defense.”
“Well, Walter, I’d guess I’d have to agree with you. But that’s more a rule of thumb than a rule. You still don’t want to get on my bad side.”
“I would guess I already am.”
“Not really. You’re just a guy trying to do your job. You’re a working stiff who’s confused and doesn’t know it, because you’re on the wrong track. I’m not the guy you should be going after.”
That got half a smile out of him, putting a dimple in that smooth face. “Really? Who
“Hell, I don’t know. All I know is, I didn’t take down that money truck. Kim Stacy told you what she heard on that runway in Nuevo Cadiz, didn’t she?”
“She did. But we discounted it. You have a reputation for having a certain...charm. Especially with the ladies.”
“And yet you kept her on the company payroll? Didn’t discipline her in any way?”
Crowley’s tone was gently mocking. “Why should a woman be disciplined for loyalty to her own husband? Besides, she’s a fine agent.”
“Sure, Walter. And there’s that other little thing.”
“What other little thing is that, Morgan?”
“That someday she might lead you to me.”
“And here you sit.”
“And there
“You won’t use it.”
“Don’t push it, Walter. Look, I don’t expect you not to do your job. But since you didn’t come to Miami looking for me—since Jaimie Halaquez was the man you were after—why don’t you just postpone the Morgan manhunt until the other job is done?”
“Why should I do that?”
“Because I’m looking for Halaquez, too. I’m working on behalf of the Cuban exiles he robbed. I want to get their money back for them. And I’d be glad to turn him over to you when I’ve shaken that dough out of him.”
He laughed. A small laugh, but a laugh. “You think you’ll get him before we do? We have an operation already well underway.”
“Well, I have my charm, remember. It’s possible, going down my own paths and byways, that I might get to him before you do. My priority is that money.”
He stopped smiling. He was thinking.
Finally, cocking his head, he said, “What are you proposing?”
“Not that we throw in together, not exactly. Just call off the dogs. Let me move freely through this city. I’ll keep you informed, calling you here at the hotel. And if I find him, and don’t have to kill him...he’s yours.”
Crowley’s eyes moved with thought as he tried to find a flaw in my proposal.
Then he asked, “And what then?”
“After I turn him over...or after you catch him, if I’m not part of it...you pay me the courtesy of giving me twenty-four hours before you open the Company kennels again. It’s a fair request, Walter.”
“It’s fair, but it’s nothing my superiors would endorse.”
“Don’t ask them. Someday I’ll prove my innocence, and you’ll know you did the right thing.”
Crowley thought some more.
Then: “
“I accept that.”
He laughed, loud enough to ring off the plaster walls. “Are you sure? You didn’t believe me on the phone when I said I’d come alone tomorrow.”
“We’re in the same room, and we’re looking at each other. And you’re looking down the barrel of my gun. I’ll take your word.”
He nodded. “What now?”
“I’ve already briefed Kim Stacy on my activities of the last few days. She can fill you in.”
And that would leave how much she told Crowley to her own discretion.
I went on: “But with one of the byways I’m going down, I could use some help.”
“You said we wouldn’t be working together.”
“This is just some information that I could use. You may not even have it.”
“All right. Go ahead, Morgan. Ask.”
“Does the name Richard Best mean anything to you?”
“No.”
“How about Richard Parvain?”
Now he frowned. “
“That’s right. What’s the story on him?”
His eyebrows went up, stayed there a few seconds, then came down again. “Well, he never worked for the government, not as an employee. Always on contract. I can’t tell you
“I can tell you. He was developing a sort of Geiger counter that could make its readings from a great distance. Like in an airplane.”
His eyebrows went up and down again, more quickly this time. “All right. I won’t deny that. The device was helpful. But then Parvain had a nervous breakdown, and a drinking problem, and he became a bad risk. He had another, even more important concept that he never delivered on. Finally, ties were cut with him.”
“How long ago?”
“Oh...five years...seven years.”
“What was the ‘important concept’?”
“Morgan, that’s classified—you know I can’t...”
“Crowley, you said yourself Parvain never delivered. What was the concept?”
“Why?”
“Because he was murdered two days ago. Under the Richard Best name.”
Crowley’s eyes widened. “Christ. What were the circumstances?”
I told him.
Then I said, “What was the invention he promised but couldn’t come through on?”
Crowley’s sigh seemed to come from his toes. “It was an extension, an expansion of his original idea. This was a device that could detect the presence of atomic materials on the ground...from the air.”
“You mean—a spy plane could know if an enemy had a storehouse of nuclear materials? Could pinpoint the location of missiles in silos? Could—”
He raised his hand. “Those applications and many more. When Parvain began his work on the project, we were especially sensitive to the threat of nuclear warheads in Cuba—it was a way to make sure the Russians hadn’t secretly outfitted Cuba with missiles.”
I let out a low whistle.
With a weary shrug, the man in the bathrobe said, “The government put a lot of money into the project, but finally pulled the plug. Parvain insisted on working alone, without supervision. He was, frankly, a crank. And then a crazy crank, and finally an alcoholic one. Morgan, you don’t seriously believe he
Now it was my turn to sigh from my shoes. I rose. I put the .45 away.
“Walter, if a scientist being crazy or a boozer precluded his ability to come up with innovations, you and I would be going to work every day in a horse and buggy.”
And I left him there to think that over.
That and the rest of it.
There’s an old Army dodge that anyone carrying a clipboard stacked with printed forms, a pocketful of yellow
