They nodded.
"Now," she continued, "can you give me some assurance that you are really reporters and not detectives."
They produced their press badges which she examined under the light.
Apparently satisfied, she looked at them for a moment and then spoke.
"I want you to help me," she said; "help me and my husband."
"If there is any legitimate way we can help you, we will," Brennan assured her.
"I will begin at the beginning and tell you everything," she said. "When I have finished you can tell me what you can do for me.
"In the first place, I am speaking to you because my husband is afraid to say anything. He does not know that I am going to tell you this, but I am doing it to save him, because"—she hesitated—"I love him.
"Jim was indicted back in New York and came here to escape arrest. We arrived here five months ago. Whether Jim is guilty of what he is charged with in New York is for him to say. All I know is that he was indicted and that we came to Los Angeles to escape the officers.
"We came here because Jim was a friend of 'Gink' Cummings and he thought that Cummings would protect him. Jim saw Cummings soon after we reached the city and Cummings greeted him like a long lost brother. He said that we could hide in Los Angeles and be reasonably sure that the New York officers would never learn we were here.