"Here's what I want to do: I want to grab Cardona — with your help — and then I'll make him spill the whole story."
"How?" Barruci asked.
"Easy enough. I know part of it. What I know will make Cardona tell the rest. But I'm telling you straight, nobody else could make that dick squawk!" Jake was emphatic.
"You know where Cardona is?"
"Yes — at a hotel."
"You're wrong," declared Barruci, with a broad smile. "We've got him right now. One of my men is making him talk. When he gets through, there'll be one less flatfoot to bother you in New York."
"You aren't bumping off Cardona!" exclaimed Quellan, in consternation.
"That's just what we are doing," returned Barruci. "After he talks, or if he doesn't talk." Quellan drove his right fist against his left palm.
"You're pulling it wrong!" he exclaimed. "All wrong. Cardona is too wise! He'll either keep mum, or he'll give a phony story. Then you've lost the chance to get the lay on The Shadow!"
"Will that matter much?"