1945 - Blonde's Requiem by James Hadley Chase

Author:James Hadley Chase
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

At ten o’clock the next morning I was seated behind an impressive-looking desk in the office that Wolf had reserved for himself.

Marian, Reg and Latimer were with me. Marian sat on a chair by my desk.

Reg sat near her and Latimer propped himself up against the wall by the window.

“I don’t know how you guys feel about this,” I said, pushing back my chair so I could rest my feet on the desk, “but I’ve got a free hand for seven days and in that time I’m going to bust this case or know the reason why. Maybe you don’t want to be mixed up in it. All you’ll get out of it is a front-row seat and a scoop that ought to put the Gazette in the gravy for the rest of its days. It may be tough going. It probably will be tough going, but you’ll be doing something that’ll benefit the town. It depends how you feel about it.”

They looked at me expectantly. “What have we got to do?” Reg asked. “You can count me in so long as I know what’s wanted.”

“We’ve got to pry the lid off this town,” I said. “We can do it easily enough, but that’s only the beginning of it. We have to find Audrey Sheridan and get that photograph off her. With that we’ll try to pin Dixon’s murder on Starkey’s mob. By that time things ought to start popping, and it’s when things are popping I hope we’ll turn up these missing girls. I’m keeping out of sight for a day or so, but there are things you can do if you want to. For instance, I want to know if Dixon’s body has been removed from the morgue and whether it’s been taken to. Esslinger’s. Then I want to know what the police are doing about Mary Drake.” I looked across at Latimer. “You could do that. See Macey and interview him. Let him think you’re on his side, but get anything useful out of him.” I turned to Marian. “See Ted Esslinger. He ought to know if Audrey’s been in touch with his father. After all, she can’t ignore her client forever. I want to find her badly. I want a line on Edna Wilson. There’s something phoney about her.” I paused to light a cigarette. “And I want to know where Jeff Gordan was on the night Dixon was killed.”

Reg said: “Okay, we’ll handle it.” He looked at Latimer, who nodded.

“How about the Gazette?” I asked. “Can you fit all this in and run the Gazette at the same time?”

“The bulk of the copy is syndicated features and news,” Rex explained. “The stuff goes straight to the printing shop and the news editor handles it on the spot. We just cover the local news from here. We can do that all right.”

“Off you go then,” I said. “Marian covers Esslinger and Edna Wilson. Reg checks on Dixon’s funeral and Audrey. You,” to Latimer, “see Macey.

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