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Authors: Donald Hamilton
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sacrificial goats to protect himself.”
“Maybe, but why would he kill her?”
“A man like that has many secrets. She could have stumbled onto one of them.”
“A man like that keeps his secrets well hidden, sir, and they’re generally secrets that wouldn’t have interested our girl very much. If she’d stumbled onto one, she’d have minded her own business like a good little government girl, and refused to get involved unless… Is there any indication that Warfel might have political connections overseas? And I don’t mean in Sicily or wherever it is so many of these rackets characters seem to originate.”
“I see what you have in mind,” Mac said slowly. “No, Mr. Warfel plays ball with the local politicians, of course, or they play ball with him, but there’s been no hint of any other type of political activity. He’s been investigated frequently and thoroughly by competent people who’d have been happy to pin something—anything—on him. No, the idea of Mr. Warfel as the agent of an unfriendly foreign power, or the accomplice of such an agent, is intriguing, Eric, but I’m afraid it’s improbable.”
“I disagree, sir,” I said. “If he’s not one, then he’s covering up for one, although he may not know it. Our murderer’s contact may be somebody higher in the organization. Warfel may simply have got a phone call telling him what to do, and maybe how to do it. He may not even know the name or business of the man he’s shielding. If that’s the case, I’ve got a very tough job ahead of me, tracking the guy I want through a forest of high-echelon racketeers.”
Mac said, “This is highly theoretical, Eric. You have absolutely no proof—”
“Annette was killed, wasn’t she? And a great effort was made to sell us a couple of phony murderers, presumably to take the heat off the real one. You’re not thinking, sir. You’re not thinking about our girl O’Leary, and what kind of a girl she was, and where she’d been before she came to us, and what frame of mind she was in when she landed in Los Angeles yesterday—well, I guess it’s the day before yesterday by now. Of course, you didn’t know her as well as I did, sir. All you’ve got to go on is a couple of interviews and some dry personnel records. I worked against her on one job down in Mexico, and with her on another, remember?”
We’re not a buddy-buddy, call-me-Mac kind of outfit. He likes a certain amount of formality and protocol. I guess I’d let myself get carried away, a bit disrespectfully, because his voice was cool when he spoke again.
“And just what do you deduce from your superior knowledge of Ruby’s character, Eric?”
I said, “What I’m remembering right now is three things. First of all, the girl was a pro—”
“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that.” Mac’s voice was still rather stiff and severe. “Promising, yes, but she had by no means achieved true professionalism.”
I said, “Okay, so she hadn’t quite learned how to control her temper, if that’s what you mean. But on the whole, when I worked with her, her reactions were pretty sound. She certainly wasn’t afflicted with any overpowering, irresistible do-good impulses. Even if I hadn’t already figured out that Beverly Blaine had to be lying, I’d have known it when she claimed to have sold Annette a sob story of some kind. The kid would never have fallen for anything like that. She was a pretty tough little cookie, and she wouldn’t have stuck her neck out an inch…”
Mac interrupted. “That’s more fine-sounding theory, Eric, but the fact is that she obviously did stick her neck out, somehow.”
“You didn’t let me finish, sir,” I said. “I was going to say that she wouldn’t have stuck her neck out an inch—
for anything that wasn’t in the line of business
. Our business. She wouldn’t have got herself involved with any weeping cuties with husband trouble, and if she’d seen a murder being committed, or
“Maybe, but why would he kill her?”
“A man like that has many secrets. She could have stumbled onto one of them.”
“A man like that keeps his secrets well hidden, sir, and they’re generally secrets that wouldn’t have interested our girl very much. If she’d stumbled onto one, she’d have minded her own business like a good little government girl, and refused to get involved unless… Is there any indication that Warfel might have political connections overseas? And I don’t mean in Sicily or wherever it is so many of these rackets characters seem to originate.”
“I see what you have in mind,” Mac said slowly. “No, Mr. Warfel plays ball with the local politicians, of course, or they play ball with him, but there’s been no hint of any other type of political activity. He’s been investigated frequently and thoroughly by competent people who’d have been happy to pin something—anything—on him. No, the idea of Mr. Warfel as the agent of an unfriendly foreign power, or the accomplice of such an agent, is intriguing, Eric, but I’m afraid it’s improbable.”
“I disagree, sir,” I said. “If he’s not one, then he’s covering up for one, although he may not know it. Our murderer’s contact may be somebody higher in the organization. Warfel may simply have got a phone call telling him what to do, and maybe how to do it. He may not even know the name or business of the man he’s shielding. If that’s the case, I’ve got a very tough job ahead of me, tracking the guy I want through a forest of high-echelon racketeers.”
Mac said, “This is highly theoretical, Eric. You have absolutely no proof—”
“Annette was killed, wasn’t she? And a great effort was made to sell us a couple of phony murderers, presumably to take the heat off the real one. You’re not thinking, sir. You’re not thinking about our girl O’Leary, and what kind of a girl she was, and where she’d been before she came to us, and what frame of mind she was in when she landed in Los Angeles yesterday—well, I guess it’s the day before yesterday by now. Of course, you didn’t know her as well as I did, sir. All you’ve got to go on is a couple of interviews and some dry personnel records. I worked against her on one job down in Mexico, and with her on another, remember?”
We’re not a buddy-buddy, call-me-Mac kind of outfit. He likes a certain amount of formality and protocol. I guess I’d let myself get carried away, a bit disrespectfully, because his voice was cool when he spoke again.
“And just what do you deduce from your superior knowledge of Ruby’s character, Eric?”
I said, “What I’m remembering right now is three things. First of all, the girl was a pro—”
“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that.” Mac’s voice was still rather stiff and severe. “Promising, yes, but she had by no means achieved true professionalism.”
I said, “Okay, so she hadn’t quite learned how to control her temper, if that’s what you mean. But on the whole, when I worked with her, her reactions were pretty sound. She certainly wasn’t afflicted with any overpowering, irresistible do-good impulses. Even if I hadn’t already figured out that Beverly Blaine had to be lying, I’d have known it when she claimed to have sold Annette a sob story of some kind. The kid would never have fallen for anything like that. She was a pretty tough little cookie, and she wouldn’t have stuck her neck out an inch…”
Mac interrupted. “That’s more fine-sounding theory, Eric, but the fact is that she obviously did stick her neck out, somehow.”
“You didn’t let me finish, sir,” I said. “I was going to say that she wouldn’t have stuck her neck out an inch—
for anything that wasn’t in the line of business
. Our business. She wouldn’t have got herself involved with any weeping cuties with husband trouble, and if she’d seen a murder being committed, or
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