“I find that Oscar Baker has been winning money crap shooting lately and losing it on ponies. From the way he’s been winning with craps, I wouldn’t doubt that he had some of the merchandise of the Conway Appliance Company.”
“Check on that?” Mason asked.
“Hell,” Drake said, “he’s too wise. My operative got in a crap game with him, and won three dollars. If Baker had any crooked dice from Conway, he was wise enough to ditch them as soon as he read about the murder.
“Serle has sold us outright. Naturally, you’d have to expect that. I think that he talked with Conway at ten-thirty, but he’s fixed the time at ten o’clock now. Of course, there wasn’t any bribery or anything like that, but, as one of the main witnesses for the prosecution, the D.A. wouldn’t want him to come into court as a crook. So they’re covering him with a thick coat of whitewash; and, of course, Serle was smart enough to figure that all out. He didn’t have to be awfully smart to do that.
“Incidentally, while we’re checking up on things, don’t overlook this prospector friend of Leeds — Ned Barkler.”
“What about him?” Mason asked.
“He’s a card,” Drake said, “talks occasionally about the old days in the Yukon country, never mentions any of his own adventures, becomes interested in stories of frontier brawls, and shooting scrapes. For the most part, he wears disreputable clothes, but occasionally he spruces himself up and steps out. He looks the girls over with an appraising eye, and makes passes at the pretty ones when he thinks he can get away with it — cashiers in restaurants, girls at cigar counter, manicurists, and janes like that.”
“Successful?” Mason asked.
“Hell, Perry,” the detective protested. “Give me a chance. I haven’t even located him yet. He’s a colorful profane old coot who’s as salty as a piece of smoked salmon. But where the devil he came from before he contacted Leeds, is more than I can find out. He appeared a couple of years ago, right in the middle of the picture. And now that he’s left, he’s walked right out of the middle of the picture. Somehow, Perry, I have an idea there’s one man we’ll never find until he wants us to find him.”
Mason said, “I want Inez Colton, Paul, and I want her badly.”