Susan thought about it. “Someone named Roger phoned her in the car, before we arrived at my hotel.”
“I read that in your statement.”
“Maybe he was going to take the counterfeit money off her hands. With her boyfriend dead she’d need to do something.”
“You don’t just get a friend to deal in counterfeit.”
“Maybe it’s the same friend who was selling her pot. He might have been interested.”
“Roger?”
“Roger,” Susan agreed. “When she made the call from my hotel room she sounded a bit frightened of him. And she’d had other messages from him earlier. Maybe she was afraid he’d kill her for those counterfeit hundreds. Maybe he did kill her, but I’m damned if I know how.”
Susan still didn’t have a car of her own, and after Dullea left her off at the hotel she asked the room clerk where she could rent one. He directed her to a place just a few blocks away. As she was turning from the desk another thought struck her. “Do you keep a record of guests’ outgoing phone calls, with the numbers called?”
“Yes, ma’am, we do.”
“Could I see mine, please? I’ve mislaid a local number that I need.”
He brought it up on the computer and jotted it down for her. “This is the only call from your room.”
Susan glanced at it, a bit puzzled. “Yes, that’s the one. Thank you.” Dullea had told her that Betty Quint phoned Mayfield’s from her room, but the number at Mayfield’s new store ended in 6700. This number ended in 6743. Susan went up to her room and dialed it.
A woman’s voice answered with, “Store promotions.”
“Whose office is this?” she asked.
“I – it was Betty Quint’s office.”
“Sadie? Is this Sadie Shepherd?”
“Yes. Betty is-”
“I know. This is Susan Holt.”
“Oh! Miss Holt!”
Susan made a snap decision. “I’d like to speak with you after work today. Could we have a drink together?”
“I don’t know. I’m busy tonight.”
“I have to rent a car. What time do you finish up?”
“Usually five, but until the opening I can pretty much leave any time. Since Miss Quint’s death-”
“I’ll pick you up at five, Sadie. If you don’t want to go anywhere we can talk in the car.”
She was outside the store in a new Chevy when the young woman emerged, exactly on the hour. Sadie heard her beep the horn and headed over to join her in the front seat. “It’s good to see you again, Miss Holt. That was terrible news about poor Betty.”
“How do you think I felt, being right on the scene?” Susan left the motor off since Sadie had indicated she had no time for a drink.
“How did it happen?” the young woman asked.
“I was hoping you could tell me.”
Her face froze into a mask of ice. It could have been fright or defiance. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“How was Betty Quint killed in that shower, Sadie? You know, don’t you?”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because I think you were responsible for her death.”
Sadie Shepherd exploded into fury. “That’s a damned lie! I know nothing about it!”
“Calm down and listen. This is what I know so far. Betty’s boyfriend was killed after smuggling a large quantity of counterfeit hundred-dollar bills into this country from overseas. They had a flaw in them that made it necessary to pass them individually rather than in bulk, where they’d be closely examined. After her boyfriend’s death, Betty tried to find a buyer for the money and she went to a man named Roger who was supplying her with pot and maybe other drugs. You two became friendly and she confided all of this to you. Somehow Roger frightened her, perhaps by demanding the counterfeit hundreds for less money than she wanted. He phoned her yesterday and made more threats. Back at my hotel, she phoned you at the store to tell you what was happening. She phoned her own direct number, but of course you answered. At the store yesterday you gave her some messages you’d taken in her absence, so I knew you answered her phone. Just as you did when I called that number earlier.”
“You think you know everything, don’t you? We didn’t become friendly only recently, as you say. We’ve been friends for two years, since we were in a local theater production together. She got me the job as her assistant at Mayfield’s. I liked her. She was lots of fun, always joking and doing crazy things.”
“What about her drug problem?”
“She smoked a little pot, sure, but nothing more than that.”
“Roger was her supplier?”
She nodded. “I told her not to go to him about the money, but she had all these hundreds and she was afraid to pass them herself. She’d tried a few here and in New York, but it made her too nervous.”
“Her boyfriend had hidden the counterfeit money with her?”
“Sure. He thought it was the safest place, but it didn’t keep him from getting killed.”
“Roger followed us back to her apartment last night. He was parked across the street.”
Sadie turned away. “I told her what to do on the phone earlier.”
“What was your advice?”
“I said if he was at the apartment she should manage to make her escape somehow. If he went after her, I’d go up there and take the money before he got it. She’d given me a duplicate key.”
“She made her escape all right, by getting killed. Did you go there last night?”
“God, no! When I heard about her death on the news I knew there’d be cops all over the place.”
“Where was the money hidden?” Susan asked.
“Inside a folded towel in the bathroom cabinet.”
“If it was still there, the police certainly found it. They were all over that bathroom.”
She touched the door handle. “Look, I’ve got to go. I’ve told you everything I know.”
“Not quite everything. Where can I find Roger?”
“I don’t know. He was just a name to me. Betty never told me anything about him.”
She left the car quickly, walking across the paved lot to her own little white Neon. Susan sat where she was until Sadie Shepherd had pulled out and vanished down the highway. She wanted to make certain she wasn’t being followed.
Back at her hotel she found the Secret Service waiting for her. Adam Dullea intercepted her on the way to the elevator. “You’re a tough one to keep up with. I leave you alone for a few hours and you’re off on your own.”
“I thought I had to clear myself by Thursday morning. I can’t do that sitting in a hotel room.”
“Where did you go?”
“You mean you didn’t have me followed?”
He laughed. “That was my job.”
Susan just stood there in the lobby, wondering how much she could safely tell him. Finally she said, “All right, come on up and I’ll tell you what I learned.”
In the room she opened the minibar and offered him a drink which he declined. “Maybe a Coke, if you’re having something.” She joined him in one and he said, “Your friend Brentnor’s been worried about you.”
“I should be so hard on Mike. He did fly right up here and help rescue me from a jail cell. I just always have the feeling he’s waiting for a chance to paw me.”
“Has he tried it before?”
“Once or twice. But he backs off when he sees I don’t like it.”
He sipped his drink. “Where were you this afternoon?”
“Out at the store. I still work for a living.”
“So do I. Who did you see there?”
“Betty’s assistant, a young woman named Sadie Shepherd.”
“Does she know anything about the killing?”
“Betty was an old friend. She told Sadie about the counterfeit money. She was afraid this Roger fellow wanted
