to Rico.’
She slipped out of the wrap and reached for a flimsy underthing. Kile’s eyes dwelt on her naked loveliness. He reached out and caught her arm, pulling her down beside him.
‘You’re too beautiful to bother your head about such things,’ he said, his heart beginning to beat violently and jerkily. ‘I’m not going out tonight: nor are you.’
She made a quick, impatient movement to break free, but immediately checked it. Instead, she slipped her arms around his neck and hid her face against his silken lapel, so he couldn’t see her expression of loathing and revulsion.
V
Although it was after nine-twenty, a light still showed through the glass panel of the door leading to the inner office of the International Detective Agency. That meant Harmon Purvis hadn’t yet gone home.
Ed Dallas pushed open the door and looked into the large airy office.
Purvis, a tall stick of a man, sat behind a desk, busy with a pile of papers, a pencil held between his teeth. He glanced up, nodded briefly, laid down his papers and took the pencil out of his mouth.
‘Come in,’ he said, waving to a chair by the desk. ‘I guessed you’d be in so I waited for you.’
Dallas sat down, laid his hat on the floor, and ran his fingers through his crew-cut brown hair.
‘I might have something with those two,’ he said. ‘The guy’s Preston Kile. Ever heard of him?’
Purvis thought a moment, then nodded.
‘That’s the San Francisco market manipulator,’ he said, putting his finger-tips together and staring up at the ceiling. ‘About two years ago he pul ed a very shady deal. A bunch of brokers decided to chip in and cover him rather than scare the market with a scandal. They forced him to get out of the market and stay out. He came here…’
‘I know, I know,’ Dal as interrupted. ‘I thought I was going to tell you. I got the dope from Favell.’
It never ceased to surprise him how much Purvis seemed to know. There wasn’t anyone in town who was connected in some way or the other with shady deals or crime that Purvis didn’t know the details about. He could trot out his information as easily as the most complicated card index system, and as fast.
‘I hope you didn’t pay Favell anything,’ Purvis said anxiously. ‘That vampire is sucking up all my profits.’
‘Wel , I had to give him something. How was I to know you had the information?’ Dal as said wearily. ‘Two tens won’t break us.’
Purvis winced.
‘The trouble with you…’ he began, but Dallas broke in hurriedly, ‘I know, I know. My mother told me the same thing. Want to hear about the girl – Eve Gillis?’
‘I know about her,’ Purvis said coldly. ‘She won a five-thousand-dollar beauty prize a couple of years ago. She persuaded the Follies to give her a chance, got top billing after a year, and has been a hit ever since. She has a brother – a twin if I remember rightly – who’s been in India for the past three years. I believe he’s back now. This Gillis girl suddenly chucked the Follies about a couple of months ago and became Kile’s mistress. Why she should have done that I can’t imagine. It’s not as if Kile can do anything for her. He’s going broke fast, and isn’t expected to last the year. I should have thought she would have found that out before giving up the Follies. They were paying her pretty well from all accounts.’
Dallas groaned.
‘It beats me why you employ me when you know so much,’ he said a little irritably. ‘I’ve been walking my legs off…’
Purvis looked smug. He was childishly pleased with his phenomenal memory, and was inclined to ram its efficiency down Dallas’s throat.
‘I don’t pay you to find out about the past. I pay you to keep tabs on the present,’ he said. ‘We can’t all keep facts in our minds. I just happen to be gifted that way. So these two have talked with the Rajah?’
‘They have. They were with him about an hour.’
Purvis slid lower in his chair. He placed his finger-tips along the edge of the desk and began to play an imaginary piano; a trick of his that irritated Dallas almost beyond endurance. Dallas considered the habit to be the height of affectation.
‘Now I wonder why,’ Purvis said, executing a tril . He then commenced a complicated movement that ended in a showy crossing of hands.
‘Could you stop acting like Beethoven for a moment?’ Dallas said, breathing heavily through his nose. ‘Or would you like me to stand up and conduct?’
Purvis placed his finger-tips together again and stared at Dallas from over them. His eyes reminded Dallas of two sloes on white saucers; his face of an inverted pear. There was nothing attractive about Harmon Purvis, but he gave the impression that he would deliver the goods no matter how difficult the job.
‘I’ve always thought I should have been a professional pianist instead of a private eye,’ he said gloomily. ‘One of these days I’ll buy myself a piano.’
‘That’l be the day,’ Dal as said tartly. ‘Maybe it’l convince you you’re better at blowing a trumpet.’
Purvis waved this away with a chilling frown.
‘We’ve got to watch our step,’ he said. ‘We might be within throwing distance of grabbing those jewels. I’ve always thought the Rajah could find them quicker than anyone. I’m surprised he hasn’t tried before.’
‘How do you know he’s after them?’ Dal as said impatiently. ‘Just because the insurance companies are suspicious of him there’s no reason why we should be – or is there?’
