“But those powers will only be of use to us when we learn who the people are against whom we can direct them. We’ve got to find the headquarters of this gang and break it up. Individual rescues are all right, of course, but, as you have seen, they don’t accomplish much. You see, knowing what she did, the gang had to recapture Miss Van Cleef, whether they wanted to or not.
“Now, as I see it,” Pride went on, leaning back in his chair and stroking a bony chin, “the only clew we have to the whereabouts of their headquarters is based on the assumption that these girls are used as decoys. If that is the case, they are probably located in the house where these orgies are given. That means a big house and big parties, several of them. And that means publicity—in town.”
I started up. “You mean that the headquarters is somewhere out of town?”
“Exactly,” he nodded. “They could not give more than one or, at most, two parties of that nature and on such a scale without the police and the newspapers getting wind of it.”
“Well, then——”
“Well, then, it means that if we searched or investigated all the houses of any size near New York which are within the radius of a two-hour run in a high-powered car, we would be at the job for months, we would warn them well in advance and they would skip and set up their establishment elsewhere.”
“They would have to take the girls with them.”
Pride dropped his eyes. “Not necessarily,” he said, in a low voice. “They could get more.”
I felt as though I were struggling in the grip of a nightmare. “My God! do you mean—murder?”
Pride gave an impatient gesture. “How can I tell, man? This is a big gang and a fearless one—and utterly unscrupulous. They are after power, it seems. They have a lot of it now. And they might not let a thing like that stop them.”