“No.”
“That is all I wanted to know,” she said.
“Want me to go out to the airport with you to see you off?”
“I do not. You’re poison. You’re the smarty pants that held out on Hale just because you thought Hale was holding out on you. It’s your party. You sent out the engraved invitations, and now you can seat the guests as they come in. Bertha is going over and get some nice pecan waffles, and then be on her way.”
“I want a key to the apartment,” I said, “and—”
“It’ll be in the door. I’ll pack my bag and leave my key in the door. Good-by.”
She strode to the door, and I watched her get into a taxicab. She didn’t even look back.
When the cab had pulled away, I went into the dining-room, had a good breakfast, went up to my room, stretched out in a chair with my feet propped on another chair, and read the morning paper while I was waiting for Hale.
He arrived shortly after ten o’clock.
I shook hands and said, “Well, you certainly made a quick round trip.”
He pulled his lips back from his teeth in his characteristic smile. “I did for a fact,” he admitted. “I didn’t realize I was teamed up with two such fast workers. What happened to Mrs. Cool? I inquired for her, and they said she’d checked out.”
“Yes. She was called back to Los Angeles on an emergency — war work.”
“Oh,” he said. “You’re doing work for the F.B.I, then.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Well, you intimated as much.”
I said, “I’m not familiar with all the partnership business, but I don’t think we are.”
He grinned. “If you were, you wouldn’t admit it?”
“Probably not.”
“That’s all I wanted to know. I’m disappointed she isn’t here, however.”
“She said there was nothing more she could do. Since Roberta had been located, it was simply a question of cleaning up details.”
“Well, in a way, that’s right. You certainly are fast workers. They told me at the desk that Mrs. Cool had checked out last night about seven o’clock. She didn’t leave last night, did she?”
“No. This morning.”
“But she checked out last night?”
I said, “That’s right. She got an apartment down in the French Quarter. She thought it would be more centrally located for our investigations. She was to stay down there, while I stayed up here.”
“Oh, I see. Where is this apartment?”
“I can’t tell you exactly. It’s one of those apartments where you go in one street, wind around through half a dozen turns and twists, and come out on another. Or are you familiar with the French Quarter?”
“No.”
I said, “You’ll get a kick out of this apartment. It’s typical.”
“So Mrs. Cool is doing war work. She didn’t tell me that.”
“You didn’t ask her, did you?”
“No.”
I said, “She seldom volunteers information about her business to clients.”
He flashed me a quick look. I kept my face absolutely straight.
“She hasn’t talked with Miss Fenn then?”
I let my face show that I was surprised. “Why, we understood from your telegram that you wanted us to hold off that interview until you came, so you could talk with her.”
“Well-not exactly. You say she’s living in the Gulf-pride Apartments on St. Charles?”
“Yes.”
“I’d guess we’d better drive down there. Had breakfast?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Well, let’s go see her.”
“Want me there when you talk with her?”
“Yes.”
We called a taxi and gave the address of the Gulf-pride Apartments. When we were about halfway there, the driver slid the glass window back, turned, and said, “That’s the place where they had the murder this morning, ain’t it?”
“What place?”
“The Gulfpride Apartments.”
“You can search me. Who was killed?”
“I don’t know. Some man name of Nostrander.”
“Nostrander,” I said, as though trying to recall the name. “I don’t believe I know anyone of that name. What did he do?”
“He was a lawyer.”
“Sure it was murder?” I asked.
“That’s the way I understand it. Somebody plunked him right in the middle of the heart with a thirty-eight caliber.”
“Did he live there?” I asked.
“No. He was found in some jane’s apartment.”
“Like that, eh?”
“I don’t know. This girl worked in a bank somewhere.”
“What happened to her?”
“She’s missing.”
“Don’t happen to remember her name, do you?”
“No, I don’t wait a minute. I heard it, too — one of the boys was telling me about it. Let me see. It was a short name, name of — name of Pen — no, that’s not right. Wait a minute. Fenn. Fenn, that was the name. Roberta Fenn.”
I said, “Police think she pulled the trigger?”
“I don’t know what their theory is. All I know is what I picked up from a gabfest we were having down at the stand. One of the boys had had a hurry-up call to pick up a photographer for some pictures of the body. Said it was an awful mess. Well, here’s the building. Cars certainly parked all around it.”
Hale started to say something. I beat him to it. “What do you say,” I asked in a loud voice, “if we go and see this other party first, and then come back for our interview at the Gulfpride after the excitement has died down? I don’t like to try and carry on a business conversation with people running in and out, chasing up and down stairs, making noise and—”
“I think that’s a very wise decision,” Hale said.
I said to the cab driver, “Okay, drive us on down to Napoleon and St. Charles and let us off there.” I settled back against the cushions and said in a loud Voice to Hale, “Our party at the Gulfpride won’t be interested in talking business this morning, anyway. He’ll be swap ping gossip with the other tenants. My idea is we’d better let him go until afternoon.”
“Okay, just as you say.”
After that, we were silent until the cab driver let us off at Napoleon and St. Charles.
“Want to have me wait?” he asked.
“No. We’ll probably be here for an hour or two.”
He took the tip I gave him and drove off.
“Well?” Hale asked.
“We wait for a streetcar and ride back to town.”
He showed his excitement. “We want to find out all we can about that case. Look here, Lam, you’re a detective. Would it be possible for you to get in touch with the police and find out what they know about—”
“Not one chance in ten million,” I interrupted firmly—
“Don’t the police and the detective agencies work together?”
I said, “The answer to that is best contained in a one-syllable word of unmistakable meaning. It’s no!”
“But this raises the devil with all of my plans. You’re sure this woman was the same Roberta Fenn whose pictures I showed you?”
“Yes.”
Hale said, “I wonder where she is.”
“The police are probably asking themselves that same question.”
“Do you think you could find her again, Lam?”
“It’s possible.”
His face lit up. “I mean in advance of the police?”
“Perhaps.”
“How would you go about doing it?”