‘In which direction was the car going ?’
‘Towards the airport.’
Meadows stopped prowling around the office and stared at Carey, then he looked over at Renick who was taking notes.
‘The airport?’
‘Well, the car could have been going to West Beach which is beyond the airport. I didn’t mean…’
‘The airport!’ Meadows exclaimed. ‘That’s an idea.’ He suddenly got excited. ‘Goddam it! That is an idea! Have we checked the airport, John?’
Renick shook his head.
‘No. We reckoned they wouldn’t dare take the girl on a plane. We’ll check if you think…’
‘We’ll check everywhere,’ Meadows said. ‘I want a list of all passengers who travelled from the airport from half past ten to midnight. Fix that, John.’
I was now so tense I could scarcely sit still.
Turning to Carey, Meadows said, ‘I guess that’s all for now, Mr. Carey. Thanks for your help. If there’s anything further I want to know, I’ll get in touch with you.’
The wife started for the door.
‘Come along, Herbert, we’ve wasted enough time already.’
Carey moved after her, then he paused to look at me. I didn’t dare meet his eyes. I pulled open a drawer in the desk and took out some paper as if I had forgotten his existence.
I heard him say to Meadows, ‘Excuse me, sir, but who is that gentleman?’
Here it comes, I thought, and icy fingers squeezed my heart. I looked up.
Carey was pointing at me.
Meadows obviously surprised, said, ‘That’s Harry Barber, my Press officer.’
The woman caught hold of Carey’s arm and jerked him to the door.
‘For heaven’s sake! Come along! If you haven’t anything better to do than to waste these gentlemen’s time, I have!’
Reluctantly, still staring at me, Carey allowed himself to be led out of the office.
The door closed behind them.
CHAPTER NINE
I
Meadows said, ‘What a woman!’ He sat down behind his desk. ‘What do you think, John? I’d bet on Carey’s evidence.’
‘Oh, sure,’ Renick said. ‘Anyway, we have another witness: Kerby also said the guy was tall and broad. Well, we’re getting somewhere. We now know the man we want is around six foot, weighs one hundred and eighty pounds, was wearing a dark sports suit with pouch pockets, no hat, smokes Luckies, and owns a beat up car. We’re about ready to get a composite photo of this guy.’ He suddenly turned to me. ‘What do you weigh, Harry?’
‘Around one hundred and ninety, I guess,’ I said huskily. ‘What’s my weight to do with it?’
‘I’ve an idea. Carey said you were the same build and height as this guy. We’ll take a photograph of you, blank out your face and get the papers to print it. We’ll ask if anyone saw a man resembling the photograph near Lone Bay parking lot or the Pirates’ Cabin.’ He looked over at Meadows. ‘What do you think, sir?’
‘It’s a great idea!’ Meadows said enthusiastically. ‘We’ll do even better than that.’ He called his secretary. ‘Miss Leham, I want you to go out right now and buy a sports suit for Mr. Barber. It’s got to be in dark brown, and it has to have pouch pockets: something quiet. I want it as fast as you can get it.’
Miss Leham looked me over, nodded and went out.
‘While we’re waiting, John, get me that passenger list. I want the names of everyone who travelled from the airport between ten-thirty and midnight.’ To me, he said, ‘How about writing a nice little article about me — a personal thing, about my hobbies, my home life with my kids, my wife: I don’t have to tell you. You’ll get the dope from the files. See if you can get it into Time and Newsweek.’
Back in my office with the door shut, I sat down limply behind my desk. I felt in a trap. This photograph idea of Renick’s could be dangerous. Although I was pretty sure no one had seen me at the Pirates’ Cabin, I had had enough experience as a newspaper man to know there was always the chance that someone I hadn’t seen had seen me. This also applied to the Lone Bay parking lot. At the airport, I had stupidly carried Odette’s suitcase into the departure hall. The place had been crowded. Any idle watcher might remember me once the photograph appeared.
But the main thing that haunted my mind was how I was going to get rid of Odette’s body. I would have to do it tonight. I couldn’t keep her in the trunk longer than tonight. I would have to hire a car. My feeling of panic grew as I remembered how short of money I was. I would have to go to my regular garage and try to talk the owner into lending me a car without paying the usual deposit. I had exactly two dollars in my wallet and I had no idea how much Nina had. I wouldn’t be able to draw any money from my job until the end of the week.
Then when I had the car, I had to transfer Odette’s body from my car to the other. How was I going to do it without being sure Nina wouldn’t suddenly surprise me? It would have to be done when she had gone to bed. I would have to tell her I would be working late, then when she was asleep I would do the job.
But while I was doing it, suppose one of the searchers spotted me?
My mind cringed at the thought of the awful risk I would have to face.
I had no time to think further about this for the telephone bell started up its continuous clamour. I had to get the articles on Meadows written. Then, as I was finishing the article, Miss Leham came in with the suit, followed by Renick.
It gave me a hell of a jolt when I saw the suit. It was the replica of the one I owned. I had bought my suit soon after I had left jail to have something new to wear.
When Miss Leham had gone, Renick said, ‘Change, will you, Harry. The photographer’s waiting. We want to get the photos in the last editions.’
I put on the suit and followed him down to the police photographer. In half an hour we had a dozen prints for distribution.
I had a horrible feeling I was committing suicide as I wrote a description of myself and pasted the description to the backs of the photographs. I took the photographs into Meadows’ office and gave them to him.
My face in the photograph had been blocked out, but in spite of that, I was still able to recognise myself.
Meadows studied the photographs, nodded, called in Miss Leham and told her to get them to the local papers.
As she was going out, Renick came in.
‘I have the passenger lists for you,’ he said. ‘They don’t help. There were only two planes out between ten-thirty and midnight. One to Japan and the other to San Francisco. The Japan plane I’ve washed out. The ’Frisco plane had fifteen passengers on board. Fourteen of them were business men and their wives. They do a regular trip and the air hostess knows them all personally. The one odd passenger was a girl, travelling alone.’
‘That doesn’t help. I’m looking for a girl and a man travelling together. There was just the chance the kidnapper had so terrified the girl she might have travelled with him. Who was the lone girl?’
‘She’s listed as Ann Harcourt,’ Renick said. ‘The air hostess particularly noticed her. She was a redhead. She was certainly not Odette Malroux.’
The hard cold knot that had formed in my stomach eased a little. My legs felt suddenly so weak I had to sit down.
Meadows flicked the list into the trash basket.
‘Well, it was a try. Maybe we’ll have more luck with the photograph.’
The time was now after seven. I hung around, listening to the telephone reports of the search until eight, then I said to Renick, ‘Okay for me to go home? If anything breaks, you can telephone me.’