"You are annoyed. I am withholding information which you feel is vital to you. Does it occur to you that I might easily be annoyed with you for much the same reason?"
"I'm not holding back anything."
"Knowingly, no. And I am not doing so willingly."
"I don't," said Toddy, "get you."
"You yourself had the best opportunity to kill your wife. You had ample motive, also. You are not the type to kill with premeditation, but I can readily imagine your doing so in a moment of temporary insanity. And since such a crime is inconsistent with your nature, your conscious mind would refuse to admit it… All this is conjecture, of course. I know nothing. I want to know nothing."
Toddy laughed shortly. "Tell me why I was slugged. Maybe I'll sign a confession, then."
"You invite the obvious retort, Mr. Kent. Tell me how you disposed of your wife's body and I will tell you why you were slugged."
Toddy stared at him helplessly. "You don't believe that," he said. "You know I didn't kill her. Maybe this guy, the supplier, didn't do it either, but-"
"He didn't."
"Then, what's it all about? What are you trying to steer me away from?"
Alvarado shook his head. Turning back to his desk, he opened the code book. "So that is the way it is," he murmured. "You will excuse me if I work while we talk."
Toddy started to speak; his hand started to knife out in a gesture of angry exasperation. The gesture was unfinished. He remained silent-staring, trying not to stare.
That code book was in unusually fine print. And yet Chinless was studying it without difficulty and without his glasses. He couldn't be-shouldn't be-but he was. What the hell could it mean? Why had he claimed that his eyes were bad right from the moment of their first meeting? Why had he pretended that he couldn't read Milt's card? What reason was there-
"Now," said Alvarado, "let us leave theory to the theorists and take up practical matters. As I indicated, we are ceasing activities in this country indefinitely; but we hope to resume them. When that time comes we can find a profitable place for you…"
"Suppose I don't want it?"
"That is up to you. We have no fear of your talking."
"All right," said Toddy, "I'm listening."
"There is a Pullman train leaving here tonight; what you call a through train. I have reserved you a stateroom. It will not be necessary for you to leave that stateroom until you arrive in New York. You will be given a thousand dollars in addition to your passage. That should maintain you in some degree of comfort until I get in touch with you."
"How will you do that?"
"A detail. We will work it out before you leave. Does the idea, generally, please you?"
"It doesn't look like I have much choice," said Toddy. "I want to know why you're jumping the country, though. I'm hot enough without getting any hotter."
"You will not be. I, at this point, am the sole recipient of the heat. The informer in our midst has chosen to make no mention of you to the authorities."
"Informer? Who is he?"
"That need not concern you." Alvarado turned a page of the code book and ran a pencil down the column of symbols. "This informer is one of our unwilling operatives. We were able to obtain his"-Alvarado slurred the pronoun-"cooperation through a brother, a political prisoner in one of my country's excellent labor camps. It was necessary for the brother to die. Our confederate discovered the fact through a relative. He made the very serious mistake of confronting me and charging bad faith."
Toddy nodded, absently. He was staring at the code book, at Alvarado. Something warned him to look away, but he couldn't. "I see," he said. "You knew he'd turn stool pigeon."
"He already had," grimaced Alvarado, "though I was unaware of it until yesterday. I had assumed that his tirade against me was immediately subsequent to the news of his brother's death. Then, through a slip of the tongue, he revealed that he had known of it for a month. He had known of it but said nothing, continued the regular course of his affairs, until his sense of outrage overcame his discretion. Obviously, he had done so for only one reason… You followed me, Mr. Kent?"
Toddy didn't speak. Alvarado looked up from the desk.
"I am boring you, perhaps?"
"What?" Toddy started. The answer had come to him at last, at the very moment of Alvarado's question. A beautifully simple yet almost incredible answer. "I don't quite get it," he said, with forced casualness. "This guy has squealed. Why haven't the Feds moved in on you?"
"Because they hope to trap the man who supplies our gold. He is to meet me here-or so I advised our informer-tomorrow night. The efficient T-men will not come near the place, nor do anything else to arouse my suspicions, until then."
Toddy nodded absently, his mind still working on the riddle of Alvarado's "bad eyesight."… Let's see, he thought. Let's take it from the beginning. I gave him that frammis about a friend sending me to him, and then I gave him the card. He let me into the house. Then… well, I didn't have much to say for a minute or two, and he began to freeze up a little. Asked me my business. Said he couldn't read the card. He must have, but-
Toddy started slightly. Why, of course! Chinless had thought he'd been sent there to the house. When he discovered the truth, that their meeting was sheer accident, he had pretended that…
The chinless man looked down at the code book. He looked up quickly, and his gaze met and held Toddy's. A frown of regret spread over his dead white face.
"Well?" said Toddy.
"It is not well," said Alvarado, and his hand dipped into his pocket and came out with the automatic. "You have an expressive face. Like our informer, Dolores, it tells too much."
21
Toddy forced an irritated laugh. "What the hell's the matter with you anyway? What have I done now?"
"It is not so much what you have done. It is what you surely would do… now that you know. I am sorry. I, personally, am sorry you cannot do it. But I have my orders. The man must be protected."
"I still don't know-"
"Please!" Alvarado gestured fretfully. "You know and I know you know. In a little while, a few weeks, it would not have mattered. The man would have vanished. You, I believe, would have grown more philosophical about the matter. Now-"
"About murder?" Toddy dropped his mask of bewilderment. "Why would I stand still for a murder that this guy committed?"
"He did not commit one. At least, he did not kill your wife."
"But-All right," said Toddy. "He didn't. I did. Is that good enough?"
"Not nearly, Mr. Kent. You are certain that he did kill her. You would act accordingly. There would be much talk-many secrets would be aired. It would not do."
"You're forgetting something," said Toddy. "I'm in no position to make trouble for anyone."
"You mean," Alvarado corrected, "you are in no position to make trouble for yourself. And I am sure you would not. You and I both know that the position of this man is a precarious one. He is, as we noted in an earlier conversation, a sitting duck. You would pick him off, Mr. Kent, even though you did not believe he was the murderer of your wife."