'You mean like if I nick a fiver from you, then a bit later I put a fiver in your wallet that I've nicked from someone else, whose fiver is that?'
'I wish my accountant could put things so plainly,' said Pollinger, smiling.
'Maybe you should change them. How come they didn't notice something funny was going on?'
'A good question. Their pre-emptive answer is that any irregularities must have occurred since the last annual audit. If they turn out to be wrong, I shall of course be delighted to sue them. In fact, that would solve a lot of problems.'
'You mean, they could be held responsible for the losses?'
'For all that have occurred since the audit, certainly.'
He nodded with pleasure at the thought. Vampires,
thought Joe. As long as they've got someone else's big fat vein to suck, they're happy.
'So why, if you don't know yet who's lost what, have you been visiting your old chum at Penthouse?' asked Joe.
'When two lawyers get killed and a third is attacked, rumours soon start circulating, Mr. Sixsmith. You'd be amazed at the number of calls I've already had, vibrant with sincere condolence rapidly modulating into equally sincere concern about the state of our finances. People can be so self-centred.'
'So you went to Penthouse to deal with these rumours?' persisted Joe.
'No. There's another problem there,' admitted Pollinger. 'You see, we are of course insured against losses of this kind. All law firms need to be.'
Joe worked on this for a while then began to chuckle.
'You mean it's Penthouse you're insured with? So if they've been ripped off they could find themselves paying out money to cover their own losses?'
'You have a gift for the simplistic precis,' said Pollinger. 'Harold Duhig is not happy.'
'I bet. Piece of advice, Mr. Pollinger. Next time you go to see your friend, take a sledgehammer, 'cos getting what you're due out of Penthouse is like getting blood out of a stone!'
Surprisingly this seemed to cheer Pollinger up immensely.
'I see we are going to get on famously, Mr. Sixsmith,' he said. 'My curiosity was already aroused when your name kept cropping up in the accounts I received of the police investigation. Could it be pure chance, I wondered. Then when I saw you in the lift'
'I'd been described?' interjected Joe.
'In general terms,' said Pollinger evasively. 'But your car more unmistakably. No, your involvement here is more than pure chance.'
'You don't look like a superstitious man to me, Mr. Pollinger,' said Joe.
'And you're right. I'm not. The chance I refer to is an accepted area of modern scientific theory. Anything can hap pen. But if it keeps on happening, then it is removed from the realm of accident and someone posits a law.'
'You're losing me,' said Joe.
'On the contrary, I am hiring you.'
'But to do what?' demanded Joe.
To find out who has murdered two of my colleagues. Also there is a great deal of money missing. I should like to know where it has gone.'
Ah, thought Joe. The money. He'd put the deaths of his colleagues first, but it sounded like a close call.
'But where do you want me to start?' he asked.
'Start? Man, you're so far in, I suspect you could hardly find your way back! You will need to talk to all our staff, of course. Mrs. Mattison, our office manager, is ideally placed to give you an overall view. I've asked her to come in tomorrow morning to help sort out this mess. I'll tell her you'll call.'
'Yes, sir,' said Joe. 'Am I just going to talk to her or ... ?'
'You mean, is she suspect? Everyone of them is suspect, Mr. Sixsmith, till you find out different, or they get killed.'
Shoot! thought Joe. This guy wasn't just icy cold, he was permafrost!
'Mr. Naysmith didn't get killed, just beaten up,' he probed. 'But you don't think he's a suspect, do you?'
'Felix?' said Pollinger thoughtfully. 'It's my understanding you yourself alibi'd him?'
'Yeah, well, I overheard Mr. Potter talking to him on the phone and the cops confirmed the call was from Lincolnshire.'
'And poor Peter got killed within minutes of your leaving him. So, unless you're a terribly unreliable witness, Mr. Sixsmith, that seems to let him off the hook. But you'll still want to interview him, I daresay. Now, is there anything else we need to discuss?'
'We haven't talked about my rates,' said Joe diffidently.
'Worried about working for a man whose firm is likely to have suffered substantial losses? Quite right. Take this on account and let me know when it has run its course. Good day now. I feel better for knowing you are on the case.'
