From Here to Eternity_ The Restored Edit - Jones, James [249]
“You mean anybody you knew? Or with nobody?”
“With nobody, Sir.”
“You didnt see him with any of these men you say you’ve seen out there that looked like they might be queers?”
“No, Sir.”
“Okay,” the lieutenant said wearily to the clerk. “Take him out.”
They took Maggio out, the same way they had brought him in, first one MP with riot gun, then Maggio, then the other MP with riot gun.
“They aint takin no chances on him gettin away, are they,” Prew said to nobody in particular, unable to resist it.
“Soldier,” the Shafter MP First Lieutenant said sharply, “you’ve been in the Army long enough to know the procedure of guarding a prisoner.”
“Yes, Sir,” Prew said, and shut up.
“Let’s have no more of that then,” the Shafter MP First Lieutenant said sharply.
“Yes, Sir,” Prew said, and shut up.
The police lieutenant was playing with a pencil, tiredly. “You have nothing to say, then, about this man here?” He nodded at Tommy who was still staring set-faced out the window, trying hard to be above such disgusting implications and besmirchments. “Nothing at all?”
“No, Sir,” Prew said. “I don’t know him at all, Sir.”
“We’re trying to help you men get out of this mess you’ve gotten into,” the lieutenant said patiently. “You’re all of you treading on dangerous ground out in Waikiki. All of you men ought to already know that.” He paused.
“Yes, Sir,” Prew said. “I mean, no, Sir.”
“Any time a man breaks any law,” the lieutenant recited wearily, “he’s treading on dangerous ground. Eventually, the law always catches up with him. We’re trying to help you men before you get in that deep, Prewitt. But we cant help you if you dont help us to help you.” He paused.
“No, Sir,” Prew said. “I mean, yes, Sir.”
“You still have nothing to say?”
“I dont know anything to say, Sir.”
“Okay, thats all,” the lieutenant said wearily. “Bring in the next one.”
“Yes, Sir,” Prew said. Before he could stop himself, he saluted the civilian police lieutenant instinctively. The lieutenant smiled, and the Shafter MP First Lieutenant laughed sharply. The two bright-faced young FBI men did not do anything, except to lean on against the wall, seeming a part of the furnishings.
“Okay, Prewitt,” the half-Hawaiian police lieutenant smiled. “Show him out. Who’s the next one?”
The clerk escorted him across the anteroom and through the door which the Shafter MP stood beside. He shut the door behind him. There was nobody in the long room except the two Schofield MPs guarding Maggio down at the other end, and the men from Schofield who had already been through the mill, sitting on the wooden benches along the walls. Their faces still looked strained. Prew stood looking at them, feeling the sweat from his armpits still trickling coolly down his ribs, then he walked down toward Maggio and the MPs.
The MP called Brownie jerked his head. “Stay back there, Mack,” he said. “This man is a prisoner.”
Prew stared hard at him, then moved his eyes to Maggio and winked and grinned. Angelo winked and grinned back, but his heart did not appear to be in it any more. Prew turned back toward the others. Somebody had gotten out a pack of cards and some of them were sitting in a circle on the hardwood floor playing stud for matches. He sat down on the bench and watched.
Something had been touching lightly at his mind ever since he had first gone in there and seen that it was Tommy. It did not make sense that they were using Angelo for bait, when it was Tommy. Angelo had never been out with Tommy. Bloom had been out with Tommy. So had Andy. So had Readall Treadwell. So had Prewitt, one time. But the only connection Angelo had with Tommy was last Payday, when he had picked him up for Prewitt, which was the only time Prewitt had been out with any of them, yet Prewitt gets called in on the investigation, too. Where did they get Prewitt’s name? and where was Hal the French tutor? If they really had enough on Angelo to use him as the bait, Hal the French tutor ought to be there too. It began to look like whoever had informed had used last Payday for his informing material,