Harmon Purvis had a small villa on East Boulevard: a modest, three-bedroom affair with a small garden crammed with roses and a Clematis Jackmanii over the front door.
A light showed in one of the downstairs rooms, and through the open window came the brittle notes of Chopin’s Etude in E Flat.
Dallas got out of his car, pushed open the gate and walked up the path. The night was hot and still, and the perfume from the roses was a little overpowering.
He dug his thumb into the bell-push, leaned forward to sniff at the purple flower of the clematis — as big as a breakfast plate.
Purvis came to the door and opened it. He was in his shirt sleeves and had changed his shoes for slippers.
‘You’re late,’ he said, giving Dallas a sharp look. ‘I was thinking of going to bed.’
‘You’re lucky to have a bed,’ Dal as said, fol owing him into the comfortable front room. It was lined with books and restfully lit by table lamps. Purvis was a bachelor, but he knew how to make himself comfortable. He had a Filipino boy to run the house and cook, and in his spare time he looked after the tiny garden himself. ‘I don’t get any time for my bed,’ Dal as went on, lowering himself gratefully into a comfortable easy chair.
Purvis wasn’t paying at ention. He was listening to the concluding passages of the Etude.
‘You should listen to this,’ he said, leaning against the radiogram and beating time with his finger.
‘It’s the most difficult of any of Chopin’s Etudes. Even Paderewski used to make some mistakes when he played it.’
‘Never mind Paderewski — he’s dead,’ Dal as said, rubbing his eyes with his knuckles. ‘Turn it off for the love of Mike. I’m here on business.’
Reluctantly Purvis turned off the disc and sat down opposite Dallas.
‘Do you good to listen to some of the classics,’ he said, placing his finger-tips together and staring at Dallas from over them. ‘You’re losing your sense of culture.’
‘Never had one. Don’t offer me a whisky: I’d accept it.’
‘I haven’t any in the house,’ Purvis said happily. ‘I don’t touch the stuff: wastes money, dul s your perception and rots your liver.’
Dallas sighed.
‘So that’s what’s the matter with me. Maybe I’d better switch to gin.’
Purvis watched him light a cigarette.
‘You’ve been to the Frou-Frou Club tonight?’ he asked tentatively.
Yeah,’ Dal as said, ‘and I’m wil ing to bet my eye-teeth Kile’s get ing set to grab the Chit abad collection.’
‘What makes you think that?’ Purvis asked, sit ing forward.
‘He saw Rico tonight, but maybe I’d better start in at the beginning. Talk about a break! It fel into my lap,’ and he gave Purvis a detailed account of what he had seen and heard at the club, as wel as the conversation he had overheard between Eve and Gillis as they sat in the car.
Purvis was enthralled. He just sat still, staring at Dallas, drinking in every word, and not interrupting.
When Dallas had finished, he got up and began to pace up and down.
‘What a break!’ he said. ‘It’s unbelievable! I’ve worked on this goddamn case for fifteen years, and never thought I’d get anywhere with it, and then suddenly it’s handed to us on a plate.’
Dallas grinned.
‘I made it sound too easy,’ he said, stretching out his long legs. ‘If it hadn’t been for a hunch…’
‘Never mind that. These people must be after the collection,’ Purvis said, coming to stand over Dallas. ‘This morning Kile and the Gil is girl cal on the Rajah. In the evening Gil is talks in terms of half a million. The connection’s obvious. It looks as if the Rajah has offered Kile a half a million to get his jewels back, and Gillis plans to gyp him.’
‘The whole idea seems to have come from Gillis,’ Dal as pointed out. ‘Kile is being used as a stooge.
But how is Kile going to get the jewels? Think he knows where they are?’
‘I don’t know,’ Purvis said, sit ing down. ‘He must have some idea otherwise he wouldn’t have seen the Rajah this morning.’
‘Who’s this guy Baird, Gil is is so strung up about?’
‘If it’s Verne Baird,’ Purvis said, crossing his long, bony legs, ‘and I’d imagine it must be, he’s suspect number one for Jean Bruce’s kil ing.’
‘Is that right?’ Dal as said, startled. ‘Is he the guy Olin’s searching for?’
Purvis nodded.
