I couldn’t tell whether she had the combinations so that she knew how to open the door which had no knob, or whether there was some secret connection at Channing’s desk by which he could open it.
Channing and I looked at each other across the desk.
“I’d like to see the card by which you got past the doorman, Lam.”
I smiled at him.
“Well?” he said, extending his hand. “I’m waiting.”
I said, “The card was good enough to get me in. Isn’t that good enough for you?”
“No.”
I made no move.
Channing frowned. “You certainly aren’t naive enough to think I don’t control the situation here,” he said.
I said, “I certainly hope you aren’t naive enough to think I’d let you know
“This isn’t getting us anywhere.”
“It’s got me this far.”
“That may not prove to be entirely beneficial — for you.”
I stole a glance at my wrist watch. I had a little over nineteen minutes to go.
I said, “Perhaps you and I might talk without chasing each other around in circles, and really get somewhere.”
“I want to see that card.”
I said nothing.
I didn’t see Channing give the signal — probably a concealed button somewhere under the desk — but abruptly the door from the outer office opened and a man in a tuxedo stood quietly on the threshold.
“Mr. Lam,” Channing said, “had a card when he entered the place.”
The newcomer said nothing.
“He doesn’t wish to produce that card,” Channing said. “I’d like very much to look at it.”
The man moved forward, smiling serenely. “The card, Mr. Lam,” he said.
I made no move.
The man hesitated briefly by my chair.
Channing nodded.
The man reached forward and grabbed my wrist. I tried to jerk the arm free. I might as well have tried to pull against a steel cable.
Swift, efficient fingers did things to the wrist. The other hand hit against my elbow. My arm doubled around, flew up against my back, the wrist was doubled into a grip that pulled the tendons until it was all I could do to keep from screaming.
“The card,” Channing said.
I twisted my body, trying to ease the tension and the pain as much as possible.
“Of all the damn fools,” Channing said, and came over to search me.
I was powerless to make a move.
Channing’s hand shot into my inside pocket, came out with my wallet. He deftly extracted the card I had used in entering the place, started to put the wallet back, then thought better of it and took the wallet and the card over to his desk.
“That’s all, Bill,” he said.
The man in the tuxedo released the grip on my wrist.
I dropped back into the chair. My arm felt as though every tendon in it had been pulled out of place.
Channing started to tell Bill to go, then thought better of it. “Stick around, Bill,” he said.
Channing said, “Lam, I don’t like this. You sat around in front for several hours with a companion. The man is still down there waiting for you. I suppose if you don’t appear within a certain time he’s to come and get you or else call the police. Is that it?”
“You’re talking. I’m listening.”
“I suppose you feel that gives you a paid-up policy of life insurance.”
“I’ll run my business,” I said, “you run yours.”
He examined the card carefully.
“This is a genuine card,” he said. “It not only bears my signature but it has the little secret mark on it that you wouldn’t even know was there. It’s a genuine card. Where did you get it?”
“It was given to me.”
He shook his head. “Those cards aren’t obtained in that way.”
I said nothing.
He studied the card again, then looked over at me and I didn’t like what I saw in his eyes.
“Lam,” he said, “I’m not going to tell you
“Ordinarily George kept his connection with this place completely secret, but for the few people whom he knew he could trust, he had some special cards. This is one of those cards. Now where did
“It was given to me.”
“You know, Lam, there’s just a chance, just an outside chance that you’ve been over talking with Irene Bishop. I wouldn’t like that.”
I said nothing.
He picked up my wallet, started going through it, became motionless. “Well, I’m damned,” he said, half under his breath. “You’ve got four more cards — all given to George Bishop!”
I realized then how foolish I had been to keep this evidence on me. There undoubtedly was a secret mark on each of those cards.
For ten or fifteen seconds he sat there, saying nothing.
I stole another glance at my wrist watch. I had eleven minutes to go, then Danby would call the police
Abruptly Channing said, “Bill, there’s a man waiting down there in the guy’s car. I had assumed he was just an errand boy carrying a life insurance policy for this guy, but I think we’d better make sure.”
“Yes?” Bill said.
“Go down and bring him in,” Channing said.
“Suppose he doesn’t want to come?”
“I told you to
Bill started moving for the door.
I knew I had to stall for ten and a half minutes.
“We might talk first,” I said.
“We might talk afterward,” Channing retorted.
I got up out of the chair, said, “I think I’m tired of being pushed around.”
I hoped that would bring Bill back to pull another judo grip on me and delay things for a while.
Bill looked questioningly at Channing.
Channing said, “Get going, Bill,” and pulled a .38 revolver out of the top drawer in the desk.
“I think,” he said, “I’m going to readjust a lot of opinions within the next few minutes. I’m readjusting some right now. So you really are a private detective. What the hell are you working on, and who the hell are you really working for?”
The door closed behind Bill. I knew I was sunk then. I should have cut the time limit down to thirty minutes, gone in and got out.
And really I didn’t want the police any more than Channing did. That probably was why I’d made it an extreme outside limit. I had really expected to go in there, get the information I wanted, and be out inside of half an hour. I’d have done it, too, if it hadn’t been for Diane Marvin. The fact that the man behind the roulette wheel had
