She smiled at him when he stayed where he was. “Come in, Mr. Shayne. I won’t bite.”

“Does Harry still drive that Ferrari?” Shayne asked.,

She laughed. “No, these days he’s much more sober and sedate and respectable. They sold him a Cadillac, no less, with backseat television and a refrigerator. I was afraid it might change his personality, but he still seems to be the same man.”

Shayne said grimly, “Was anybody with him?”

She reacted immediately to his tone. “Yes, a man named Billy Wallace. Is anything wrong?”

“If Billy Wallace is colored,” Shayne said, “wearing a white cap and a gun, yeah, something’s wrong. Somebody slugged Billy and set the Cadillac on fire.”

She took a quick breath. “On fire! I heard the siren but it never occurred to me-Mr. Shayne, wasn’t Harry there?”

“No. It looks as though he’s been jumped. Do you know where he was going?”

She shook her head too quickly. “I really don’t.”

“I don’t want to waste time going up blind alleys,” Shayne said roughly. “You must have some idea.”

She hesitated. “I think he was taking money to somebody. I try not to know about that part of his business, but I can’t put stoppers in my ears. Apparently a football team won this afternoon when it was supposed to lose-or lost when it was supposed to win, I don’t know which. That’s why he wanted to talk to you. The phone kept ringing for two hours straight. I was in the office, typing up some things that have to be signed before Monday, but I did hear him say once, “How much do you need?’ He went up stairs and brought down a suitcase. Billy put it in the car. Mr. Shayne, what shall we do? The police-”

“Not yet. I want to check something first.”

When he started down the steps she came with him.

“Stay here in case the phone rings,” he told her.

She shook her head and said stubbornly, “No, I want to know what happened.”