“Dynamiting the Conway Steel Plant.”
The words produced a powerful effect upon the publisher, Salt, and Penny. At their stunned silence, Webb added hastily:
“You understand, I didn’t do it. They got sore because I refused to pull the job.”
“Why, that doesn’t make sense,” Penny protested. “Evidently, you are mixed up on your dates, because the Conway Plant explosion took place before the night we rescued you from the water.”
“Sure, I know,” the man muttered, trying to cover his slip of tongue. “They were afraid I’d squawk to the police and that was why they pitched me overboard.”
“Who pulled the job?” Salt asked.
“I don’t know. Someone was hired to set off the explosion.”
Webb’s story was accepted but not believed. Penny knew from previous experience that the man was more inclined to tell a lie than the truth. Convinced that he might have been implicated in the explosion, she suddenly recalled his visit to the office of Jason Cordell. Could his call there have any hidden significance?
“You’re a friend of Mr. Cordell’s, aren’t you?” she inquired abruptly.
The question caught Webb off guard. He gave her a quick look but answered in an indifferent way: “Never heard of him.”