“I did nothing of the sort,” Karr interrupted. “I took this flat because I desired privacy. I believe the records will show that some ten days or two weeks after I moved in, the lower flat was rented to a man by the name of Hocksley. I can assure you that I didn’t even know his name until this matter came up. I am confined to my house. I don’t get out. I...”
“Your Chinaboy gets out?”
“He does the shopping.”
Tragg pursed his lips, turned toward Gow Loong, then swung back toward Karr. “Well, let’s finish this phase of the matter first. What was the first name of your partner in China?”
Karr hesitated.
“Come on,” Tragg said. “Let’s have it. Stalling around isn’t going to get you anywhere.”
Karr said, “We called him Red. I don’t think I ever did know his first name... If I did know it, I’ve forgotten it.”
Miss Wickford said, “Perhaps I can help you there a little, Lieutenant. His name was Robindale E. Hocksley. I remember my father writing about him. I was just a child at the time, but names have always stuck in my memory. I was going to tell you this before, but you interrupted me with another question.”
Tragg said, without looking around, “You’re not helping me a damn bit, Miss Wickford. I know what his name was. I knew all about that partnership before I came up here. I wasn’t asking questions because I wanted information, but to find out who’s trying to co-operate and who’s trying to cover up. Karr, why didn’t you tell me your partner had the same name as that of the man who was murdered?”
“I didn’t know it until after the murder. Then it just didn’t occur to me it was other than a similarity of surnames. I never knew Red Hocksley’s first name was Robindale.”
“How about you?” Tragg asked Gow Loong.
“What’samalla me?” Gow Loong demanded with the shrill rapidity of an excited Chinese.
“How long you been with Mr. Karr?”
“Maybe-so long time.”
“In China?”
“Sure, in China.”
“You remember the three men in the partnership Mr. Karr’s spoken about?”
“Red Hocksley I heap savvy,” Gow Loong said. “Him velly bad man. Heap no good. Alla time no can tlust.”
Tragg said, “You’ve seen this man who lived downstairs?”
Gow Loong shook his head. “No see.”
“You read his name on the door?”
“No read.”
Tragg turned to Blaine. “How about you?”
Blaine said affably, “I have only been with Mr. Karr for a year.”
“What’s your job?”
“Well, I act as sort of nurse. You see, Mr. Karr is...”
“Ever do any nursing before?”
“Well...”
“Got a permit to carry that gun you’re lugging around?” Tragg interrupted.
Blaine’s hand moved automatically to his pocket. “Sure, I got a permit. I...” He stopped as he caught the triumphant gleam in Tragg’s eye.
Tragg laughed. “What did you do before you became Karr’s bodyguard?”
“I had a detective agency in Denver Colorado,” Blaine blurted, red-faced. “I wasn’t making very much money at it, and when I had this opportunity to draw steady wages and good wages, I jumped at it.”
Tragg said, “That’s better. If you want to keep that permit to carry that gun and if ever you want to go back into the detective business, you’ll be wise to co-operate a little. Now what do you know about Hocksley?”
“Absolutely nothing.”
“Ever see the man?”
Blaine said, “Look here, Lieutenant, I’m going to be frank with you. I was hired to act as Karr’s bodyguard. I gathered that, because of some old feud in China, his life might be in danger. I’ve never heard him mention the name of Hocksley, and today is the first time I ever knew about that Shanghai partnership. Karr never told me what specific danger he feared. I had an idea he was still doing a little gun-running — getting stuff past the Japs. I won’t go into details, but I think Karr’s the brains of the works. I think it would raise the devil, not only with Karr, but with an underground grapevine by which munitions are being smuggled in, if Karr got any publicity. I don’t know how the government would feel about it, but I presume that, at least unofficially, they’d have some interest in the matter. That’s one of the reasons I’ve been keeping my mouth shut. I can’t tell you a lot about methods, but, as I get the picture, there’s quite a fleet of Chinese fishing junks that put out from all the coast villages. Those people have to five, and in order to live, they have to fish. The Japanese realize that. Occasionally, they search these junks. Some of them are considered above suspicion. Some aren’t. They can’t search them all. Therefore, you can see it’s pretty important for Karr to keep under cover, and — well, that’s been my job. I’ve been keeping him sewed up and out of circulation.”
Tragg took a deep breath, looked across at Karr.
Karr said somewhat scornfully to Blaine, “You can keep your gossip to yourself. Your ideas of what I’m doing are crazy.”
Blaine shrugged his shoulders, said, “I’m hired by you. I do a good job for you. I want to keep on doing a good job for you, but I know which side of the bread has the butter. I’m not going to tangle up with the police department.”
“Where, may I ask, did you get your information?” Karr asked coldly. “Been snooping?”
Blaine said indignantly, “I haven’t been snooping. I got it from you.”
“What do you mean?”
“From little things you did, little hints you let drop, the expression on your face,” Blaine said impatiently. “After all, I’ve been a private detective, and I was a cop before that. What the hell do you think? That I’m going to associate with someone for a year and then not know what I’m hired to protect him against? Nuts!”
Tragg got up, walked over to the window, stood looking out, his hands pushed down into his pockets; then he whirled to regard Perry Mason. “Personally, Mason, I think it’s a runaround. I’m not saying anything — not yet. It’s getting so that whenever we’re working on a case and you come into the picture, the hot trail we’re following develops a habit of running back to the starting point so that we’re tearing around in circles. It’s nothing except coincidence, yet — but it’s a hell of a lot of coincidence.”
“Speaking of running around in circles,” Mason said, “did you come up here to pay this visit simply because you thought Miss Wickford was here and could give you some information on Karr’s past connections?”
Miss Wickford said, “Don’t be silly. Lieutenant Tragg couldn’t have known I was going to be here, because I didn’t know it myself until the moment I picked up the paper and...”
“I came up here to ask questions,” Tragg interrupted.
“Exactly,” Mason said, “and, I take it, they were rather important questions; and since this interesting information which has been uncovered about Karr’s former partner has been purely fortuitous, I naturally am wondering just what really caused this visit. Or is Miss Wickford an undercover associate?”
Tragg said, “Well, I’ll relieve your curiosity on that, Mason. I came up here to find out about a telephone.”
“What telephone?” Mason asked.
“A telephone which seems to have been something more than a telephone, one in which I thought Karr might have some interest.”
Karr said wearily, “I’m not interested in telephones. I’m a sick man, and the experiences of the afternoon haven’t done me any good.”
Gow Loong said, “Massah should have gone bed long time ago. Maybe-so go now.”
Karr said, “All right, Gow Loong.”
“Just a moment,” Tragg ordered. “I want to ask a couple more questions.”
“Massah sick,” Gow Loong said. “No can talk.”