Fay recalled a letter which he had written to Charlie Laurie. In it had been a code telling where to send an answer. There was very little danger in doing this, for prison guards were notoriously stupid.
“That explains everything I wanted to know,” he said. “You had better hurry to Los Angeles and secure that studio.”
“I’ve already looked it over. I can buy all of the fixtures and assume the lease. I’ll set up a Miss Sorjoni, Photographer of Children. You’ll have until day-after-tomorrow to find out a way to cut down through the vault.”
Fay watched the girl cross the lawn to the clubhouse, where she entered a taxi which was waiting under the _porte-cochère_. The taxi disappeared over the dusty surface of a winding road that led to Los Angeles, via Pasadena.
He wasted no time. Picking up his golf-bag, he strode lankily to the showers, bathed, took the small elevator to his room and there changed his clothes. He went to Los Angeles, by trolley. His costume was calculated to disarm any suspicion. A closely woven Panama hat shaded his features. A plaid suit and square-toed shoes gave him the appearance of a remittance-man in town for the theater.
Of Robertson Pope, otherwise “The Black Cougar,” he learned considerable. The bucket-shop operator lived in an Italian-period palace on one of the principal avenues given over to motion-picture magnates, oil-boomers and actresses. Pope had a string of seventy branch offices extending from San Diego to Boston, Mass. The Government, through the Post Office Department, had recently been defeated in the higher courts by “The Black Cougar’s” attorneys. It had been proved that his business was legitimate.
Fay stayed in Los Angeles that night and went over the record in the Building Inspector’s Office the next morning. He was able to do this by posing as an architect in search of villa specifications. He traced on rice-paper, a working drawing of the building wherein Pope had his main office. The floor plans gave the location of the photograph studio, the construction of the ceilings and the thickness of the walls. A skylight was shown above the studio.
He rounded out a day’s hard work and went back to Short Hills. The plan he had in mind took slow form. Many details depended on Saidee Isaacs.