He phoned the house where the Yateses were staying. He said there was no news, but that he would like to ask Mrs. Yates a question. Her answers were tremulous.
“Uncle?” she repeated perplexedly. “Why, no, Duff. He didn’t like Stacey for a name.
He’s Stanton — a very important person in Miami. On directorates and owns businesses. As a matter of fact, he is a director of the trucking company Harry used to work for.”
The telephone directory listed an Ivan L. Stanton, 4300 River Vista Drive, Miami Beach.
Duff walked about in the darkening house. He thought of calling Higgins again and cast the thought aside. Stanton was too well known to be made a sudden object of suspicion.
A connection between a young lady’s interest in a graduate student and the possibility that a leading businessman was also a criminal syndicalist would probably make Higgins believe Duff had lost the last of his senses. Besides, Eleanor would hardly be anywhere near the Stanton place, even if Stanton was connected with her disappearance and even if she was still alive. An immense underground organization could take the girl to any of a hundred places.
And in that moment Duff had the last of his new ideas. He and the FBI had assumed they were dealing with many members of a secret society — scores, perhaps hundreds. That very assumption had made Higgins marvel that no trace of such a group had been uncovered.
Why, Duff abruptly asked himself, would it take many people? A few could accomplish all that Duff suspected had been done, if they had time enough. At least one would have to be an engineer. But the fewer they were, the better their chance of undiscovered activity. And if one of them owned part of a trucking concern—
Duff went to the barn garage. He backed out the Yates station wagon. There was nothing more he could do at the Yates house. The theory on which he was operating was tenuous, all but incredible, yet he had no other.
Before driving away, he had a protective impulse. He returned to the house and wrote a note which he left on the dining-room table.