Hastings needed no prompting. He was already interested.
“Riley found her talking to a clerk in a brokerage house—Dexter & Co. You know them?”
“Slightly. I wonder what that can mean.”
“Perhaps something to do with Shelby—at least Riley thinks so. It was while she was talking to the clerk that he got his first chance to telephone me. What cut him short was that he could see from the telephone booth that she was starting away. He had to go, but he did get time to say that he had just seen Shelby Maddox enter the same building, though Shelby didn’t see Paquita.”
“Did she see him?”
“I suppose so. That must have been why she went away so quickly. I suppose she didn’t want to be seen.”
“What can that girl be up to now?” considered Hastings. “You may just rest assured that it is something devilish.”
“Any word from Sanchez?” I asked, remembering my own experience the time I had tried to trail Paquita.
“Nothing so far,” replied Kennedy. “Riley was looking for him, but hasn’t seen a trace of him. Except for the visit down-town, Paquita seems to be just going about as though giving Riley something to do. He thinks it’s mighty strange she doesn’t try to throw him off. Really, she seems to want to be shadowed.”
“How can that be?”