“I don’t believe it,” he said. “Who found it?”
“Van Roche.”
“Any witness?”
“No.”
“Obviously a plant,” Maurer said, and laughed. “Abe can take care of that, can’t you, Abe?”
Gollowitz nodded, but his eyes showed a growing uneasiness.
“If Toni shows up today or tomorrow,” McCann said, “half Conrad’s case will be knocked cold. You’d better get to Toni fast, Mr. Maurer.”
There was a long pause as Maurer studied the pattern on the carpet, then he said, without looking up, “Supposing I couldn’t get hold of Toni? Suppose he had decided to skip with the money I had sent him to collect? It is a big sum: twenty thousand dollars. I don’t say he has skipped, but suppose he has?”
McCann’s face suddenly turned purple. His big, hairy hands closed into knotted fists.
“He damn well better not have skipped!” he said through clenched teeth.