“I had to give her the telephone number. She was all on her own, sir. I didn’t want her to think she was completely cut off from me. I impressed on her how secret it was.”
“So she had only to call the number to find out it was the Ocean Hotel,” Forest said, blowing smoke into the still, hot air.
“I don’t get your drift,” Conrad said sharply. “For all her faults, Janey would never have talked about anything connected with my work.”
“I’m just warning you, Paul. We mustn’t assume anything if we want to keep this girl safe. Your wife was seen at the Paradise Club, Maurer’s headquarters. She knew where Miss Coleman was hidden, and now she’s dead. I may be talking nonsense, but for goodness sake don’t let yourself be lulled into a sense of false security. Security doesn’t exist so long as Maurer’s running the organization.”
“I know the danger,” Conrad said. “But you can count Janey out. Her death was an accident. I’ve warned her a dozen times about the hem of her wrap. She was always treading on it and tearing it, but she could never be bothered to mend it. I am quite sure, too, she would never give this place away. I can’t do more than I have done to keep Frances safe. There isn’t anything more I can do. You’ll see for yourself when you get upstairs, but if you do think I’ve slipped up on something, then I’ll put it right.”
Forest grunted. He watched a large white van coming up the drive. Across the side of the van, picked out in chromium letters, was the legend:
BARWOOD HYGIENIC LAUNDRY SERVICE
“If you’re satisfied, then I’m sure I will be,” he said. “But it worries me sometimes when I think how much depends on this girl’s evidence. This is the first time since Maurer got into the saddle that we’ve had the ghost of a chance of bringing him to trial.”
Conrad followed the direction Forest was looking in, and he, too, idly stared at the laundry van as it turned the bend in the drive and disappeared around to the back of the hotel.
“We’re taking a hell of a time to catch him, aren’t we?” he said. “So long as he’s at large, we’ll have to keep Frances here.”