He nodded. 'We have a good enough working relationship with the fellows in Immigration and Naturalization. Not that it's often necessary to follow through on one's threats. The prostitute's traditional tight-lipped loyalty to her clientele is as much a romantic conceit as her heart of gold. The merest threat of deportation is enough to bring immediate offers of full cooperation.'
'And that was the case with Portia Carr?'
'Absolutely.In fact she became quite eager. I think she relished the MataHari role, garnering information in bed and passing it on to me. Not that she managed to supply me with too terribly much, but she was shaping up as a promising source for my investigations.'
'Any investigation in particular?'
There was just a little hesitation. 'Nothing specific,' he said. 'I could just see that she would be useful.'
I drank some more coffee. If nothing else, Hardesty was enabling me to find out just how much my own client knew. SinceBroadfield had chosen to play coy with me, I had to get this information in an indirect fashion. But Hardesty didn't know thatBroadfield hadn't been completely straight with me, so he couldn't deny anything that I might have presumably learned from him.
'So she cooperated enthusiastically,' I said.
'Oh, very much so.'He smiled in reminiscence. 'She was quite charming, you know. And she had the notion of writing a book about her life as a prostitute and her work for me. I think that Dutch girl was an inspiration to her. Of course the Dutch girl can't set foot in the country because of the role she played, but I don't really think Portia Carr would have ever gotten round to writing that book, do you?'
'I don't know. She won't now.'
'No, of course not.'
'JerryBroadfield might, though. Was he terribly disappointed when you told him you weren't interested in police corruption?'
'I'm not sure I put it quite that way.' He frowned abruptly. 'Is that why he came to me?For heaven's sake. He wanted to write a book?' He shook his head in disbelief. 'I'll never understand people,' he said. 'I knew that self- righteousness was a pose, and that made me resolve not to have anything to do with him, that more than the sort of information he had to offer. I simply couldn't trust him and felt he'd do my investigations more harm than good. So then he popped over to see that Special Prosecutor chap.'
That Special Prosecutor chap.It wasn't hard to tell what Knox Hardesty thought ofAbner L.Prejanian .
I said, 'Did it bother you that he went toPrejanian ?'
'Why on earth should it bother me?'
I shrugged. 'Prejanianstarted to get a lot of ink. The papers gave him a nice play.'
'More power to him if publicity is what he wants. It seems rather to have backfired on him now, though. Wouldn't you say?'
'And that must please you.'
'It confirms my judgment, but aside from that why should it please me?'
'Well, you andPrejanian are rivals, aren't you?'
'Oh, I'd hardly put it that way.'
'No? I thought you were. I figured that's why you got her to accuseBroadfield of extortion.'
'What!'
'Why else would you do it?' I made my tone deliberately offhand, not accusing him but taking it for granted that it was something we both knew and acknowledged. 'Once she was pressing charges against him he was defused andPrejanian didn't even hear his name mentioned. And it madePrejanianlook gullible for having usedBroadfield in the first place.'
His grandfather or great-grandfather might have lost control. But Hardesty had enough generations of good breeding behind him so that he was able to keep almostall of his cool. He straightened in his chair, but that was about the extent of it. 'You've been misinformed,' he told me.
'The charge wasn't Portia's idea.'
'Nor was it mine.'
'Then why did she call you around noon the day before yesterday?
She wanted your advice, and you told her to go on acting as if the charge was true. Why did she call you? And why did you tell her that?'
No indignation this time.A little stalling- picking up the glass of milk, putting it downuntasted , fussing with a paperweight and a letter opener. Then he looked at me and asked how I knew she'd called him.
'I was there.'
'You were-' His eyes widened. 'You were the man who wanted to talk with her. But I thought- then you were working forBroadfield before the murder.'
'Yes.'
'For heaven's sake.I thought- well, obviously I thought you'd been engaged after he was arrested for homicide.Hmmm. So you were the man she was so nervous about. But I spoke to her before she had met you. She didn't even know your name when we talked. How did you know- she didn't tell you,that's the last thing she would have done. Oh, for heaven's sake. That was a bluff, wasn't it?'
'You could call it an educated guess.'
