A. Fair - Up for Grabs

“What difference does that make?”

“It may be monitored.”

“I have no secrets in regard to company business,” Breckinridge said. “You go right ahead and tell me anything you have to tell me.”

I said “If it’s not impertinent, Mr. Breckenridge, who made the initial contact here at the ranch with the person who was to represent the insurance company?”

“That doesn’t enter into it at all,” he said,

“Have you been here at the ranch, personally?”

“I was there personally on a vacation at one time, and I fail to see what that has to do with it.”

I said, “Melvin located some of the people who were there at the ranch at the same time you were. He located one woman in particular who had a small motion-picture camera and took motion pictures of about everything in sight. He has motion pictures of you and one other person.”

There was deep, shocked silence at the other end of the line

“You there?” I asked.

“I’m here,” Breckinridge said.

I said, “Melvin intends to use those pictures as part of his case.”

“Good God!” Breckinridge said.

I said, “This Melvin impresses me as being rather a dangerous antagonist and quite unscrupulous.”

“Unscrupulous is no name for it,” Breckinridge said. “He can’t be bluffing about those pictures, can he, Lam?”

I said, “He showed me part of the roll that he had not all of it.”

“What did it show?”

“Well, that’s something I can’t tell you over the telephone.”

“Where are you now?”

“At the airport.”

“Where’s Bruno, at the ranch?”

“Yes, but Melvin’s moving him out.”

“And where’s Melvin?”

“He’s going to stay at the ranch today and then he’s going to go to his office in Dallas tomorrow.”

“Settle that case!” Breckinridge snapped. “Get in touch with him. Give him anything he wants.”

I said, “We have forty-eight hours’ leeway.”

“All right, you have cashier’s checks. I want you to effect a complete settlement. I want it complete .”

“Meaning you want the motion pictures?”

“At times,” Breckinridge said, “you’re rather astute.”

“All right,” I told him, “I’ll be in Dallas tonight. I’ll clean things up within the forty-eight hours.”

“See that you do, Lam. This is imperative.”

I said, “This nurse, Melita Doon, who was staying here, seems to have left in a hurry. Her mother is supposed to have taken a turn for the worse. I don’t know whether we could find her and perhaps — well, she might give us some information. She might be the weak link in the chain.”

“Weak link, nothing!” Breckinridge said. “I want that case out of the way. Never mind looking for her, just get into Dallas and be prepared to make that settlement... That damned ambulance-chasing, blackmailing—”

“Hold it,” I said. “That isn’t going to help.”

I could hear him take a deep breath at the other end of the telephone, then he said, “Lam, I certainly appreciate the way you’ve handled this. I appreciate very much the way you handled yourself last night. A lot of people don’t realize that when you’re out to get that evidence, you have to get evidence by any means that are available and there are times when you simply have to use female operatives.”

“That’s right,” I said. “Everybody in the business knows that.”

“All right,” Breckinridge said wearily. “I guess we’re stuck for at least a hundred grand. You know what to do, Lam, make a complete settlement.”

“Leave it to me,” I told him.

I hung up the telephone and found there was a plane for Dallas leaving within the next thirty minutes.

I arrived at Dallas right on schedule, rented a car, went to the Meldone Apartments, took the elevator to the sixth floor, walked down to 614 and rang the bell.

Mrs. Bruno answered the door. She was all dressed up.

“Hello,” I said, “remember me? I’m Mr. Donald, the man who sold you the set of encyclopedias and gave you the premium.”

“Oh, yes,” she said, “the things are working fine, Mr. Donald.”

I looked past her into the room and saw a suitcase about half packed on the couch.

I said, “I’m checking up on the account.”

“You’ll find that I’m good credit, Mr. Donald. We meet our obligations right on the dot and—”

“Oh, it isn’t that,” I told her. “That’s in another department altogether. I’m in the premium department. I have the job of selecting the premiums that we give away with certain exceptional purchases. For instance, women who make purchases on their wedding anniversaries, women who are like you and buy the hundred-thousandth set and all of that. I have to buy quite a lot of premiums and I like to find out that the ones I get are giving satisfaction.”

“They did. Thank you very much. They’re doing all right.”

“Do you have any suggestions as to the type of premiums that women are interested in?”

“Heavens, no, you couldn’t have anything better than that electric can opener and that electric blender. They’ve been wonderful! Simply wonderful!”

“And they’re working all right?”

“Like a charm.”

She hesitated, then stood to one side. “Won’t you come in, Mr. Donald?”

“Thank you,” I said.

She said, indicating the suitcase, “I’m going to join my husband in Montana.”

“Are you indeed? Expect to be gone long?”

She said, “No, I’m just going up for a visit. He’s up there on a business trip. He telephoned me to ask if I wanted to join him.”

“That’s splendid,” I said. “When are you leaving?”

“Oh I don’t know” she said. “Sometime tomorrow. I’ll have to check with him again about planes. He’s going to call me later on.”

“I see,” I told her. “Now, there’s another small premium that we give for people who have won their prizes and who can give us testimonials about the encyclopedia. These are short testimonials and you get a hundred dollars apiece for them.”

“A hundred dollars!”

“That’s right. In cash,” I told her. “It’s pocket money for the housewife.” I smiled and went on, “If we made it in a check, it would have to go on the income tax, and the husband, as the business manager, would be apt to assert a proprietary interest.

“As it is, this is just a personal matter for the woman of the house, and we pay it in the form of cash, five twenty-dollar bills.”

“Well, for heaven’s sake, why didn’t you tell me about this before?”

“We can only afford to make this offer to a limited number of people,” I said. “And, of course, it’s confidential. No one is to know there was any compensation for the testimonial.”

“Of course... and how is it handled? What do I do?”

I said, “You just have to read a little statement that we prepare to the effect that you purchased the encyclopedias and were astounded to find how good they are. You have already become recognized as an authority on many bits of knowledge and the neighbors frequently come to you to settle disputes.”

“You say I have to read it?”

“That’s right. Then we put it on tape,” I explained.

“Oh,” she said.

“And then, of course, we put it in front of the television cameras,” I went on.

“Television!”

“Yes.”

“I... I don’t think I’d care to do that Mr. Donald.”

“No?”

“No.” She shook her head emphatically.

“It would only take a minute of your time, and several—”

“And, where would you use it, just locally?”