“Her family? You’re sure?”
“N-no, not exactly. But her family lives in Chicago — somewhere in the Middle West. That’s why she was going there, to visit them.”
“She told you she was staying at the Palmer House? Those were her exact words?”
“Darling, you’re confusing me now. I don’t know. I mean, if those were the exact words she used. She said — What did she say—? Yes, for me to come to the Palmer House.”
“But she didn’t say she was staying there?”
“Now that you ask me, no. I... I gathered the impression, however!”
“Linda, please — think. People do not always say things specifically. They say things by inference. Frequently the listener infers that something was said. Try to remember her exact words — not what you inferred she said. She told you specifically that she was in trouble?”
“I didn’t say trouble. I said she said it was important.”
“Important to whom? Her — or you?”
“Her, naturally. I’m not in trouble.”
“You said there was no trouble. Let’s try it again. She said it was important. What was the tone of her voice?”
“You just said not to pay any attention to that. Just repeat her exact words, not the infer—”
“Linda, will you listen for one minute?”
“Not if you shout at me, darling. I can’t think of anything when you yell.”
“All right, Linda — listen! She knew when you were arriving in Chicago?”
“Of course. I told her what plane I was taking. It got here at seven o’clock this morning. I went directly to the hotel. I asked for her and they told me she hadn’t registered. I didn’t think much of it at the time. I knew she had relatives here and I assumed she was spending the night with them and would check into the hotel during the morning. But it’s noon now. I haven’t heard a word from her. It isn’t like Nikki. She knows that I... I worry, and she’s the most considerate person in all the world. Always thinking of the other person, instead of herself.”
“I know,” said Alder.
“How would you know, Tom? You’ve only met her the once.”
“It was a platitude, Linda, that’s all. A comment of agreement.”
“I never can tell with you. You... you didn’t make love to her?”
“On the plane? With sixty other passengers?”
“I was only teasing, darling. But I’m really worried about Nikki. What... what should I do?”
“What can you do? Wait, that’s all. She may arrive at any moment.”
“I have a strange feeling about that, Tom. An intuition.”
Alder said, “I don’t believe in intuitions. I’m in New York — you’re in Chicago. I can’t help you.”
“I thought perhaps you could.”
“How?”
“Is your business in New York so terribly important, dear? Couldn’t... couldn’t you come to Chicago?”
Alder had to restrain a sudden impulse to slam the telephone back on the receiver. He said, “My business is important, Linda. I think you’re overly alarmed. Nikki is a sensible woman. She’ll show up.”
“But if she doesn’t?”
“Call her husband.”
“She told me not to — to tell him I was coming to her in Chicago.”
“Call him, Linda. Wait until evening, and if she doesn’t show up, telephone him. He has a right to know if something has really happened to her.”
“I’ll do it. I’ll phone Harris first, have him talk to Walt.”
“Goodbye,” said Alder and hung up.
Harris Toomey. So she was still turning to him.
There was a light knocking on Alder’s door. He called, “Yes?”
The tapping was repeated. Alder realized that the door was locked. It had not bothered Jacques Pleschette, but it would someone else, He went to the door and opened it. Two men were in the doorway, a tall dark man and a heavier-set older man.
The taller, younger man was the one Alder had seen in the corridor — the one who had shadowed him that morning.
It was the older man who spoke. “Mr. Alder, my name is Mark Stanley.”
“Our appointment was for four o’clock.”
“Right, but I prefer my appointments not to be that, ah, that exact. Gives the other man an opportunity to set the stage.” He smiled. “You weren’t expecting me here, or so early, so you probably haven’t bugged the room.”
Both men came in. Stanley stood with his back against the door, while his companion made a swift circuit of the room, looking behind the two pictures on the walls, inside the floor lamps, behind the radiators.
“You’re some kinda private cop, Alder,” said Stanley. “A frienda mine’s gettin’ a rundown on you in L.A., but I ain’t heard from him yet. I thought I’d better have a talk with you first. This isn’t your town, Alder.”
“It’s yours?”
“I was born here. Well, mebbe not exactly born here, but I’ve lived here mosta my life. I’ve got connections.”
The tall one finished his survey of the room, then moved up on Alder, frisked him quickly, thoroughly, clapping his hands under his armpits, his hips, his waist.
“Clean,” he said, and moved to the door.
Stanley came forward and seated himself in the chair occupied so long and so heavily by Jacques Pleschette.
“What do you want, Alder? You’re snoopin’ around, askin’ questions.”
“You’ve a good source of information.”
“Don’t get cute with me. I told you I’ve got friends. You talked to an old sousepot last night — a broken-down newspaperman. You hadn’t even left the tavern before I knew about it. You’ve got Honsinger snoopin’ for you. He comes expensive. I happen to know.”
“You’ve got a man on his payroll?”
“I don’t have to have. His punks snoop around, I know it. This mornin’ you called on the Delaney dame.”
The muscles in Alder’s throat twitched.
“I got my sources of information,” Stanley went on warmly. “Nothin’ happens that’s important, I don’t get it. Things ain’t good, I told you that on the phone. The goddam committees, they’re pokin’ into everything. Labor, rackets. Hell! rackets went out with prohibition. Legit businesses ain’t rackets. People insist on gamblin’, we give them the action.”
“And if somebody wants somebody killed, you kill them!”
“You a wise guy, Alder? You write for the movies or somethin’? Yeah, I heard about Murder, Incorporated. I saw it in a movie.” He took out a cigar and put it into his mouth, but made no move to light it. “Lay it on the line, Alder. What’re you after?”
“Information.”
“Ask. Maybe you’ll get it, maybe you won’t. Ask.”
“I’m looking for Doris Delaney.”
“Next question.”
“You haven’t answered the first.”
“You’re kiddin’? What the hell do I know about the Doris Delaney caper? What does anybody know about it?”
“She disappeared twenty-two years ago.”
“Look, Mister, I don’t know how you boys operate in California, but I know about things in New York. We don’t go in for kidnapin’ here. Kidnapin’s Federal business and it brings you a lot of G-boys into town.”
“Doris Delaney wasn’t kidnaped.”
“All right, she wasn’t, but there’re other things that ain’t done in this town. Like foolin’ around with people who’ve got ten million dollars and who’ll spend every dollar of it if they have to. The Delaney business was twenty-two years ago and some of us still remember it. We got a roustin’ like roustin’ was something the cops’d just invented. Hadn’t been for the war, the heat’d still be on. It ain’t somethin’ we like to remember. Understand? Don’t kick a dog when he’s taking a nap. Forget Delaney. Don’t kick it. That’s all.”