“Oh, yes! He’s handsome. I voted for him. I had to scratch my ballot, but I wanted to, for him.”
“That’s what I thought, but I wanted to make sure.” A lot of people in Boone County scratched their ballots and put Thompson into office. That’s the kind of a man he was; his personality and ability outweighed the opposite machine. “Will you phone him for me, Hazel?”
“I’d love to. What shall I say?”
“Tell him what you know about the circumstances of my being here. Tell him that I want to talk to him, this afternoon, if he can make it.”
She smiled in obvious pleasure and clacked out.
Rothman should have my message in an hour or less. In a matter of minutes if the wires were clear. I hoped they were. I hoped my telegram would reach him before Elizabeth Saari could reach someone else in Croyden.
I was plenty sore at Eleanor for the part she had played in putting me in the hospital, but not so sore and so callous as to sit idly by and see her murdered. Because I had made the mistake of calling her by name while lying in that ditch.
The State’s Attorney came in late yesterday afternoon, just as somebody’s radio across the corridor was about to drive me nuts with the ninth or tenth consecutive hillbilly program.
Donny Thompson stopped in the doorway in some surprise and checked me carefully from head to foot. Or what he could see of me above the covers. He held himself straight and tall, causing his suit to fit him as his tailor had intended. And then he casually closed the door behind him and pulled a chair close to the bed. When he sat down he kept his upright bearing. His expression wasn’t anything to make a patient happy.
“Just what was it you finally decided to tell me?”
“You know something,” I accused him.
“You’re damned right I know something. I would have been here sooner if I hadn’t been out of town. Horne, I’m not the blamed fool most people in this city take me for.
“I know which side my bread is buttered on. I know how I got into office and I know how I’ll get in next time unless I rub someone the wrong way — make them want to keep me out. But I’m not altogether a damned fool. And I’m peculiar enough to want to obey my oath of office.”
I started in cautiously, “Well, I got a few things I’d like to talk over with you. But I can’t tell you everything I’d like to tell you — it involves confidences.”
Thompson stared at me without moving.
“You think I’m a fool, too, don’t you? Don’t deny it. You can’t play poker. Your face gives you away.”
“But I tell you there are some professional confidences involved. I’m not in the habit of breaking promises.”
“Let it be for a moment. Let me tell
“Horne, despite what that crowd in the sheriff’s office may appear to believe, I don’t regard it as simply an ironic coincidence that Evans was killed by his own car.”
“You don’t?”
“Nor do I regard it as simply an ironic coincidence that a girl drove the car, and that Evans was known to have a mistress who now is missing.”
“Go on.”
“Nor do I regard it as simply an ironic coincidence that a dead Chinese girl is pulled out of the lake, and that a private detective attends the autopsy, and that the said private detective was temporarily in the employ of the late Harry Evans.”
“Mister,” I cut in, “you are getting warm.”
“I am warmer than that. I know that a certain gambler uses a supposedly abandoned bam on the outskirts of town as a place of amusement. I know that he is protected, and by whom. I know that I can’t and don’t dare touch him unless I have enough to explode his protection as well.”
“Do you... have enough, I mean?”
“No. Not quite enough. Not yet.”
“I haven’t either. I’m sorry I can’t help you, but that’s the truth.”
“I can wait.” He had the patience to wait a long time. “But there is more: I know that this gambler has been transporting his patrons to and from the place of amusement via private taxi system which, up until a couple of nights ago, was operated by one or more Chinese drivers. Girls.”
I cut in. “There were only two of them, I think. Sisters. And one sister — the one in the lake — was brand new at the job. It may have been her first or second trip.”
There was something behind his eyes that said he knew I had been keeping something from him, but he went on.
“I also know that since the body was found in the lake, the other Chinese girl (or girls, if there were more than one) has disappeared from the taxis.
“I know that a private detective has thoroughly checked into the pasts of his late employer, Harry W. Evans; of his late employer’s late mistress, a girl named Leonore; and his late employer’s very much present partner, a colorful gambler who calls himself Raymond A. Swisher.
“I know that the private detective has been rather indiscreet in his relations with someone in a position to do him harm, and as a result has lost his license for thirty days.”
“You know a lot,” I told him admiringly.