‘A pretty dangerous character, according to Olin. I ran into Olin on my way home tonight. He’s had quite a night of it. As a routine precaution he put a couple of his men to watch Baird’s apartment house.
One of them spotted a big man watching the house and went after him. He cornered him in a drug store, but wasn’t fast enough with his gun. He and the girl in the store were shot to death, and the kil er escaped by way of the roof. Olin got some boys down there in double quick time, and one of them spotted the killer as he was crossing the roof. He winged him, but he got away somehow. They’ve cordoned off the area and they’re making a house-to-house search. Olin swears no one can get through the cordon, so with any luck, they’l catch him.’
‘Was it Baird?’
‘Olin thinks so, but no one has identified him. The cop who shot at him said the man was Baird’s build, but he couldn’t swear it was Baird. Olin says there’s no other hood in town who’d shoot it out with a cop, and then kill the girl so she couldn’t identify him. I think he’s right. We don’t run to types so ruthless as that.’
‘Well, if it is Baird and they catch him, Gillis’s plan may come unstuck.’
Purvis didn’t say anything. He was thinking, his hand covered his face. There was a long silence, then he looked up to say, ‘I’m going to put every man I have on this case, Ed. I don’t think we need bother with the Rajah for the time being. The people who matter now are Kile, Eve Gillis, Rico, Baird and Adam Gillis. They’re the ones who wil lead us to the jewels if anyone’s going to lead us to them.
You’ve already made contact with Gillis, who’s obviously the key-man of the set-up. Keep close to him, Ed. That’s your job from now on. Don’t lose sight of him. Get friendly with him. Get his confidence if you can.’
‘That guy’s as slippery as an eel,’ Dallas said, ‘and a first-class heel as well. The way he talked to his sister made me want to puke.’
‘Who’l I put on to Rico?’ Purvis said, frowning. ‘Burns must cover Kile. Ainsworth can go after Baird, unless the cops get him first, but what about Rico?’
‘There’s a girl at the club; her name’s Zoe Norton,’ Dal as said. ‘For some reason or other she seems to have taken a liking for me. I think I could persuade her to work for us. She would be in a much better position to report on Rico than anyone we could employ. That’s what we want more than anything at this stage of the game: someone inside and working for us.’
Purvis nodded.
‘That’s right. How do you persuade her?’
’I’d spread my charm before her and a purse of gold,’ Dal as’ said, grinning. ‘It’d cost you three or four hundred, but it’d pay dividends.’
Purvis winced.
‘Doesn’t say much for your charm,’ he said tartly. ‘I wouldn’t pay her more than a hundred. You seem to think I’ve money to burn.’
‘She wouldn’t do it for that,’ Dal as said. ‘It’l have to be three at least. But don’t let me persuade you to throw your money away — as if I could.’
Purvis brooded. He realised he would be getting value for money, and this wasn’t the time to cut corners.
‘Wel , talk to her,’ he said final y. ‘Get her as cheaply as you can, and not a dime more than three hundred.’
Dallas said he’d see what he could do.
‘Let’s get this straightened out,’ Purvis went on. ‘Everyone of us has got to watch his step. You’ve got the toughest job, Ed, and you’ve got to handle it as if it were dynamite. We can’t afford to let them have the slightest idea we’re on to them. Our job is to find the jewels. We’re not employed by the police.
I want you to understand that. Whatever we find out, we keep to ourselves. If any of you find Baird you’re not to report him to the police. We want Baird to take us to the jewels, and he won’t do that if he’s in a cel .’
‘Isn’t that making us accessories after the fact?’ Dal as asked mildly.
‘We stand to pick up four hundred grand,’ Purvis pointed out. ‘I’l split one per cent of that among you operators. That’s a thousand bucks apiece. Would that make you forget such things as accessories after the fact?’
‘A thousand isn’t much,’ Dal as said, scarcely believing his ears, but quick to bargain. ‘As I’ve got the heaviest job, how about making it two for me and one for the rest of them?’
Purvis shook his head.
‘No, that wouldn’t be fair to the others, but I tel you what I’l do. I’l give a cheque for five thousand to the first one of you who walks into my office and tells me where the jewels are.’
‘Do the big thing,’ Dal as said, ‘and give the boys a little confidence. Make it cash.’