Dames Don’t Care by Peter Cheyney Page A

round from the 'G' Office with a note of a conversation that Burdell has had with Palm Springs. He leaves this an' he leaves the packet of duplicate pictures an' after he has had a little rye with me he goes. I read the note of the Burdell conversation, and do I get one big kick outa it. Here it is:
    New York Central Exchange Time: 5.24 pm
    Report of long-distance telephone conversation from office of Langdon Burdell Central 174325 and Hacienda Altmira, Palm Springs, Calif.
    Call from Burdell Office 5.24
    Burdell Office: - Hello. Long-distance call please. This is Central 174325, office of Langdon Burdell, calling Palm Springs 674356.
    Operator: - You are Central 174325 Langdon Burdell calling Palm Springs, California. Palm Springs 674356. Hang up please I will call you.
    Time: 5.32
    Operator: - Hello, Central 174325. Here is your Palm Springs number. Take your call please.
    Burdell Office: - Hello, hello, Hacienda Altmira?
    Hacienda: - Yes, who are you? What do you want?
    Burdell Office: -This is Langdon Burdell. Is Ferdie there?
    Hacienda: - Sure. I'll get him. How you makin' out, Lang-don? Hang on, I'll get Ferdie.
    Hacienda: - Hello, Langdon?
    Burdell Office: - Is this you, Ferdie?
    Hacienda: - You betcha. What do you know?
    Burdell Office: - Listen kid. Get an earful of this an' don't make any mistakes. Are you listenin'? OK. Well, this afternoon this goddam Caution comes bustin' around here askin' plenty questions. He has fell for this business an' he is on to me for writin' the anonymous letter to him an' startin' him off after the letters at Palm Springs. I tell him the works. I tell him how I tried to cover up for the Aymes dame until this counterfeitin' business starts an' then I get a screwy idea that after all she has probably bumped Granworth an' that I do not want to be a party to a murder rap so I am cashin' in with the truth. The big mug listens with his ears flappin' an' then shakes me by the hand an' scrams. I have also wised him up to the fact that the original bonds that was given to Henrietta was OK an' that she musta got the phoney ones herself. Now listen, Ferdie, I reckon that he is comm' back to Palm Springs plenty quick an' that he is lyin' to pinch Henrietta just as soon as he can get his hooks on her. Because if he can pin the murder thing on her an' she gets the chair, the Feds are goin' to take it for granted that she pulled the counterfeitin' too because that will be the easiest way to close the case down. You got all that?
    Hacienda: - Swell, Lan gdon. Okie doke. An' 1 play it the way we said.
    Burdell Office:-You bet your life. What you gotta do is to get hitched up to the dame. You gotta make her marry you. You can do it easy. When that big mug Caution conies back an' starts gumshoein' around she's goin' to get good an' scared. Then pull your stuff. You tell her that the only way she can beat this murder rap is if we say that our original evidence was right - that she wasn't in New York the night Granworth did the high divin' act. After that everything's easy. You got all that, Ferdie?
    Hacidenda: - You said it. I got it OK.
    Burdell Office: - Give Periera a lovin' kick in the pants for me an' tell him I'll be seem' him directly this job's finished an' we get where we wanta. So long, Ferdie. Keep your nose clean baby an' no gun play if you can keep oft it.
    Hacienda: - 'Bye, Langdon. An' don't you get your nose dirty either. I'll be seem' you.
    Call ends.
    Operator: - G. O. Tarnet.
    Shorthand notes by V. L. O'Leary.
    Is this sweet readin' or is it? It looks like I am dead right in my ideas about this Burdell guy, an' I reckon that before I am through with him I am goin' to hand him something for callin' me that big mug Caution. It is an extraordinary thing how all these guys who are up to funny business always think that any kinda policeman is a mug. It's a sorta rule with them, but now an' again they find out that the drinks are on them.
    But believe me I ain't said nothin' yet. When I have