Olin made a weary gesture.
‘Don’t be a sucker, Rico. You haven’t a bad little club here. You’re making nice money. Keep clear of guys like Baird. If you know anything about the bracelet, now the time to spill it. Why do you think I came here? Ask yourself why I didn’t send a couple of my boys to pull you in and push you around just for the hell of it. I’l tell you why. I’m ready to do a deal with you, Rico. There’s going to be a hell of a stink when the press hears this Bruce woman’s been knocked off. I want it cleaned up quick. If you know anything about it, spill it, and I’l keep you out of it. That’s a promise. I don’t want you: I want Baird!’
Rico felt a sweat trickle down the back of his neck. He knew he could trust Olin, but if he fingered Baird, and Baird heard about it before Olin could reach him, Rico’s life wouldn’t be worth a damn.
Olin, who had been watching him closely, guessed what was going on in his mind.
‘We’ll pick him up in a few days. In the meantime, if you’d feel happier, I could tuck you away in a nice safe cell. Come on, Rico, get smart. It was Baird, wasn’t it?’
Rico made up his mind. For the past year now he had dealt with petty crooks, making a nice side-line in stolen property. Baird was his first big client. He had made a lot of money out of his transactions with Baird during the past months. Besides, if he fingered Baird the rest of them would drop him like a hot brick. He wasn’t going to be stampeded just when he was moving into big money.
‘If I knew, Lieutenant, I’d tell you,’ he said with an ingratiating smile. ‘But I don’t know. I don’t know nothing about Miss Bruce or her bracelet… not a thing.’
Olin sat for a moment staring at Rico, his face slowly tightening with rage.
‘Sure, Rico?’ he said, leaning across the desk. ‘And, by God! you’d better be sure!’
Rico flinched back.