No Orchids for Miss Blandish (11 page)

David Fenner lounged in the desk chair, his feet on the desk. He was staring blankly up at the ceiling. He had the air of a man with nothing to do and all the time in the world to do it in.

Fenner was a massively built man of thirty-three. He was dark, with an attractively ugly face and a pugnacious jaw of a man who likes to get his own way and generally does.

A door to the left of the desk led into the outer office. A wooden barrier divided this room. One side was reserved for waiting clients; the other side was the general office presided over by, Paula Dolan, an attractive girl with raven black wavy hair, large suggestive blue eyes and a figure that Fenner declared was the only asset of value in the newly established business.

Paula sat before an idle typewriter, thumbing through the pages of a lurid magazine called
Love.
From time to time, she yawned and her eyes continually strayed to the wall clock. The time was twenty minutes after three.

The buzzer sounded on her desk, making her start. She put down the magazine and walked into the inner office.

"Got any cigarettes, honey?" Fenner asked, hunching his muscles so the chair creaked. "I'm all out."

"I've got three left," Paula said. "You can have two of them." She went into her office and returned with two cigarettes which she laid on the table.

"That's pretty generous of you," Fenner said, lighting up. "Thanks." He inhaled deeply while he looked Paula over. "That's a nice shape you've got on your bones this afternoon."

"Yes, isn't it?" Paula said bitterly. "It doesn't seem to get me anywhere."

"How are you making out?" Fenner said, quick to change the subject. "Got anything to do?"

"As much as you have," Paula said, hoisting herself up on the desk.

"Then you sure must be working yourself to death," Fenner said, grinning. "Never mind: something'll turn up."

"You've been saying just that for the past month," Paula said. She looked worried. "We can't go on much longer like this, Dave. The Office Equipment people telephoned. Unless you pay the third installment on the furniture by tomorrow, they want it all back."

Fenner surveyed the room.

"You don't say! You wouldn't think anyone in their right minds would want this junk back, would you?"

"Perhaps you didn't hear what I said," Paula said ominously. "They'll take all the furniture away tomorrow unless you pay the third installment. So what shall I have to sit on?"

Fenner looked startled.

"They're not taking
that
away as well, are they?"

"Dave Fenner, will you never be serious for half a minute? If we don't find two hundred dollars by tomorrow morning, we will have to shut down."

Fenner sighed.

"Money! How much have we got?"

"Ten dollars and fifteen cents."

"As much as that?" he waved his hand airily. "Why, we're rich! There's a guy across the way who's got nothing but an overdraft."

"How does that make us rich?" Paula demanded.

"Well, we don't owe the bank money."

"That's not your fault. You've tried hard enough to owe them money, haven't you?"

"I guess that's right." Fenner shook his head mournfully. "I don't think those birds trust me."

"Oh, no," Paula said sarcastically. "They just don't want to embarrass you." She patted a stray curl into place. "I'm beginning to think you made a mistake opening this office. You were making good money on the
Tribune.
I never did think this agency idea of yours would work out." Fenner looked indignant.

"Well, that's a fine thing to say. Then why did you quit your job and come to work for me? I warned you it could be tough at the start, but nothing short of a machine gun would stop you joining me." Paula smiled at him.

"Maybe it was because I love you," she said softly Fenner groaned.

"For the love of Mike, don't start that all over again. I've enough worries without you adding to them. Why don't you get smart, honey? A girl with your looks and your shape could hook a millionaire. Why waste your time and talents on a loser like me? I'll tell you something: I'll always be broke. It's a tradition in the family. My grandfather was a bankrupt. My father was a pauper. My uncle was a miser: he went crazy because he couldn't find any money to mise over."

"When are we going to get married, Dave?"

"Remind me to consult my ouija board sometime," Fenner said hurriedly. "Why don't you go home? You're getting unhealthy ideas sticking around here with nothing to do. Take the afternoon off. Go shampoo your hair or something."

Paula lifted her shoulders in resigned helplessness. "Why don't you talk to Ryskind? He might give you your job back if you asked him nicely. You were the best crime reporter in the game, Dave. He must miss you. Why don't you talk to him?" Fenner shook his head.

