So I tell him to call Jenny here in London—or I’ll have her call him.
Mott says he’s in a hurry, so I give him her number and he calls her.
She’ll tell you what happened then.”
Durant and Wu looked at Jenny Arliss. She stared at Wu first, then shifted her gaze to Durant and said, “Mr. Mott rang and grilled me for thirty minutes or more about the Goodisons. I gave him some telephone numbers to call, including several at the Metropolitan Police. Two hours later he rang back and said he’d like to employ or retain the Goodisons to help Ione Gamble recover her memory. I was curious as to why he’d pick them when southern California is brimming over with all sorts of hypnotherapists, reputable and otherwise. So I asked him.”
“What did he say?” Durant asked.
She looked away for a moment to stare at the portrait of Agnes Wu and the two sets of twins. She then looked back at Durant and said,
“Mr. Mott wanted to engage a hypnotist—in this case, a pair of them—
whose discretion would be guaranteed. He then asked if Help! would guarantee the Goodisons’ silence or discretion, whatever. I told him of course—that we guarantee the discretion of all our specialists. We then settled on a fee and—”
Durant interrupted. “What do you mean ‘guarantee’?”
“She means we’ll indemnify any loss Ione Gamble takes because of the Goodisons,” Glimm said. “Which could be a great big bundle.” He paused to stare at Wu. “That’s why I want ‘em found.”
After nodding pleasantly, Wu looked at Jenny Arliss and said, “You were talking about their fee.”
She said, “I rang Hughes and asked whether he and Pauline would fly to Los Angeles and hypnotize Ione Gamble for one hundred thousand dollars plus expenses. He almost went into a fit but accepted, of course, and they left the next day.”
“Then what?” Wu asked.
“A week later I had a call from Mr. Mott, who said the Goodisons had had three sessions with Ione Gamble. After the third session, they rang Mr. Mott at two in the morning to report a serious problem, but refused to discuss it over the phone. Mott told them not to stir, that he was coming right over. He was in a Santa Monica hotel and they were in the Bel-Air Hotel. I understand it usually takes twenty or twenty-five minutes to get from one to the other. Mr. Mott made it in less than twenty. But the Goodisons had already vanished.”
“Have they been heard from since?” Wu asked.
“Mott got a call from the brother,” Glimm said. “He said it was nothing but gibberish.”
“So what’s worrying you—blackmail?” Durant said.
“Exactly,” Glimm said.
“There’s no proof of it,” Wu said.
“Yet,” said Glimm. “Look,” he continued. “Maybe they’re blackmailers or maybe they aren’t. Or maybe they’ve been kidnapped and somebody else is the blackmailer. I could maybe this and maybe that the rest of the afternoon. But maybes aren’t answers, are they?”
“If it is blackmail,” Wu said, “who pays—you or Gamble?”
“I do,”
“You could wiggle out of it,” Durant said.
“Sure,” said Glimm, “but the word’d get around, wouldn’t it? I’d lose all my clients and spend the rest of my life kicking myself because I didn’t fork over a lousy million bucks. And when I wasn’t kicking myself, I’d be talking to lawyers about how to wiggle out of the ten or fifteen million Ione Gamble’s suing me for. But I don’t wanta do any of that, which is why I’m hiring you guys.”
“To find the Goodisons,” Wu said.
Glimm nodded vigorously. “Dead, alive or in between.”
“What’s Howard Mott think?” Durant said.
“It doesn’t matter what he thinks,” Glimm said. “What matters is what I think. Mott’s her defense lawyer. He’s paid to think she’s innocent. I don’t care if she is or isn’t. What I care about is finding the Goodisons. And as far as I’m concerned, guessing time’s over. I want you guys out in California and I want you to either find them or find out what happened to them. You do that and maybe I can salvage something.”
“Then I suggest we talk money,” Wu said.
“Go ahead. Talk.”
“You pay all expenses.”
“If itemized.”
“Some will be. Some won’t be.”
Glimm thought about Wu’s assertion, then nodded and said, “So far, so good.”
“Our fee is seven hundred and fifty thousand, regardless of outcome,” Durant said. “We want two hundred and fifty thousand now, the same amount two weeks from today and the balance when it’s over. If your outfit emerges from this without stain, we want a guaranteed bonus of another two hundred and fifty thousand.”
“Dollars or pounds?” Glimm asked.
