We all sat in silence. The quiet seemed to go on forever, although I suppose it was only a minute or two before Mr Teitelbaum pushed himself from the table and leaned back in his chair.
'And what, precisely,' he said in an unexpectedly strong voice, 'do you suggest be done next in this unpleasant matter?'
'As far as I'm concerned,' Percy Stilton said, 'I'm going to tell my lieutenant the whole story and see if I can get the Kipper case reopened. You gentlemen might help me there — if you have any influence that can be brought to bear.'
'What would be the advantage of reopening the case?'
Leopold Tabatchnick asked.
'I would hope to get assigned to it full time,' the detective said. 'With more personnel assigned as needed.
To keep a stakeout on that houseboat so Knurr doesn't take off. To dig deeper into the backgrounds and relationships of the people involved. To check Knurr's bank account, and so forth. All the things that would be done in a homicide investigation.'
The two senior partners looked at each other again, and again I had the sense of communication between them.
'We are not totally without some influence,' Ignatz Teitelbaum said cautiously. 'We will do what we can to assist you in getting the Kipper case reopened. But I must tell you in all honesty that I am not optimistic about bringing this whole affair to a successful solution, even with the most rigorous homicide investigation.'
'I concur,' Mr Tabatchnick rumbled.
Mr Teitelbaum scraped his chair farther back from the table and, not without some difficulty, crossed his knees.
He sat there a moment, staring into space between Percy and me, not really seeing us. He was, I thought, composing his summation to the jury.
'First of all,' he said finally, 'I would like to compliment you gentlemen — and especially you, Mr Bigg — on your intelligence and persistence in this investigation.'
'Imaginative,' Mr Tabatchnick said, nodding.
'Creative.'
'Exactly,' Teitelbaum said. 'You have offered a hypothesis that accounts for all known important facts.'
'It may be accurate,' Tabatchnick admitted almost grudgingly.
'It may very well be. Frankly, I believe it is. I believe your assumptions are correct,' Teitelbaum concurred.
'But they are still assumptions,' Tabatchnick persisted.
'You have little that is provable in a court of law,'
Teitelbaum persevered.
'Certainly nothing that might justify legal action.'
Tabatchnick was firm.
'No eyewitness, obviously. No weapons. In fact, no hard evidence of legal value.' Teitelbaum was firmer.
'Merely thin circumstantial evidence in support of what is, essentially, a theory.' Tabatchnick.
'We don't wish to be unduly pessimistic, but you have told us nothing to indicate that continued investigation would uncover evidence to justify a criminal indictment.'
Teitelbaum.
'You are dealing here with a criminal conspiracy.' The judgment was from Tabatchnick, but the coup de grace was delivered by Teitelbaum as follows:
'Really two criminal conspiracies with one individual, Knurr, common to both.'
Perce looked at them dazedly. I was shattered. I thought their rapid dialogue was a prelude to ordering me to drop the investigation. I glanced at Percy Stilton. He was staring intently at the two attorneys. He seemed entranced, as if he were hearing something I couldn't hear, as if he enjoyed being a tennis ball in the Jurisprudential Open.
'It is an unusual problem,' Mr Tabatchnick intoned, inspecting the spotted backs of his clumpy hands.
'Sometimes unusual problems require unusual remedies.'
'When more than one person is involved in a major criminal enterprise,' Mr Teitelbaum said, uncrossing his knees and carefully pinching the crease back into his trousers, 'it is sometimes possible…'
His voice trailed away.
'You have shown such initiative thus far,' Mr Tabatchnick said, 'surely the possibility exists that. . '
His voice, too, faded into silence.
Then, to my astonishment, the lawyers glanced at each other, a signal was apparently passed, and they rose simultaneously to their feet. Percy and I stood up. They reached across the table and the two of us shook hands with both of them.
'I shall look forward to your progress,' Tabatchnick said sternly.
'I have every confidence,' Teitelbaum said in a more kindly tone.
Still stunned, I watched them move to the door. I was bewildered because I was sure they had told us something.
What it was I did not know.
Mr Teitelbaum had already opened the door to the corridor when he turned back to address me.
'Mr Bigg,' he said softly, 'is Tippi Kipper older than Glynis Stonehouse?'
'What?' I croaked. 'Oh yes, sir,' I said, nodding madly.
'By at least ten years. Probably more.'
'That might be a possibility,' he said pleasantly.
Then they were gone.
We sank back into our chairs. I waited as Percy lighted a cigarette, took two deep drags, and slumped down in his armchair. Clerks and paralegal assistants began to straggle into the library, heading for the stacks of law books.
I leaned towards Stilton. I spoke in a low voice.
'What,' I asked him, still puzzled, 'was that all about?
Those last things they said? I didn't understand that at all, I'm lost.'
Percy put his head far back and blew a perfect smoke ring towards the ceiling. Then, to demonstrate his expertise, he blew a large ring and puffed a smaller one within it.
'They're not lawyers,' he said, almost dreamily, 'they're pirates. Pi-rates! '
'What are you talking about?' I said.
'Incredible,' he said, shaking his head.
'Infuckingcredible. Teitelbaum and Tabatchnick. T and T.
Tnt. TNT. They're TNT all right. If I ever get racked up, I 336
want those pirates on my side.'
'Perce, will you please tell me what's going on?'
He straightened up in his chair, then hunched over towards me so our heads were close together.
'Josh, I think they're right. That's a hell of a plot you came up with about how Knurr offed Sol Kipper. Probably right on. But how are we going to prove it? Never. Unless we break Knurr or Tippi Kipper. Get one to spill on the other. And what have we got on Glynis Stonehouse? We can't even prove she tried to poison her father. She shacks up with Knurr on a houseboat. So what? It's not an indictable offence. Your bosses saw right away that the only way we're going to snap this thing is to get one of the main characters to sing.'
'And how are we going to do that?'
'Oh, T and T were so cute! ' he said, grinning and lighting another cigarette. 'You notice that not once did either of them say anything that could be construed as an order or instructions to do anything illegal. All they did was pass out a few vague hints.'
'But what did they say?' I cried desperately.
'Shh. Keep your voice down. They want us to run a game on Knurr. A scam. A con.'
I looked at him, startled.
'How are we going to do that?'
'Spook him. Him and the ladies. Stir them up. Let them know they're suspects and are being watched. Play one against the other. Work on their nerves. Wear them down.
Push them into making some stupid move. Guerilla warfare. Mousetrap them. You think Knurr and Tippi and Glynis are smarter than we are? I don't. They got some nice games running, and so far they've worked. Well, we can run plots just as clever. More. That's what T and T
were telling us. Run a game on these people and split them.
They were right; it's the only way.'
'I get it,' I said. 'Take the offensive.'
'Right!'
'And that last thing Teitelbaum said about Tippi Kipper being older than Glynis Stonehouse?'
'He was suggesting that we let Tippi know about Glynis.'