"And that woman from the Vice Squad followed you?"
"Yes."
"But what could you have said to her?"
Bang-Bang's reply was muffled. "Nothing much."
"Bang-Bang, have you been up to something?"
"Me, Miss Joy?"
Whenever the treacherously optimistic thought occurs to you that things can't get any worse, watch out!
The next morning I slept late, recovering from the excessive drain of adrenaline precipitated by the shock of actually being spoken to by the Countess Krak.
I was counting on being able to review the viewer by means of recorded strips. But when I rose around 1:00 P. M., I made a dreadful discovery: I was entirely out of recording strips. Unless I kept my face continually glued to the viewer, I would miss data vitally necessary to trapping this criminal in the midst of her blood-spattered deeds.
But if this had been the only event which that afternoon and evening held for me, it would have been of little moment. However, this was not the case, as the events of that ghastly day were to prove.
The Countess Krak had spent the night in some upper class hotel. I had no way of finding the name, as it was not marked on anything she looked at.
She was finishing lunch in her room. The silver dishes on the white linen and their luscious contents were getting scant attention. Beside her she had open an enormous book of law and was reading two pages per forkful.
There was a knock on her door and at her call Bang-Bang came in, hat in hand. "I've got the wheels at the back entrance," he said. "We better get along or we'll be late, Miss Joy."
There was a flurry of wraps and, carrying the book and a briefcase, the Countess Krak left.
Here was my chance!
She exited through a back stairway into an alley. Broadside to her was a WHITE VAN!
Bang-Bang had the side door slid open. She stepped inside. The van drove away.
Aha! A white van! A commercial-type vehicle with no side windows, converted to recreation use!
If I could get it spotted, I could advise Dingaling, Chase and Ambo and they could serve that injunction and commitment order and the Countess Krak would be in Bellevue-zip, zip-and that would be the end of her!
For I knew a firm like Dingaling would not give up! To Hells with the clients, the case was everything!
I called the motor vehicle department. I told them I was a Fed and wanted full particulars on a white van.
"Make?" he said.
I did not know.
"License number?"
I did not know.
"Well, (bleep), Mister Fed, there are tens of thousands of white vans in New York. Get me more particulars next time." He hung up.
I wasn't daunted. I would keep watch. But meanwhile I had better talk with Dingaling, Chase and Ambo. I phoned.
"They're in court," a girl in their office said.
"You've got to contact them!" I said.
"I'm sorry, Mac. I don't work here. I'm just a client that's suing a millionaire for not properly buttoning up my dress when he spotted me swimming bare-(bleep) two miles away at Coney Island three years ago. It's a juicy case. You want to drop over and be a witness? I may have a couple hours' wait. We can knock off a couple of (bleeps) and discuss the details."
I hung up.
Court!
That would be the Superior Court, Judge Hammer Twist!
I quickly got information and got the number. Then I got on to a switchboard which called another switchboard in the courthouse and that operator called another switchboard, and it went on and on and around and around. Very tangled. After half an hour of trying, some clerk in another department said he thought Judge Twist was in court.
Gods, couldn't you get anywhere at all in this legal system? Not even on a phone?
Aha! I had not run out of chances. I looked up and phoned Eagle Eye Security.
"You guys got conned last night," I told the chief.
"How so?" a cigar-husky voice came back.
"The foul fiend went right in and had her will with the poor girls you had in your charge. The Dingaling clients."
"Oh, those," he said. "My men there said they had a particularly satisfactory evening at the apartment."
"I'll bet they did," I said. "But that is neither here nor there. The woman is still on the loose."
"That's right," he said. "And furthermore, we get ten big ones if we nail her. Any information leading to her apprehension and commitment to Bellevue will find us very generous with you."
"I'll keep in touch," I said.
I turned back to the viewer.
I went into shock!
I had a view of the courtroom! She was amongst the spectators! Exactly where I could not tell, for all I saw was heads and the judge on his bench. Judge Hammer Twist!
I grabbed the phone back. "She's right in the courtroom of Judge Twist! This very minute! NAIL HER!"
He banged down the phone.
Aha! They were on to it! Ten thousand dollars bounty money was talking!
What was going on in the court caught my attention.
Dolores, Toots and Maizie were seated at a table in front of the bench. Dingaling, Chase and Ambo, all three, were standing before the judge.
"But this is very irregular," said Judge Hammer Twist. "You mean you are dismissing cases? You'll disrupt the whole legal system! The livelihood of everyone connected with the law depends utterly upon ADDING cases to the calendar, NOT taking them off! Oh, I can tell you, this is VERY irregular!" He was looking very mean, frightfully put out. "You could get disbarred for this! I'll have to hear it from the clients themselves before I will believe it! Clerk, swear in Toots Switch Wister."
Toots was pushed forward to the stand and sworn in. She said, "Yes, it is true I wish all the previous suits against Wister dismissed. There never was a marriage. The true facts of the case are that I was a passenger on the train. He stole my clothes and sunbonnet to make his escape, but all the time he was stripping me, I lay there sobbing and pleading with him to (bleep) me and he refused. Therefore I am filing a new suit on the grounds of abandonment after unbreeching me."
The judge gave a happy rap with his gavel. "Another suit. That's better. Step down, Miss Switch. I now want to hear from Miss Maizie Spread Wister."
The clerk swore her in and she took the stand. She said, "All evidence previously given concerning my relations with Wister was nonfactual. I am dismissing my previous suits." She held up the pillow. "I was just wearing this in order to look pregnant when in fact I am not, as you can now see." She hoisted up her skirt and showed Twist a lot more than her flat belly.
"Looks like an open-and-shut case to me," said Judge Twist.
"Actually," said Maizie, "the fact that he did NOT touch me and that I am NOT pregnant is the source of my new complaint and suit. I am filing a two-billion-dollar class action suit on behalf of all the women and wives of Kansas who have NOT been (bleeped) nor impregnated by Wister. This is an assault on their natural women's rights, making them underprivileged. We assert we are being neglected by the greatest and most notorious outlaw of all time and demand punitive damages and redress of wrongs."
"Now we're getting somewhere," said the judge. "Step down. I shall now hear Dolores Pubiano de Copula Wister."
The clerk swore her in. The Mexican beauty took the stand, crossed her legs and pulled up her skirt. She smiled at the judge. In college English she said, "Although I am but a poor waif from a minuscule pueblo south of the border, I am depriving myself by dismissing all previous suits against Wister. I was never married to him. However, when he was on the run in Mexico, he stopped by our hacienda. I was just a child at the time, scarcely twelve. I stood there in the hot desert sun, black-haired, my skin as white as milk, gazing with rapture as he raced up one jump ahead of the rurales. His horse fell dead at my feet.