his knees and bump his head each time he sees you in the joint from now on.”
Larry Woolford waggled a finger at the other. “This is a status-conscious town, my boy. Prestige means everything. When I take over my Boss’ job, maybe we can swing you a transfer and I’ll give you a position suitable to your attainments.” He pursed his lips judiciously. “Though come to think of it, that might mean a demotion from the job you’re holding now.”
“Vodka Martini,” Steve told the bartender. “Polish vodka, of course.”
“Of course,” the bartender said.
Larry said. “Same for me.”
The bartender left and Steve muttered, “I hate vodka.”
“Yeah,” Larry said. “But what are you going to do in a place like this, order some weird drink, like a highball or something? Vodka’s in. Suppose somebody saw you drinking a gin cocktail.”
Steve dug into his pocket for money. “We’re not going to have to drink them anyway. Here she comes.”
She walked with her head high, hauteur in every step, ignoring the peasants at the tables she passed. Her youthful breasts bobbed gently in her diaphanous blouse as she progressed. She looked like a young, prosperous, but unpracticed tart.
“Holy smokes,” Steve grunted. “It’s a wonder that Fredrick let her in. She looks like a young weird.”
“He let her in when she crossed his palm with half a bill,” Larry said cynically. “She has a nice pair of knockers, though.”
Steve looked at him, even as he paid up for their untouched drinks. “You one of these types that goes for kids?”
“I go for anything that has one of those things,” Larry leered back at him.
The girl hesitated momentarily before the doorway of the prestige restaurant, allowing the passers-by to realize that she had just emerged, and then turned to her right to promenade along the shopping street.
Larry and Steve trailed after her. Fifty feet below La Calvados, Steve said, “Okay, this is it. Let’s go, Woolford.”
One stepped to one elbow, the other the other. Steve said, “I wonder if we could ask you a few questions, Miss?”
Her eyebrows went up. “I
Steve sighed and displayed the badge pinned to his wallet, keeping it inconspicuous. “Secret Service, Miss,” he murmured.
“Oh, devil,” she said. She looked at at Larry Woolford, then back at Steve.
Steve said, “Among other things, we’re in charge of counterfeit money.”
She was about five foot four in her heels, had obviously been on a round of beauty shops and had obviously instructed them to glamourize her. It hadn’t come off. She still looked as though she’d be more at home as cheerleader of the junior class in a small time school. She was honey blond, green-gray of eye, and had that complexion they seldom carry even into the twenties. Her figure wasn’t at all bad, for her age. In another half-dozen years she was going to be one gorgeous dish.
She said, a trifle shrilly, “I… I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Her chin began to tremble and she held her elbows tight against her sides, as though in rejection of this whole situation. The gesture seemed to make her young semi-bared breasts more prominent.
Larry said gently, “Don’t worry, Miss. We just want to ask you some questions.”
“Well… like what?” She was going to be blinking back tears in a moment. At least Larry hoped she’d blink them back. He’d hate to have her start howling here in public.
Larry said, “We think you can be of assistance to the government, and we’d like your help.”
Steve rolled his eyes upward at that, but turned and waved for a street level cab.
In the cab, Larry said, “Suppose we go over to my office, Steve. It’s closer.”
“Okay with me,” Steve muttered, “But by the looks of the young lady here, I think it’s a false alarm from your angle. She’s obviously an American. What’s your name, Miss?”
“It’s Zusanette. Well, really, Susan.”
“Susan what?”
“I… I’m not sure I want to tell you. I… I want a lawyer.”
“A lawyer!” Steve snorted. “You mean you want the juvenile authorities, don’t you?”
“Oh, what a mean thing to say,” she sputtered.
“Yeah, well, can’t you cover up those two things?” Steve said, staring at her breasts, the nipples of which could clearly be made out through her Cretean revival blouse. “My friend, here, is lecherous.”
“Oh, what a mean thing to say,” Larry murmured.
In the corridor, outside the Boss’ suite of offices, Larry said to Steve, “You take Miss… ah, Zusanette to my office, will you Steve? I’ll be there in a minute.”
He opened the door to the anteroom and said, “LaVerne, we’ve got a girl in my office——”
“Why, Larry! And what a place to take a girl. Why don’t you go to a hotel?”
He glowered at her. “A suspect. I want a complete tape of everything said. As soon as we’re through, have copies made, at least three or four.”
“And who, Mr. Woolford, was your girl Friday last year?”
“This is important, honey. I suppose you’ve supplied me with a secretary, but I haven’t even met her yet. Take care of it, will you?”
“Sure enough, Larry.”
He followed Steve and the girl into his office.
Once seated, the girl and Steve in the only two extra chairs the cubicle boasted and Larry behind his desk, he looked at her in what he hoped was reassurance. “Just tell us where you got the money, Zusanette.”
Steve Hackett reached out a hand suddenly and grabbed up her bag from her lap. She gasped and snatched at it, but he eluded her and she sat back, her chin trembling again.
The Secret Service man unsnapped the bag, put a hand in and came up with a thick sheaf of bills, the top ones, at least, all fifties. He tossed them to Larry’s desk and resumed the search. He took out a school pass and read, “Susan Self, 418 Elwood Avenue.” He looked up and said to Larry, “That’s right off Eastern, near Paterson Park in the Baltimore section of town, isn’t it?”
Larry said to her, “Zusanette, I think you had better tell us where you got all this money.”
“I found it,” she said defiantly. “You can’t do anything to me if I simply found it. Anybody can find money. Finders keepers and losers…”
“But if it’s counterfeit,” Steve interrupted dryly, “it might also be, finders weepers.”
“Where did you find it, Zusanette?” Larry said gently.
She tightened her lips and the trembling of her chin disappeared. “I… I can’t tell you that. But it’s not counterfeit. Daddy… my father, said it was as good as any money the government prints.”
“That it is.” Steve’s voice was sour. “But it’s still counterfeit, which makes it very illegal indeed to spend, Miss Self.”
She looked from one of them to the other, not clear about her position. She said to Larry, “You mean it’s not real money?”
He kept his tone disarming, but shook his head. “I’m afraid not, Zusanette. Now, tell us, where did you find it?”
“I can’t. I promised.”
“I see. Then you don’t know to whom it originally belonged?”
“It didn’t belong to anybody.”
Steve Hackett made with a disbelieving whistle. He was taking the part of the tough, suspicious cop; Larry the part of the understanding, sympathetic officer, trying to give the suspect a break.
Susan Self turned quickly on Steve. “Well, it didn’t. You don’t even know.”
Larry said, “I think she’s telling the truth, Steve. Give her a chance. She’s playing fair.” He looked back at the girl and frowned his puzzlement. “But all money belongs to somebody, doesn’t it?”
She had them now. She said superiorly, “Not necessarily to
Steve grunted scepticism. “I think we ought to arrest her,” he said.
