“OK Donovan said, “you really are dangerous, Baker. This whole thing has something to do with uranium.”
“That will help’ ” Baker said. “But to get back on the track. I believe that if we’re going to do anything about Grunier, we’re going to have to do it as soon as possible.”
“OK, go on.”
“I had the FBI do a check on Fulmar,” Baker said. “It seems his mother is the actress Monica Carlisle.”
“As it happens, I know about Fulmar’s mother, too. Are you suggesting she would be helpful?”
“No, I don’t think she would ” Baker said. If he was surprised that Donovan knew the name Fu’lmar, or that he was the son of Monica Carlisle, it did not register on his face.
“The worst possible scenario,” Baker said, “is that I approach Fulmar after he has decided he is at bottom a German and he turns me over to the SS.”
“You think he’d do that?”
“I think we have to consider the possibility,” Baker said.
“Go on ” Donovan said.
“I think’ Fulmar could turn me over to the Germans and get a good night9s sleep the same night,” Baker said. “But he does have a couple of American friends, whom he’s very close to. I don’t think he’d turn them in.”
“Who are they? How do you know?”
“I talked to the father of one of them,” Baker said, “the Reverend Dr. Canidy, headmaster of St. Paul’s School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.”
“You’re talking about Dick Canidy and Jimmy Whittaker,” Donovan said.
Now genuine surprise registered on Baker’s face.
“Is somebody else working on this?” he blurted, and then answered his own question. “I don’t know why I didn’t think about that. Is there some reason we can’t compare notes?”
“Nobody else is working on this,” Donovan said. “The fact is that this house belongs to Jim Whittaker. It is his uncle who died here tonight.”
“Jesus Christ!” Baker said. “I just didn’t make the connection. All I’ve found out so far about Whittaker is that he’s in the Air Corps. I expect to find out tomorrow where he is.”
“He’s in the Philippines,” Donovan said. “So you can forget about him. And you can forget about Canidy, too. He’s off in China with the Flying Tigers.”
Baker was silent for a moment.
“Is there some reason I can’t think of why I couldn’t recruit Canidy?” he asked.
“How would you get over there to recruit him?” Douglass asked.
“That would be a question of travel priority,” Baker replied. “I don’t think any priority would get me into the Philippines right now. But China is something else.”
“You think Canidy is that important?”
“I think he’s important in that he might keep Fulmar from turning us in,” Baker said. “At least that. He might even be able to blow on what small ember of patriotism may be left in Fulmar.”
“You don’t like Fulmar, do you?” Donovan asked.
“No,” Baker said, “I don’t.”
“When would you like to leave?” Donovan asked.
“As soon as I can,” Baker said.
“Go pack,” Donovan said. “By this time tomorrow, I should be able to have your travel priority arranged.”
@J, Ellis drove Donovan to the morgue, where he was given the paperwork involved in certifying Chesty Whittaker’s death. Cynthia Chenowith and Douglass stayed at the house, where they taped brown kraft paper over the side windows of Baker’s station wagon.
When Donovan and Ellis returned, Chesty’s Packard was put into one of the garages. Then Donovan called Barbara Whittaker at Summer Place. After he expressed his condolences, he told her how they had worked things out. Barbara knew a funeral parlor in Asbury Park. She would telephone and tell them Edward was coming.
“Cynthia Chenowith will be with him,” Donovan said.
“Oh?” Barbara asked, and Donovan thought he heard a catch in her voice. “Is she up to that?”
“She says she is,” Donovan said.
“Well, tell her I’ll have a room waiting for her,” Barbara said.
“Is there anything else I can do for you tonight?” Donovan asked.
“Yes,” she said, surprising him. “There is. I tried to get in touch with Jimmy. I couldn’t. Is there some way you could get word to him?”