Kells said: “That’s the way it’ll have to be. None of us is worth a nickel as a witness.”
Fay sipped his coffee and sat still for a little while; then he got up and went to the telephone and called Long Distance. He asked for a number in Los Angeles, waited a while, said: “Hello. This is Grant Fay. I want to talk to Fenner...” There was a pause and then he said: “Wake him up.”
He waited a little while and then he said: “Hello, Lee... There’s a friend of mine here with an idea...”
Fay gestured and Kells got up and went to the phone. He said: “This is Kells... Reilly’s double-crossing you. He and Jack Rose aim to take over the town. They’re importing a lot of boys from the East, and you’re on the wrong side of their list...”
There was a long silence during which Kells held the receiver to his ear and grinned at Fay. Then he said: “My idea is that you reach Ruth Perry right away. She’s incommunicado but you can beat that. Tell her there isn’t any use trying to protect Dave any longer for Haardt’s murder. Tell her that I said so... Then see that she gets bail. When Dave finds out she’s confessed, he’ll have a lot of things to tell you... Sure — he’s guilty as hell.”
Kells hung up and went back to the table. He said: “That oughta be that.” He sat down and poured himself another cup of coffee and inclined his head toward Granquist.
Fay said: “She came out to the boat last night and said she’d been here a week or so from Detroit. She says she’s got a million dollars’ worth of information that she wants to peddle for five grand. She says it’ll crack the administration wide open and that we can call our own shots next election.”
Kells laughed quietly.
Fay went on expressionlessly: “I told her I wasn’t in politics and wasn’t in the market for her stuff, but she thought I was kidding her. She soaked up a couple bottles of Scotch and finally got down to twenty-five hundred. A few more slugs and she’d probably sell for a dollar ninety-eight. She said she needs new shoes.”
Fay’s Negro houseboy came in from the kitchen and cleared away the breakfast things.