“Second door on the left,” Johnny said for him before he could speak, and the thin mouth tightened, but he nodded.
Lieutenant Dameron met them in the hall. “Willie!” he exclaimed, hand outstretched. “Good to see you again. I'd heard you were in Europe; really hadn't hoped to see you this soon. What brought you back to town?”
“My sinful nature,” Willie replied drily, shaking hands and glancing from one to the other of the two big men. “This is turning out to be quite a production. What's on your mind, Joe?”
“Johnny didn't tell you? Come on inside. We can't talk out here.” He led the way into the familiar, dingy room and motioned them to chairs as he closed the door. “Sorry about the appearances, but the city doesn't believe in wasting money on us non-revenue producing agencies.” He dropped down in his swivel chair behind the cluttered desk, propped his elbows on its surface and looked at Johnny over his steeple-shaped pressed-together hands under his chin in the gesture Johnny had come to associate with him. “You didn't tell him anything?” Johnny shook his head. “Okay. Here's a fast rundown for you. Willie.”
Johnny sat and listened to the ruddyfaced man quickly sketch the sequence of events at the hotel, beginning with Max Armistead's original proposition and Johnny's session with him on the elevator through all the ins and outs of the subsequent developments down to the point of the discovery that Ronald Frederick was not Ronald Frederick at all but had obtained the job for some purpose of his own through the use of another man's name.
Johnny watched the changing expressions on Willie Martin's aristocratic face as he listened to the rapid recital, and when the lieutenant had finished the slender man sat quietly for a moment, lost in thought. When he spoke his voice was brisk. “I imagine you boys had a specific reason for lugging me in here and spoonfeeding this to me, but how about a couple of questions first?”
“Go right ahead,” Lieutenant Dameron invited him, and Willie Martin frowned absently, leaned back in his chair, and looked up at the ceiling a moment before looking back at the big man behind the desk.
“This might sound a little silly to you, Joe, but are you sure you haven't gotten your wires crossed on Freddie?”
The lieutenant stared, but Johnny cut in ahead of him before he could reply. “Not a chance, Willie. Joe got the word from the coast.”
“I know, I know.” The slender man straightened in his chair, and his tone was impatient. “Joe got the word. Now let me tell you something. An hour ago I finished reading the first comprehensive report I've had from my auditor and my lawyer since I put Frederick in there, and both of these reasonably disinterested businessmen assure me that he's doing a better job for me down there than anyone I've had in a long time. Now I wouldn't try to convince you that the hotel is the biggest or most complicated operation of its kind, but on the other hand it doesn't run itself. One of us is barking up the wrong tree, Joe.”
Again Johnny spoke first. “You haven't seen this thing break wide open the way we have.”
“Johnny's right,” the lieutenant chimed in heavily. “We have to believe it's him from what we've developed to date.”
Willie spread his hands placatingly. “Yet we have this suspect, this imposter, successfully operating a fairly specialized business. It's a little difficult to reconcile. Well, let's get to it. Why am I here?”
The red-faced man cleared his throat. “I want you to prefer charges against this so-called Ronald Frederick.”
Willie sat silent so long that Johnny shifted uneasily in his chair; the slim man leaned forward finally, face thoughtful. “Can you blame me if the first thought that comes to mind is that if there were a legitimate charge you'd be making it yourself?”
“You're the injured party, Willie.” The lieutenant's face was bland.
“Exactly where or how am I injured? Let's tighten it up a little-with what am I supposed to charge him?”
“My boys upstairs'll find you half a dozen things, based on the misuse of the name.”
“I'm no lawyer, Joe. Is it criminal? And if it isn't, in view of what I've already told you about his work, if there're no loose ends, no damages, no loss… well, I personally don't see where there's a civil action, either. This is no hood you can push around, Joe; this is an educated man who knows his rights.”
Lieutenant Dameron drew a long breath, and his face hardened. “Are you turning me down, Willie? We look for a little more cooperation than that from our more prominent taxpayers.”
Johnny could see Willie's face stiffen in turn. “Don't threaten me, Joe. Even indirectly.” His tone turned sardonic. “I don't like to be put in the position of defying a duly constituted authority-”
“For God's sake, Willie,” Johnny broke in. He had been sitting more and more uneasily on the edge of his chair. “What the hell's the matter with you? This is serious. There's a goddamn volcano set to go off around the place we don't get the lid on. You sound like an old woman. How come you're so persnickety all of a sudden? I've seen the time you defied a bunch of duly constituted authority would send Joe and me both runnin' for the kaopectate.”
Willie leaned forward in his chair again. He looked tired Johnny thought. “Is this the man, Joe? Am I safe in preferring charges? Have you got a case?”
lieutenant Dameron spoke carefully. “With your help, Willie, we intend-” He broke off as the slender man stood up suddenly.
“I can't buy it,” he said sharply. “Not this way. I'll soften it a little, though. I'll have to talk to my lawyer first, of course. Then I'm going to Acapulco in the morning. I'll be back in two days, and by that time you should have developed this thing to the point where you either don't need me at all, or that I can justify my intervention. More than that I can't do.”
“We don't want that little bastard to have two days,” Johnny said gloomily. “I'd bet my life he's the juggler keepin' all this stuff in the air. We grab him we got a good chance of rollin' up the rug on the jackpot.”
Willie looked at him. “Aren't you giving him the Iron Cross with palms for being the mastermind behind all this that I've been listening to, in addition to holding down a full time job?”
“Willie, how many times have I steered you wrong? He's the man.”
Willie shrugged. “We could sit here all night and get nowhere,” he said after a moment. “That's not what I came to New York for, though. Let's go, Johnny.”
Johnny rose reluctantly, looking at the big man behind the desk, who looked away. No one offered to shake hands on the way out, and on the stone steps outside Willie paused and looked up at Johnny. “You figure I'm wrong?”
“I know you're wrong.”
“Sorry.” But he didn't sound sorry, Johnny thought; he slowly descended to the street in the wake of the slender man impatiently whistling for a cab.
He heard Sally's key in the door, and he put down his newspaper as she entered with her arms full of bundles. Her eyebrows lifted at sight of him in the easy chair. “Well buster,” she commented on her way through to the kitchen where she set down her packages with a thump, “I couldn't truthfully say I expected to see you this morning Have you been to bed at all? What happened to Willie?”
“Just put him on the plane to Mexico,” Johnny said.
Her voice drifted out from the kitchen. “He ought to be right in his element with the jumping beans.” She reappeared in the doorway. “You all right? You look a little down. Or just hung over?”
“That must be it, ma.”
She walked into the bedroom and came out with the telephone pad in her hand. “I had a report this morning from a Fontaine Agency operative,” she said importantly. “Interested?”
“It depends.”
“Let me check and see if you've paid last month's bill. Maybe your credit rating doesn't call for any additional information.” She looked down at his expression of inquiry. “Mr. Carl Muller is in town.”