Although it was after nine-twenty, a light still showed through the glass panel of the door leading to the inner office of the International Detective Agency. That meant Harmon Purvis hadn’t yet gone home.
Ed Dallas pushed open the door and looked into the large airy office.
Purvis, a tall stick of a man, sat behind a desk, busy with a pile of papers, a pencil held between his teeth. He glanced up, nodded briefly, laid down his papers and took the pencil out of his mouth.
‘Come in,’ he said, waving to a chair by the desk. ‘I guessed you’d be in so I waited for you.’
Dallas sat down, laid his hat on the floor, and ran his fingers through his crew-cut brown hair.
‘I might have something with those two,’ he said. ‘The guy’s Preston Kile. Ever heard of him?’
Purvis thought a moment, then nodded.
‘That’s the San Francisco market manipulator,’ he said, putting his finger-tips together and staring up at the ceiling. ‘About two years ago he pul ed a very shady deal. A bunch of brokers decided to chip in and cover him rather than scare the market with a scandal. They forced him to get out of the market and stay out. He came here…’
‘I know, I know,’ Dal as interrupted. ‘I thought I was going to tell you. I got the dope from Favell.’
It never ceased to surprise him how much Purvis seemed to know. There wasn’t anyone in town who was connected in some way or the other with shady deals or crime that Purvis didn’t know the details about. He could trot out his information as easily as the most complicated card index system, and as fast.
‘I hope you didn’t pay Favell anything,’ Purvis said anxiously. ‘That vampire is sucking up all my profits.’
‘Wel , I had to give him something. How was I to know you had the information?’ Dal as said wearily. ‘Two tens won’t break us.’
Purvis winced.
‘The trouble with you…’ he began, but Dallas broke in hurriedly, ‘I know, I know. My mother told me the same thing. Want to hear about the girl — Eve Gillis?’
‘I know about her,’ Purvis said coldly. ‘She won a five-thousand-dollar beauty prize a couple of years ago. She persuaded the Follies to give her a chance, got top billing after a year, and has been a hit ever since. She has a brother — a twin if I remember rightly — who’s been in India for the past three years. I believe he’s back now. This Gillis girl suddenly chucked the Follies about a couple of months ago and became Kile’s mistress. Why she should have done that I can’t imagine. It’s not as if Kile can do anything for her. He’s going broke fast, and isn’t expected to last the year. I should have thought she would have found that out before giving up the Follies. They were paying her pretty well from all accounts.’
Dallas groaned.
‘It beats me why you employ me when you know so much,’ he said a little irritably. ‘I’ve been walking my legs off…’
Purvis looked smug. He was childishly pleased with his phenomenal memory, and was inclined to ram its efficiency down Dallas’s throat.
‘I don’t pay you to find out about the past. I pay you to keep tabs on the present,’ he said. ‘We can’t all keep facts in our minds. I just happen to be gifted that way. So these two have talked with the Rajah?’
‘They have. They were with him about an hour.’
Purvis slid lower in his chair. He placed his finger-tips along the edge of the desk and began to play an imaginary piano; a trick of his that irritated Dallas almost beyond endurance. Dallas considered the habit to be the height of affectation.
‘Now I wonder why,’ Purvis said, executing a tril . He then commenced a complicated movement that ended in a showy crossing of hands.
‘Could you stop acting like Beethoven for a moment?’ Dallas said, breathing heavily through his nose. ‘Or would you like me to stand up and conduct?’
Purvis placed his finger-tips together again and stared at Dallas from over them. His eyes reminded Dallas of two sloes on white saucers; his face of an inverted pear. There was nothing attractive about Harmon Purvis, but he gave the impression that he would deliver the goods no matter how difficult the job.
‘I’ve always thought I should have been a professional pianist instead of a private eye,’ he said gloomily. ‘One of these days I’ll buy myself a piano.’
‘That’l be the day,’ Dal as said tartly. ‘Maybe it’l convince you you’re better at blowing a trumpet.’
Purvis waved this away with a chilling frown.
