Mute Witness
Page 17
'But even so ...' Captain Wise began. Clancy lifted a hand.
'When I was in the girl's apartment, all she had on her mind - until she found out I was from the police - was that boat trip. She offered me a drink, and she said: "We've got about everything except Aquavit ..." And when she was talking about the trip she asked me: "Do they speak English on board?" which was a clear clue that she wasn't going on either an American or a British ship. And then, later, when she was asking me if I'd ever been to Europe, she mentioned some cities there, and the first one she mentioned was Copenhagen…
'Now you want to remember that her trip was on top of her mind. And when I looked at the list of freighters sailing, and found that one of the non-American two that were going to Europe Saturday night was bound for Oslo, and the other was the Aalborg, bound for Denmark ...'
He shrugged. Silence fell in the little room, broken at last by Doc Freeman.
'They drink Aquavit in Oslo, too,' he said quietly.
Clancy grinned. 'That's what Porky Frank told me last night. Fortunately I didn't know that before. Anyway, the Norwegian freighter sailed at ten o'clock Saturday night, even before that wedding picture came over the teletype.'
'And if Rossi had been on that one?' Captain Wise asked.
'He wasn't,' Clancy said, and smiled gently.
Captain Wise thought about it a moment and then nodded and heaved himself to his feet. Doc Freeman followed and then, more slowly, Stanton and Kaproski.
'Well, I guess that does it,' Captain Wise said, looking down at Clancy with poorly-concealed pride. He straightened his face. 'I'll want it written up and turned in as soon as possible; but at least I can face the reporters now. If they want details, maybe the Rossi boys can clear them up.'
‘If they change their minds and don't feel like talking for the record,' Clancy said, 'just threaten to throw them out on the street. The word I got last night from Porky Frank is that Chicago is exporting some talent this way.’
‘We'll take care of them,' Captain Wise said. His eyes softened, it was a good job, Clancy. But a little close ...'
Doc Freeman broke in hastily. 'I'll get the autopsy results to you as soon as possible to include in your report.'
'Thanks,' Clancy said. 'I'll write it up and get it into your office right away, Sam.'
The four men looked at the slender Lieutenant a moment in silence, and then one by one they filed out. Clancy leaned back comfortably, staring at the reports left by Kaproski and Stanton, the envelope he had from Sergeant Martin, and the notes he had begun to make himself. He sighed and sat up, reached for all the papers, and swept them together in front of him. His other hand fumbled in his jacket pocket for a cigarette; he pulled one out, lit it, and then turned to flip the burned matchstick out of the window.
And then he froze.
The air-shaft was free of clothing. The clothesline hung limp and empty between the hovering tenements. He stared, mouth open. Was it possible? Was it on a Monday that he had seen the miracle of the bare clothesline? On a Monday?
Only in the 52nd Precinct, he thought with a tight grin, and turned back to his desk, drawing the papers together in front of him, reaching for his pen. Only in the 52nd Precinct…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robert Lloyd Fish was born on August 21, 1912 in Cleveland Ohio. An unusually out-going boy and as equally intelligent, Fish studied engineering at Case School of Applied Science; graduating in 1933 with full honors.
Thereafter, he had a successful career in engineering management and consultancy; working in several countries that he later used for his stories.
In 1960, while working in Rio de Janeiro, where he had lived for the previous decade, Fish submitted his first story to Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.
His first novel, The Fugitive, gained him the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allan Poe Award for best first novel in 1962, and his short story "Moonlight Gardener" was awarded the Edgar for best short story in 1972. Two other short stories, "Double Entry" (EQMM, January 1969) and "Hijack" (Playboy, August 1972), were nominated for Edgars in the "best short story" category, but did not win the award.
His 1963 novel Mute Witness, written under the pseudonym Robert L. Pike, was filmed in 1968 as Bullitt, starring Steve McQueen.
Robert Fish would write over 30 novels and numerous short stories before he passed away in 1981 at his home in Trumbull, Connecticut.
MUTE WITNESS and BULLITT
The following discussion about Mute Witness and the movie Bullitt took place as a series of emails between authors Mark Sullivan and Jim Doherty throughout the month of January, 2007.
