“Thanks, Bertha,” he said.
“Don’t mention it,” Bertha commented.
Sellers turned to me. “Now look, wise guy,” he said, “you make one move, just one move, and I’m going to give you the works. I’m going to throw the book at you and clobber you.”
Sellers turned on his heel and swung out of the office.
Bertha said, “Donald, I want to talk with you.”
“Just a second,” I said, and walked over to where Elsie Brand was standing in the doorway of my reception office where she had been watching proceedings.
I said in a low voice, “Get me the Happy Daze Camera Company on the line. I want the manager. I’ll probably be in Bertha’s office when the call comes in. You ring me there but hold this guy on the phone so I can come back and talk in my office.”
“Do you know the man’s name?” she asked.
I shook my head. “He’s Japanese. Just ask for the manager. I want him on the phone. They may be closed by this time. If they are, try and get a night number.”
Elsie looked at me. “Donald, are you in trouble, real trouble?”
“Why?” I asked.
She said, “The others were watching that camera box when Sergeant Sellers opened that box of paper. I was watching your face. You looked for a second as though you were going to fall down.”
I said, “Never mind my face, Elsie. I’ve got myself in pretty deep and may have you along with me.”
“Would I have to testify against you?” she asked.
“If they get you in front of the grand jury, you will. Unless...”
She watched me as I lapsed into silence.
“Unless we were married?” she asked.
“I didn’t say that,” I said.
She said, “I did. Donald, if you want to marry me so I can’t testify and then go to Nevada and get a divorce afterward, it’s okay with me. I’ll do anything... anything.”
“Thanks,” I told her. “I—”
“Dammit to hell!” Bertha screamed across the office. “Are you going to stand there yakkity-yakking all afternoon or are you coming in here?”
“I’m coming in,” I said.
I walked into Bertha’s office. She closed the door, locked it and stuck the key in her desk drawer.
“What’s that for?” I asked.
She said, “You’re going to stay here until you come clean. I don’t know what you were telling Elsie there in a low voice, but if you were telling her to call San Francisco and get the manager of that goddam camera store on the line, Bertha is going to sit right here and listen to every word you say.”
“What makes you think I’m calling anyone in San Francisco?” I asked.
“Don’t be a sap,” she said. “Any time you go and buy a box of enlarging paper that’s had the seals cut I want to know about it. All you bought that goddam camera for was so that you could include a box of photographic paper without arousing anyone’s suspicions. Now what happened? Did that cameraman high-grade what you put in the box?”
I walked over to the window and stood with my back to Bertha, looking down at the street. I felt like hell.
“Answer me!” Bertha screamed at me. “Don’t stand there trying to stall me. My God, don’t you know you’re in a jam? Don’t you know I’m in a jam? I’ve never seen Frank Sellers like that in all my life and you haven’t either. You—”
The telephone rang.
Bertha scooped up the receiver and said, “He’ll take the call right here.”
There was a moment of mumbled sound coming from the receiver, then Bertha yelled, “Goddammit, Elsie, I told you he’d take the call right here. Now, get that guy on the line.”
I turned around and said, “I can’t talk to him here, Bertha.”
Bertha said, “The hell you can’t. You talk to him right here or you don’t talk at all. Either pick up that phone and talk to the guy or I’m telling Elsie to cancel the call.”
I turned and looked at the glittering anger in Bertha’s eyes, walked over and picked up the telephone. “Is this the manager of the Happy Daze Camera Company?”
There was the rattle of quick, nervous, staccato Japanese accent on the line. “This is manager, Mr. Kisarazu.”
“This is Donald Lam,” I said, “in Los Angeles. Are you the man who sold me the camera and the enlarging paper?”
“That’s right, that’s right,” he jabbered nervously into the telephone. “Takahashi Kisarazu, manager, Happy Daze Camera Company, at your service, please. What can I do, Mr. Lam?”
“You remember,” I said, “that I bought a camera and a box of enlarging paper?”
“Oh, yes-s-s-s-s,” he hissed. “Delivered already at airport. Sent specially to airport for rush handling express.”
“The package is here,” I said, “but the stuff I bought isn’t.”
“Package is there?”
“That’s right.”
“But stuff you bought not there?”
“That’s right.”
“Sorry, please. I do not understand.”
I said, “I bought a special and particular box of enlarging paper. The box that came down here isn’t the box I purchased. The seals had been tampered with on that paper. It had been opened.”
“Opened?”
“Opened.”
“Oh, sorry. So sorry. I have everything here on purchase slip. Will send new box of paper at once. So sorry.”
“I don’t want a new box of paper,” I said. “I want the box I purchased.”
“Don’t understand, please.”
“I think you understand too damn much,” I told him. “Now, I want that box of paper that I purchased. The same one, understand?”
“Will be glad to send a new box right away, very quick, special handling charges. So sorry. Unfortunate accident. Perhaps someone has opened box of paper after you made purchase, no?”
“What makes you think that?”
“Because of finding five by seven enlargement paper on floor by counter. Am very sorry. Excuse, please. We will make good.”
“Now listen,” I said, “get this and get it straight. I want that box of paper and I want it down here fast. If I don’t get it, there’s going to be trouble. Big trouble. You understand?”
“Yes, yes, plenty trouble already. So sorry about paper. Am sending box right away. Good-by.”
He hung up the phone at the other end. I cradled the phone and met Bertha’s eyes.
“Sonofabitch,” Bertha said under her breath.
“Me?” I asked her.
“Him,” she said. And then after a moment added, “You, too.” Then she went on to say, “Dammit, Donald, you ought to know better than to try and outwit an Oriental. They can read your mind just like I can read the stock quotations in the newspaper.”
“This was a wonderful buy in a camera,” I said. “I think perhaps he smuggled it in.”
Bertha’s eyes were snapping. “Wonderful buy my eye,” she said. “You didn’t buy that camera because you wanted to take pictures. Now, why the hell did you buy it?”
“It might be better,” I said, “if I didn’t tell you. Maybe I’m in bad.”
“Then we’re in bad,” Bertha said. “What was this evidence that you were trying to have sent down to you without anyone knowing about it?”
“It wasn’t evidence,” I said. “Frank Sellers was right. It was fifty grand.”
Bertha’s jaw sagged. Her eyes began to widen.
“Fifty... grand...!”
“Fifty grand,” I said.
“Donald, you couldn’t have! How in hell did you find it?”
“Sellers was right again,” I said. “The guy was shipping a trunk. I juggled things so that I got his trunk and he got mine. The fifty grand was in his trunk. I just had a hunch that they might be laying for me, so I bought the camera and some enlarging paper. The box of enlarging paper had two packages of paper on the inside. I surreptitiously opened the box under the counter while the manager was getting some accessories for the camera I wanted and pulled out some of the paper and put the fifty grand inside the box. I said I wanted it shipped at once to the office here. I wanted a special messenger to take it to the air express so it would be here by the time I arrived.”