Kerrigan didn’t say anything.
Ruttman was looking at him and waiting for an explanation and not getting any. The dock foreman turned away, started toward the door, then pivoted and stared at the table near the window.
Kerrigan stiffened as he saw what Ruttman was looking at. It was the camera.
“Well, whaddya know?” Ruttman breathed. “She give it to you for a gift?”
Kerrigan shook his head slowly, dazedly. “I didn’t know she left it here.”
Then it was quiet in the room while Ruttman walked slowly to the table and picked up the camera. He looked at it and murmured, “This ain’t no ordinary gadget. If it’s worth a dime, it’s worth fifty bucks. Not the kind of a thing you leave around on tables.”
Kerrigan’s lips tightened. “What are you getting at?”
Ruttman hefted the camera in his hand. He brought it to the sofa and let it drop into Kerrigan’s lap. “It’s like a game of checkers,” he said. “Now it’s your move. You find out where she lives and you take it back to her. That’s why she left it here.”
The anger was coming again and he tried to hold it back but it flamed in his eyes. “The hell with her,” he muttered. “I ain’t running no lost-and-found department.”
“You gotta take it back to her. Think it over and you’ll see what I mean. If it wasn’t for her, you’d be out of a job. Now you’re obligated.”