Figure it Out For Yourself

'It's the only thing we've got. I'm going after Mary Jerome. She was first seen at the Acme Garage, and that's where I'd going to start to look for her. If I can trace her from the garage to Ocean End on the night Dedrick was kidnapped then I may come across something on the way. I'm going to dig into Souki's past. No one's bothered with him yet. Then there's Dedrick himself. I'm sending Jack to Paris right away to get hold of every scrap of information about Dedrick he can find. All this may be a waste of time, but it's our only chance. We're digging a big plot of ground in which something valuable may or may not be buried. If we don't dig, we won't find it, and if it's not there to find then, it's just too bad.'

'I think Mary Jerome's a good line of investigation,' Franco said, pulling at his long, bony nose, 'but I can't see any point in bothering about Souki.'

'That's just why I'm going to do it. No one's bothered to look at Souki. He's just the corpse. I'm leaving nothing to chance. I can't afford to.'

'Well, all right, but don't waste too much time on it. You wouldn't know if Perelli had an enemy, would you? Someone must have hated him pretty badly to have hung that frame on him.'

'Yeah. I've been thinking about that. There's one man who's tailor-made for the job. A nasty little rat named Jeff Barratt. He's a reefer-addict and a thorough bad egg. He has an apartment opposite Perelli's. I went on to tell Francon how I had called on Barratt and how Perelli had saved my life.

'Does Brandon know this?' Francon said, interested.

'No; but if he did, it wouldn't make him change his mind. I'm going to dig into Barratt's background. That fishing-rod is something you couldn't easily conceal. Someone had to carry it into Perelli's apartment. I'm hoping whoever it was was seen.' I stood up. 'Well, we'd better get moving. As soon as I have something for you, you'll have it.'

The sooner the better,' Francon said.

Outside in the corridor Kerman said, 'What was that again about me going to Paris?'

'Yeah. I want you to get off right away. Paula will fix the details. You can have what spending money you want within reason. You won't object to a trip to Paris, will you?'

Kerman rolled his eyes and tried to conceal his excitement.

'I'll put up with it,' he said. 'It's in a .good cause. Besides, from what I hear these French wrens are pretty accommodating.'

'They'll need to be if you're going to hum around them,' Paula said tartly.

IV

Mrs. Martha Bendix, Executive Director of the Bendix Domestic Agency and an office neighbour of mine, was a big, hearty woman with a male haircut and a laugh like the bang of a twelve-bore shotgun. She was coming out of her office as I was coming out of mine, and, as soon as I saw her, I knew I wanted to talk to her.

'Hello there, Vic,' she boomed. 'Where have you been hiding yourself? Haven't seen you in days.'

'I want to see you, Martha. Can you spare a moment?'

She looked at her wrist-watch, about the size of a cartwheel, decided after all she wasn't in any hurry and opened the office door.

'Come on in. Suppose you want to pick my brains again, huh? I gotta date, but it's nothing important.'

She led the way through the outer office where a pale blonde with a face like a happy rabbit pecked at a typewriter and gave a coy little smile as she passed.

'If Mr. Manners calls, Mary, tell him I'm on my way down,' Martha said, and breezed into her cream-and-green office.

I followed her in and closed the door.

'Turn the key, 'Martha said, lowering her voice. It probably could still be heard at the far end of the corridor, but she im-agined she was speaking in a conspirator's whisper. 'I've a bottle of Vat 69 that wants breaking open, but I wouldn't like Mary to think I drink in office hours.' She hoisted a bottle into sight as I sank into an armchair. 'I wouldn't like her to think I drink at all, for that matter.'

'What makes you so positive she doesn't know?'

'What makes you so damn positive she does?' Martha said and grinned. She slapped a threeinch snifter down on the desk in front of me. 'Rinse your phlegm out with that.'

'There are times, Martha, when I don't believe you're even civilized, to hear you talk,'I said, collecting the glass. 'Well, bung-ho.'

'Fungus on your adenoids,' she boomed, and downed her drink at a gulp. 'Not bad, huh? Want another?'

I shook my head, and accepted the three coffee-beans she dropped on the blotter before me.

'Well now, what's your trouble?' she asked, sitting down and getting to work on the beans herself. 'What do you want to know this time?'

'I'm trying to find out something about a Filipino named Toa Souki; Serena Dedrick's chauffeur. She engaged him in New York, and I'm wondering if your New York office handled the job.'

Martha looked insulted.

'My good man! I'll have you know we don't handle coloured people. You're not sticking your nose into that case, are you'

I said I was sticking my nose into that case.

'How can I get a line on Souki?'