Brett Halliday - Date with a Dead Man

A glint of interest appeared in Rourke’s eyes. He recognized Shayne’s carefully casual tone, and reacted to it. “He must have made some sort of arrangement with Groat else he wouldn’t have splashed that announcement over the front page today.”

Shayne took a swallow of ice water. “But I wonder whether it’s been formalized by the business office. Boil it down this way, Tim. Groat hasn’t been seen alive since seven-thirty last night. Has your paper a definite commitment from Groat, giving you legal publishing rights to the diary?”

The glint became more pronounced in Rourke’s eyes. “Hypothesizing that something has happened to Groat?”

“Keep this under your hat,” Shayne said quietly. “Groat is dead. Has been since about eight o’clock last night when he was supposed to show up at the Hawley place to keep an appointment with Beatrice. The simple question is: Does the News have authority to go ahead and publish the diary without further ado?”

“Does Joel know he’s dead?”

“It hasn’t been officially announced. Whoever knocked him over the head and threw his body in the Bay last night knows he’s dead.”

“Joel?” The glint in Rourke’s eyes had become a fervid glow.

Shayne shrugged. “You know him better than I do. Would he murder a guy for a scoop? Here’s what I mean,” he went on hastily before Rourke could reply. “Suppose Groat changed his mind about allowing publication of the diary yesterday afternoon… and told Cross it was all off. How would Cross react?”

“Joel would strangle his grandmother if she got in his way,” Rourke said grimly.

“But is the diary important enough?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t read it. Why don’t you ask Joel?”

“I will,” said Shayne, “in a minute.” He lifted his glass and studied it for a long moment. “Before I do I’d like to know one more thing about Cross.” He hesitated, frowning at the cognac to clarify his thoughts. “How important is money to Joel Cross? Per se? That is: If he had the choice of a good hunk of cash in hand as opposed to making a big splash journalistically… which way would he jump?”

Rourke shrugged. “It would depend, I suppose, on how big a piece of money and how important the journalistic splash. Why not lay it on the line, Mike? I suppose you’re wondering how much cash would induce Joel to give up his plan to print the diary?”

“Something like that.”

“Why, Mike?” Rourke clutched his forearm with talon fingers that bit into the redhead’s flesh. “Why do you want the diary suppressed? What’s your angle on it?”

“I didn’t say I wanted it suppressed. I happen to know there are certain parties who might be willing to pay a lot of money to prevent the diary from being printed. I’m wondering whether money or fame means more to Cross.”

Rourke said thoughtfully, “I don’t think there can be a positive answer to that. How much money… what degree of fame? For a million bucks, for instance, you can buy a damned newspaper.”

“Yeah,” Shayne muttered, “I know there are too many imponderables.” He sighed and finished his cognac, drank two gulps of water and pushed back from the bar. He looked back and saw that Cross had left the four men with whom he had been talking and was now seated alone at the rear booth where a waiter was setting a luncheon place for him. “Want to introduce me to your buddy?”

“Sure.” Timothy Rourke moved toward the back of the bar beside him, and asked in a low voice, “Shall I sit in?”

“I don’t think so, Tim. I’ll tell you the whole damned story as soon as I’ve got my finger on it.” He held back a little to let Rourke precede him to Joel Cross’s booth, where he stopped beside the younger reporter and said, “You’re being paged, Joel. If you’ve got any guilty secrets, clam up tight because this here individual is Mike Shayne.”

Cross turned a square aggressive face toward the detective and his upper lip lifted a trifle as he said, “I’ve heard about you,” in a tone that indicated the things he’d heard weren’t good. He had pale blue eyes behind the thick lenses, and he hesitated momentarily when Shayne grinned goodnaturedly and held out his hand, explaining, “I asked Tim to introduce me.”

Cross said, “Why?” and reluctantly held out a square hand. The flesh was hard and cold. Shayne let go of it quickly and slid into the seat opposite Cross without waiting to be asked. He didn’t answer the question, but asked instead, “Have a drink with me?”

Cross said, “I never touch the stuff,” and persisted, “Why did you want to meet me?”

Shayne settled his forearms on the table and hunched heavy shoulders forward, glancing obliquely up at Rourke who still hesitated there.

Rourke raised one eyebrow expressively and said, “You two have fun together,” then turned and strolled back to the bar.

Cross sat solidly erect across from Shayne with his shoulders precisely squared, his myopic eyes studying the redhead with open hostility.

Shayne said quietly, “I’m interested in Jasper Groat’s diary.”

“What about Groat’s diary?”

“Is it any good?”

Cross’s eyes glittered behind the thick glasses. “It’s a terrific documentary. Raw, elemental emotion torn from the very heart of an unlettered man. Groat had no thought of writing for publication, and that’s why it’s so gripping. We’ll publish it exactly as is… with no editing whatsoever. What’s your interest, Shayne?”

“Is the diary in your possession?”

A curious light flickered momentarily in the reporter’s pale eyes. He hesitated, obviously choosing his words carefully: “Naturally, I had to check it out to see if it was worth what Groat wanted.”

“How much was that?”

“I can’t conceive how that could be any of your business,” Cross parried. “Once more, I’ll have to insist on knowing exactly why you’re interested before I discuss it with you.”

Shayne said grimly, “I have a hunch that several people are going to be interested after reading your announcement in the News today.” He hesitated a moment, then added, “Frankly, I’d like to know precisely how much money it would take to prevent its publication.”

Cross became even stiffer than before. “I’m afraid you don’t know very much about the newspaper business, Shayne. That diary is a scoop of the first magnitude. You can’t measure the intrinsic value of a thing like that to a newspaper… not in dollars and cents.”

“I’m talking to you… not to a newspaper.” Shayne’s voice was challenging.

“The News pays my salary and my first duty is to them,” Cross told him pompously.

Shayne said, “I’d like to have a look at it.”

“You can read it in the News. Beginning tomorrow.”

“I mean a preview.”

Cross shook his head emphatically. “Not a chance.”

“You say you’re starting to print it tomorrow. Does that mean you’ve made final financial arrangements with Groat?”

“We could hardly print it if we hadn’t.”

“That,” said Shayne, “is what I was thinking.”

“So?”

“It boils down to this,” Shayne explained flatly. “If Groat should disappear suddenly… if he should die before you contact him again… has your paper the absolute legal right to publish his diary?”

“What do you mean?” demanded Cross, shaken out of his smug stiffness for the first time. “Where is Groat?”

“Don’t you know?”

“I haven’t seen him since yesterday.”

“You didn’t answer my question. Do you know where he is right now?”

“I have no intention of answering it, Shayne. But I am interested to know why Jake Sims asked me exactly the same question half an hour ago. Perhaps you can tell me.”