“I knew she was a phoney,” I returned. “I wonder what Starkey would say if he knew of her relations with Wolf? She must be a nice type of kid to sleep with a guy and betray him at the same time.”
Latimer shrugged. “Women are all the same,” he returned cynically. “They’ll cut your throat while they’re loving you. Anyway, that’s the dope for what it’s worth.”
I said I was glad to have it and went on into the building.
There was no light showing through the pebbled glass door of the Gazette offices. I wondered uneasily if Audrey had gone to sleep. I tried the door and found it wasn’t locked.
One look, around the room, after I had turned on the light, confirmed my worst fears. It looked like a cyclone had hit it. Chairs were overturned, the desk was shoved against the wall, and rugs were crumpled in corners.
Audrey had put up a pretty good fight. The silent and dishevelled office told its own story. Starkey had got her.
VI
I paid off the taxi a hundred yards or so from Wolf’s house and walked the short distance, keeping in the shadows. It was now a little after twelve o’clock and I was hoping everyone in Wolf’s place had gone to bed.
There were lights burning in two-of the upper-floor windows of the house, but the ground floor was in darkness. I walked across the lawn, round the back to the garage. It took me a few minutes to force the lock and another five minutes to get my car out. Fortunately there was a sloping ramp from the garage and I rolled the car down to the drive without having to start up the engine. I manoeuvred it in a position for a quick getaway and then ran round to the front door again. One look at the lock convinced me that it would take too long to force, so I tried a window. I managed to slip a catch, pushed up the window and found myself in Edna Wilson’s office. Moving quietly, I stepped into the lobby and listened. No sound came to me, so I started up the stairs. I reached the landing. As I was hesitating what to do next a door at the far end of the passage opened. I ducked back behind the bend of the staircase.
Wolf wandered down the passage. He was wearing a blue silk dressing gown over his tuxedo. A cigar was clamped between his teeth and he moved heavily as if he were tired or had something on his mind. For a moment I thought he was going downstairs, and I began to wonder what excuse I was going to give to explain why I was lurking in his house. But halfway down the passage he paused and rapped on a door. A moment later Edna Wilson stepped into the passage. She was wearing a green silk wrap. She said something to him in a low voice and Wolf scowled at her. His heavy face went red. “All right,” he growled, “if that’s how you feel.”
“That’s just how I feel,” she said sharply, and she closed the door in his face.
Wolf stood muttering for a few moments and then he went back to his own room.
I waited a few minutes then I stepped into the passage across to Edna Wilson’s door. I turned the handle. Rather to my surprise the door opened and I walked into a large, lavishly furnished bedroom decorated in green and silver.
A quick look around showed she wasn’t in the room. A door on the left stood open, and as I walked softly over to it she came out. I caught a glimpse of a naked thigh that flashed between the opening of her silk wrap, then she saw me, her hands went to her face and her mouth curved into an O.
With my left hand I swept her hands from her face and hit her on the side of her jaw with my right. As she folded up I caught her under her arms and lowered her to the floor.
I paused for a second to look at her. Without her glasses her face had a sort of off-key neurotic charm that only needed some clever make-up to be striking. I was slightly startled to see how glasses had spoilt her looks.
I looked swiftly around the room, grabbed a pair of silk stockings, and rolling her over I bound her wrists together. A silk scarf hanging over a chair back served to fasten her ankles together. I rolled her over again, made a knot in my handkerchief and stuffed it in her mouth. Then I picked her up — she was light and I could feel her bones sticking into me as I carried her — and walked quickly to the door.
I didn’t hesitate, but went straight into the passage, down the stairs to the front door. I had to lay her on the floor while I unbolted and opened the door, then picking her up and leaving the door open I ran around to where I had left my car. I bundled her into the front seat, slid under the wheel beside her and started the engine.
It took me twelve minutes’ furious driving to reach the printer’s shop. I pulled up with a squeal of brakes and paused long enough to make certain she was still unconscious before running across the sidewalk. I hammered on the door.
As luck would have it, Reg Phipps opened the door himself. I grabbed hold of his arm. “Come on,” I said. “Starkey’s got Audrey Sheridan.” Without giving him a chance to say anything I rushed him over to the car. “Get in and drive,” I said, and climbed in the back.
He gaped at Edna Wilson, but he didn’t start talking. He drove away fast. “Where to?” he said.
“Now listen, Reg,” I said, leaning forward, “this kid is Starkey’s daughter. She’s working for Wolf, and among other things she’s spying on him. Maybe Starkey likes her enough to trade her for Audrey. Anyway, that’s the way I’m playing it. Have you any place where you can hide her up until I can talk to Starkey?”
“Me?” Reg gasped. “Hell, brother, that’d be kidnapping! There’s a long stretch hanging to kidnapping. They might even fry me for it.”
“Don’t talk like a dope,” I snapped. “The only way to talk to these thugs is in the language they understand. You don’t want Audrey left in their hands, do you?”
“Okay, okay,” he said. “I always was a sucker. Yeah, I can hide her up. How long for?”
“Maybe only for a couple of hours,” I said. “Maybe a day or so.”
“I know a guy who runs a little hotel on North Street,” Reg said. “He’ll rent me a room and not ask questions.”
“Okay, do that. What’s the name of the hotel?”
“Fernbank. It’s in the book.”
“Drop me off at Starkey’s headquarters and then go on to the hotel. Get this kid under cover before she comes to the surface and for God’s sake keep her under cover. I’ll ring you when I want her. Don’t bring her unless I say something about your line being bad. Maybe Starkey will get the drop on me, and I don’t want you to make any mistake.”
“You ain’t going to tackle him alone, are you?”
“I haven’t time to do anything else. Suppose you ring Latimer when you get to the hotel and tell him what’s cooking. Maybe he’ll feel like sticking his heck out. If he does I could use him.”
“Let me come with you,” Reg said earnestly. “We’ll tie this dame up and—”
“No,” I said. “You stick with her. She’s our trump card.”
Reg slowed down. “Starkey hangs out a block from here. It’s a poolroom downstairs, but he’s got rooms on the second floor. There’s a fire escape at the back. That’s your way up.” He pulled in to the kerb and I got out.
“Thanks a lot, Reg,” I said, patting his arm. “Look after this babe.”
I left him, walked down the street until I reached the next block, then turned down a dark alley. I kept on and came to a five-foot board fence. I climbed over the fence and went across a vacant, weed-grown lot towards the rear end of the building that housed Starkey.
Its three storeys were dark and forbidding. I went close to the building, making no noise, my gun in my right fist. Looking up, I could see the vague outline of a fire escape against the sky.