“It’s a ghost we’d better find or maybe we won’t exist. You pick up anything at Fizz-Rite?”
“I learned that three guys there had dated her at one time or another. I talked to one of them. The other two were out on the road. They’re salesmen.”
“They got dark hair?”
“One has. Guy named Manners. I didn’t see him, but there isn’t going to be anything there. He and his family own a house in here, so he could hardly be making the trip to Stockford at the times we hear Campbell was there.”
“Don’t bet on it.”
“All right,” Wilks said in distaste. “We’ll put him on the list of suspects. That makes the list about one.”
“What about the other two?”
“The other salesman is a blond and the one I talked to is in between. His name is DeKeyser. He said he took Joan out about three times but then laid off because she had her hooks out. He said two dates and she started acting like she owned him. Three, and he could see the altar staring him in the face and that was enough. Same with the others, or so he told me. Manners started dating her shortly after she started working there, but after a few weeks he quit. Then DeKeyser took her out and had the same experience. He and Manners got talking about it after and that’s why he knew that story. Then it was the blond guy and he had the same trouble. He stopped seeing her, but it didn’t end there for either of them. She kept making plays for them long after they had crossed her off the list with the result that it got embarrassing. He didn’t come out and say so, but he led me to believe one of the reasons she was transferred to the new plant was to get her out of their hair.”
Fellows was silent for a few seconds before saying, “Maybe Campbell wasn’t as lucky as the others. I presume those men weren’t married.”
“Not when they were dating her. DeKeyser is now.”
“I guess she got in Campbell’s hair too, wanting to get married. I guess he must have rented that house to placate her and keep her quiet.”
“Meaning he had a wife she was threatening to go see?”
“Sounds like it. Maybe she thought she could persuade him to divorce her. You notice she wouldn’t tell her roommates what her married name would be. If she was merely going to live with him for a while and call it quits, she wouldn’t have to act like that. She’d give them some name and never see them again. Her promising to write them all about it sounds as if she really expected to get married, as if she could come back and parade a wedding ring. She didn’t want them to know her as Mrs. Campbell, not if she could hitch onto his real name.”
Wilks shook his head. “Now that’s good theorizing, Fred, or at least I guess it is, but what’s the use of it? That doesn’t move us one inch closer to this guy.”
“Sometimes theories help, Sid. By theorizing, you can some times guess what a man’s going to do next and intercept him at it. You get a picture of the man and his habits even if you can’t put your finger on him.”
“You can have all the pictures you want. All I’m after is the real McCoy.”
Fellows reached in his pocket and put out a tip. “Well, let’s go talk to some of the guys at Masters Toy Company while we’re here and see what we can learn.”
“You aren’t going to find the real McCoy in some place she worked at eight years ago, are you?”
“I don’t expect so, but we’re going to look anyway. That’s what the detective business is all about.”
Mr. Busso of the Masters Toy Company was a stout man whose hair was almost gone, but advancing age, receding hair, and encroaching fat didn’t remove the air of the lecher he wore as a permanent badge of his bachelorhood. His secretary, a pretty young thing who had acquired an expensive wardrobe after only six months of work, showed the two policemen into his luxurious office and he welcomed them with a patronizing air. “It’s a shame about Joan,” he said with reference to their phone call. “Of course I’ll help any way I can, but I don’t know what I could tell you. I haven’t seen her since she left here.”
Mr. Busso was agreeable in manner, but his general statements as to his acquaintance with the deceased weren’t of assistance. She had been a capable secretary and a fine young woman. He had no complaints about her work and gave her a high recommendation when she left. On the subject that mattered, the men in her life, he denied any knowledge. “I don’t think she had many dates,” he said. “I certainly doubt whoever did her in ever worked for us.”
“She never dated anyone here?” Fellows asked.
“I’m sure she didn’t.”
“This is certain knowledge on your part?”
Busso backed off. “Now, of course, I can’t be certain. I didn’t run her social life.”
“We’ve had it from other sources that some of the people here did date her when she started work.”
Busso worked his Ups thoughtfully. “Well now, I guess that’s right. I guess she did have a few dates. I guess a couple of the men here took her out.”
“Which men?”
“Well, I wouldn’t know.”
“You mean it was a secret? The men didn’t want you to know?”
“Of course not. I don’t mean that at all.”
“Then if it wasn’t a secret and you knew she went out, you must have known who took her out.”
Busso hemmed and hawed a moment or two. “I know one,” he finally said. “Fellow by the name of Lawrence. Used to be in sales. He chased her quite a bit. He wasn’t with us long though.”
“Lawrence? Know where he lives?”
“I only know his name is John
