"Was there nothing at all you could do?"
The little man shook his head. "I figured I was licked before I started.
All the same, soon's I could get out of that hospital, I borrowed enough money to get back up north."
Albert Wells stopped and waved a greeting across the dining room.
Christine looked up to see Peter McDermott approaching their table. She had wondered if Peter would remember her suggestion about joining them after dinner. The sight of him brought a delightful quickening of her senses. Then, immediately, she sensed that he was despondent.
The little man welcomed Peter warmly and a waiter hurried forward with an extra chair.
Peter sank into it gratefully. "I'm afraid I left it a little late.
There've been a few things happening." It was, he reflected to himself, a monument of understatement.
Hoping there would be an opportunity to talk privately with Peter afterward, Christine said, "Mr. Wells has been telling me a wonderful story. I must hear the end."
Peter sipped his coffee which the waiter had brought. "Go ahead, Mr. Wells. It'll be like coming into a movie part way through. I'll catch the beginning later."
The little man smiled, looking down at his gnarled and toughened hands.
"There isn't a whole lot more, though most of what there is has kind of a twist. I went north and found Hymie in Yellowknife, in what passes for a hotel. I called him every foul name I could lay my tongue to. All the while he had a great wide grin, which made me madder, till I was ready to kill him there 'n then. I wouldn't have, though. He knew me well enough for that."
Christine said, "He must have been a hateful man."
"I figured so. Except, when I'd quieted down some, Hymie told me to come with him. We went to a lawyer and there were papers, ready drawn, handing me back my half share, fair 'n square - in fact fairer, 'cos Hymie 'd taken nothing for himself for all the work he'd done those months I'd been away."
Bewildered, Christine shook her head. "I don't understand. Why did he ..."
"Hymie explained. Said he knew from the beginning there'd be a lot of legal things, papers to sign, especially if we didn't sell, and hung on to work the claim instead, which he knew I wanted to do. There were bank loans for the machinery, wages, all the rest. With me in hospital, and most of the time not knowing up from down, he couldn't have done any of it - not with my name on the property. So Hymie used my bill of sale and went ahead. He always intended to hand my share back. Only thing was, he wasn't much of a one for writing and never let me know. Right from the beginning, though, he'd fixed things up legally. If he'd died, I'd have got his share as well as mine."
Peter McDermott and Christine were staring across the table.
"Later on," Albert Wells said, "I did the same with my half - made a will so it'd go to Hymie. We had the same arrangement - about that one mine - till the day Hymie died, which was five years ago. I reckon he taught me something: When you believe in somebody, don't be in a rush to change your mind."
Peter McDermott said, "And the mine?"
"Well, we kept right on refusing offers to buy us out, and it turned out we were right in the end. Hymie ran it a good many years. It still goes on - one of the best producers in the north. Now 'n then I go back to take a look, for old times' sake."
Speechless, her mouth agape, Christine stared at the little man. "You ... you ... own a gold mine."
Albert Wells nodded cheerfully. "That's right. There's a few other things now, besides."
"If you'll pardon my curiosity," Peter McDermott said, "other things such as what?"
"I'm not sure of all of it." The little man shifted diffidently in his chair. "There's a couple of newspapers, some ships, an insurance company, buildings, other bits 'n pieces. I bought a food chain last year. I like new things. It keeps me interested."
"Yes," Peter said, "I should imagine it would."
Albert Wells smiled mischievously. "Matter of fact, there's something I was going to tell you tomorrow, but I may as well do it now. I just bought this hotel."
18
"Those are the gentlemen, Mr. McDermott."
Max, the dining-room head waiter, pointed across the lobby where two men - one of them the police detective, Captain Yolles - were waiting quietly beside the hotel newsstand.
A moment or two earlier, Max had summoned Peter from the dining-room table where, with Christine, he was sitting in dazed silence after Albert Wells' announcement. Both Christine and himself, Peter knew, had been too astounded either to grasp the news entirely or assess its implications. It had been a relief to Peter to be informed that he was required urgently outside. Hastily excusing himself, he promised to return later if he could.
Captain Yolles walked toward him. He introduced his companion as Detective-Sergeant Bennett. "Mr. McDermott, is there some place handy we can talk?"
"This way." Peter led the two men past the concierge's counter into the credit manager's office, unused at night. As they went in, Captain Yolles handed Peter a folded newspaper. It was an early edition of tomorrow's TimesPicayune. A three-column head read:
CROYDON CONFIRMED U.K. AMBASSADOR NEWS REACHES HIM IN CRESCENT CITY
Captain Yolles closed the office door. "Mr. McDermott, Ogilvie has been arrested. He was stopped an hour ago, with the car, near Nashville. The Tennessee State Police are holding him and we've sent to bring him back. Tbe car is being returned by truck, under wraps. But from an investigation on the spot, there doesn't seem much doubt it's the one we want."
