"No. But I do so at voice. Bah! I will show these dirty double-crossing crooks…"
He whipped out his fountain pen and scurried over to the desk.
"Here, wait a minute," said Fernack, but Oppenheim paid no attention to him. Fernack turned to Corrio. "I suppose you've gotta be sure of the reward before you start showin' us how clever you are," he said nastily.
"No sir. But we have to consider the theory tha't the robbery might have been committed with that in mind. Emeralds like those would be difficult to dispose of profitably — I can only think of one fence in the East who'd handle a package of stuff like that."
"Then why don't you pull him in?" snapped Fernack' unanswerably.
"Because I've never had enough evidence. But I'll take up that angle this afternoon."
He took no further part in the routine examinations and questionings which Fernack conducted with dogged efficiency, but on the way back to Centre Street he pressed his theory again with unusual humility.
"After all, sir," he said, "we've all known for a long time that there's one big fence in the East who'll handle anything that's brought him, however big it is. I've been working on him quietly for a long time, and I'm pretty certain who it is, though I've never been able to get anything on him. I even know where he can be found and where he does most of his buying, and I don't mind telling you that it's helped me a lot in tracing the loot from other jobs. Even if this isn't one of the Saint's jobs, whoever did it, there are only four things they can do with the emeralds. They can hold them for the reward, they can cut them up and sell them as small stuff, they can try to smuggle them out of the country or they can just get rid of them in one shot to this guy I've got in mind. Of course they may be planning any of the first three things, but they may just as well be planning the fourth, and we aren't justified in overlooking it. And if we're going to do anything about it, we've got to do it pretty quickly. I know you don't think much of me, sir," said Corrio with unwonted candour, "but you must admit that I was right a few days ago when you wouldn't listen to me, and now I think it 'd be only fair for you to give me another chance."
Almost against his will Fernack forced himself to be just.
"All right," he said grudgingly. "Where do we find this guy?"