The Second Confesion

“The son. You said to take him first.” Saul took out a notebook and glanced at a page. “He knows a lot of people. How do you want it, dates and details?” “Sketch it first.” “Yes, sir.” Saul closed the notebook. “He spends about half his time in New York and the rest all over. Owns his own airplane, a Mecklin, and keeps it in New Jersey. Belongs to only one club, the Harvard. Has been arrested for speeding twice in the past three years, once-” “Not a biography,” Wolfe protested. “Just items that might help.” “Yes, sir. You might possibly want this: he has a half interest in a restaurant in Boston called the New Frontier. It was started in nineteen forty-six by a college classmate, and young Sperling furnished the capital, around forty thousand, prpbably from his father, but that's not-” “A night club?” “No, sir. High-class, specializing in sea food.” “A failure?” “No, sir. Successful. Not spectacular, but going ahead and showed a good profit in nineteen forty-eight.” Wolfe grunted. “Hardly a good basis for blackmail. What else?” Saul looked at Orrie. “You tell him about the Manhattan Ballet.” “Well,” Orrie said, “it's a bunch of dancers that started two years ago. Jimmy Sperling and two other guys put up the dough, and I haven't found out how much Jimmy's share was, but I can. They do modern stuff. The first season they quit town after three weeks in a dump on Forty-eighth Street, and tried it in the sticks, but that wasn't so good either. This last season they opened in November at the Herald Theatre and kept going until the end of April. Everybody thinks the three angels got all their ante back and then some, but that will take checking. Anyhow they did all right' It was beginning to sound to me as if we were up against a new one. I had heard of threats to tell a rich man how much his son had sunk, but not to tell how much his son was piling up. My opinion of Jimmy needed some shuffling.