Rooney grabbed Cutter’s arm. “We don’t want any publicity, ” he said.
“There won’t be,” Cutter told him grimly. “I have an understanding with the bunco department on men of this type. I’ve seen this man’s picture somewhere — probably in a circular sent out... Hello, this is Cutter, of Coontz Cutter. I have a couple here for questioning. Rush a radio car over right away, will you?... Thanks... Yes, looks like a slick game of some sort. I haven’t figured it out yet. You can do the questioning.”
He dropped the receiver back on the hook and said to Mason, “Now you two sit down and stay put. Don’t try to leave the store. Otherwise, our private detective, who’s a regularly deputized officer, will take you into custody.”
Mason dropped into a chair and said to Drake, “May as well sit down, Paul.”
“I’m sorry you’ve been annoyed about this,” Cutter apologized to Rooney, and once more his eyes swept approvingly over Marjory Trenton’s figure.
Marjory Trenton said uneasily, “I knew he was putting on some sort of an act. He tried to be tough and hard-boiled, but it was an act, you could tell it. What I can’t figure is what they thought they were going to gain. You certainly don’t think they were dumb enough to suppose I’d turn over a thirteen-hundred-dollar wrist watch to them on their say-so, do you?”
“You can’t tell,” Cutter said. “Some people are very credulous and some are easily intimidated, particularly under... under certain circumstances.”
“Say, wait a minute,” Rooney said apprehensively. “There isn’t going to be any publicity...”
“You may leave that entirely in my hands,” Cutter assured him. “The police department cooperates with us, and we cooperate with it. The only thing that will be in the paper will be a paragraph to the effect that two men were picked up by the bunco detail, trying to victimize a prominent jewelry company. You people will be kept out of it. This man claimed the watch had been stolen from his wife?”
“That’s right,” Marjory Trenton said.