THE next morning, I was kept busy with the routine work of the office until lunch-time. I missed Kerman, as there were many little jobs that had to be done, and which, now he was in Paris, I had to do myself. But by one o’clock I was through, and could give my attention once more to the Dedrick kidnapping.
‘I’m going along to Barratt’s place this afternoon,’ I told Paula while we were eating a quick snack in the office. ‘I have a little present I want to plant on him.’
I told her what I had cooked up with Mifflin.
‘Once we get Barratt alone, and on a charge, we might be able to soften him. Tim thinks he can, anyway.’
Paula didn’t approve of the idea, but then she never ap-proved of anything that wasn’t strictly dealt off the top of the deck.
‘What do you plan to do—wait until he’s out?’ she asked.
‘That’s the idea. It’ll cost money, but then I’m getting hardened to spending money. I’ll bribe Maxie to give me the passkey.’
‘Be careful, Vic.’
I grinned at her.
‘You’re always telling me to be careful. What’s the matter with you these days? You didn’t talk like that two years ago.’