The Father Hunt

"Doubtless some of your staff would. Elinor Denovo spent most of her adult life working for him. Raymond Thome Productions. Television. He came at my request last Thursday evening and answered questions for more than four hours, and one of the many things I learned was that a man named Floyd Vance had tried several times last May to see Elinor Denovo, and she had refused to see him. His last attempt to see her was on the twenty-second of May, only four days before she died. If you had questioned the receptionist at Raymond Thome Productions with sufficient perseverance you might have solved that case long ago. We made long and laborious inquiries about Floyd Vance and discovered that he had known Elinor Denovo in nineteen forty-four, when she was Car-lotta Vaughn, and had seen her frequently for several months. It was possible that he was the father I was trying to find, and we tackled him. He is a self-styled public-relations counselor-one of the various modem activities that are an insult to the dignity of man. Mr. Goodwin got him here last evening. Preparations had been made. His attempts to see Elinor Denovo shortly before her death prompted the surmise that he had killed her, and, knowing that you had fingerprints, Mr. Goodwin and Mr. Panzer made proper arrangements. That was forturfate, but not for me, for you. Without that you would probably never have found him. And here you come-"

"I'm supposed to pin a medal on you?"

"I don't like medals. The fingerprints didn't help me any. He denied that he had fathered a child by Carlotta Vaughn. He could have been lying, certainly, but I was helpless. And am. Even if he is the man I'm looking for there is no conceivable way to establish it. Can you suggest one?"

"I handle homicides, not paternity suits."

"So you do. Now, with those fingerprints, you can handle this one. You said you want to know why he killed