“I’m not sure I do,” Hitchcock said, frowning. “What did he work on for us?”
“It didn’t amount to anything,” Wall said. “He was definitely no ball of fire.”
Trina Hitchcock said, “Sit down, Tom. You’re making us nervous.”
Wall scowled and dropped onto a leather sofa. “So Bixler has been murdered. No doubt that’s a great tragedy to somebody. But he’s had no connection with the subcommittee for years. Get on with it, Shayne.”
Senator Redpath said, “I think it would be better if we let Shayne do this in his own way.”
Hugh Manners entered without knocking, wearing a black suit and a blue shirt with no tie. He looked around the room, checking off faces he knew, his mouth grim and unsmiling. His eyes ended on Shayne.
“Now we have our quorum,” Shayne said. “I hope we’ll come out of this with a deal that will satisfy everybody, or almost everybody, but we all have to understand what we’re up against. What you’re up against, Mr. Manners, is a charge of assault with intent to kill, and I know some Girl Scouts I can use as witnesses.”
“I’ve had a report on that,” Manners said evenly. “I think we’d better talk about it in private.”
“We’ve already tried that. Aren’t you going to offer Manners a chair, Toby?”
Toby hastily started to get up. Manners said coldly, “Stay where you are, Sam.”
“I talked to Mr. Manners last night,” Shayne explained, “and one of the things he said was that he never asked Toby any questions about his methods. He could use women, or bribes, or threats, and Manners didn’t give a goddamn so long as he produced. Anyway, you can’t complain about Toby because the opposition is even worse.”
“You’re way out in left field, Mike,” Toby protested.
“Shut up, Sam,” Manners said.
“I think it’s about time you learned how Toby got you this contract,” Shayne said. “It starts a year ago, when an investigator named Bixler got wind of a certain diary. He figured that if he could get that diary in his possession long enough to make a copy, he’d end up rich. But somebody on the subcommittee or the subcommittee’s staff found out what he was working on and had the same idea, and Bixler found himself in Chicago with a much better job. He didn’t think there was anything strange about this. He knew he deserved a promotion. Somebody else then took over the diary operation.”
“Can you prove any of this?” Wall demanded.
“Hell, no,” Shayne said pleasantly. “And that’s my problem. The maid who actually stole the diary thought she was doing it for Bixler. All the arrangements were made by phone. Now. One of the people who had a good reason for not wanting this diary to be leaked to the papers was an Air Force colonel named Oulihan. One of the things I intend to do is get him busted out of the Air Force. I think he’s the son of a bitch who put a couple of MP’s on me. Make a note of that, somebody. Bust Oulihan, and I’ll feel more cooperative about everything else. Oulihan happened to be in a key position in this contract competition. Manners had put in a bid, but you didn’t stand much of a chance, did you, Manners?”
“Not at that time, no.”
Toby said, “And that’s a big objection to this theory, Shayne. Not that I admit a damn thing, but Manners was too broke to make any kind of substantial payoff. One of the things I’m known for is not doing anything like that on speculation.”
“He paid off in stock,” Shayne said impatiently. “He’d jump at the chance. It was like shooting craps with play money, when everybody else is using real bills. His stock was trading at less than ten bucks a share. If the contract didn’t come through, it wouldn’t be worth a nickel. He’d be glad to lay out ten thousand shares. If it didn’t work, he wouldn’t be any worse off than he already was. But if it did, the stock would boom, and he wouldn’t have to hide any huge cash pay-out in his books. How’s the market this morning, anybody know?”
“We opened at a hundred and fourteen,” Manners said.
“Ten thousand shares times one hundred and fourteen-that’s over a million bucks. And the wonderful thing about it is that everybody stood to benefit, not just the blackmailer. Even Oulihan probably was smart enough to go into the market to pick up a few thousand shares. Toby had to let go of the stock Manners gave him, but I know it’s done wonders for his reputation as a wizard. The only person who wasn’t happy was Bixler. He’d never forgotten that old case he’d been pulled off of. He got himself transferred back to Washington and hunted up the maid who’d told him about the diary in the first place. When I bumped into him last night, he was drunk and talkative. I don’t know how much of what he told me was true. He said he’d sold the maid’s address to Wall, for example, for a sum in excess of two thousand bucks. True or false? Who knows?”
“And of course you can’t give him a lie-detector test because he’s dead,” Wall commented.
Shayne nodded somberly. “The same thing goes for my other big piece of evidence. Bixler was killed near an after-hours bar on Larue Place, and I know where I can put my hands on a witness who saw him getting out of a black and white hardtop. If this witness was sober and churchgoing and a good credit risk, I’d be in clover, but he’s actually a neighborhood drunk, and I’d hate to think how a defense lawyer could cut him up on cross-examination.”
“I own a black and white hardtop,” Wall said, “as I’m sure you know, Shayne. There must be thousands in the city. Anything else?”
“Well, you fit most of the requirements I’ve been looking for, Senator. You could have found out what Bixler was up to last year, and it wouldn’t be hard for you to get him shifted to that Civil Service job. You’re ambitious and tough and you’re willing to cut corners and you like money. Your National Aviation connection would give you the ideal cover. I asked Redpath what he thought of you in this role, and he said it was impossible because you were such a loyal National man. But Henry Clark tells me he’s suddenly beginning to have doubts about your loyalty. You were out till God knows when last night, and if you thought Bixler was a real threat to that million dollars and your job in the Senate, I think you’re capable of killing him. But there’s only one way we could ever prove anything against you, and that’s by finding those ten thousand shares of Manners’ stock.” His eyes were boring into Wall’s. “I have a man going through your rooms at the Park Plaza. Don’t be alarmed-he won’t harm anything. If he doesn’t find anything there, he’ll try a couple of others. Mrs. Redpath, Sam Toby, Trina Hitchcock. Somebody has that stock, and whoever has it is the murderer. Now, I think Maggie Smith has something she wants to say.”
Maggie smiled brightly as the faces turned toward her. She was holding her bag too tightly, Shayne noticed, but that was her only sign of stage fright.
“It’s not really conclusive,” she said. “Two weeks ago I was called into the office of a certain investigative agency. Well, I suppose I can tell you-it was the FBI. I was told that Senator Wall’s financial affairs were under investigation.”
Wall walked up to her and gave her a piercing look. She met it without flinching.
“I’ll go on, Senator, if you’ll back away. I’m not at my best when people are breathing on me.”
He moved off with an angry exclamation.
She continued, “They knew that he and Trina Hitchcock were having an affair. I was asked-quite forcibly, I may say-to take advantage of my occasional presence in the Hitchcock house and plant a small electronic transmitting device, to pick up their conversations. The assumption was, I believe, that Senator Wall might be using Miss Hitchcock to control or influence her father.”
“You filthy-” Trina began.
Wall’s face was puzzled. “I’d like to hear the rest of this, Trina.”
“The thing was,” Maggie said, “it was very much of a longshot, and you couldn’t expect them to put their own agents on twenty-four-hour duty, on the off chance that something important might come over. They thought I’d know when Trina and Senator Wall were together. They were wrong, actually; I wasn’t that much of an intimate of the Hitchcock household. However, last night I gathered from Mike Shayne that various extraordinary things were taking place, and I kept the receiver open. And suddenly, sure enough, I heard Senator Wall. Well, what I was supposed to do was tape what he said, but I couldn’t get the miserable recorder to function. I’m so stupid about anything mechanical. So I took notes.”