Chapter 72 third chapter

At about 3 p.m., I was standing in the main foyer of General Winslow's house, awaiting a reply from the butler.I spent most of the day neither walking into my office nor my apartment nor meeting any murderers.I'll do these things sooner or later, but I want to see General Dade Winslow first.He doesn't show up easily. I looked around and the walls were covered with paintings, mostly portraits.Several suits of armor were placed on black wooden pedestals, black with age.Above the large marble fireplace, two cavalry pennants, pierced by bullets and eaten by moths, stood crossed in a glass case.Beneath the flag hung a portrait of a slender but buoyant man with a big black beard and a Mexican War uniform.He may be the father of General Dade Winslow, who is not as old as the man in the painting, although he is very old now.

The butler came back, told me that General Winslow was in the Orchid House, and asked me to follow him. We stepped out the French windows at the back, across the lawn, and came into view of a large glass house, not far from the garage.The butler opened the door and walked into a place similar to a hall. After I came in, he closed the door, surrounded by heat; then he opened another door inside, and it was really hot inside.The greenhouse was steamy, with water dripping from the walls and ceiling.The flowers on the lush tropical plants are in full bloom, and the branches and leaves are spreading out in all directions.The overflowing scent of flowers overwhelmed the smell of boiling alcohol for a while.

The butler was a thin, straight, silver-haired butler who held down the leaves and branches of the plants for my passage.We came to the open area in the middle of the room.A large red Turkish rug on the hexagonal floor, in the center of which sits a wheelchair with a very elderly man, covered with a thick travel blanket, watching us walk towards him go. Only the eyes remained alive on his face--dark dark eyes with a deep, impenetrable sparkle.The rest of his face was like a dead gray mask, with sunken temples, a straight nose, drooping earlobes, and a thin white slit in his lips.Part of the body was wrapped in a worn-out pale red bathrobe, and part was covered with a blanket.His fingernails were purple, his hands were lightly clasped, and he lay motionless on the blanket, with scattered strands of white hair on his head.

The steward reported: "General, this is Mr. Karmadi." The old man stared at me, then said sharply, "Get a chair for Mr. Kalmadi." The butler dragged a wicker chair out, and I sat down, and put my hat on the floor, and the butler picked it up. "Brandy," said the general, "what kind of brandy do you like, sir?" "I can do it," I answered. He snorted, and the butler walked away.He looked at me without blinking, and snorted again. “I like to drink it with champagne, a third of the brandy in the glass, then pour the champagne, and the champagne should be cold like Valley Forge. Or colder, if you can,” he said.

He made a sound like a giggle. "Not that I've been to Valley Forge, it wasn't that bad. You can smoke, sir," he said. I thanked him and explained that I didn't want to smoke for a while, then took out my handkerchief and wiped my face. "Take off your coat, sir. Dud always takes it off. Mr. Karmady, an orchid needs warmth like a sick old man." I took off my coat, it was a raincoat I brought over.It seemed to be raining.Larry Bazel said it was going to rain. "Dad is my son-in-law—Dudley O'Mara. I thought you had something to tell me about him."

"Just rumours," I said. "Unless you allow me, General Winslow, I don't want to get involved." Those fierce eyes stared at me: "You're a private eye, I guess, and you want to be paid." "Just because I'm in that line of work doesn't mean I need to be paid for everything in my life. I'm just going to tell you something I've heard that you might want to hear and pass on to the Office of Missing Persons ."I say. "I see," he said quietly, "it's a scandal or something." I was about to answer when the butler came back, pushed the tea trolley through the jungle, stopped at my elbow, mixed me a glass of soda brandy, and walked away.I took a sip and said, "Looks like there's a girl, he knew her before he knew your daughter, and that girl is now married to a blackmailer. It's like—"

"I've heard it all. I don't care. All I want to know is where he is now, is he doing well, is he happy soon," he said. I stared at him wide-eyed, and after a while I said weakly, "Maybe I can find that girl, and if I tell that group of people downtown, they can find her too." He tugged at the edge of the blanket and moved his head a little, maybe an inch.I think he is nodding.Then he said slowly: "Perhaps I have said too much in terms of my current state of health, but I want to make some things clear. I am a cripple, I have only two crippled legs and half Belly. I don't eat much and I don't sleep much. I hate myself and I'm a liability to others. It makes me miss Dade who used to spend so much time with me. Why? Only God I know." "Okay—" I started talking.

"Shut up! You're a young man to me, so I have a reason to be rude to you. Dud didn't even say goodbye to me, that's not his style. He drove away one night I haven't heard from him since. It doesn't matter if he's tired of my stupid daughter and her brat and wants to find another woman. He went off without saying goodbye, and now he regrets it. That's why I haven't heard from him. Find him and tell him I understand him. That's all, unless he needs money; if he does, anything will satisfy him." There seemed to be a tinge of rosiness on his gray face now.His dark eyes seemed brighter if possible.He leaned back slowly in his chair and closed his eyes.I took a big sip of the wine and swallowed it slowly.I said, "Suppose he's in trouble now. Like, because of that girl's husband—that Joe Meshawi."

He opened his eyes and blinked again. "That's not O'Mara, there's someone else in the quagmire." "Okay. So can I just tell the office where I heard about that girl?" "Of course not. They can't do anything, just let them do it. You go to Dud. If you only have to walk down the street, I'll pay you a thousand dollars and tell him I'm fine and I'm The old man is doing well, give him my regards, and that's all." I couldn't tell him, and all of a sudden I realized that I couldn't tell him everything Larry Bazel told me, not even what happened to Larry, nothing at all.I finished my drink, stood up, put on my coat, and said, "That's more than enough money for the job, General Winslow. We'll talk about that later. May I have the right to represent you with my own money?" way of doing it?"

He rang the bell on his wheelchair and said to me, "Just tell him that, I just want to know he's all right and I want him to know I'm all right, that's all. Unless he needs money. Now please Forgive me, I'm tired." He closed his eyes.I walked back through the woods, and the butler was waiting for me at the door with my hat. I took a breath of cool air and said, "The General wants me to see Mrs. O'Mara."