Plot It Yourself

“This is just off the cuff. After I report to Mr Wolfe he may change it. First, let me take that manuscript. I’ll try it for fingerprints, but that’s probably hopeless. Mr Wolfe will compare it with the others. Second, say nothing about it to anyone. You have no lawyer?”

“No.”

“Okay. Third, don’t communicate with Alice Porter. If you get a letter from her, don’t answer it. If she calls you on the phone, hang up. Fourth, let Mr Wolfe handle this as a part of what he has already been hired for. He can’t question everyone who works here himself, or anyhow he won’t, but he has a couple of good men who will do it for him-provided Mr Imhof will co-operate.”

“Co-operate hell,” Imhof said. “I’m in this as much as she is. Are you through?”

“No.” I stayed with Amy Wynn. “Fifth and last, I think there’s at least an even chance that Mortimer Oshin’s idea will work. From the look on Simon Jacobs’s face when I asked him if he would do an article on how it felt to have his story stolen, I think he’s hating himself. I think he did it because he was hard up and had a family and had to have cash, and he wishes he hadn’t and would be glad to get it off his chest, and if he can spit it out without fear of going to jail, and get paid besides, I think he will. That’s only what I think, but I saw his face. If I’m right this whole thing will be cracked wide open. And the bait ought to be as juicy as possible, and twenty thousand is twice as juicy as ten. So fifth, I strongly advise you to tell me now that we can make it twenty.”

Her nose twitched. “You mean I agree to pay ten thousand dollars.”

“Right. Provided Richard Echols does his part.”

She looked at Imhof. “Should I?”

Imhof spoke to me. “That’s what we were discussing earlier. We hadn’t decided. I was inclined to be against it. But now, by God, I’m for it. I’m for it so much that I’ll commit Victory Press right now to pay half of it. Five thousand. And five thousand from you, Amy?”

“Yes,” she said. “Thank you, Reuben.”

“Don’t thank me. Thank the bastard that planted that thing here in my office. Do you want it in writing?”

“No.” I stood up. “I’ll go and see if Mr Wolfe approves the advice I gave you. You’ll be hearing from him. I need some sheets of glossy paper and a stamp pad. For sets of prints of you three so I can eliminate them. And some large envelopes.”