"Company? Hello, Howard," she said cheerfully.
"How do you do?" said Clevis, coldly.
"Not bad, thank you. In fact, I'm feeling in very topnotch shape, thanks to Mr. Farradyne."
"You're—"
"I must admit. A shame, too, but there it is."
"There's a reward out for you, Miss Hannon."
Norma's eyes twinkled a bit. "I know. He tried to collect on it. In fact, I think he did collect on it. But I couldn't sit around and watch a couple of fine old people tearing their hearts out over the ruin of their daughter. That's a hell of a way to end an otherwise happy existence—a son killed, a daughter doped. So I left."
Farradyne looked at Norma and Clevis sharply, he was lost; he could only wait for Clevis' next move.
Clevis shrugged, Norma nodded and relaxed again. She said, quietly, "If you gentlemen want to talk business, do it somewhere else. Or better, Charles, may I have my old room again for the night?"
Farradyne nodded, speechless in his furious bewilderment, and led Clevis up into the control room. Here, in a low voice, he explained how Norma had announced his connection with the hellflower racket, how Cahill had been killed and how he had picked up Carolyn Niles and the subsequent sabotage by Brenner, sometimes called Hughes, and the rest of it. At the end he spread out his hands and said, "This isn't hard work and good management, Clevis. But here I am. It isn't even good thinking, but I have a couple of questions that I'd like to have answered."