“Peter,” Judy said after a little silence, “you’re looking for facts,and I do have something that may help you uncover them. It’s—righthere.”
She handed him the slip of paper she had been saving and told him whatit was.
“Lawson’s post office box number!” exclaimed Peter. “I can’t believe it.You should be working for us—”
“For you, Peter,” she interrupted quietly.
“Where did you get this little piece of paper?”
“It was handed to me by a fat woman who peered at me from behind ashattered glass door—”
“Judy, you didn’t—”
“I did,” she confessed. “I found his name on the back of the churchcalendar, and Pauline told me where he lived. He was gone, of course.The people in the church don’t know their building fund money went withhim, do they?”
“They do now,” Peter said, handing her the paper he had been readingwhen she came in. An item on the second page told only part of thestory.
Boy Held in Shooting of FBI Agent Pleads Guilty in Kidnap Plot, theheadlines ran. Underneath it told how Frederick H. Christie, sixteen, ofNew York, arrested for the shooting of an FBI agent, pleaded guilty butrefused to give any information that would lead to the apprehension ofClarence Lawson, who was wanted in a dozen states for extortion androbbery.
“Won’t the box number I gave you lead to his apprehension?” asked Judywhen she had finished reading the newspaper account.
“We can have the box watched. Maybe we can nab him when he comes for hismail. I’ll be out of here in a day or two. Then we can really go to workon it. In the meantime perhaps we can uncover a few more facts. Theso-called plot never got beyond the talking stage, the boy said. We mayhave scared them off. Since it didn’t happen I guess I’m at liberty totell you about it,” Peter continued. “I think Lawson planned to bringthe victim to his home and then changed his mind. We heard him say,‘We’ll hold the actress until her husband comes across with a donation.’That’s the way Lawson operates. His charities are all legitimate. Peopleare asked to make donations on the theory that they may be helpedbecause they have been helpers. Someone is missing. A donation is made,and the missing person promptly returns. It’s one of the slickest ransomschemes anybody has yet devised. Somehow they work it so that the victimis never held against his will. Some worried relative donates money to aworthy cause. No law is broken until the money disappears. By thenLawson or one of his business partners is off for parts unknown. Wewould have nabbed him this time if bedlam hadn’t broken loose in thestreet outside his house. It was staged to look like a rumble betweentwo rival street gangs in which we were just accidentally involved.”
“Oh, Peter!” exclaimed Judy. “Nobody will believe that.”
“People do believe some surprising things. I’m no prophet,” he saidgrimly, “but I predict the boys will get long sentences and Lawson willgo scot free. It’s happened that way before. He’s one of the slickestcriminals in the United States. I don’t know who this actress was or howthey planned to make her disappear, but they were counting on the factthat her husband would be worried.”
“Her husband? Oh dear!” Judy exclaimed. “Irene is married. I ought towarn her—”
“No, please, don’t alarm her,” Peter interrupted. “It didn’t happen theway they planned. I’m sure of that. It was supposed to take placeSaturday night—”
“It was Saturday night that Clarissa disappeared. But she isn’t anactress, and she isn’t married.”
“And she isn’t a phantom,” Peter added. “Whatever else we know abouther, we can be perfectly sure she’s real. She may be in real danger,too. If I can’t find Lawson I want the confidence men who are workingwith him. This is no small outfit. It appears to be a nationwideorganization. We want the top men, not just the tough kids they hire todo the shooting for them.”
“Do you really think they were hired?” Judy asked.
“We know they were following orders. Their minds, in some way, had beentaken over by the minds of the criminals who gave those orders.”
“I see.” Judy was quiet a moment. Did these mind manipulators have, intheir possession, some fiendish machine more dangerous than an atombomb? It was a terrifying thought.
“Peter,” she asked, “what about Irene? Why didn’t she have a nightmarelike Pauline and Flo and me? Irene told me this morning that she hadn’tdreamed an unpleasant thing.”
“Was she on the tour with you?”
“No, she’d gone to her rehearsal. We didn’t see her again until it wastime for the show. There were a lot of people we didn’t know on the tourwith us,” Judy remembered. “There was an ad man from Flo’s office, too.He was the one who quarreled with Mr. Lenz.”
“Mr. Lenz?”
“The projectionist. Irene’s show isn’t all live, you know. Sometimesthey run film strips. Nearly all the commercials are on film. The showis sponsored by a tooth paste company now, but she’s thinking of gettinga new sponsor so she can be on one of the big networks. It would bealmost like having her visit us every Saturday evening in our home. Shewas against it at first,” Judy went on. “Flo asked me to talk her intoit.”
“Did you?”
“No. Irene knows what’s right,” declared Judy. “I still can’t imagineher saying she uses a product when she doesn’t. And she’d never usegolden hair wash. She hates the idea of everybody being blond as much asI do. Imagine it, Peter! No more black or brown hair. No more darkblondes like Clarissa and Honey—”
“And no more redheads. We couldn’t let _that_ happen!” Peter exclaimed.
Judy gave him one of her special smiles. Gray eyes met blue ones in amoment of understanding. Then she said, “I want to help. I’ll begin bymaking a list of the things we did Saturday.”
“Ask Pauline and Flo to go over it with you,” Peter suggested. “Thencall up Irene. I would call her myself. They’ve given me a telephoneright here at my bedside. But it would be better if you made the callfrom the booth outside.”
“What’ll I say? I’m so mixed up at this point I’m not sure what I’mtrying to find out. Am I supposed to ask her about Clarissa or thisunknown actress?”
“You’re trying to find out about that redheaded patient upstairs, forone thing,” Peter told her. “Ask Irene to come in and pay her a visit.She may know who she is.”