Dirt

she’s my only daughter, you know, and she’s a tough one, like me. She gets what she wants, always.” He tucked Hickock’s arm into his. “Let’s walk.”
    Hickock moved with him and, arm in arm, they promenaded slowly around the empty floor.
    “I’m sorry we have to meet like this, but the feds are everywhere these days, have everything bugged. I can’t even talk in my car anymore, and we had to lose a carload of them before coming here today.” “It’s all right; I understand. I’m just glad you could take the time.”
    “Something’s wrong, eh?” Bianchi asked.
    “I’m afraid so.”
    “Tell me about it.”
    “There are two young men who have been circulating rumors about me; they have almost cost me my marriage.”
    Bianchi made a noise. “That is awful, to attack a man’s personal life. Is this a business thing?”
    “They seem to know more than they should about my business. An employee has talked out of turn.”
    “And you want me to, ah, speak to this employee?”
    Hickock shook his head. “No; I can take care of him whenever I like. But the two young men are out of my reach.”
    “But, perhaps, not out of mine?” Bianchi said, chuckling.
    “I hope you are right. They have been very elusive; I have names, but they may be false; I have no address, but they are circulating around the fashionable quarters of Manhattan.” Hickock pulled a copy of
Vanity Fair
from his overcoat pocket and opened it. “But I have a very good photograph of one of them. He calls himself Jonathan Dryer.” Bianchi stopped walking, fished a lighter out of his jacket pocket, and struck it, studying the photograph. “A good-looking boy,” he said. He closed the magazine and tucked it into his own overcoat pocket.
    “Yes, he seems to do well with the ladies. The other one has used the name Geoffrey Power, and maybe G. Gable.”
    “What else can you tell me about these young men?”
    “They resemble each other — so much so that they may be brothers. One of them has recently arrived from L.A. One or both of them has some considerable skill as a burglar; he has broken into several large apartments and stolen cash, jewelry — always men’s wristwatches — and a pistol with a silencer attached. One of them may have killed a retired police officer with the stolen pistol.” “So the police are already looking for them?”
    “No, not yet; there hasn’t been enough evidence to connect them to the murder. I have no hard information whatever about these two; everything I have told you is just guessing.” “How did you come by what you have already told me?”
    “I hired an investigator.”
    “His name?”
    “Stone Barrington. You know him?”
    “I know of him; he is a friend of my son-in-law, the cop.”
    “He’s very good.”
    “Is he still working on this?”
    “He’s being called off today. I’m afraid that if he finds them and the police start talking to them, too much of this will get into the papers.”
    Bianchi nodded. “I see. Is there anything else you can tell me about these two?”
    “No, that’s all Barrington has been able to find out.”
    “And it’s only these two you wish me to deal with?”
    “There’s a third.” He handed Bianchi a slip of paper. “I haven’t decided what to do about that one yet. If we move, it will have to be an accident; I’ll let you know later about that.” “I see. So you wish me to find these two young men and then…”
    “I want a permanent solution; I don’t want to hear about them again,” Hickock said. “Ever.”
    Bianchi nodded. “I don’t blame you; it is what I would do, in the circumstances.”
    “I apologize for bringing up money, but I know this will be expensive.”
    “You are very kind, Dickie.”
    Hickock removed a thick envelope from his other overcoat pocket and handed it to Bianchi. “There’s fifty thousand in there,” he said. “I hope that will cover it.”
    “I believe so,” Bianchi said, “unless there are unusual complications.”
    “I’m very grateful to you, Ricky,” Hickock said.
    Bianchi shrugged. “It is at times like this that one must come to one’s old friends. I am sorry that circumstances prevent us from meeting more often, when there is no business to discuss.” “I’m sorry for that, too, old friend. Do you know that we have seen each other only a half-dozen times since Yale? I feel badly that I only come to you when I have problems.”
    “Do not concern yourself,” Bianchi said.