The Thin Man Read Online Free PDF

Maybe it was an accident.”
    “Oke. There’s plenty of time. I guess we got to ask you a lot more things than we’d figured on.” He turned to one of his companions: there were four of them. “We’ll frisk the joint.”
    “Not without a warrant,” I told him.
    “So you say. Come on, Andy.” They began to search the place.
    The doctor—a colorless wisp of a man with the snuffles—came in, clucked and sniffed over my side, got the bleeding stopped and a bandage on, and told me I would have nothing to worry about if I lay still for a couple of days. Nobody would tell the doctor anything. The police would not let him touch Morelli. He went away looking even more colorless and vague. The big sandy man had returned from the living-room holding one hand behind him. He waited until the doctor had gone, then asked: “Have you got a pistol permit?”
    “No.”
    “Then what are you doing with this?” He brought from behind him the gun I had taken from Dorothy Wynant. There was nothing I could say.
    “You’ve heard about the Sullivan Act?” he asked.
    “Yes.”
    “Then you know where you stand. This gun yours?”
    “No.”
    “Whose is it?”
    “I’ll have to try to remember.”
    He put the pistol in his pocket and sat down on a chair beside the bed. “Listen, Mr. Charles,” he said. “I guess we’re both of us doing this wrong. I don’t want to get tough with you and I don’tguess you really want to get tough with me. That hole in your side can’t be making you feel any too good, so I ain’t going to bother you any more till you’ve had a little rest. Then maybe we can get together the way we ought to.”
    “Thanks,” I said and meant it. “We’ll buy a drink.”
    Nora said, “Sure,” and got up from the edge of the bed.
    The big sandy man watched her go out of the room. He shook his head solemnly. His voice was solemn: “By God, sir, you’re a lucky man.” He suddenly held out his hand. “My name’s Guild, John Guild.”
    “You know mine.” We shook hands.
    Nora came back with a siphon, a bottle of Scotch, and some glasses on a tray. She tried to give Morelli a drink, but Guild stopped her. “It’s mighty kind of you, Mrs. Charles, but it’s against the law to give a prisoner drinks or drugs except on a doctor’s say-so.” He looked at me. “Ain’t that right?” I said it was. The rest of us drank.
    Presently Guild set down his empty glass and stood up. “I got to take this gun along with me, but don’t you worry about that. We got plenty of time to talk when you’re feeling better.” He took Nora’s hand and made an awkward bow over it. “I hope you didn’t mind what I said back there awhile ago, but I meant it in a—”
    Nora can smile very nicely. She gave him one of her nicest smiles. “Mind? I liked it.” She let the policemen and their prisoner out. Keyser had gone a few minutes before.
    “He’s sweet,” she said when she came back from the door. “Hurt much?”
    “No.”
    “It’s pretty much my fault, isn’t it?”
    “Nonsense. How about another drink?”
    She poured me one. “I wouldn’t take too many of these today.”
    “I won’t,” I promised. “I could do with some kippers for breakfast. And, now our troubles seem to be over for a while, you might have them send up our absentee watchdog. And tell the operator not to give us any calls; there’ll probably be reporters.”
    “What are you going to tell the police about Dorothy’s pistol? You’ll have to tell them something, won’t you?”
    “I don’t know yet.”
    “Tell me the truth, Nick: have I been too silly?”
    I shook my head. “Just silly enough.”
    She laughed, said, “You’re a Greek louse,” and went around to the telephone.

 
9

    Nora said: “You’re just showing off, that’s all it is. And what for? I know bullets bounce off you. You don’t have to prove it to me.”
    “It’s not going to hurt me to get up.”
    “And it’s not going to hurt you to stay in bed at