“Odds and ends,” Drake said. “Peltham’s skipped out. The officers want him damn badly. They can’t find him, and I can’t find him.”
“Any charge against him?” Mason asked.
“They figure he’s the one who signed the checks with Tidings… The checks that left the hospital holding the sack.”
“You can’t find out anything about a girl friend?”
“Not a thing. He lived in an apartment, and as far as is known, no woman ever visited him in that apartment. He’s a cold-blooded, mathematical individual with no more emotions than a banker turning down a loan application. Anything that he did would have been done skillfully, thoroughly, and with ample attention to details. If he had a love affair with a married woman, for instance, the thing would be all blueprinted, nothing would be left to chance.”
Mason said, “Okay. Here’s an important job for you, Paul. I put an ad in the Contractor’s Journal. That’s confidential. I don’t want even your operatives to know about it. The point is, sometime during the day a person will send in an ad in answer to mine. Plant a man there at the office, Paul, and when an answer to my ad shows up, arrange for a tip-off from behind the counter, and tail that person.”
“Okay,” Drake said. “Anything else?”
“Yes. Mrs. Tump had a run-in with an orphan asylum, The Hidden Home Welfare Society. It made quite a stink… She’s in touch with a former bookkeeper of that society. I have a hunch this bookkeeper is here in the city. I’m going to make her want to get in touch with him sometime after… Oh, say ten-thirty this morning. You watch her hotel, check on the people who inquire for her at the desk, and watch her outgoing telephone calls… Do you think you can fix that up?”
“The telephone calls aren’t easy,” Drake said, “but it can be managed.”
“All right,” Mason said, and then to Della Street, “Promptly at ten-thirty, Della, ring up Mrs. Tump and tell her that Mr. Mason says there’s some question as to the endorsements on the back of the cancelled checks from The Hidden Home Welfare Society. Tell her the claim has been made that they’re forgeries, that The Hidden Home Welfare Society never received any of that money in the first place, and that the person endorsing the checks was never connected with the society. Ask her if she knows anything about it… Get her worried, but be a little vague. You know. You’re only my secretary calling during my absence from the office and repeating my instructions… You can act just a little dumb if you want to. It won’t hurt anything.”