‘No.’

  No politeness now, no desire to help, no nothing but a flat refusal. He held out his hand.

  ‘What do you intend doing next, Mr. Lantry?’

  ‘The usual thing. Why?’

  ‘No reason, just curiosity.’ He held out his hand. ‘Good afternoon, Mr. Lantry.’

  I took the hint and shook his hand.

  We left it at that.

  Outside it was snowing, a thin drift of white powder which turned to slush as it hit the pavements and sidewalks. I glanced at my wristwatch and then up at the darkening sky. A blind match-pedlar drifted past, his stick rapping on the sidewalk, and I dropped two bits into his tray, remembering the time when I had lain for six weeks in a darkened ward, not knowing whether I should ever be able to see again. Memory of that time always gives me the cold shivers, so I stepped into a bar to warm myself.

  While there I did some more phoning. First to the Blue Star Company to check on Marvin’s tale. He had told me the truth, no car and driver had been sent to the Colonel’s house during the time in question. I dropped more nickels into the slot and rang my stooge at City Hall. I call him my stooge because he’s always ready to earn a fast buck, and it saves me lots of time whenever I want to check the records. I gave it to him straight.

  ‘Fred? Mike here. Check back on a Mona Hartridge, born anywhere up to thirty years ago somewhere in New Jersey. If it will help you any, she’s now known as Mrs. Geeson. Got that?’

  ‘Yeah,’ his voice sounded eager. ‘Something cooking?’

  ‘I wouldn’t know.’ Fred was sixty years old, lived on a diet of pulp magazines, and only liked his job as night-watchman because it enabled him to carry a gun. He thought that I lived on the thin edge of the law and wanted the information for purposes of blackmail. I didn’t discourage him, because it stopped him talking and made him eager to dig up dirt.

  ‘New Jersey.’ Fred sounded disappointed. ‘It’ll take time, chief. You want it fast?’

  ‘Not so fast that you muff the job. Cover her both ways from the middle. Got it?’

  ‘Sure. Worth a fin?’

  ‘Do it good and there’s a sawbuck in it for you.’ I gave him a knowing chuckle. ‘Ten dollars. Fred, think of the magazines you can buy with that.’

  ‘Gee, double rates.’ He sniffed and I knew that he would work at it all night. ‘Phone in as usual?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  I hung up and returned to the bar. I was still cold, and a couple of whiskies didn’t do much to warm me.

  So I had some more.

  After a while I remembered Pug, so phoned the Around the Clock Agency, a place which took and kept messages for their subscribers. I gave them my code number and the girl checked back for me.

  ‘Two messages,’ she said. ‘One at eleven forty-five from a Mr. Smith, who wants you to call him back. The other at four-fifteen from a Pug Berson.’

  ‘Pug?’ Smith I discounted. I knew him as a fellow who hoped to collect a little money from me, and I’d pay him as soon as I got time to post him a cheque. Pug was different. ‘Read it,’ I said.

  ‘Message begins,’ said the voice. ‘I’ve found her. Come to Grimson’s place down on East Side. 1147 East Thirty-Second Street.’ Message ends.

  Pug had hit the jackpot.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Grimson’s place was a run-down tavern down in the poorer quarter of town. I pushed through the doors and into an atmosphere composed of equal parts of cigarette smoke and stale breath, and after the cold cleanness of the evening it almost made me gag. I stepped to the bar, ordered a drink for the benefit of the house, then looked for Pug.

  I found him with a blonde occupying a secluded booth and having himself one hell of a time.

  ‘Here he is.’ He pushed the blonde from around his neck and grinned at me. ‘Mike, meet Francy. Francy, this is Mike Lantry.’

  ‘Please to meet you,’ she simpered and looked hopeful. I waved to the self-styled waiter and had him bring some drinks and, while he was getting them, waited for Pug to break the news.

  He took his time about it and I lost patience.

  ‘You phoned me,’ I reminded. ‘Well?’

  ‘Yeah.’ He blinked as if I’d startled him. ‘That’s right, Mike, I did, didn’t I?’

  ‘You did.’ I didn’t want to talk business in front of Francy and Pug didn’t seem to want to send her away. So I did it for him.

  ‘Beat it, sister.’

