Woman in the Dark by Dashiell Hammett Read Free Book Online Page A

her. The other said: "We want you to come back to the Valley with us, Miss Fischer."
    She rose from her chair and began to put on her hat and coat.
    "That's it," the older of the two said. "Don't give us no trouble and we don't give you none."
    She looked curiously at him.
    They went to the street and got into a dusty blue sedan. The thick-chested man drove. Luise Fischer sat behind him, beside the older man. They retraced the route she and Brazil had taken that morning.
    Once, before they left the city, she had said: "I wish to see my lawyer. His name is Harry Klaus."
    The man beside her was chewing gum. He made noises with his lips, then told her, politely enough: "We can't stop now."
    The man at the wheel spoke before she could reply. He did not turn his head. "How come Brazil socked him?"
    Luise said quickly: "It was not his fault. He was-"
    The older man, addressing the man at the wheel, interrupted her: "Let it alone, Pete. Let the D.A. do his own work."
    Pete said: "Oke."
    The woman turned to the man beside her. "Was-was Brazil hurt?"
    He studied her face for a long moment, then nodded slightly. "Stopped a slug, I hear."
    Her eyes widened. "He was shot?"
    He nodded again.
    She put both hands on his forearm. "How badly?"
    He shook his head. "I don't know."
    Her fingers dug into his arm. "Did they arrest him?"
    "I can't tell you, miss. Maybe the District Attorney wouldn't like me to." He smacked his lips over his gum-chewing.
    "But, please!" she insisted. "I must know."
    He shook his head again. "We ain't worrying you with a lot of questions. Don't be worrying us."

Chapter Three
    Conclusion It was nearly nine o'clock by the dial on the dashboard, and quite dark, when Luise Fischer and her captors passed a large square building whose illuminated sign said "Mile Valley Lumber Co." and turned in to what was definitely a town street, though its irregularly spaced houses were not many. Ten minutes later the sedan came to rest at the curb in front of a gray public building. The driver got out. The other man held the door open for Luise. They took her into a ground-floor room in the gray building.
    Three men were in the room. A sad-faced man of sixty-some years, with ragged white hair and mustache, was tilted back in a chair, with his feet on a battered yellowish desk. He wore a hat but no coat. A pasty-faced young blond man, straddling a chair in front of the filing cabinet on the other side of the room, was saying, "So the traveling salesman asked the farmer if he could put him up for the night and-" but broke off when Luise Fischer and her companions came in.
    The third man stood with his back to the window. He was a slim man of medium height, not far past thirty, thin-lipped, pale, flashily dressed in brown and red. His collar was very tight. He advanced swiftly toward Luise Fischer, showing white teeth in a smile. "I'm Harry Klaus. They wouldn't let me see you down there, so I came on up to wait for you." He spoke rapidly and with assurance. "Don't worry. I've got everything fixed."
    The storyteller hesitated, changed his position. The two men who had brought Luise Fischer up from the city looked at the lawyer with obvious disapproval.
    Klaus smiled again with complete assurance. "You know she's not going to tell you anything at all till we've talked it over, don't you? Well, what the hell, then?"
    The man at the desk said: "All right, all right." He looked at the two men standing behind the woman. "If Tuft's office is empty, let 'em use that."
    "Thanks." Harry Klaus picked up a brown briefcase from a chair, took Luise Fischer's elbow in his hand, and turned her to follow the thick-chested, florid man.
    He led them down the corridor a few feet to an office that was similar to the one they had just left. He did not go in with them. He said, "Come on back when you're finished," and, when they had gone in, slammed the door.
    Klaus jerked his head at the door. "A lot of whittlers," he said cheerfully. "We'll stand them on