“Every Tuesday and Thursday night. He complains because I don’t do the work faster, but I tell him if he wants a good job it has to be done carefully.”
Before Penny could ask another question, two young sailors swaggered into the shop. Ellis Saal, scenting business, immediately arose.
“Be careful what you write up,” he warned as he left her. “There’s been a lot of articles on tattooin’, but not a one that’s right. It just ain’t possible for a reporter to write a true story unless it’s about a murder or a fire!”
“I’ll be careful,” promised Penny.
Leaving the shop, she walked slowly to her parked car. The information obtained from the tattoo artist both excited and mystified her.
“I don’t believe Mr. Saal could have been mistaken about the words which were incorporated in the design,” she thought. “And I’m equally certain I wasn’t mistaken about Anchor Joe’s tattoo. It had only the single word, ‘One.’”
Mr. Saal’s declaration that his customer was not the possessor of a tattooed anchor caused Penny to wonder if the person could be Joe Landa. However, the man was wanted by government agents and it seemed reasonable to believe that he might seek to remove tell-tale markings.
“I know what I’ll do,” she decided. “Thursday night I’ll watch Mr. Saal’s shop. In that way I may be able to learn the identity of his mysterious customer!”
CHAPTER
18
PAULETTA’S EXPLANATION
Penny compressed the facts given her by Ellis Saal into a brief, lively feature story for the Weekly Times. She was careful not to divulge that the man had removed a tattoo from a customer, but to Louise she confided the entire story.