"The trouble there is he wouldn't talk to me. I called him a double-crossing, stony-hearted, brainless moron just before I quit. I also seem to remember I told him if ever he invited me to his parents' wedding. I wouldn't go. Somehow, I don't think he likes me any more."

A buzzer sounded in the outer office announcing a visitor. "Who do you imagine that could be?" Fenner asked, frowning.

"Probably the man to disconnect the telephone," Paula said. "We haven't paid the bill--remember?"

"What do we want a telephone for?" Fenner asked. "We're not on speaking terms with anyone in town, are we?"

Paula went into the outer office, closing the door after her. In a couple of minutes, she was back, her face alight with excitement.

"Look who's here!" she said and laid a card on his blotter.

Fenner read the card, then he sat back, gaping at Paula.

"John Blandish! In person?"

"He wants to see you."

"You're sure it's him, not someone impersonating him?"

"I'm sure."

"Well, what are you waiting for? Shoo him in, baby; shoo him in!"

Paula went to the door and opened it.

"Mr. Fenner is free now, Mr. Blandish. Would you come in?"

She stood aside as John Blandish entered the room, then she went out, leaving the two men together.

Fenner got to his feet. He was surprised Blandish wasn't a bigger man. Only slightly above middle height, the millionaire seemed puny beside Fenner's muscular bulk. His eyes gave his face its arresting power and character. They were hard, shrewd and alert eyes of a man who has fought his way to the top with no mercy asked nor given.

Blandish gave Fenner a quick critical look as the two men shook hands.

"I have a proposition for you, Fenner," Blandish said. "I think you're the man I'm looking for. I hear you have connections with the underworld. I believe the only way to bring to justice the men who kidnapped my daughter, is to employ someone like you who can freelance among the mobs with no restrictions. What do you think?"

"I think you're right," Fenner said, sitting down behind his desk. "Anyway, the theory's right, but your daughter was kidnapped three months ago. The trail's pretty cold now."

"I am aware of that," Blandish said. He took out a pigskin cigar case and selected a cigar. "I had to give the Federal Agents every chance of finding these men before I started interfering. Well, they haven't found them. Now I'm going to try. I've talked to them and I've talked to the Police. It was Captain Brennan who suggested I should contact you. He tells me you have a good reputation as a newspaper man and wide connections among the thugs in this City. He said if I employed you, he would cooperate with you to the best of his ability. I'm prepared to give you the opportunity of finding these men if you are interested. I will pay you three thousand dollars right now and if you find them, you'll get a further thirty thousand dollars. That's my proposition. What do you say?"

Fenner sat for a moment slightly stunned, then pulling himself together, he nodded.

"I'll certainly have a try, Mr. Blandish, but I'm not promising to deliver. The F.B.I. are the best in the world. If they've failed to find these hoods, I'll probably fail too, but I'll have a try."

"How do you propose to start?"

"It so happened I covered the kidnapping for the
Tribune,"
Fenner said. "It was the last job I did before leaving the paper. I've got a file covering all the facts. This I want to study. One thing has always struck me as odd. I knew both Riley and Bailey personally. I was continually running into them in dives and clubs when I was checking for information during the course of my work. They were strictly small time. How they ever found the nerve to go through with the kidnapping beats me, and yet, apparently they did. It doesn't make sense. If you knew the hoodlums the way I know them, you'd feel the same way about these two. Kidnapping is out of character. The most they would ever aspire to is a small bank holdup. Anyway, there it is. They kidnapped your daughter. Then I ask myself how could they have vanished into thin air? How is it none of the ransom money has ever appeared? What are these kidnappers living on if they aren't spending the ransom? Another thing; Riley had a girl friend: Anna Borg. The Federal Agents spent hours questioning her, but they didn't get a thing out of her. I know for a fact Riley was crazy about her and yet he just walked out of her life as if she never existed. It doesn't add up." He paused, then went on, "I'll see Brennan right away, Mr. Blandish. I'll go through the file to make sure I've missed nothing there that might give me a lead. In a couple of days I'll be able to tell you if I think I have a chance or not of finding these men." He looked searchingly at Mr. Blandish. "You don't ask me to find your daughter. You think...?"

