to unlock his private garage, and back his black sedan out without turning on lights.
He followed a sweeping gravel drive that led to the street at the other end of the block from the hotel, avoiding the front entrance, where he knew there would be a concentration of police cars.
He eased into the street and made a right turn before switching on his headlights. He then drove swiftly to Flagler, and east to Biscayne Boulevard where he turned north and stepped hard on the accelerator to keep his four-o’clock appointment at Seventy-Ninth Street.
Relaxed behind the wheel, Shayne started thinking about the events of the past few hours. He began with the rustling noises he had heard coming from his apartment living-room. Everything had happened so fast after that, climaxed by Gentry’s entrance announcing Ralph Carrol’s murder, that he had not had time to think clearly and figure things out.
Now, his reaction was vehement anger that someone, somewhere in Miami might be representing himself as Michael Shayne, and in a divorce action! The sort of thing he never touched, no matter what fee was offered, much less for a lousy five hundred dollars. He shook his head viciously and told himself that this sort of thinking would get him nowhere.
Forcing himself to discard for the moment the sessions with Nora Carrol and Gentry, he went back to the telephone calls immediately following their departure. First, the man who had given his name as Ludlow had expected him to recognize his voice and know what he was talking about.
Ludlow had said, “He was dead when I got there... I didn’t give my name when I reported to the police because I didn’t know what your position was, but I know enough of your reputation... if they drag you into it, and then you tell about me, I’ll be in a spot. Wait a minute... this ain’t Shayne. The cops have already—” Then the click of the phone and silence.