  ‘What!’ She looked annoyed. ‘Say—’

  ‘Take a powder.’

  ‘Wait a minute, Mike.’ Pug shook his head. ‘This is her.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘The dame you sent me after.’

  Maybe I was the one who was crazy. I took a second look at her, paying attention to the bone structure of her face and the slant of her eyes. It didn’t add up.

  ‘Not her,’ said Pug. ‘I mean she isn’t the one, but she knows her.’

  It was getting confused and I took a drink to straighten things out. While I was doing it, Pug explained.

  ‘Francy knew her,’ he said. ‘Way back when they worked together at the same club. That right, Fran?’

  ‘Maybe,’ she said primly.’ ‘That depends.’

  ‘Depends on what?’ I knew but I asked just the same. She made a gesture with thumb and forefinger. I shrugged.

  ‘Look,’ she said, and now she was all business. ‘When Pug showed me the photograph, I recognised her as someone I used to work with. That good enough?’

  ‘Maybe. Where? When?’

  ‘Three, four years ago. She was a singer then working the smokers and concerts.’ Francy looked as if she had a bad taste in her mouth. ‘You know the sort of thing. Well, Rhoda, that’s what she called herself then, was always on about breaking out and getting herself on top.’ She smiled without humour. ‘We all talked like that; some of us made it, others—’

  I didn’t need her to go into details.

  ‘Do you know where she is now?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Do you know her friends? What happened to her?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘That’s a great help.’ I looked at Pug and he lost his self-satisfied grin.

  ‘What’s the matter, Mike? It’s a lead, can’t you take it from there?’

  ‘Sure.’ I said tiredly. ‘So you meet someone who used to know someone four years ago. Hell. Pug, I know where she was three days ago.’

  ‘So it’s no dice?’ Fran looked disappointed. I shook my head.

  ‘No dice, but have a drink all the same.’

  I held out my hand while she was having it, and Pug gave me the photograph. I stared at it, trying to imagine the woman she appeared to be four years ago when she was riding the cheap circuits. She must have had a tough time.

  ‘Tell me about her,’ I said suddenly. ‘You called her Rhoda. Was that her real name?’

  ‘Stage name. She was born in some hick town way out West, Texas, I think.’

  ‘Texas?’ I frowned at her. ‘Sure it wasn’t New Jersey?’

  ‘Texas. I remember because her folks died while she was working with me, and she couldn’t raise the fare to go and see them buried.’

  ‘I see. You never did know her real name?’

  ‘No.’ Fran shrugged. ‘You know how it is. A dame runs into a little trouble and changes her name. Or she’s a flop and changes it for luck. Or maybe she was wanted, or something like that. Hell, what’s in a name, anyway?’

  ‘Nothing. What was the last you heard of her?’

  ‘She got a spot in the Purple Orchid. I never saw her after that.’

  ‘See!’ Pug was triumphant. ‘I told you that I’d seen her running around with Thornedyke’s crowd. All we’ve got to do now is to go to the Purple Orchid and find her.’

  ‘Just like that?’ I shrugged. ‘Thanks, Fran, you’ve been a help. Here.’ I slipped her twenty dollars, not for what she had said, but because she obviously needed it. She didn’t bother to argue, but her eyes did her thanking for her.

  I got up from the table and Pug looked at me.

  ‘We going somewhere?’

  ‘We aren’t. I am. Look, be at my office at ten tonight. I’m expecting a visitor. I may be a little late; if I am hold him until I get there.’ I looked at Pug. ‘By hold him I don’t mean knock him out. Be gentle, understand?’

  ‘Sure, Mike.’ He grinned at me. ‘I’ll be as gentle as a baby.’

  ‘See that you are.’ I looked at Fran. ‘Do me a favour, pal. See that he gets there. Right?’

  She nodded and I left, pushing my way through the smoke and out into the cold evening air.

  It was getting dark.

  At seven o’clock I arrived at the Purple Orchid. It was a big, sprawling place outside the city limits, but within its jurisdiction. Once it had been a respectable, colonial-type mansion, but now, while still outwardly respectable, it had been dolled up with coloured lights, a superb dance floor, a good floor show, and a complete gambling layout in the upstairs rooms. No one was supposed to know about the gambling, but it was the kind of secret which everyone but the police knew about. They either didn’t know or didn’t want to know, and the betting was that they didn’t want to know.

