‘I made it sound too easy,’ he said, stretching out his long legs. ‘If it hadn’t been for a hunch…’
‘Never mind that. These people must be after the collection,’ Purvis said, coming to stand over Dallas. ‘This morning Kile and the Gil is girl cal on the Rajah. In the evening Gil is talks in terms of half a million. The connection’s obvious. It looks as if the Rajah has offered Kile a half a million to get his jewels back, and Gillis plans to gyp him.’
‘The whole idea seems to have come from Gillis,’ Dal as pointed out. ‘Kile is being used as a stooge.
But how is Kile going to get the jewels? Think he knows where they are?’
‘I don’t know,’ Purvis said, sit ing down. ‘He must have some idea otherwise he wouldn’t have seen the Rajah this morning.’
‘Who’s this guy Baird, Gil is is so strung up about?’
‘If it’s Verne Baird,’ Purvis said, crossing his long, bony legs, ‘and I’d imagine it must be, he’s suspect number one for Jean Bruce’s kil ing.’
‘Is that right?’ Dal as said, startled. ‘Is he the guy Olin’s searching for?’
Purvis nodded.
‘A pretty dangerous character, according to Olin. I ran into Olin on my way home tonight. He’s had quite a night of it. As a routine precaution he put a couple of his men to watch Baird’s apartment house.
One of them spotted a big man watching the house and went after him. He cornered him in a drug store, but wasn’t fast enough with his gun. He and the girl in the store were shot to death, and the kil er escaped by way of the roof. Olin got some boys down there in double quick time, and one of them spotted the killer as he was crossing the roof. He winged him, but he got away somehow. They’ve cordoned off the area and they’re making a house-to-house search. Olin swears no one can get through the cordon, so with any luck, they’l catch him.’
‘Was it Baird?’
‘Olin thinks so, but no one has identified him. The cop who shot at him said the man was Baird’s build, but he couldn’t swear it was Baird. Olin says there’s no other hood in town who’d shoot it out with a cop, and then kill the girl so she couldn’t identify him. I think he’s right. We don’t run to types so ruthless as that.’
‘Well, if it is Baird and they catch him, Gillis’s plan may come unstuck.’
Purvis didn’t say anything. He was thinking, his hand covered his face. There was a long silence, then he looked up to say, ‘I’m going to put every man I have on this case, Ed. I don’t think we need bother with the Rajah for the time being. The people who matter now are Kile, Eve Gillis, Rico, Baird and Adam Gillis. They’re the ones who wil lead us to the jewels if anyone’s going to lead us to them.
You’ve already made contact with Gillis, who’s obviously the key-man of the set-up. Keep close to him, Ed. That’s your job from now on. Don’t lose sight of him. Get friendly with him. Get his confidence if you can.’
‘That guy’s as slippery as an eel,’ Dallas said, ‘and a first-class heel as well. The way he talked to his sister made me want to puke.’
‘Who’l I put on to Rico?’ Purvis said, frowning. ‘Burns must cover Kile. Ainsworth can go after Baird, unless the cops get him first, but what about Rico?’
‘There’s a girl at the club; her name’s Zoe Norton,’ Dal as said. ‘For some reason or other she seems to have taken a liking for me. I think I could persuade her to work for us. She would be in a much better position to report on Rico than anyone we could employ. That’s what we want more than anything at this stage of the game: someone inside and working for us.’
Purvis nodded.
‘That’s right. How do you persuade her?’
’I’d spread my charm before her and a purse of gold,’ Dal as’ said, grinning. ‘It’d cost you three or four hundred, but it’d pay dividends.’
Purvis winced.
‘Doesn’t say much for your charm,’ he said tartly. ‘I wouldn’t pay her more than a hundred. You seem to think I’ve money to burn.’
‘She wouldn’t do it for that,’ Dal as said. ‘It’l have to be three at least. But don’t let me persuade you to throw your money away — as if I could.’
Purvis brooded. He realised he would be getting value for money, and this wasn’t the time to cut corners.
‘Wel , talk to her,’ he said final y. ‘Get her as cheaply as you can, and not a dime more than three hundred.’
Dallas said he’d see what he could do.
‘Let’s get this straightened out,’ Purvis went on. ‘Everyone of us has got to watch his step. You’ve got the toughest job, Ed, and you’ve got to handle it as if it were dynamite. We can’t afford to let them have the slightest idea we’re on to them. Our job is to find the jewels. We’re not employed by the police.
I want you to understand that. Whatever we find out, we keep to ourselves. If any of you find Baird you’re not to report him to the police. We want Baird to take us to the jewels, and he won’t do that if he’s in a cel .’
‘Isn’t that making us accessories after the fact?’ Dal as asked mildly.
‘We stand to pick up four hundred grand,’ Purvis pointed out. ‘I’l split one per cent of that among you operators. That’s a thousand bucks apiece. Would that make you forget such things as accessories after the fact?’
‘A thousand isn’t much,’ Dal as said, scarcely believing his ears, but quick to bargain. ‘As I’ve got the heaviest job, how about making it two for me and one for the rest of them?’
Purvis shook his head.
‘No, that wouldn’t be fair to the others, but I tel you what I’l do. I’l give a cheque for five thousand to the first one of you who walks into my office and tells me where the jewels are.’
‘Do the big thing,’ Dal as said, ‘and give the boys a little confidence. Make it cash.’
X
The distant sound of an approaching police siren penetrated Baird’s brain. It grew louder until it filled the inside of his head with a vibrating scream of warning.
With an effort he forced back his eyelids and looked into darkness. He felt weak and cold, and there was a stiff, tight feeling of pain down his right side.
He turned his head. There was an open window to his left. He could see the dark night sky, pin-pointed with the white brilliance of the stars. The faint haze of reflected light from the street lamps climbed the wall of the building and outlined the cross sections of the window.
Below, a car skidded with a squeal of tortured tyres to a standstill. The siren died down in a slow and reluctant wail of sound. Car doors opened and slammed. Feet ran across the street.
Baird suddenly realised there was someone standing against the wall, looking cautiously out of the window into the street: a woman.
It was too dark in the room to see much of her: she seemed small, and her hair hung loose to her shoulders. She was pressing her hands to her breasts, and she stood very still.
More police sirens wailed in the distance. A car started up suddenly close by, and drove away with a noisy change of gears. A dog began to bark furiously.
Baird lifted his head, his hand groped for his gun holster, but it wasn’t there. He felt light-headed and weak, but the sound of the approaching sirens was like a spur to him, and he made an effort to sit up.
The woman at the window heard him and looked quickly in his direction.
‘Don’t move,’ she said, her voice coming across the intervening space in a frightened whisper.
‘They’re down there: hundreds of them.’
Baird got one foot to the floor. The bed on which he was lying creaked under his weight. He raised himself on his elbow. Pain rode through him, bringing him out in a cold sweat. He struggled against it, but it proved too much for him, and he dropped back on to the pillow, his mind seething with vicious, frustrated rage.