Barker's last statement—"Warren, he was a bird with the women!"—was true. Leverage knew it was true. Carroll knew it was true. There was the ring of truth about it. It mattered not whether Barker had an iron of his own in the fire—it mattered not what else he said which was not true—the two detectives knew that they had extracted from him a fact, the relative importance of which would be established later.
Just at present, knowledge that the dead man had been somewhat of a philanderer seemed of considerable importance. For one thing, it established the theory that he had been planning an elopement with the woman in the taxicab. That being the case, a definite task was faced—first, find the woman; then find some man vitally affected by her elopement with Warren.
Carroll betrayed no particular interest in Barker's statement. Instead, he smiled genially, a sort of between-us-men smile, which did much to disarm Barker.
"A regular devil with 'em, eh, Barker?"
"You spoke a mouthful that time, Mr. Carroll! What he didn't know about women their own husbands couldn't tell him."
"Married ones?"
"Oh, sure! He was a specialist with them."
"Then most of this gossip we've been hearing has a basis of fact?"
A momentary return of caution showed in Barker's retort.
"I don't know just what you've been hearin'."