‘You might have something there, Vic. It’s worth trying.’
‘It’s the only thing we’ve got. I’m going after Mary Jerome. She was first seen at the Acme Garage, and that’s where I’d going to start to look for her. If I can trace her from the garage to Ocean End on the night Dedrick was kidnapped then I may come across something on the way. I’m going to dig into Souki’s past. No one’s bothered with him yet. Then there’s Dedrick himself. I’m sending Jack to Paris right away to get hold of every scrap of information about Dedrick he can find. All this may be a waste of time, but it’s our only chance. We’re digging a big plot of ground in which something valuable may or may not be buried. If we don’t dig, we won’t find it, and if it’s not there to find then, it’s just too bad.’
‘I think Mary Jerome’s a good line of investigation,’ Franco said, pulling at his long, bony nose, ‘but I can’t see any point in bothering about Souki.’
‘That’s just why I’m going to do it. No one’s bothered to look at Souki. He’s just the corpse. I’m leaving nothing to chance. I can’t afford to.’
‘Well, all right, but don’t waste too much time on it. You wouldn’t know if Perelli had an enemy, would you? Someone must have hated him pretty badly to have hung that frame on him.’
‘Yeah. I’ve been thinking about that. There’s one man who’s tailor-made for the job. A nasty little rat named Jeff Barratt. He’s a reefer-addict and a thorough bad egg. He has an apartment opposite Perelli’s. I went on to tell Francon how I had called on Barratt and how Perelli had saved my life.
‘Does Brandon know this?’ Francon said, interested.
‘No; but if he did, it wouldn’t make him change his mind. I’m going to dig into Barratt’s background. That fishing-rod is something you couldn’t easily conceal. Someone had to carry it into Perelli’s apartment. I’m hoping whoever it was was seen.’ I stood up. ‘Well, we’d better get moving. As soon as I have something for you, you’ll have it.’
The sooner the better,’ Francon said.
Outside in the corridor Kerman said, ‘What was that again about me going to Paris?’