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raffle by dint of sheer personal derring-do. Signed her up for a seven-year contract and just when I’m thinking of converting the deal into cash, lo and behold I stumble into you. In my alcoholic way.”
    “That was quite a speech, Max. How much truth is there in it?”
    “Nothing-but-the-truth-so-help-me-God.” He raised his palm in mock solemnity. “Not the whole truth, naturally. I don’t know the whole truth and neither do you. We need an exchange of views.”
    Lucy came out of the telephone booth. Whenever she left an enclosed space her body huddled protectively into itself. She sat down on a bench and crossed her legs, leaning forward as if she had stomach cramps.
    Heiss nudged me softly. His moist eyes shone. He might have been confiding the name of his beloved. “I do know there’s a great deal of money in it.”
    “How much?”
    “Five grand. I’d be willing to go fifty-fifty with you.”
    “Why?”
    “Simple panic, chum.” Unlike most natural liars, he could use the truth effectively. “Hit me and I black out. Shoot me and I bleed. Frighten me and I lose my controls. I’m not the courageous type. I need a partner who is, one that won’t tear me off.”
    “Or a fall guy?”
    “Perish the thought. This is strictly legal, believe me. You don’t often pick up twenty-five hundred legally.”
    “Go on.”
    “In a minute.
Exchange
of views is what I said. You haven’t told me a thing. What tale did the lady tell you, for example?”
    “Lady?”
    “Woman, dame, whatever she is. The one with the boyish bob and the diamonds. Didn’t she hire you?”
    “You know everything, Max. How can I tell you something you don’t know?”
    “You can try. What was her story to you?”
    “Something about missing jewels. It wasn’t very convincing even at the time.”
    “Better than the guff she handed me. Do you know what she gave me? That the girl was her late husband’s servant, and when he died he left a legacy to her, and she was the executrix of the estate. And oh mercy me I owe it to my poor dead husband to find Lucy and pay off.” With a nasty wit, he mimicked Una’s accents of false sentiment. “She must have thought she was dealing with an imbecile or something.”
    “When was this?”
    “A week ago. I spent a good solid week picking that black girl up.” He shot a vicious glance through the window at Lucy’s impervious back. “So I found her, and what happened? I phoned up the good executrix and asked her for further instructions, and she fired me.”
    “What’s she trying to cover up, Max?”
    “Are we in business?”
    “That depends.”
    “The hell. I offer you a half interest in a big deal, and you say that depends.
That depends
. I bare my bosom to you, and all you do is play clam. It isn’t ethical.”
    “Is the five grand ethical?”
    “I promised you it was. I’ve been burned, I lost my license once—”
    “No blackmail involved?”
    “Absolutely not. If you want the honest truth, the thing’s so legal I’m afraid of it.”
    “All right, here’s what I think. It isn’t Lucy she wants at all. Lucy’s a decoy duck for somebody else.”
    “You catch on rapidly. Do you know who the somebody else is, though?”
    “I haven’t identified her, no.”
    “Uh-uh. Not
her.”
He smiled with superior knowledge.
“Him
. I’ve got his name and description and everything else. And that black babe is going to lead us to him, watch.”
    Heiss was emotionally carried away. His sherry-brown eyes slopped round in their sockets, and his hands congratulated each other. To me, his story sounded too good to be true. It was.
    Lucy straightened suddenly and jumped up from the bench, heading for the back door of the waiting-room. I left Heiss standing. When I turned the rear corner of the station, Lucy was climbing into a green Ford coupé. Alex Norris was at the wheel. The Ford was rolling before the door slammed.
    There was one taxi at the stand beside the station. Its driver was