accounts, a checking account for his wife and a large personal savings account. All of them except his own personal account were pretty much in order. Six months ago he made a cash withdrawal of five thousand bucks. That was the first. It?s happened every other month since then, and yesterday he withdrew all but a few hundred. The total he took out in cash was an even twenty thousand dollars.?
?Wow,? I said. ?Where did it go??
?Getting a line on his personal affairs wasn?t as easy as I thought. Item one, he has a wife and family he loves almost as much as his standing in the community. Item two, he likes to play around with the ladies. Item three, put item one and two together and what do you have??
?Blackmail,? I said. ?All the setup for blackmail. Is that all??
?As much as I had time for. Now, if there?s nothing else on your mind and I hope there isn?t, I?ll be seeing you never again.?
?You?re a real pal, Joe. Thanks a million.?
?Don?t do me any more favors, Mike, hear??
?Yeah, I hear. Thanks again.?
There was too much going on in my head to stay in bed. I crawled under the shower and let it bite into my skin. When I dried off I shaved, brushed my teeth and went out and had breakfast. Fat little Emil scared to death of Rainey. Fat little Emil making regular and large withdrawals from the bank. A good combination. Rainey had to get dough enough to throw in the kitty to build that arena someway.
I looked out the window at the gray sky that still had a lot of snow in it, thinking that it was only the beginning. If what I had in mind worked out there ought to be a lot more to come.
The little .25 was still in the pocket of my jacket and it slapped against my side as I walked out to the elevator. The streets were clear and I told the boy to take off the chains and toss them in the trunk. He made himself another couple of bucks. When I backed out of the garage I drove across to Broadway and turned north pointing for the Bronx.
This time the big sedan with the gold initials was gone. I drove around the block twice just to be sure of it. All the blinds on the upper floor were drawn and there was a look of desertion about the place. I parked on the corner and walked back, turning in at the entrance.
Three times I lifted the heavy bronze knocker, and when that didn?t work I gave the door a boot with my foot. A kid on a bicycle saw me and shouted, ?They ain?t home, mister. I seen ?em leave last night.?
I came down off the stoop and walked over to the kid. ?Who left??
?The whole family, I guess. They was packing all kinds of stuff in the car. This morning the maid and the girl that does the cleaning left too. They gimme a quarter to take some empty bottles back to the store. I kept the deposit too.?
I fished in my pocket for another quarter and flipped it to him. ?Thanks, son. It pays to keep your eyes open.?
The kid pocketed the coin and took off down the street, the siren on the bike screaming. I walked back up the path to the house. A line of shrubs encircled the building and I worked my way behind them, getting my shoes full of snow and mud. Twice I stopped and had a look around to be sure there weren?t any nosy neighbors ready to yell cop. The bushes did a good job. I felt all the windows, trying them to see if they were locked. They were.
I said the hell with it and wrenched a stone out of the mud and tapped the glass a good one. It made a racket but nobody came around to investigate. When I had all the pieces picked out of the ?frame I grabbed .the sill and hoisted myself into the room.
If sheet-covered chairs and closed doors meant what it looked like, Emil Perry had flown the coop. I tried the lamp and it didn?t work. Neither did the phone. The room I was in seemed to be a small study, something where a woman would spend a lot of time. There was a sewing machine in the corner and a loom with a half-finished rug stretched out over nails in the framework.
The room led into a hallway of doors, all closed. I tried each one, peering into the yellow light that came through the blinds. Nothing was out of place, everything had been recently cleaned, and I backed out a little bit madder each time.
The hallway ran into a foyer that opened to the breezeway beside the house. On one side I could see the kitchen through a small window in the wall. On the other side a heavily carpeted flight of stairs led to the next floor.
It was the same thing all over again. Everything neat as a pin. Two bedrooms, a bathroom, another bedroom and a study. The last door faced the front of the house and it was locked.
It was locked in two places, above and below the knob.
It took me a whole hour to get those damn things open.
No light at all penetrated this room. I flicked a match on my thumbnail and saw why. A blackout shade had been drawn over the other shade on each of the two windows. It didn?t hurt to lift them up because nobody could see in through the outermost shade.
I was in Emil Perry?s own private cubicle. There were faded pictures on the wall and some juicy calendar pinups scattered around on the tables and chairs. A day bed that had seen too many years sagged against one wall. Under one window was a desk and a typewriter, and alongside it a low, two-drawer filing cabinet. I wrenched it open and pawed through the contents. Most of it was business mail. The rest were deeds, insurance papers and some personal junk. I slammed the drawers shut and started taking the place apart slowly.
I didn?t find a damn thing.
What I did find was in the tiny fireplace and burned to a crisp. Papers, completely burned papers that fell to dust as I touched them. Whatever they were, he had done a good job of burning them. Not one corner or bit showed that was anything but black.
I swore to myself and went back to the filing cabinet where I slid out an insurance policy on Perry?s wife. I used the policy as a pusher to get all the bits into the envelope, then sealed the flap and put the policy back in the drawer.
Before I went out I tried to make sure everything was just like he had left it. When I gave a few things an extra adjustment I closed the door and let the two locks click into place.
I went out the same way I came in, making a rough attempt at wiping out the tracks I had left in the snow and mud behind the bushes. When I climbed in behind the wheel of my car I wasn?t feeling too bad. Things were making a little more sense. I turned on the key, let the engine warm up and switched back to Manhattan.
At Fifty-ninth Street I pulled over and went into a drugstore and called the Calway Merchandising outfit. They gave me Perry?s business address and I put in a call to them too. When I asked for Mr. Perry the switchboard operator told me to wait a moment and put through a connection.
A voice said, ?Mr. Perry?s office.?
?I?d like to speak to Mr. Perry, please.?
?I?m sorry,? the voice said, ?Mr. Perry has left town. We don?t know when he?ll be back. Can I help you??
?Well . . . I don?t know. Mr. Perry ordered a set of golf clubs and wanted them delivered today. He wasn?t at home.?
?Oh . . . I see. His trip was rather sudden and he didn?t leave word here where he could be reached. Can you hold the parcel??
?Yeah, we?ll do that,? I lied.
Emil Perry had very definitely departed for parts unknown. I wondered how long he?d be away.
When I got back in my car I didn?t stop until I had reached my office building. I had another package waiting for me. If I hadn?t gone in through the basement it would have been a surprise package. The elevator operator gave a sudden start when I stepped in the car and looked at me nervously.
I said, ?What?s the matter with you??
He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. ?Maybe I shouldn?t tell you this, Mr. Hammer, but some policemen went up to your office a little while ago. Real big guys they were. Two of ?em are watching the lobby besides.?
I stepped out of that car fast. ?Anybody in my office now??
?Uh-huh. That pretty girl who works for you. Is there any trouble, Mr. Hammer??
?Plenty, I think. Look, forget you saw me. I?ll make it up to you later.?
?Oh, that?s all right, Mr. Hammer. Glad to help.?
