Sheedy couldn’t be located.
Fenner got Officer Rail on the phone and Kells talked to him. Rail said he couldn’t identify any of the men who had taken Granquist; he thought one of them was crippled, wore a steel brace on his leg. He wasn’t sure.
Kells called Rose’s place on Fifth Street; there was no answer. He called the Biltmore, was told that Rose hadn’t been in for two days; Mrs. Rose was out of town.
Beery napped for an hour. Kells and Fenner sat in the outer room; Fenner read a detective-story magazine and Kells sat deep in a big chair, stared out the window. Hanline stopped in for a minute. He said he’d speak to one of the bellboys downstairs, send up a bottle.
At a little after ten-thirty the phone rang. Fenner answered it, called Kells.
A man’s high-pitched voice said: “I have been authorized to offer you fifteen thousand dollars for the whole issue of the Guardian, together with the plates and all data used in its make-up.”
Kells said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” hung up.
He told Fenner to hurry down to the switchboard, try to trace the call; waited for the phone to ring again. It did almost immediately. The man’s voice said: “It will be very much to your advantage to talk business, Mister Kells.”
“Who s your authority?”
“The Bellmann estate.”