DETECTIVE VICE SQUAD 1957 SUSPENDED AND INDICTED FOR EXTORTION 1958 STOP DREW SUSPENDED SENTENCE STOP APRIL LAST YEAR BROTHER ADVANCED MONEY ESTABLISH HIMSELF IN BUSINESS ELSEWHERE GET NEW START AWAY FROM ASSOCIATIONS HERE STOP HAS NEVER BEEN IN FLORIDA UNLESS SINCE LAST APRIL STOP NO DANGEROUS ENEMIES BUT WITH KIND OF FRIENDS HE HAD HE DIDN’T NEED ANY SIGNED CATES .”
“What do you suppose it means?” Barbara asked then.
“I don’t know,” Scanlon replied wearily. “But I’m getting afraid to open my desk drawer for a cigar; a couple of Warren’s detectives might jump out in my face. We just heard from New Orleans.”
“About Denman?”
“Yes. He says he was hired by a man from here by the name of Joseph Randall.”
“Randall? I don’t think I know anybody—”
“Exactly.”
“But didn’t he meet this Randall? Or doesn’t he have on address, or phone number?”
“No. Randall called him by long distance and hired him to follow Mrs. Warren. Said he’d send him the retainer, which he did—in cash, through the mail. That was Monday. He called Denman Tuesday night and then again Wednesday night, for his report. We’re having the phone company check out the calls now, but they’ll turn out to be from a pay phone. It’s so damn characteristic of paranoia—you’ve got to be sly, and fool ’em; everybody’s plotting against you.”
“But it could have been somebody else. Naturally, he’d want to keep his identity secret—”
He sighed. “Mrs. Ryan, did you ever hear of anybody hiring a detective to watch another man’s wife?”
“Then why would Denman take the assignment under those circumstances?”
“He has the reputation of not being too fussy about who hires him as long as he gets paid.”
The last lead was gone now. I slumped over the desk with my head in my hands. I’d have been better off if I’d given myself up in the first place. Heels tapped in the passage, and the door opened softly. Barbara had her purse under her arm.
She smiled. “A girl’s entitled to rebuild her face before the coffee break.” Seating herself by the desk, she slid a yellow envelope from the purse. “This just came, and I don’t think I’ve got the nerve to read him another one this soon.”
“Thanks.” I dropped in the chair behind the desk and tore it open.
JOHN D. WARREN
WARREN REALTY
CARTHAGE ALABAMA :
NO SUCH PERSON AS FRANCES KINNAN STOP HAVE CHECKED VITAL STATISTICS ORLANDO AND DADE COUNTY NO BIRTH NO MARRIAGE NO DIVORCE STOP UNHEARD OF AT UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI AND BURDINES STOP NO RECORD OF A LEON DUPRE NOR SHOP ANYWHERE MIAMI AREA NAMED LEONS STOP ADVISE FURTHER ACTION DESIRED
CROSBY INVESTIGATIONS
I read it, and silently passed it to her.
viii
S HE READ IT.
“Any ideas?” she asked at last.
“One,” I said. “Quit, while I still know who I am.”
“Maybe it’s not quite as hopeless as that,” she replied. “It seems to me you’ve pretty well established what was at the bottom of it. You have a man with a previous record of extortion, and a woman—” She hesitated, embarrassed.
“It’s all right,” I said. “We’ve got no time to’ search for euphemisms; let’s call ’em as they fall. A woman with something to hide, possibly a criminal record. Result: blackmail. But it still makes no sense.” I showed her the figures from the bank statements. “I’ll admit the pattern matches what Doris Bentley said—that Roberts first asked about her along in the summer. For the sake of argument we’ll assume he had some reason to suspect she wasn’t who she’d said she was. Then maybe he started checking, and found out what she was trying to cover up. So far, so good—it was in August the checks she wrote for cash suddenly took a jump. But look at the picayune amounts: $200 a month at most. And all the time she had $6000 of her own she didn’t touch—until this week when she threw it away on a bunch of glue-footed horses. That doesn’t sound very desperate to
“What do you suppose it means?” Barbara asked then.
“I don’t know,” Scanlon replied wearily. “But I’m getting afraid to open my desk drawer for a cigar; a couple of Warren’s detectives might jump out in my face. We just heard from New Orleans.”
“About Denman?”
“Yes. He says he was hired by a man from here by the name of Joseph Randall.”
“Randall? I don’t think I know anybody—”
“Exactly.”
“But didn’t he meet this Randall? Or doesn’t he have on address, or phone number?”
“No. Randall called him by long distance and hired him to follow Mrs. Warren. Said he’d send him the retainer, which he did—in cash, through the mail. That was Monday. He called Denman Tuesday night and then again Wednesday night, for his report. We’re having the phone company check out the calls now, but they’ll turn out to be from a pay phone. It’s so damn characteristic of paranoia—you’ve got to be sly, and fool ’em; everybody’s plotting against you.”
“But it could have been somebody else. Naturally, he’d want to keep his identity secret—”
He sighed. “Mrs. Ryan, did you ever hear of anybody hiring a detective to watch another man’s wife?”
“Then why would Denman take the assignment under those circumstances?”
“He has the reputation of not being too fussy about who hires him as long as he gets paid.”
The last lead was gone now. I slumped over the desk with my head in my hands. I’d have been better off if I’d given myself up in the first place. Heels tapped in the passage, and the door opened softly. Barbara had her purse under her arm.
She smiled. “A girl’s entitled to rebuild her face before the coffee break.” Seating herself by the desk, she slid a yellow envelope from the purse. “This just came, and I don’t think I’ve got the nerve to read him another one this soon.”
“Thanks.” I dropped in the chair behind the desk and tore it open.
JOHN D. WARREN
WARREN REALTY
CARTHAGE ALABAMA :
NO SUCH PERSON AS FRANCES KINNAN STOP HAVE CHECKED VITAL STATISTICS ORLANDO AND DADE COUNTY NO BIRTH NO MARRIAGE NO DIVORCE STOP UNHEARD OF AT UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI AND BURDINES STOP NO RECORD OF A LEON DUPRE NOR SHOP ANYWHERE MIAMI AREA NAMED LEONS STOP ADVISE FURTHER ACTION DESIRED
CROSBY INVESTIGATIONS
I read it, and silently passed it to her.
viii
S HE READ IT.
“Any ideas?” she asked at last.
“One,” I said. “Quit, while I still know who I am.”
“Maybe it’s not quite as hopeless as that,” she replied. “It seems to me you’ve pretty well established what was at the bottom of it. You have a man with a previous record of extortion, and a woman—” She hesitated, embarrassed.
“It’s all right,” I said. “We’ve got no time to’ search for euphemisms; let’s call ’em as they fall. A woman with something to hide, possibly a criminal record. Result: blackmail. But it still makes no sense.” I showed her the figures from the bank statements. “I’ll admit the pattern matches what Doris Bentley said—that Roberts first asked about her along in the summer. For the sake of argument we’ll assume he had some reason to suspect she wasn’t who she’d said she was. Then maybe he started checking, and found out what she was trying to cover up. So far, so good—it was in August the checks she wrote for cash suddenly took a jump. But look at the picayune amounts: $200 a month at most. And all the time she had $6000 of her own she didn’t touch—until this week when she threw it away on a bunch of glue-footed horses. That doesn’t sound very desperate to
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