Part 42 (1/2)
”The first supposition,” argued Carr, ”is feasible but hardly within the bounds of probability. If the shortage had occurred in a s.h.i.+pment of gold or something else which combines high value with small volume, that's where I'd look for the leak. But when it comes to hundreds of thousands of pounds of sugar--that's something else. You can't carry that around in your pockets or even unload it without causing comment and employing so many a.s.sistants that the risk would be extremely great.
”No, the answer must lie right here on the docks--just as it did in the sampling cases.”
So it was on the docks that he concentrated his efforts, working through the medium of a girl named Louise Wood, whom he planted as a file clerk and general a.s.sistant in the offices of the company which owned the _Murbar_ and a number of other sugar s.h.i.+ps.
This, of course, wasn't accomplished in a day, nor yet in a month. As a matter of fact, it was February when Carr was first a.s.signed to the case and it was late in August when the Wood girl went to work. But, as d.i.c.k figured it, this single success was worth all the time and trouble spent in preparing for it.
It would be hard, therefore, to give any adequate measure of his disappointment when the girl informed him that everything in her office appeared to be straight and aboveboard.
”You know, d.i.c.k,” reported Louise, after she had been at work for a couple of months, ”I'm not the kind that can have the wool pulled over my eyes. If there was anything crooked going on, I'd spot it before they'd more than laid their first plans. But I've had the opportunity of going over the files and the records and it's all on the level.”
”Then how are you to account for the discrepancies between the bills of lading and the final receipts?” queried Carr, almost stunned by the girl's a.s.surance.
”That's what I don't know,” she admitted. ”It certainly looks queer, but of course it is possible that the men who s.h.i.+p the sugar deliberately falsify the records in order to get more money and that the company pays these statements as a sort of graft. That I can't say. It doesn't come under my department, as you know. Neither is it criminal. What I do know is that the people on the dock have nothing to do with faking the figures.”
”Sure you haven't slipped up anywhere and given them a suspicion as to your real work?”
”Absolutely certain. I've done my work and done it well. That's what I was employed for and that's what's given me access to the files. But, as for suspicion--there hasn't been a trace of it!”
It was in vain that Carr questioned and cross-questioned the girl. She was sure of herself and sure of her information, positive that no crooked work was being handled by the men who received the sugar when it was unloaded from the incoming s.h.i.+ps.
Puzzled by the girl's insistence and stunned by the failure of the plan upon which he had banked so much, Carr gave the matter up as a bad job--telling Louise that she could stop her work whenever she wished, but finally agreeing to her suggestion that she continue to hold her place on the bare chance of uncovering a lead.
”Of course,” concluded the girl, ”you may be right, after all. They may have covered their tracks so thoroughly that I haven't been able to pick up the scent. I really don't believe that they have--but it's worth the gamble to me if it is to you.”
More than a month pa.s.sed before the significance of this speech dawned upon d.i.c.k, and then only when he chanced to be walking along Fifth Avenue one Sat.u.r.day afternoon and saw Louise coming out of Tiffany's with a small cubical package in her hand.
”Tiffany's--” he muttered. ”I wonder--”
Then, entering the store, he sought out the manager and stated that he would like to find out what a lady, whom he described, had just purchased. The flash of his badge which accompanied this request turned the trick.
”Of course, it's entirely against our rules,” explained the store official, ”but we are always glad to do anything in our power to a.s.sist the government. Just a moment. I'll call the clerk who waited on her.”
”The lady,” he reported a few minutes later, ”gave her name as Miss Louise Wood and her address as--”
”I know where she lives,” snapped Carr. ”What did she buy?”
”A diamond and platinum ring.”
”The price?”
”Eight hundred and fifty dollars.”
”Thanks,” said the operative and was out of the office before the manager could frame any additional inquiries.
When the Wood girl answered a rather imperative ring at the door of her apartment she was distinctly surprised at the ident.i.ty of her caller, for she and Carr had agreed that it would not be wise for them to meet except by appointment in some out-of-the-way place.
”d.i.c.k!” she exclaimed. ”What brings you here? Do you think it's safe?”
”Safe or not,” replied the operative, entering and closing the door behind him. ”I'm here and here I'm going to stay until I find out something. Where did you get the money to pay for that ring you bought at Tiffany's to-day?”