Part 20 (1/2)
”Come,” he said, ”Krovac, there is no use in our quarreling. You can help me and I can help you. There must be some other way to get around this.”
”What are you trying to do?” asked Krovac. ”I got enough on you now to send you up, and I don't mind tellin' yuh,” he added, ”that I had a guy hid down there in the shop where he could watch you drop the envelope behind my machine. I got a witness, yuh understand!”
Mr. Bince did understand, but still he managed to control his temper.
”What of it?” he said. ”n.o.body would believe your story, but let's forget that. What we want to do is get rid of Torrance.”
”That isn't all you want to do,” said Krovac. ”There is something else.”
Bince realized that he was compromised as hopelessly already as he could be if the man had even more information.
”Yes,” he said, ”there is something beside Torrance's interference in the shop. He's interfering with our accounting system and I don't want it interfered with just now.”
”You mean the pay-roll?” asked Krovac.
”It might be,” said Bince.
”You want them two new guys that are working in the office croaked, too?” asked Krovac.
”I don't want anybody 'croaked',” replied Bince. ”I didn't tell you to kill Torrance in the first place. I just said I didn't want him to come back here to work.”
”Ah, h.e.l.l, what you givin' us?” growled the other. ”I knew what you meant and you knew what you meant, too. Come across straight. What do you want?”
”I want all the records of the certified public accountants who are working here,” said Bince after a moment's pause. ”I want them destroyed, together with the pay-roll records.”
”Where are they?”
”They will all be in the safe in Mr. Compton's office.”
Krovac knitted his brows in thought for several moments. ”Say,” he said, ”we can do the whole thing with one job.”
”What do you mean?” asked Bince,
”We can get rid of this Torrance guy and get the records, too.”
”How?” asked Bince. ”Do you know where Feinheimer's is?”
”Yes.”
”Well, you be over there to-night about ten thirty and I'll introduce you to a guy who can pull off this whole thing, and you and I won't have to be mixed up in it at all.”
”To-night at ten thirty,” said Bince.
”At Feinheimer's,” said Krovac.
CHAPTER XX.
AN INVITATION TO DINE.
As the workman pa.s.sed through the little outer office Edith Hudson glanced up at him.