“For the love of Pete!” he exploded when I had finished. “Some evening! So what happens? Do we quit?”
“I don’t know,” I said, pouring myself another drink. “We’ll have to return the money. To do that we’ll have to find out who takes care of the estate. It’s a certain bet Maureen doesn’t. She must have lawyers or some representative who takes care of her affairs. Maybe we can find that out from Crosby’s will. I want to have a look at Janet’s will, too. I want to find out if she left Eudora any money. If she didn’t, where was Eudora’s money coming from? I’m not saying we’re not going on with this; I’m not saying we are. We’ll get a few more facts, and then decide. We’ll have to be very careful how we step. Brandon could make things difficult.”
“If we return the money the case should be closed,” Paula said. “There’s no point in working for nothing.”
“I know,” I said. “All the same this set-up interests me. And, besides, I don’t like taking orders from Brandon.” I finished my drink and pushed back my chair. “Well, I guess we’d better break this up. I could do with some sleep.”
Kerman stretched, yawned and stood up.
“I’ve just remembered I have to take the Hofflin kids to Hollywood tomorrow morning,” he said, grimacing. “A personally-conducted tour of Paramount Studios. If it wasn’t for the chance of seeing Dot Lamour I’d be fit to climb a tree. Those three brats terrify me.”
“Okay,” he said. “You’ll be back the day after tomorrow?”
“Yeah. If I’m still in one piece.”
“I’ll have made up my mind by then what we’re going to do. If we do go ahead, we’ll have to put in some fast, smooth work. Hang on a moment. I want a word with Mike.”
I went over to the bar where Finnegan was lazily polishing glasses. An old roué and his blonde were just leaving. The blonde looked at me from under spiked eyelashes and winked. I winked back.