‘We’ve got to watch our step,’ he said. ‘We might be within throwing distance of grabbing those jewels. I’ve always thought the Rajah could find them quicker than anyone. I’m surprised he hasn’t tried before.’
‘How do you know he’s after them?’ Dal as said impatiently. ‘Just because the insurance companies are suspicious of him there’s no reason why we should be — or is there?’
‘They’re suspicious of him because I told them to be,’ Purvis said quietly. ‘Knowing what I do about the man and his reckless spending, it’s obvious that as soon as he realised he was get ing through his money, and there wouldn’t be any more, he’d think of the jewels. He’s the type who wants his cake and wants to eat it as well. You mustn’t forget that the jewels now belong to the insurance companies. They paid out the insurance, but the value of the jewels has enormously increased now. At a guess I’d say they were worth three times as much as the insurance companies paid for them, and that fact must stick in the Rajah’s throat. It’s my bet if he finds them he’ll stick to them. He could get rid of them in India without questions being asked. Most of the stuff would be snapped up by Indian princes, and no one would be any the wiser. He must lay his hands on some money soon. From what I hear he’s down to his last million.’
‘You don’t say!’ Dal as said sarcastical y. ‘Why, the poor fel a must be starving!’
Purvis pursed his lips. He considered such comments about money in poor taste. Money was Purvis’s god.
‘Never mind that,’ he said. ‘If we handle this right we stand to pick up four grand.’ He played a scale up and down the edge of his desk. ‘It’s my bet the Rajah wil take us to the jewels if we’re patient and don’t tip our hand. Mac-Adam and Ainsworth are covering him at night. Burns is sticking with him during the day. I want you to watch Kile. The Rajah won’t go for the jewels himself. He’ll have someone to do the work for him. That someone might easily be Kile. Keep on his tail, but don’t let him have an idea you’re watching him. If he doesn’t show signs of get ing into the game by the end of the week, drop him, and we’l wait for someone else to show.’
Dallas grunted. His lean brown face didn’t show any enthusiasm.
‘You could be barking up the wrong tree,’ he pointed out. ‘The easiest way to handle this is to sit tight and wait for Hater to come out of jail. He’s the one who’l lead us to the jewels.’
Purvis made a wry face.
‘He won’t be out for two years!’ He leaned forward and rapped on his desk. ‘I can’t afford to wait two years. We’ve got to produce something before then.’
‘What’s the hurry?’ Dal as said, yawning. ‘We’ve been at this off and on for fifteen years. Why not concentrate on other jobs and wait until Hater gets free?’
‘Don’t you realise how much we stand to pick up…?’
‘Yeah, you told me. I don’t know if you’re using the royal ‘we’, but I’m damned sure I’l never smell that four grand, or even a dollar of it.’
‘That remains to be seen,’ Purvis said hurriedly. ‘We haven’t got it yet. The insurance companies have been paying us a retainer for the past fifteen years, and we’ve done precious little to earn it. We can’t afford to wait until Hater comes out. We’ve got to get busy right now.’
Dallas looked at him suspiciously.
‘Have they been belly-aching?’
‘They’ve been doing more than that. They’ve stopped the retainer. It was as much as I could do to persuade them to let us represent them for another three months. We’ve got to get things moving or some of us will have to look for another job.’
Dallas unfolded his lanky frame out of the chair. He picked up his hat and slapped it on the back of his head.
‘Don’t kid yourself you’re scaring me,’ he said. ‘I could get me a better job than this one any day of the week. The only reason why I stick with you is because you’ve become a bad habit. Okay, I’l watch Kile. Maybe he’l lead us to the jewels, but I very much doubt it. There’s only one man who knows where they are, and that’s Hater. So long as he’s in prison they never will be found.’
‘That’s defeatism,’ Purvis said severely. ‘We haven’t two years to wait: we’ve only three months.
Keep after Kile, and watch that girl. She may know something.’
Dallas’s face brightened.
‘Watching her won’t be hard work,’ he said, making for the door. ‘It’s going to be a pleasure. If I didn’t think you’d take me up on it, I’d say I’d do it for free.’
As an eager look came into Purvis’s eyes, Dal as ducked out of the office and hurriedly closed the door.