Hazy Noir

It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, no wait, I think it was after noon, yeah noon, early September, no actually it was closer to October, I'm pretty sure the leaves had already turned at that point. I was wearing my powder blue suit, actually I think that one was at the cleaners, so it must have been my charcoal suit, with a white shirt, dark tie, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. Clocks? Do I even own a pair like that? Yeah, of course, they were a birthday present from my Aunt, um, Agatha. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, I didn't care who knew it. I was everything the well dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four or so million dollars.

As I stood in the hallway of the Sternwhite, no, sorry, Sternwood mansion waiting for the butler, I heard some kind of noise, like a creak or a groan, from behind the stairs. It wasn't the butler. It was a girl.

She was, like, twenty, I think, small and delicately put together, but she looked durable. She wore, let's see, a skirt? No it was slacks, probably blue. Her hair was a light brown, cut short, like whaddyacallit? Payboy? No, pageboy. Her eyes were grayish-brownish-green, and had almost no expression as she looked at me. She came over near me and smiled.

She said something like "Tall, aren't you?" to which I replied something pretty witty like, "It's not my fault," only it wasn't that, it was something better. Then I think she called me handsome, to which I grunted, and she asked me my name.

"Reilly," I replied, knowing that much. "Doghouse Reilly."