I studied the list of the Fynch investments again and the more I saw
it the more I wondered how anybody but a fool would fall for the
proposition of putting money in the government bonds for ten years,
when you could clean up outside government.
There was a tap on the edge of my desk. I looked up to see Arthurjean.
"Mr. Harcourt is back to see you," she said. "I'll get set with the
stenotype. And don't worry about that Fynch dame. I'll give you a
fill-in later. She knows what she's doing."
"Fine!" I told her. "Now you show Mr. Harcourt in and make with the
stenotype. Did you finish copying what we said yesterday?"
Her mouth dropped open and her sweater quivered eloquently. "Omigawd!
baby! I clean forgot."
Mr. Harcourt seemed much more vital and self-possessed than on the
previous afternoon--perhaps because he had obviously had a sleep, a
shower and a hearty breakfast, presumably prefaced by ten minutes of
vigorous push-ups and toe-touching in bathroom calisthenics. At any
rate he looked fit.
"Morning, Harcourt," I said casually. "Sorry to tell you that Miss
Briggs was home with a bad headache last night and wasn't able to make
that copy of our talk yesterday."
G-Men on duty are not supposed to smile without written permission from
their immediate superior but Harcourt must have had an extra helping of
Wheaties for breakfast. "Call yourself a headache, Mr. Tompkins?" he
asked. "That's who our man reported Miss Briggs had last night at 157
East 51st Street, third floor front. Can I get her some aspirin?"
"There are no secrets from the Gestapo," I observed, "and I have no
comment to offer except to say next time come on up and have a drink
with us instead of doing the G-Man in a cold and drafty doorway across
the street."
The Special Agent gave an entirely unofficial wink at Arthurjean.
"Oh, hell," he remarked. "What's the use of all this coy stuff? The
Bureau isn't interested in your private life. What I wanted to say, Mr.
Tompkins, is that I reported our talk to my chief and he teletyped my
report down to Washington. We're not going to fool around with Church
Street on this one. The Director's going to take it up direct with
Admiral Ballister at the Navy Department. For my part, I told him I
thought it was all a pipe-dream but like I said the F.B.I. doesn't
believe in dreams that come true."
Arthurjean crossed the room and stood behind him, pressing a little
unregenerately against the back of his chair, until Harcourt remarked
conversationally to U. S. Grant in the engraving, "I'm a married man,
baby, with a wife and kids in Brooklyn."
My secretary smiled and gave him a smart tap on the top of his head.
"You're a good boy, junior," she told him, "and I'm all for you. But
don't you go making trouble for this dumb boss of mine or I'll call on
your wife, personal, and Tell All."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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