It wasn’t particularly satisfactory. Mr. Higgins had been polite, but not much worried.
He had thanked her. Yet she felt that if she had been Duff, instead of a pretty girl, Mr.
Higgins might have delivered a scolding for suspecting fire where there was hardly even smoke. She kept the visit to herself.
In the matter of learning the regular large customers of the Miami-Dade Terminal Trucking Company, Eleanor was more effective. She had no trouble finding the name of the insurance company that did the underwriting for Miami-Dade. She knew two girls who worked for the firm. She found out where they had lunch. She cut two classes to be at the right drugstore at the proper time. Both girls were flattered to eat lunch with what they called a “celebrity.” When they learned Eleanor had “a friend” who was thinking of using the Miami-Dade concern for shipping, but who was trying to find out exactly where the truck fleet went regularly — so as not to pay special or excessive rates — the girls were amused by Eleanor’s “friend’s” astuteness and readily agreed to supply her with a list of regular drop points.
Two days later Eleanor had the list: firm names, street addresses and cities. “Miami-Dade,” one of the girls had scrawled, “hits all these joints at least once per wk.”
Eleanor proudly gave the typewritten pages to Duff that evening.
He was pleased. “Marvelous! Marvelous!”
“Elementary,” she answered, in Sherlock Holmes’ conventional words. “Elementary, my dear Watson.”
“What about a movie tonight?” he asked.
Her head shook. “Gotta work tonight. Overtime.”