She came back in a few minutes. “It was just coming in over the wire when you came in.”
“All right, I’ll pick it up here and save you the trouble of taking it to the hotel.”
She looked at me for a moment, then asked, “Do you have one of your cards with you?”
I gave her one of the agency cards.
She looked at it, opened a drawer, dropped it in, handed me the telegram. It was from Elsie Brand and said:
Sidney Jannix material being sent air mail. Married Elva Picard December fourteenth nineteen thirty-three. No record of any divorce. Find someone else has been looking up record. Believed to be detective representing some agency and interested in Elva Picard. Dietary complex may be due biological urge. Don’t let her fall too hard she might not bounce.
I put the telegram in my pocket and walked over to the Cactus Patch to wait.
The floor man came up to me and tried to get me to take a stack of chips with the compliments of the house. He said Breckenridge would appreciate it a lot if I’d “make myself ‘right at home.’ ”
I told him I appreciated the offer, but I was waiting for Louie Hazen to come in, and that I’d prefer just to stick around and watch the people.
He tried to get me to accept a drink, and seemed disappointed that I wouldn’t let the house do something for me. Also, he couldn’t seem to understand my attitude. After a while, he went away.