“Well,” said Sackler, “it sounds reasonable to me. Go back and tell your principal I’m waiting for the money.” Sligo stood up. “Good. You’ll get it in a week.” He backed toward the door still keeping his automatic in front of him. “By the way, don’t get any funny ideas of chasing after me. Stay right where you are for ten minutes after I leave. I may be right outside the door ready to blast you if you come out before then. Well, so long, bozos.”
Again he took the silver dollar from his vest pocket and tossed it nonchalantly in the air before he opened the door. It slammed behind him.
I looked at Sackler and said, “Are you really going to take that dough?”
He shook his head. “It’s damned dubious dough, Joey. And even if they send it, it won’t pay in the long run. I can do better solving cases than laying off them. I can see a buck under my nose easily enough. But I can also see two several furlongs away.”
“Then you’re still working on the case?”
“I’m still working on it.” He stood up and reached for his disgraceful hat. “As a matter of fact I’m working on it all day. I have some calls to make and I won’t be back. You take care of the office. Close up.”
He went out of the office leaving me once again to my own unsolved problem.
Chapter Three
Illegal Ethics
Not only did I have to dig up an idea but I had to dig it up fast. Wolfe with all the power of all the coppers in the country behind him was going to find Parry sooner or later and probably sooner. If I wanted to grab the reward I had to move fast. I lit a cigarette and went into mental action again.
An hour later I thought of something. It wasn’t terrific, true, but it was the best I could do under the circumstances. I would write La Abbott a letter. I put a sheet of paper in the typewriter and went to work.
Now, I am by no means a great writer. But for nine G’s I had to be eloquent; I had to sweat.
First, I told the Abbott woman that no one save myself realized that she had been in love with Parry. I threw in a paragraph expressing deep sympathy with her position. I mentioned one’s civic duty. I pointed out that sooner or later the coppers were bound to pick Parry up. I lied about my connections with the D.A. and guaranteed that if Parry was to surrender to me, I’d see to it he faced no worse a charge than second degree murder.
It took me three hours to write a thousand words. When it was done I wasn’t quite satisfied with it but it was the best I could do. I sealed it in an envelope, stamped it and dropped it in the hall mail chute.
When I went home that night I felt relieved. Now the thing was out of my hands. If my letter worked, okay, it worked. If it didn’t, I was licked.
Sackler didn’t come in at all the following morning. I kept the vigil myself, nervously wondering if my all out literary effort would bear fruit.
Shortly after lunch Sackler arrived, grunted at me and sat down at his desk. I was in no mood for conversation and, apparently, neither was he. We sat in silence until the 3:00 o’clock call of the postman.
He tossed some letters on Sackler’s desk and announced, “Special delivery for Joseph Graham.”
I sprang up and signed for it. I ripped open a violet scented, purple envelope with trembling fingers. There was a single sheet of paper inside. It bore a street address followed by two words: Gary, Indiana.
My heart leaped. Obviously, my missive to Abbott had worked. In my hand I held the address of Campbell Parry. I also held nine tenths of ten thousand dollars.
With an effort I kept a dead pan. I didn’t want Sackler to suspect anything. I walked calmly back to my desk. Sackler said, “What is it, Joey? Anything important?”
I shook my head. “Dame I know. Always bothering me. Can’t seem to get rid of her.”
He nodded. He looked at me thoughtfully. “Joey, I’m not sure I believe you. I think you’re doing your own investigation on this Parry thing. I think you’ve got something.”
“Well, suppose I have?”
“If you really have,” he said, “I wouldn’t want to take unfair advantage of you.”
“What do you mean by that?”
He scratched his head. He said, “If you’ve really got this thing figured I’m willing to waive my ten percent.”
“Aren’t you getting a little out of character?” I asked him suspiciously.
“Maybe. I know you think I’d sell my mother for a buck. But you never broke a case single handed before. If you can do it now, I think you’re entitled to the entire reward.”
This speech from Sackler was highly suspicious. However, I turned it over in my mind I couldn’t figure how I could possibly lose anything. I had Parry in my pocket. No one could take that away from me. All I had to do was to see Wolfe and tell him that I knew where Parry was. If Sackler waived his ten percent, well, it was just another grand in my pocket.
“All right,” I said. “So you waive. I accept the waiver.”
“Okay,” said Sackler. “Then our previous agreement is wiped out, cancelled, eh?”
That should have warned me. But with Parry’s address in my pocket I was riding too high to scent danger. I said, “It’s off. Cancelled. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got some business downtown.”
“How long will it take you?”
“About an hour.”
He scribbled something on a piece of paper. “When you’ve finished your business, will you please meet me at this address?”
I took the paper, said, “Okay,” and headed for the door. Sackler called after me, “Oh, you might get in touch with Inspector Wolfe and bring him along with you.”
Since I was going to see Wolfe and he wasn’t supposed to know about it, I glanced at him sharply over my shoulder. He was rolling a cigarette and wearing a bland expression. I figured it was sheer coincidence. I went out into the hall and pressed the elevator button.
Wolfe, who disliked Sackler with the same passion that he disliked arsenic, wasn’t too happy to see me. He looked up from a sheaf of papers in his hand and said, “Well, what’s old Scrooge want now?”
“Nothing,” I said, “I’m working on my own.”
“Doing what?”
“Making ten grand out of which Sackler gets exactly nothing.”
That interested him. “How’s that?” he asked.
I told him of my original deal with Sackler and how it had just been canceled at Sackler’s request. Wolfe was unimpressed.
“That won’t do you much good. We don’t have a line on Perry yet. Maybe Sackler will beat us to it. But you ain’t in the same class as him, Joey. What chance have you got?”
I grinned smugly. “I don’t know about that,” I said, “I have a piece of paper in my pocket which may interest you?”
“Go on.”
“Written on that piece of paper is Parry’s present address.”
He stared at me and held out his hand.
“Wait a minute,” I said. “The reward is all mine?”
“Every nickel of it,” he said. “Give me that paper.”
I handed it over to him and explained my theory and told him of the letter I’d written to the Abbott woman. Wolfe listened, grinning. Then he grabbed a phone and instructed someone to call the Gary cop immediately. He hung up and said, “And Rex doesn’t get a cent of this dough?”
“Not a cent.”
We looked at each other. We smiled broadly. Then we broke into hearty laughter. It wasn’t every day that Rex Sackler talked himself out of dough.
We waited for some forty-five minutes. Then a message came in from Gary that Parry had been picked up and announced he would waive extradition proceedings. Wolfe and I congratulated each other, then set out for the address Sackler had given me.