Blandish's face hardened.

"She is dead. I have no doubt about that. It would be an impossible thought to think of her still alive and in the hands of such men. No, she's dead." He took from his pocket a checkbook and wrote out a check to Fenner for three thousand dollars. "Then I expect to hear from you in two days' time?"

"That's right."

Fenner went with Blandish to the door.

"Money is no object," Blandish said. "I'm not restricting you. Get among the underworld and let them know there's money to be had for talking. I'm sure it's the only way to get the lead we want."

"You leave it to me," Fenner said. "I'll try not to disappoint you."

When Blandish had gone, Paula came rushing into the room.

"What did he want?" she asked anxiously. "Has he hired you?"

Fenner showed her the check.

"We're in the money, sweetheart," he said. "Here, take a look. Three thousand bucks! Saved in the nick of time! You can relax. You've still got a chair to park your fanny on."

Captain Charles Brennan, City Police, a fat, red-faced man with blue hard eyes and sandy-colored hair, greying at the temples, reached across his desk to shake hands with Fenner.

"Never thought the day would come when I would be glad to see a detective in my office," he said. "Sit down. How's tricks?"

"Could be worse," Fenner said, sitting down. "I'm not the grumbling kind."

"I was surprised to hear you had applied for a licence to operate as an investigator," Brennan said, lighting a cigar. "You should have stuck to newspaper work. A detective's life isn't fit for a dog."

"I don't aim to live as well as a dog," Fenner said, cheerfully. "Thanks for the introduction to Blandish."

Brennan waved his hand airily.

"Between me and you and my aunt's wooden leg, Blandish has been gradually driving me nuts. With any luck now, he'll drive you nuts and lay off me."

Fenner stiffened to attention.

"What do you mean?"

"You wait," Brennan said with sadistic relish. "Blandish hasn't got off my neck since his goddamn daughter was snatched. In self-defense I had to suggest he should hire you. Morning, noon and night he was either here in my office or on the telephone. When was I going to find the men who kidnapped his daughter? If I heard that once, I've heard it a thousand times. Those words, when I'm dead, will be found engraved on my liver!"

"Well, that's pretty nice," Fenner said bitterly, "and I was thinking you were doing me a good turn."

"I'm no boy scout," Brennan said. "I'll tell you this much: you have as much chance of finding those punks as you have of winning a beauty prize."

Fenner let that ride.

"But they must be somewhere."

"Sure, they're somewhere. They could be in Mexico, Canada, heaven or hell. Every policeman in the world has been looking for them for three months--not a sign, but I agree with you, they must be somewhere."

"How about the girl? Do you think she's dead?"

"Yeah. She must be dead. Why should they keep her alive? She would only be a danger to them. I wouldn't mind betting they knocked her off when they killed MacGowan, but where they buried her beats me."

"How about Anna Borg?" Fenner asked. "What became of her?"

"She's still around. I've had one of my boys trailing her for the past two months, but it's a waste of time. She has a new boy friend now. I guess she got tired of waiting for Riley to show up. She's doing an act now at the Paradise Club."

"Who's the new boy friend?"

"Eddie Schultz."

Fenner frowned, then he snapped his fingers.

"I know him, one of the Grisson gang; a tall, big, good-looking punk."

"That's him. The Grisson gang have taken over the Paradise Club: a down-at-the-heel joint run by an Italian:

Toni Rocco. They bought him out, put money in the joint and it's quite a club now."

Fenner looked interested.

"Where did the money come from? The Grisson gang weren't in the dough, were they?"

"I checked all that," Brennan said, looking wise. "Abe Schulberg is financing the club. He's done a deal with Ma Grisson. She runs the club and gives him a fifty percent cut."

Fenner lost interest. He lit a cigarette, sliding down in his chair.

"So the trail's cold?"

"It never was hot. It's a bitch of a case. The time and money we've wasted on it gives me nightmares. We're no closer to a solution than when we first started."

Fenner pulled a face. The vision of laying his hands on thirty thousand dollars now began to look remote. He got to his feet. Then a thought struck him.