  A set-up like that must have paid off in plenty of heavy money for protection, and rumour had it the Chief of Police was busy building himself a house which normally he could never have paid for in a hundred years.

  I didn’t worry about that.

  I stood looking at the big centre sign of the flower which gave the place its name. It threw a brilliant purple light over the snow-covered drive, turning the evergreens into sickly relief and making the coldness of the night seem even colder.

  A uniformed negro touched his cap as I approached the doors, his teeth flashing in a mechanical smile of welcome.

  ‘Evening, suh. Cold night.’

  ‘It is.’ I nodded towards the almost empty car park. ‘Many here yet?’

  ‘Not yet, suh. Too early.’

  I grunted something and passed into the warm, scented air of the interior. A hat-check girl smiled at me with professional charm as I gave her my fedora and gabardine. A tuxedoed bouncer who looked like a college graduate valued my suit and then nodded at me as I passed. A second smiled at me, searched my face in case I was a Fed, then stepped aside. I went in search of the bar.

  As the doorman had said, it was early yet. A few couples swayed on the floor, keeping indifferent time to the band, and a few early starters leaned on the polished counter of the bar, their drinks in their hands, staring at their reflections in the bar mirror. I slipped on to a stool and ordered Scotch.

  I nursed the drink while he fetched my change, then jerked my head towards the ceiling.

  ‘Thornedyke around yet?’

  He shrugged, not answering.

  ‘I asked you a question,’ I said loudly. ‘Do I get an answer?’

  ‘You want him?’

  ‘That’s the general idea.’ I sipped at the drink. ‘Send word, will you.’

  ‘Name?’

  ‘Lantry. Mike Lantry.’ I didn’t smile. ‘He may know me.’

  He shrugged again and moved down towards the end of the bar. A man stood there, not a customer, and after a while he came towards me.

  ‘Trouble, Lantry?’ He was well-spoken, he kept his voice low and, to all outward appearances, he was a gentleman. I knew better.

  ‘No.’ This time I did smile. ‘I’m in a little difficulty and I thought that Thornedyke might be able to help me out. Just as a favour, you understand.’

  ‘I see.’ He looked thoughtful. ‘Just like that, eh?’

  ‘Just like that.’

  ‘I’ll go see if he can spare you some time,’ he decided. ‘Unless I can help you?’

  ‘Thanks, but no.’ I looked at my wristwatch. ‘Sorry to rush you, but I’m pressed for time.’

  He nodded and left, walking smoothly towards the rear of the building. I stared after him, wondering how any heel could manage to look so much like a decent citizen. I sighed and ordered another drink.

  A woman, dressed in a low-cut gown and with a professional smile of welcome, slipped on to the seat next to mine and stared at me. A hostess, probably working on a percentage basis. I smiled back at her.

  ‘Drink?’

  ‘Please.’ She made signs to the bartender and he set something before her. It cost enough to have been refined gold, but it was probably cold tea. She drank it and looked at me.

  ‘Look,’ I said, ‘do you have to earn money the hard way? Just tell me what you reckon on earning by the way of drinks from me and I’ll just pay you. That way we’ll both get the benefit.’

  ‘Smart guy,’ she said without expression.

  ‘I’ve worked behind a bar,’ I explained. ‘Don’t get me wrong, sister. I’m working.’

  ‘So am I, and if you want to talk to me you’ll have to pay for the privilege—my way.’

  I grinned and waved towards the bartender and bought some more cold tea. It made me shudder to see her drink it, but what the hell? How else could she be expected to sit and drink all night every night?

  ‘What’s your name, honey?’

  ‘Georgette, and yours?’

  ‘Lantry. Mike Lantry. If you’re ever in trouble let me know.’ I gave her one of my business cards. She took it and frowned.

  ‘Might come in handy at that. You said you were working?’

  ‘That’s right.’ I took out the photograph. ‘Ever see her before?’

  ‘Sure,’ she said, then hesitated. ‘That is—’

  ‘Mrs. Geeson, and you knew her before she was married.’ She hadn’t told me, but I was telling her. ‘Don’t try to kid me you’ve never seen her, Georgette, it’s written all over your face. Well?’

