“The chances are he’ll wait a couple more. Know anything about this Personville?”
Dick shook his head. Mickey said:
“Only that I’ve heard parties call it Poisonville like they meant it.”
I told them what I knew and what I had done. The telephone bell interrupted my tale in the last quarter.
Dinah Brand’s lazy voice:
“Hello! How’s the wrist?”
“Only a burn. What do you think of the crush-out?”
“It’s not my fault,” she said. “I did my part. If Noonan couldn’t hold him, that’s just too bad. I’m coming downtown to buy a hat this afternoon. I thought I’d drop in and see you for a couple of minutes if you’re going to be there.”
“What time?”
“Oh, around three.”
“Right, I’ll expect you, and I’ll have that two hundred and a dime I owe you.”
“Do,” she said. “That’s what I’m coming in for. Ta-ta.”
I went back to my seat and my story.
When I had finished, Mickey Linehan whistled and said:
“No wonder you’re scared to send in any reports. The Old Man wouldn’t do much if he knew what you’ve been up to, would he?”
“If it works out the way I want it to, I won’t have to report all the distressing details,” I said. “It’s right enough for the Agency to have rules and regulations, but when you’re out on a job you’ve got to do it the best way you can. And anybody that brings any ethics to Poisonville is going to get them all rusty. A report is no place for the dirty details, anyway, and I don’t want you birds to send any writing back to San Francisco without letting me see it first.”
“What kind of crimes have you got for us to pull?” Mickey asked.
“I want you to take Pete the Finn. Dick will take Lew Yard. You’ll have to play it the way I’ve been playing–do what you can when you can. I’ve an idea that the pair of them will try to make Noonan let Whisper alone. I don’t know what he’ll do. He’s shifty as hell and he does want to even up his brother’s killing.”
“After I take this Finnish gent,” Mickey said, “what do I do with him? I don’t want to brag about how dumb I am, but this job is plain as astronomy to me. I understand everything about it except what you have done and why, and what you’re trying to do and how.”
“You can start off by shadowing him. I’ve got to have a wedge that can be put between Pete and Yard, Yard and Noonan, Pete and Noonan, Pete and Thaler, or Yard and Thaler. If we can smash things up enough– break the combination–they’ll have their knives in each other’s backs, doing our work for us. The break between Thaler and Noonan is a starter, But it’ll sag on us if we don’t help it along.
“I could buy more dope on the whole lot from Dinah Brand. But there’s no use taking anybody into court, no matter what you’ve got on them. They own the courts, and, besides, the courts are too slow for us now. I’ve got myself tangled up in something and as soon as the Old Man smells it–and San Francisco isn’t far enough away to fool his nose–he’s going to be sitting on the wire, asking for explanations. I’ve got to have results to hide the details under. So evidence won’t do. What we’ve got to have is dynamite.”
“What about our respected client, Mr. Elihu Willsson?” Mickey asked. “What are you planning to do with or to him?”
“Maybe ruin him, maybe club him into backing us up. I don’t care which. You’d better stay at the Hotel Person, Mickey, and Dick can go to the National. Keep apart, and, if you want to keep me from being fired, burn the job up before the Old Man tumbles. Better write these down.”
I gave them names, descriptions, and addresses when I had them, of Elihu Willsson; Stanley Lewis, his secretary; Dinah Brand; Dan Rolff; Noonan; Max Thaler, alias Whisper; his right-hand man, the chinless Jerry; Mrs. Donald Willsson; Lewis’ daughter, who had been Donald Willsson’s secretary; and Bill Quint, Dinah’s radical ex-boy-friend.