Dames Don’t Care by Peter Cheyney

it is. That's how it was, an' I'm sorry if I've caused you any trouble by bein' a mug an' not tellin' the truth first go off."
    I get up an' I hold out my hand.
    "Fine, Burdell," I tell him. "I reckon you're a wise guy to come clean. I'm beginning to think that this Henrietta bumped Granworth all right, an' if she did, well she'll have to fry for it.
    He shakes hands with me an' I scram.
    I say so- long to the dame with the french heels outside, an' I take the elevator down. I ease along pretty quick to the caretaker's office on 'the entrance floor an' flash my badge an' grab the telephone. I get chief operator at the telephone exchange.
    I tell the chief operator who I am an' I also tell him that I have just left Burdell's office an' that I have got an idea that Burdell will be puttin' a long-distance call through to somebody at Palm Springs pretty quick. I say that they are to listen in to that call an' take a note of it an' who the guy is at the other end who takes it. I say that they are to keep this shorthand note for me to call for an' that they can check up on my authority in the meantime.
    The chief operator says OK.
    I then go back to my hotel an' give myself a swell cigar. First of all it is quite plain to me that this second story of Burdell's is not so hot either. I'll tell you why.
    Supposin' he did know that Henrietta had taken the letters outa the desk drawer because they proved she'd seen Granworth on the night he died. Well, wouldn't it have been sensible for Burdell to think that she took 'em to destroy 'em, not to carry 'em about with her? How did be know they was at Palm Springs? There's only one way he coulda been certain of that an' that was if somebody dovin at Palm Springs had told him that she still had 'em an' had 'em in the rancho where she was stayin'.
    So I reckon that after I have got out of his office he is goin' to telephone through to this guy an' say that I have blown in an' tell him that I have fallen for this story an' that everything is OK, an' that the job has been played the way this Burdell bird wants it played.
    An' this brings me to another little thing. What about that picture of me cut out of the Chicago Times an' sent down to somebody at the Hacienda Altmira at Palm Springs? Don't it look like Burdell sent that too? An' the reason he sends it is easy. When he has sent me the anonymous letter he knows I will scram out to Palm Springs so he gets 'em good an' ready for me. He searches around until he finds a newspaper that has gotta picture of me in it an' he cuts it out, writes 'this is the guy' on it, an' sends it down to the Hacienda.
    An' this Burdell bird is goin' to slip up plenty in a minute. Mind you, the guy has got brains - plenty brains. He knows that I can figure out that it was him that wrote the anonymous letter to me, an' St he has a swell story all ready for me when I blow in; but what he don't know is that I am wise to that picture business, an' that is just where he is goin' to slip up.
    I reckon that you will agree that this bezusus is gettin' good an' interestin'. It is beginnin' to get me interested-almost!
    I stick around till it is six o'clock, an' then I get another idea. I think that I will ring through to the New York 'G' Office an' ask 'em if they have despatched them pictures of the Aymes' servants, the butler, the chauffeur an' the maid, that they was goin' to send to me at Palm Springs. I am lucky. They tell me that they have sent off one lot but they have got a duplicate set an' they fix to send these around to me at the hotel. I also ask 'em to send somebody around to the main exchange office an' see if they have gotta transcript of the shorthand notes of any telephone conversation that Burdell has had since I went outa the office, an' they say they will do this.
    After which I give myself another shower to pass the time an' change into a tuxedo just so's I can feel civilised for one night anyhow.
    At seven o'clock things begin to happen. An agent comes