Presented by: Detective 1st Grade Jack Loosey
He looked up, removed his spectacles and gaped. 'This you?' he asked, tapping the card.
'Yeah, and this is my assistant: Detective Morgan,' Ernie said.
Dukes whistled softly. He was obviously impressed.
'You know something? I had an idea there was something special about you two gents,' he said. 'Detectives, huh?'
'Private,' Ernie said gravely. 'Maybe you can help us.'
Dukes took a step back. He began to look worried.
'Nothing in this little town for you, gents. I assure you.'
'Have a drink and give us another beer.'
Dukes hesitated, then drew three beers and stood, waiting.
'We get all kinds of jobs,' Ernie said. 'You've no idea. Does the name Giovanni Fuselli mean anything to you?'
'Sure does.' Then Dukes stiffened and his eyes turned hostile. 'What's he to you?'
Ernie grinned slyly.
'Nothing to me, Mr. Dukes, but plenty to him. Does he live here?'
Dukes had now turned very hostile.
'If you want to know anything about Mr. Fuselli you go to the cops,' he said. 'Mr. Fuselli is a fine gentleman. You go to the cops: don't come here asking me questions.'
Ernie sipped his beer and then laughed.
'You've got me all wrong, Mr. Dukes. Our job is to find Mr. Fuselli. We've been told what a fine man he is. We're trying to help him. Between you and me, a relative of his has left him some money: his aunt died last year and we're trying to clear up her estate.'
Dukes hostility went away like a fist opening into a hand.
'Is that right? Mr. Fuselli has come into money?'
'He sure has. It's not my business to tell you how much,' Ernie winked confidently, 'but it's a nice slice . . . We've been told he lives around here, but we haven't his address. Like I said: we get all kinds of jobs. This is one of the nice ones.'
Listening, Toni marvelled at Ernie's glib talk and envied him. He knew he could never talk as convincingly as this.
'Well, I'm glad. Mr. FuseIli is a good friend of mine,' Dukes said. 'Right now, he's away. What a shame! Left last week for a trip up north.'
Ernie slopped some of his beer.
'Is that right? Do you know how long he'll be away?'
'No, sir. Mr. Fuselli goes north from time to time. Sometimes he comes back in a week . . . sometimes in a month, but he always comes back.' Dukes grinned. 'Just shuts up his little house and takes off.'
'North? Where?'
Dukes shook his head.
'Mr. Fuselli never says. He'll come in here, have a beer, then he says to me, 'Well, Harry, I guess I'll go north for a while. See you when I get back.' Mr. Fuselli never talks about himself and I don't ask questions.'
Ernie lit a cigarette while he thought.
'Doesn't someone look after his place while he's away?'
Dukes laughed.
'Not much of a place to look after. No, I guess no one goes near it. It's in a pretty lonely spot.'
'Just where is it?'
'Out on Hampton's hill. You being a stranger here wouldn't know Hampton's hill, would you?'
Containing his impatience with an effort, Ernie agreed.
'Well, you go down Main street, take the dirt road to your left, drive up the hill for a couple of miles and pass Noddy Jenkin's farm. Then you go on for another mile and you'll see Mr. Fuselli's place on your right: a little clapboard house, but he keeps it nice.'
'We'd better write to him,' Ernie said and finished his beer. 'The address is Hampton hill, Jackson?'
'Yeah. This is good news about him inheriting money. An aunt? Jesus! She must have been old. Mr. Fuselli is pushing seventy.'
Ernie gaped at him.
'Seventy?'
'That's right. He had his seventy-second birthday last month, but he's tough. Make no mistake about that . . . spry as a man half his age.'
