The switchboard in the Darling Exchange hadn’t changed a bit since Mrs. Hooper had taught Verna to manage it some years before, and she rather enjoyed getting reacquainted with the plugs and cords and switches. The board worked according to a simple system, and all you had to do was keep your mind on what you were doing.
The operator (in this case, Verna) sat in front of a vertical board that displayed rows and rows of empty sockets, one socket for every telephone in town, and a horizontal panel with a dozen pairs of cords with phone jacks on the ends. Say that Ophelia Snow was at home and decided to call her husband Jed at Snow’s Farm Supply to tell him to stop at Hancock’s Groceries and pick up five pounds of sugar. When Ophelia rang the switchboard, a little bulb would light above her socket-or rather, the socket for her party line, which connected several different houses. Verna would pull one of the cords out, plug the jack into Ophelia’s socket, and say “Number, please,” into her headset microphone. When Ophelia gave Jed’s number (or just said, “Verna, connect me to the Farm Supply, please.”), Verna would plug the second cord of the pair into the socket for the Farm Supply. Then she would send a signal down the line that rang the Farm Supply phone. When Jed answered, she would flip the switch that cut off her headset so that Ophelia and Jed could talk in private. (That was the theory, anyway, although everybody in town knew that the operators didn’t always bother to turn off their headsets, especially when they didn’t have any other calls to tend to.) When Ophelia and Jed hung up, Verna would unplug the cords from the sockets and that was that.
Long-distance phone calls were a little more complicated. The switchboard had a couple of lines that connected to the long-distance office in Mobile. If Ophelia wanted to talk to her cousin in New Orleans, she would give the number to Verna, who would connect with the Mobile long-distance office, tell the operator she had a call for New Orleans, and would eventually be able to give the New Orleans operator the number for Ophelia’s cousin. When the cousin was on the line, Verna would connect Ophelia, and the two could talk. The process often took fifteen minutes or more, especially if the call had to go through several long-distance offices before it finally reached its destination. Circuits were often busy, and callers were sometimes told to hang up and try again later.
Verna was just getting into the swing of things-plugging in a call from Mrs. Sedalius at Magnolia Manor to Beulah’s Beauty Bower-when she heard a familiar voice behind her.
“Verna!” Liz Lacy exclaimed, sounding surprised. “Verna Tidwell, is that you? What in the world are you doing here?”
Verna turned around. “I’m working the switchboard,” she replied, somewhat nettled. “What are you doing here?”
Liz, looking like a ray of sunshine in her yellow dress and bright yellow straw hat, closed the door behind her and leaned against it. “I’m here because of that baldheaded man you told me about-the one who came to your house yesterday afternoon. Bessie says that Miss Jamison is scared to death of him, and he-”
“Bessie?” Verna asked sharply. “How does Bessie know about him?”
“Because she was at the Beauty Bower this morning when Miss Jamison was getting her hair dyed brown,” Liz replied. “Leona Ruth Adcock came in for her appointment and was telling everybody about this baldheaded man-she thinks he’s one of Mr. J. Edgar Hoover’s government agents-who came to her house looking for a platinum blonde. Bessie said Miss Jamison almost fainted. She also bought a red wig for Miss Lake.” She added, “Bessie’s out there in the diner now, waiting for me.”
“Wait a minute, Liz,” Verna said, holding up her hand. “What’s this about Miss Jamison getting dyed brown? And J. Edgar Hoover? How does he fit into this?”
Liz shook her head. “That’s all beside the point,” she said hurriedly. “I’ll fill you in later. The point is that your baldheaded man is out there at the counter getting a plate of Euphoria’s special right this very minute, and as soon as he’s done, he’s going to make a long-distance call from the booth, so he got two dollars’ worth of quarters from Myra May. I thought maybe I should try and find out who he was calling, so I came in here to the switchboard to see if I could listen in and-”
But Liz was interrupted as the door opened and Myra May came into the room. “Verna, that man you’re looking for, the one you sent the telegram to-he’s out there at the counter. He-” She stopped and frowned at Liz. “What’re you doing here, Liz?”
“It’s okay, Myra May,” Verna said. “Liz knows.” To Liz, she said in an urgent tone, “What’s that you were telling me about a wig, Liz? And Miss Jamison dyeing her hair brown?”
“They must want to disguise themselves,” Liz replied. “That’s what Bessie thinks, anyway. She thinks they’re trying to hide from-”
The switchboard buzzed and Verna turned around to connect Mr. Dickens at the Dispatch to Mr. Whitman at the Darling Academy, and disconnect Mrs. Sedalius from the Beauty Bower.
“Anyway,” Myra May said to Verna’s back, “what I was saying is that your man is getting Euphoria’s fried chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy, which might slow him down a little. He may not get out to the phone booth right at noon to make that call. Don’t worry if he’s a little late.” There was the clatter of a plate being dropped and she rolled her eyes. “That’ll teach me,” she muttered. “Step away from the counter for a second and everything goes to hell.” She slipped out the door.
Liz leaned forward, frowning. “What do I know?” she challenged. “You told Myra May that I know something, but I don’t know anything, Verna. I’m completely and totally in the dark.”
“You know who he is,” Verna replied, and plugged in another cord. “Number, please.” She connected Mildred Kilgore, who had a private line, to her husband at Kilgore Motors, and unplugged Mr. Dickens, who had finished talking to Mr. Whitman. While she was doing this, she made a mental note to call Mildred back and ask her to give Myra May a hand behind the counter.
“No, I don’t know who he is,” Liz said crossly, when Verna turned back to her. “Bessie says that Mrs. Adcock says that he’s a government agent.”
“What would Leona Ruth Adcock know about government agents?” Verna scoffed. “Quite the contrary. He’s a member of the Capone gang.”
Liz’s eyes got round. “You’re sure? How do you know?”
“I’m sure. His name is Diamond, Frankie Diamond. Mrs. O’Malley says that he’s a friend of the man who slashed Miss Lake’s face.”
“Slashed-!” Liz’s hand went to her mouth.
“What’s more,” Verna went on, “Miss LaMotte shot the slasher-some gangster named Sal Raggio.”
Liz’s eyes were like saucers. “Shot him!” she whispered.
“With her Remington pistol. He died on the street in front of the Western Hotel. The hotel where Al Capone conducts his business. Where Miss LaMotte was standing in that photo the baldheaded man showed me yesterday. Mrs. O’Malley says that Frankie Diamond wants to kill Miss LaMotte, to pay her back for killing his friend.”
“I just can’t believe this is happening in Darling,” Liz muttered, biting her lip. “It sounds like one of those awful gangster movies!”
“I know, Liz. But it’s true, at least according to Mrs. O’Malley, and I don’t think she’d lie about something like this. She said they called a doctor, who came and stitched up the cuts on Miss Lake’s face. Miss LaMotte and Miss Lake caught a train the next morning-just before the Cicero police, under the direction of Al Capone, showed up to arrest Miss LaMotte for shooting the slasher.”
“So that’s why that business with the disguises that Bessie told me about,” Liz said thoughtfully. “The wig and the hair dye. The women thought they’d be safe with Miss Hamer, but something must’ve happened to make them afraid. Maybe they were somehow tipped off that this man-this Frankie Diamond-might show up here in Darling, looking for them.”