No Immunity

what with the photographer at the door. You can answer that for me, let him in on your wav out, right? See, some guys don’t just barge in, Brad.”
    Tchernak summoned a grin. “Yeah, but I’m glad I did.”
    “Listen, you’ll still come to my opening, right? If I leave you a ticket?”
    He wanted to give her arm an encouraging squeeze; she seemed like such a bundle of desperation under all that makeup, up on those high heels. He almost said, “It’d be great if you’d make it two,” but he caught himself. No two in Tchernak Investigations. “Sure, Cassie, I’ll be there.”
    “You’re sure about this plague stuff, right?”
    “Sure.”
    She turned to him and stood stock-still.
    It was like looking at the eye of a hurricane, he thought. “Brad, I like you. You seem a little naive, but nice. So I’m going to give you a piece of advice. I don’t make a habit of wasting my time on guys drat know less than I do. I took my chances, so so can they, you know what I mean? But you I like, so listen. Don’t go talking this plague stuff anywhere. You think I panicked, you ain’t seen nothing till you see the chamber of commerce, the tourist bureau, the hotel industry, and that’s not to mention the guys who’re skimming off the tops of the casinos. Get it? You don t threaten to close the town twice.”

    --------------

    Tchernak shut Cassie Marengo’s door after the real photographer had entered. He hopped the railing, let himself back into Grady Hummacher’s flat, picked up the phone. He just caught himself before he started punching in Adcock’s number. Instead he hit Redial. Seven beeps greeted him. The phone rang; no one answered. He let it ring. Seven times. Eight. On the twelfth a small-sounding, scared-sounding female voice said, “Yes?”
    “Is Grady there?”
    “Who?” She was whispering.
    “Grady Hummacher. He left this number for me to call.”
    “There’s no one here by that name.”
    “Is this five two seven three three six eight?”
    “No. It’s nine six one—” The phone went dead.
    Phone directory? He pulled open Grady’s desk drawers. Zip. Closets? Zip. He dialed Reston Adcock.
    “Adcock.”
    “Tchernak. Here’s the thing, Adcock. I’ve got two leads. One’s on a woman doctor friend of Grady’s. Been here to the house. First name probably begins with an L. According to my source, she had the look of a friend rather than a lover, so she might be someone he listed in case of emergency on one of your employee forms. See what you’ve got, okay?”
    “And?”
    “Phone exchange of nine six one. It’s the last number Grady called from here. I don’t know the rest. And Grady doesn’t have a phone book I can look that up in. Check that, huh, and I’ll get back to you.”
    “What have you got, Tchernak?”
    Tchernak grinned. No “Good work, Tchernak.” What had here was an employer who didn’t like taking orders. Well, he should be used to that one. Adcock was going to have to go into a helluva pique to outdo Tchernak’s former employer. At least there was the sound of shuffling papers on Adcock’s end of the connection. Tchernak could have let him stew, but why bother? He’d be big—he grinned— and throw him a sop. “When I mentioned the possibility of contagious fever, my source just about went ballistic. You’d think I was talking death on contact. According to her, once the word got out, I’d have half the civil service, the health department, and the mob on my tail. Guess that—”
    “You mentioned disease? What kind of idiot are you, Tchernak?”
    “Hey, you’re the one who—”
    “Listen, idiot, you’ll have a lot more than civil service on your tail if the men who count think you’re sheltering a plague that could close the city down.”
    Tchernak forced a laugh.
    “Yeah, laugh now. You see The Ten Commandments ?”
    “The old movie? Yeah.”
    “Remember the laborer who got in the way of the pyramid stone?”
    “The guy who was crushed because—”
    “Because, Tchernak, the momentum was bigger than any one guy. And that was just a pyramid. A pyramid like one casino in Vegas. Think about it. Here’s the doctor: Louisa Larson.”

CHAPTER 14

    Reston Adcock picked up the phone and dialed. Sometimes you have to deal with guys you wouldn’t take home to Sunday dinner. That’s just the way business was. So what if O’Shaughnessy was perched too high on her principles to do business with him? And that was when he was above dealing with