morning, and I want you to arrange it for me. Between now and then I think you have to tell him the full story.”
“Why?”
“The big reason is that an investigator who helped organize the theft of your diary was murdered tonight.”
“What did you say?” she said quickly.
“You heard me. The body hasn’t been identified yet. We may have until noon. If it hasn’t been cleared up by then, the whole thing has to come out. That means names, dates and prices.”
“My God. How do you figure in this?”
“People have been making me look dumb ever since I got to town, Mrs. Redpath, I’m sorry to say including you. I can’t be expected to like it, and right here is where it stops. Now ask your husband where would be a good place to meet.”
“Call me back. I want to think it over first.”
“You can think faster than that. I’m in a hurry.”
She covered the mouthpiece. Oskar brought Shayne a new drink, and he sipped it while she convinced her husband.
“There’s a room on the Senate side of the Capitol, on the gallery level, G 251,” she said curtly. “At ten.”
Shayne agreed. After hanging up he sat looking down into his cognac and waiting for the name of the National Aviation lobbyist to come to him. Someone had mentioned it in passing, and he hadn’t supposed he would ever need to know it. But it was there. It rose to the surface after a moment-Henry Clark. There were four Henry Clarks listed, and Shayne dialled the one that had two office phones and one residence. This time the voice that answered was crisp and alert.
“Yes?”
“Does the name Shayne ring any bell with you?”
“Yes, indeed. I heard you were in town.”
“Would you know what I was talking about if I said that Senator Hitchcock won’t be seeing anything more of Mrs. Smith?”
“I’d have a faint idea,” Clark said. “And as an admirer of Senator Hitchcock, I’m happy to hear it. That was fast. Will you be going back in the morning?”
“I doubt it. Too many other things have happened. Mr. Clark, what’s the most your company hopes to get out of this Toby investigation? What stakes are you playing for?”
Clark considered. “We’re walking a rather fine line there, Shayne. If the hearings produce evidence of some transaction that is so raw and extreme that Manners can’t be allowed to keep the contract, it will fall in my client’s lap. No one would like that. The program’s already nine months behind and any shift would mean a further delay. Whatever you care to say about Hugh Manners, he’s an excellent production man. We don’t want the Pentagon really mad at us. It’s all right to rock the boat, but not to turn it over.”
“I’m trying to find out what you do want.”
“I don’t like to talk about it on the phone. Can we meet for breakfast?”
“I have a date for breakfast, and after that I’ll be busy. If somebody’s bugging us, that’s just too bad. I’m told you’ve been working closely with Senator Wall. I could be wrong, but I’d say that the odds are about five to one that he’s changed sides.”
“I’d be interested to know what makes you say that. Quite frankly, it would hurt.”
“I haven’t worked it all out yet. You still haven’t told me what National wants to get out of it.”
“We’d like to recover our expenses in the contract competition, a matter of some ten million dollars. We want part of the subcontract for the airframe assembly, to keep one of our key plants in operation. And we want an informal assurance that our bid on the new Navy fighter program will be given, oh, a two-or three-point edge because of the shellacking we took on this last one, through no fault of our own. Those three things.”
“Are they worth fifty thousand bucks?”
“You really have to understand, Mr. Shayne-”
“I know, you don’t want to talk about money on the phone. But I’ll want a written agreement, and if that price sounds right, be in the rotunda of the Capitol at ten-twenty. Wipe your forehead with a handkerchief now and then so I’ll recognize you.”
“You’ve certainly given me something to think about, Mr. Shayne.”
“And I need some information I can’t get myself. I want to know who rented safe-deposit boxes in the principal Washington banks the week of June 25th last year. Is that possible?”
“If it’s important. I doubt if I could have it by ten-twenty.”
“Bring as many of them as you can. I may be a little late.”
CHAPTER 16
5:30 A.M.
Maggie Smith’s house was one of a row not far from her theatre, on a narrow street. Shayne made a note to duck when he went through the front door. The Szep brothers, who had followed in a Chevy pick-up, parked several blocks away, where the truck would be less conspicuous, and came back to wait in Shayne’s Ford. Shayne gave them descriptions of Stevens, Rebman, and the Mexican gunman who had accompanied Stevens. He didn’t expect them to look for him here, but they had surprised him before.
The sky was beginning to lighten in the east. Maggie Smith opened the door almost as soon as Shayne let go of the antique brass knocker. She was wearing slacks, high-heeled gold sandals, and a sleeveless green blouse, and her immediate effect on the redheaded detective was to make him forget to duck. As he stepped inside he grazed the top of his head on the lintel.
“I should have warned you,” she said. “These are famous houses, and thousands of tourists come by to gawk at them every day, but they’re
“I tried believing everybody else first.”
“I don’t care! So long as you came around to believing me in the end. Go through to the kitchen. I’m in the middle of making breakfast.”
Shayne followed her down a narrow hall, papered in a striped pattern, with a stepped row of oval miniatures on the wall. The kitchen was large and modern. It was filled with pleasant smells. Coffee was filtering on the stove. A dozen strips of bacon were laid out to drain on paper towels and a bowl of uncooked scrambled eggs was ready to be poured into the pan. Something was underway in a wall oven.
“The muffins have ten more minutes. Coffee’s almost ready. The eggs-I hope you like eggs-”
“I like eggs,” Shayne said.
“Sit down.” She pointed him toward a big table, already prepared for two. “I know it would be more polite to wait till you’ve eaten something, but Mike, what happened? The last time I saw you, you certainly gave no signs of disagreeing with Trina Hitchcock. What made you change your mind?”
Shayne stuck a cigarette in the corner of his mouth. “A funny thing happened. I talked to Hugh Manners, and he claimed he’d never heard a thing about it. I happened to have something to bargain with, and I told him to get Toby on the phone and call it off. And he got Toby on the phone, and Toby called it off.”
She gave him a worried look. “You mean Toby himself admitted-”
“Yeah, and not only that. I’ve got it in Manners’ writing. He gave me a letter to Hitchcock. You can read it if you want to. The idea was that I wouldn’t use it unless you gave me more trouble. Manners says he’s just found out that you and Toby have been setting up Hitchcock for a dirty photograph. It’s not that specific, but Hitchcock would understand what he’s getting at. And then Manners says he’s sorry and tells Hitchcock not to worry-it’s all off.”
“He