Peter nodded. He was aware of the two policemen watching him curiously.
"If I seem a little slow catching on to all that's happening," Peter said, "I should tell you that I've just had something of a shock."
"Concerning this?"
"No. The hotel."
There was a pause, then Yolles said, "You maybe interested to hear that Ogilvie has made a statement. He claims he knew nothing about the car being involved in an accident. All that happened, he says, is that the Duke and Duchess of Croydon paid him two hundred dollars to drive it north. He had that amount of money on him."
"Do you believe that?"
"It might be true. Then again, it might not. We'll know better after we've done some questioning tomorrow."
By tomorrow, Peter thought, a good deal might be clearer. Tonight held a quality of unreality. He inquired, "What happens next?"
"We intend to pay a call on the Duke and Duchess of Croydon. If you don't mind, we'd like you along."
"I suppose . . . if you think it necessary."
"Thank you."
"There is one other thing, Mr. McDermott," the second detective said. "We understand that the Duchess of Croydon gave some sort of written permission for their car to be taken from the hotel garage."
"I was told that, yes."
"It could be important, sir. Do you suppose anyone kept that note?"
Peter considered. "It's possible. If you like, I'll telephone the garage."
"Let's go there," Captain Yolles said.
Kulgmer, the garage night checker, was apologetic and chagrined. "Do you know, sir, I said to myself I might need that piece of paper, just to cover me in case anything got asked. And if you'll believe me, sir, I looked for it tonight before I remembered I must have thrown it out yesterday with the paper from my sandwiches. It isn't really my fault, though, when you look at it fair." He gestured to the glass cubicle from which he had emerged. "There's not much space in there.
No wonder things get mixed. I was saying just last week, if that place was only bigger. Now, you take the way I have to do the nightly taffy . . ."
Peter McDermott interrupted, "What did the note from the Duchess of Croydon say?"
"Just that Mr. O. had permission to take away the car. I kind of wondered at the time . . ."
"Was the note written on hotel stationery?"
"Yes, sir."
"Do you remember if the paper was embossed and had 'Presidential Suite' at the top?"
"Yes, Mr. McDermott, I do remember that. It was just like you said, and sort of a small size sheet."
Peter told the detectives, "We have special stationery for that particular suite."
The second detective queried Kulgmer, "You say you threw the note out with your sandwich wrappings?"
"Don't see how it could have happened any other way. You see, I'm always very careful. Now, take what happened last year ..."
"What time would that be?"
"Last year?"
The detective said patiently, "Last night. When you threw out the sandwich wrapping. What time?"
"I'd say around two in the morning. I usually start my lunch around one.
Things have quieted down by then and . . .
"Where did you throw them?"
"Same place as always. Over here." Kulginer led the way to a cleaners' closet containing a garbage can. He removed the lid.
"Is there a chance of last night's stuff still being in there?"
"No, sir. You see, this is emptied every day. The hotel's fussy about that. That's right, Mr. McDermott, isn't it?"
Peter nodded.
"Besides," Kulgmer said, "I remember the can was almost full last night.
You can see there's hardly anything in there now."
"Let's make sure." Captain Yolles glanced at Peter for approval, then turned the garbage can upside down, emptying its contents. Though they searched carefully, there was no sign either of Kulgmer's sandwich wrappings or the missing note from the Duchess of Croydon.
Kulgrner left them to attend to several cars entering and leaving the garage.
Yolles wiped his hands on a paper towel. "What happens to the garbage when it leaves here?"
"It goes to our central incinerator," Peter informed him. "By the time it gets there, it's in big trolleys, with everything from the whole hotel mixed up together. It would be impossible to identify any one source. In any case, what was collected from here is probably burned by now."
"Maybe it doesn't matter," Yolles said. "All the same, I'd like to have had that note."
The elevator stopped at the ninth floor. As the detectives followed him out, Peter observed, "I'm not looking forward to this."
Yolles reassured him, "We'll ask a few questions, that's all. I'd like you to listen carefully. And to the answers. It's possible we might need you as a witness later."
To Peter's surprise, the doors of the Presidential Suite were open. As they approached, a buzz of voices could be heard.
The second detective said, "Sounds like a party."
They stopped at the doorway and Peter depressed the bell push. Through a second, partially opened door inside, he could see into the spacious living room. There was a group of men and women, the Duke and Duchess of Croydon among them. Most of the visitors were holding drinks in one hand, notebooks or paper in another.
The Croydons' male secretary appeared in the interior hallway. "Good evening," Peter said. "These two gentlemen would like to see the Duke and Duchess."
"Are they from the press?"
Captain Yolles shook his head.