Mark –
I recently read Robert L. Pike’s Mute Witness (actually it was a movie tie-in paperback retitled Bullitt). It had been several decades since I’d seen the movie and, to tell you the truth, all I really remembered was the car chase in and around San Francisco, so I came to the book relatively fresh.
I was a bit surprised to find that the book is set in New York and started wondering where the car chase was going to be. There wasn’t one. Instead I got a pretty tight police procedural that reads very fast, although the degree to which this previously, by all accounts, by-the-book cop broke the rules in this case was sometimes a bit suspect. All in all, though, a very satisfying read with a well-drawn main character.
So I watched the movie. It was interesting to see the changes that were made. First, the locale was shifted. Second, a major subplot was deleted, and the rules were stretched more than broken. Everything was stripped down (except for a young Jacqueline Bisset, alas, who played the added-in small role of the cop’s girlfriend). The book was very detailed about what was going on in the cop’s mind and investigation. The movie had long spaces with no words whatsoever, using just visuals. In other words, each played to its medium’s advantages, which rendered them equally satisfying.
One other thing: the movie changed a few names. Clancy became Bullitt, of course, I guess to make it harder, more catchy. The name change I found most interesting, though, was that of the two brothers in the “Organization.” In the book, they were Rossi. However, the movie drops the “i,” making the name less Italian (though the roles were still played by actors whose names and looks were Italian). And they changed one of the cop’s names from whitebread to Italian. I don’t remember Italian anti-defamation leagues starting until a few years later, with The Godfather movies. Were the studios already answering complaints about the stereotyping of Italians as mobsters in the ’60s? Man, they really lost that battle.
PS — As for the rumors that six hubcaps came off the Charger during the chase scene, I counted four (although two other bits go flying off the car that could be mistaken for hubcaps).
Jim –
The book was originally bought as a vehicle (no pun intended) for Spencer Tracy, who was going to play an NYPD squad commander in late middle-age named Clancy. In other words, he was going to play the character as written.
When Tracy died, it was decided to keep the bare bones of the plot, but change the lead character into the young, “hip” detective played by Steve McQueen.
Interestingly, Fish dropped the Clancy series after the success of Bullitt and started a new, San Francisco-set series of procedurals about an SFPD lieutenant named Reardon, which was also the title of the first book in the series. Reardon was a young, handsome red-head given to wearing turtleneck sweaters and corduroy sports coats. In other words, he was Bullitt with the name changed. Even more interestingly, that first novel about Reardon was expanded from a short story that had originally featured Clancy.
Actually the Anti-Defamation League started years earlier when The Untouchables was such a hit on TV. Something of a false alarm, really. In the first three episodes of the series, the main villains were, respectively, Jewish (Jake Guzik played by Nehemiah Persoff), Irish (“Bugs” Moran played by Lloyd Nolan), and southern poor white trash (“Ma” Barker played by Clair Trevor). Eliot Ness was an equal-opportunity gangbuster
Mark –
Can I infer from this that Mute Witness was not the first novel to feature Clancy? Or were the earlier series entries short stories? And were they written as Fish or Pike — my movie tie-in copy of Bullitt creates on Pike on the cover and title page, but Fish on the copyright page.
Jim –
Mute Witness was, in fact, the first Clancy novel, but it was followed by The Quarry and Police Blotter, both of which appeared prior to Bullitt.
As near as I’ve been able to find out, Clancy made his debut in a 1961 short story called “Clancy and the Subway Jumper.” I’m pretty sure there were other Clancy short stories, including the one that was later expanded into Reardon, but I don’t recall the titles. I think the story that he expanded into the novel had “Eyes” or “Cat’s Eyes” in the title.
All the Clancy and Reardon entries were written as “Pike.” This was, apparently, a pun as a pike is a type of fish. He also wrote as A.C. Lamprey, a lamprey being another kind of fish.
The other Reardon novels, by the way, are The Gremlin’s Grandpa, Bank Job, and Deadline 2 A.M. The first book in the series acknowledged the technical assistance of SFPD’s then-police-chief, Tom Cahill, for whom the San Francisco Hall of Justice is now named, though, despite that high-powered assistance, he still managed to make a lot of errors.
Table of Contents
ABOUT THE EBOOK
FOREWARD
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MUTE WITNESS and BULLITT