Keep after Kile, and watch that girl. She may know something.’
Dallas’s face brightened.
‘Watching her won’t be hard work,’ he said, making for the door. ‘It’s going to be a pleasure. If I didn’t think you’d take me up on it, I’d say I’d do it for free.’
As an eager look came into Purvis’s eyes, Dal as ducked out of the office and hurriedly closed the door.
VI
At half-past ten, Rico left his office and walked across the restaurant to the bar. There were not more than twenty couples dining in the restaurant, but that didn’t worry him. It was seldom the club got busy until after eleven o’clock.
Rico bowed when he thought he recognised a face, but he didn’t stop to chat as he usual y did. He noticed some of the diners were looking curiously at his bruised face, and he felt a little self-conscious.
Besides, he didn’t feel up to his usual suave, gossipy round of the tables. He was still horribly shaken by Baird’s telephone cal . Baird must have been crazy to have used the telephone: the kind of slip that put a man in the gas-chamber!
With an uneasy grimace at the thought, Rico entered the bar. There were only a dozen or so people at the tables around the dimly lit room. Rico ordered a double whisky. He approved of the barman’s good manners. He had taken a quick look at Rico’s bruised face, and then had kept his eyes studiously away from it.
As Rico sipped the whisky he once more glanced at the people in the room. He noted with satisfaction that all but two of them were in evening dress. When the Frou-Frou Club had first opened, a year ago, you wouldn’t have found anyone there in evening dress: even Rico hadn’t worn it. Only the rougher element of the town patronised the club, but as soon as he could afford to take a risk, he raised his prices and gradually squeezed them out. Now, by careful advertising and recommendations he had attracted what he liked to call ‘the carriage trade’, and evening dress was the rule instead of the exception.