  ‘So I knew her, so what?’

  ‘So she’s missing and I want to find her.’ I put away the print. ‘That is, her husband wants to find her. Nothing wrong, you understand, but if she’s sick or needs money or anything like that, he’d like to know.’ I sipped at my drink. ‘Know where she is?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘A pity.’ I took out a packet of cigarettes, gave her one, then lit them both with my lighter. ‘How well did you know her?’

  ‘I’ve seen her around.’ She was lying and I knew it, but there was nothing I could do about it. Either she wanted to talk or she didn’t. It was as simple as that.

  ‘Look,’ I said confidentially. ‘You know how it is. I’m on expenses and can afford to spread a little. Now if you should suddenly remember where she might be, you could phone me and receive a birthday package in return.’

  ‘How big a package?’

  ‘Five hundred dollars.’ I blew a smoke ring. ‘Think it over, Georgette. You have my card.’ I smiled at her then turned as the well-dressed heel came towards me.

  She nodded, slipping quickly from the stool, and I stared into the enigmatic eyes of the messenger.

  ‘Mr. Thornedyke can spare you a few minutes, Lantry,’ he said evenly. ‘Follow me, please.’

  I nodded and followed him towards the back rooms.

  Thornedyke was a businessman. He had assessed crime, found that it paid, and then gone in for it in a big way. He wore expensive suits, took care of his account, and made sure that he couldn’t be hurt. He stared at me as I entered his office.

  ‘Lantry. What can I do for you?’

  ‘Answer a few questions.’ I sat down opposite him and looked at him across his wide desk. ‘Nothing personal in this, Thornedyke, but I’m in a spot and maybe you could help me out.’ I paused, he didn’t say anything, so I continued.

  ‘I’m looking for Mrs. Geeson. She used to work here and I wondered if you’d heard from her.’

  ‘Mrs. Geeson?’

  ‘Norma. You know the dame I mean.’

  ‘I know,’ he admitted. ‘What about her?’

  ‘When she worked here, did she run around with many boyfriends?’

  ‘I wouldn’t know,’ he said coldly. I tried again.

  ‘Susan drops a little money from time to time upstairs, doesn’t she? Does the boy come here too?’

  ‘Talking out of turn, aren’t you, Lantry?’

  ‘Quit acting the gentleman,’ I snapped. ‘I know you, Thornedyke, and you know me. All I’m interested in is finding Mrs. Geeson. What you do upstairs doesn’t worry me. Now, can you help me or can’t you?’

  ‘I can give you some advice,’ he said evenly. ‘Take your nose out of Norma’s business and keep it out. If you don’t, there’s liable to be one less shamus dirtying up the city.’

  ‘Thanks for nothing.’ I stared at him and he lowered his eyes. ‘What’s Norma to you, Thornedyke?’

  ‘Nothing.’

  ‘What was she to you, then?’

  ‘Nothing.’ He spread his hands a little. ‘She worked here, but a lot of girls do that. She left here to get married, so do most of the others, I run a clean place, Lantry, and don’t you forget it.’

  ‘So you run a clean place,’ I said. ‘The police seem to think so, anyway. But never mind that. Have you seen her since she left?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Know where she might be?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Any idea of a secret boyfriend? Someone she might have run off with?’

  It was getting monotonous and I was getting tired. I rose to my feet and dropped one of my cards on the desk. ‘Thanks for seeing me. If you should see her or learn anything, let me know. Right?’

  ‘I’ll think about it,’ he said. He reached for the card then paused as the telephone rang. He picked up the receiver.

  ‘Yes? That’s right. Yes.’ His eyes sharpened as he looked at me. ‘Keep talking.’

  I moved towards the door and he gestured to me.

  ‘Hold it, Lantry. I might have something for you.’

  He clamped the receiver to his ear again, and listened some more. When he put down the instrument, he looked thoughtful.

  ‘Well?’ I stared at him. ‘What have you got for me?’

  ‘She had a friend who might know something.’ He frowned. ‘I can’t remember her name, but it’ll come to me. Look, leave it with me for now. I’ll do what I can and phone you later. Okay?’

  I nodded.