‘Okay, Steve.’
I called Chandler’s home and just caught him as he was leaving for his office. I told him what had happened and that I suspected it was because of the High school contract that Wally had been beaten up.
Chandler rose to the occasion as I knew he would.
‘Where is he?’
‘The Northern.’
‘All right, Steve, I’ll take care of it. I’ll get a report on his condition. Tell his wife I’ll take care of everything and I mean everything. His salary is to be doubled from yesterday. If these punks think they can intimidate me they have another think coming! Go after Hammond with no holds barred... understand?’
Yes, I understood, but Chandler wasn’t in the firing line. My turn could come. I, too, could be in the Northern with broken ribs and concussion.
‘Okay, Mr. Chandler. If you could have a personal word with Shirley?’
‘Personal word? I’m going to the hospital right away and I’ll see her.’ A pause, then he said, ‘This mag of ours is certainly stirring them up, isn’t it?’
‘I guess it is.’ I thought of Schultz.
‘Keep it up, Steve,’ and he hung up.
I made myself coffee, then drove over to Lucilla’s bungalow. She answered my ring: a tall, gaunt woman with a mannish haircut, green, cold eyes and pinched nostrils. She had on shirt and slacks and she looked what she was: a bull dyke.
‘Hello, Steve, come in. Our poor invalid is still sleeping.’
I followed her into the big lounge, carelessly furnished with no pieces that matched, but comfortable and cluttered with books. She made a living writing articles for art magazines and reviewing books for the California Times.
Chandler seemed to think a lot of her.
‘How is she?’
‘A black eye.’
‘She told you why?’
Lucilla nodded.
‘Some women do stupid things.’
‘Twenty thousand dollars makes stupidity expensive.’
‘It depends. It could be cheap. Both of you would have to leave here and you would lose your thirty thousand a year job.’
‘You could also have to leave here. Chandler wouldn’t go along with a thief.’
She gave a soft chuckling laugh.
‘I have my tiny bit of film. It cost me two thousand. I beat the creep down. He wanted five, but we settled for two.’
‘How do you know he hasn’t kept some frames back?’
‘Why should he? It’s easy money.’ She laughed again. ‘I rather admire him. So many of us on the estate do it. Why shouldn’t he horn in?’
‘Two thousand is a little different from twenty thousand.’
‘Gordy’s bright. He judges his customers. After all, Linda looks rich. I don’t.’ She regarded me, her green eyes mocking. ‘You are rich, aren’t you, darling?’
I moved to the door, asked, ‘Are any of the other husbands paying?’
She shrugged.
‘How would I know? I do know no other husband has hit his wife.’
‘Maybe that is a pity,’ I said and left her.
At least I now had a little information. This woman had said she had bargained with Gordy: could I do that? This would have to be fixed with Gordy before the Schultz article appeared. Once Gordy knew about that, he could up his price.
I drove to the bank.
‘Sit down, Steve,’ Mayhew said. ‘You’re busy. I’m busy, so let’s get down to it. I’ve looked into the situation. The best I can do is to fix a five thousand overdraft. Would that be any good to you?’
‘Can’t you make it ten, Ernie? This is an emergency.’
‘Sorry. I’m bending over backwards, advancing you five. I don’t run this bank. I have three directors breathing down my neck.’
‘Could I raise money on the house?’
‘You have an up-to-the-hilt mortgage already... not a hope.’
I forced a grin.
‘Well, thanks, Ernie, I’ll accept the five.’
‘I wish I could do more. Is Linda’s mother bad?’
‘I guess so.’
Looking at him, as he gave me a sympathetic smile, I wondered if his wife, Martha shopped at the Welcome store and if she was also a thief.
I reached my office, said hi to Judy who worked the switchboard. She told me Jean hadn’t come in yet. I said I knew about it and went into my office.
My last hope now was Webber. If he failed me, I would have to go to Lu Meir and borrow at sixty percent.
I went through my mail, then Webber called.
‘One hell of a thing has happened,’ he said in his hard, cop voice. ‘My office was broken into last night and ten of my files were stolen. The Gordy file was among them.’
My fingers gripped the receiver until my knuckles turned white.
‘Can you remember what was in his file?’
‘Look, we have fifteen thousand confidential files here. Jack Walsh put Gordy’s file together eight months ago. He left us last month. I only read files when I have to.’
Was there something in the tone of his voice that hinted that he was lying?
‘Where’s Walsh?’
‘I wouldn’t know. He was a drip and I got rid of him. Anyway, what’s the interest in Gordy? Is he something important to you?’
‘What do the police say about the breakin?’
He gave a rumbling laugh.
‘I haven’t reported it. They love me like cancer. What’s the use, anyway? It was a professional job and the missing files aren’t important.’
‘Then why were they stolen?’
A long pause, then he said, ‘I’ve told Mr. Chandler. He says let it go and leave the cops out of it.’
‘That doesn’t answer my question. You’ve lost ten files. At least one of them must be important.’
‘Some nut. Look, I’m up to my eyeballs with work. Suppose you take it up with Mr. Chandler if you feel that curious,’ and he hung up.
I replaced my receiver, thought for, some minutes, then I dialled Webber’s number again.
The girl said, ‘The Alert Detective Agency.’
‘This is Truman and Lacey, solicitors. I understand Mr. Jack Walsh worked for you. He is a beneficiary of a will. Could you give me his address?’
She didn’t hesitate.
‘I’m afraid you are mistaken. No one of that name has ever worked here.’
I replaced the receiver. I knew now for certain that Webber had been lying to me.
3
With a knock on the door, Max Berry, my other researcher, came in. Max was a big husky, around thirty years of age with a rather flattened face, having been a keen boxer at his university. He wasn’t quite in the same class as Wally as a researcher, but he was good and as tenacious as a terrier after a rat. He dressed carelessly, wearing baggy, hairy suits and a red tie that always managed to work its way towards his left ear.
‘This is a hell of a thing about Wally,’ he said as he shut the door.
‘It certainly is. Sit down.’ I was still coping with the shock that Webber was no longer on my side. Quite why, I hadn’t time to think. My immediate reaction was his wife, Hilda, had also been robbing the Welcome store. That could be the only explanation: anyway as first thoughts.
‘I’ve just come from the hospital,’ Max went on, dropping into a chair. ‘Sweet grief! They certainly worked him over! How I wish it had been me! Poor Wally isn’t equipped for that kind of trouble. I’d have given those punks something to remember me by.’ He ran his fingers through his mop of black hair. ‘Any ideas, Steve? Do you think Hammond is behind this?’
‘Could be.’ And Hammond could be, but I was so close to the Welcome store, I couldn’t get it out of my mind. ‘I don’t know. It could be mugging.’
‘I don’t think so. Wally had a briefcase stuffed with trouble. He’s a cagey sonofagun. He came to me last night and we went over the Hammond estimates, but I got the idea, only half his mind was working on it. I have the feeling he was onto something else that’s now landed him in hospital. Did he confide in you?’