Easton beamed on him.
‘Would you recognise this guy again if you saw him?’
Hirsch nodded.
‘Any time.’
‘And the girl?’
‘I’m pretty sure she was Miss Craig,’ Hirsch said. ‘I’ve seen her plenty of times in that coat’ He grinned. ‘It’s a coat you don’t forget in a hurry.’
‘How about the car?’
‘It was a 1959 Lincoln: a grey job with a red top.’
‘Did you notice if they had any luggage?’ Travers asked.
‘Yeah. There were two blue suitcases on the back seat.’
‘When this guy talked to the girl,’ Easton said, ‘how did he sound: friendly?’
‘He just sounded ordinary,’ Hirsch looked puzzled. ‘Just like he was holding an ordinary conversation.’
‘He didn’t sound threatening?’
‘No… nothing like that.’
‘How did she react?’
‘She didn’t say much. I heard her say they had missed the train. The guy laughed. ‘You’re wrong, honey,’ he said. ‘We’ve got half an hour. What are you worrying about?’ Just an ordinary conversation.’
Easton glanced at Travers.
‘Doesn’t sound as if she was being kidnapped, does it?’ he said and winked, then turning to Hirsch asked if he could use his telephone.
Hirsch took him into the small office. Easton called the special agent. He gave him the description of Alice’s boy- friend and of the car. The special agent said he would get both descriptions on the eight o’clock local broadcast and on the local television service. Easton said he was going to Downside railroad station to check further. He felt pretty pleased with himself when the S.A. said he was doing all right, even though there was a surprised note in his chief’s voice.
He went out and got into the car with Travers and they drove fast to the Downside railroad station. Travers was silent. From time to time Easton glanced at him with a sly grin, but he didn’t say anything.
Finally Travers said, ‘This guy certainly is leaving a broad trail behind him.’
‘What does that mean?’ Easton asked. ‘More complications?’
‘Well, let’s look at it. He plans to knock off one of the biggest payrolls in the district. He knows that to do that with any safety he has got to keep out of sight, got to avoid anyone getting a description of him or else the moment he tries to spend the money he’ll get nabbed. So what does he do? He picks on Alice, somehow makes her fall in love with him – how he ever did that, beats me, but it looks as if that was what he managed to do. Then he is dumb enough to take her back to the rooming-house so three witnesses get a good look at him. He isn’t content to remain in the car: he gets out and stands in the light of the car’s headlights so he can be seen. Then he writes a letter to the girl when he could have telephoned or even seen her. He then stops for gas and has a conversation about the last train out to ’Frisco. Again he lets Hirsch get a good look at him. See what I mean? For someone with enough ambition to steal three hundred thousand dollars, he doesn’t seem to me to be a major mind.’
‘Who said he was a major mind?’ Easton asked irritably. ‘It’s because the average crook is a born dope that he gets caught.’
‘I’m not so sure this guy is a dope,’ Travers said. ‘Those sideboards and the moustache could be a good disguise. It’s my bet he wanted to be seen so we’d get a wrong description of him. We’re looking for a man with sideboards. If he takes them off, we haven’t a description of him at all.’
‘Maybe,’ Easton said, a little startled, ‘but we have a description of the girl. Where she is, he is.’
‘I’m worrying about her,’ Travers said soberly.
‘What does that mean?’
‘I don’t know… but I’m worrying just the same.’
Easton shrugged his fat shoulders and drove on in silence.
When they reached the railroad station, Easton spent some time talking to the staff. Both the ticket officer and the ticket puncher were sure no one had boarded the two a.m. train to San Francisco. Nor had they seen anyone
