Rex Stout_Tecumseh Fox 02 Read Online Free Page A

now?”
    “Yes. Have you ever heard of Tingley’s Titbits?”
    “Certainly. Appetizers in glass jars with a red label showing a goat eating a peacock’s tail. Lots of different varieties. Expensive but good.”
    “They’re better than good, they’re the best you can buy. I admit that. But a month ago they began to have quinine in them.”
    Fox cocked a surprised eye at her. “I beg your pardon?”
    “Yes, they did. Complaints began to come in that they tasted bitter, couldn’t be eaten, and thousands of jars were returned by dealers, and when they wereanalyzed some of them were found to contain quantities of quinine. Tingley—Mr. Arthur Tingley, the present head of the firm—engaged Dol Bonner to investigate.”
    “Do you know how he happened to pick Miss Bonner?”
    Amy nodded. “For quite a while P. & B. has been trying to buy the Tingley business—”
    “Do you mean the Provisions & Beverages Corporation?”
    “That’s it. The food octopus. They offered three hundred thousand dollars for the business. One of their vice-presidents has been working on it quite a while, but Tingley refused to sell. He said the name alone, with the prestige it has established over seventy years, was worth half a million. So when this trouble occurred, the only thing they could think of was that P. & B. had bribed someone in the factory to put in the quinine, to give Tingley such a headache that he would be glad to sell and get out. They started their own investigation among the employees, but they thought something might be done from the other end.”
    “And they set Bonner on the P. & B.”
    “Yes. A woman named Yates is in charge of production at the Tingley factory, which is up on Twenty-sixth Street. She knew of Miss Bonner because they are both members of the Manhattan Business Women’s League. At her suggestion Tingley engaged Dol Bonner, and I was assigned to work on the P. & B. vice-president who had been trying to make a deal with Tingley. I told Miss Bonner that Arthur Tingley was my uncle and that I had once worked for him, and had quarreled with him and quit, but shesaid that shouldn’t disqualify me for the job and the rest of the squad were busy.”
    “Was it agreeable to Tingley?”
    “He didn’t know about it. I hadn’t seen him for a long time, and he didn’t even know I was working for Bonner & Raffray. At least I don’t suppose he did. But he told me this afternoon that he had learned this morning that I was working on his case, and he had told Miss Bonner that he didn’t trust me and he wouldn’t have it.”
    “And you’re afraid you’ll lose your job and that’s the jam you’re in.”
    Amy shook her head. “That’s not it. Or only a small part of it. I got acquainted with—uh—the P. & B. vice-president three weeks ago, and started—that is, I proceeded with the investigation. He’s young and quite presentable, competent and assured and rather—I imagine pretty aggressive as a business man. We got—on fairly good terms. Then, Saturday afternoon, I saw him in a booth at Rusterman’s Bar, having what appeared to be a very confidential conversation with Dol Bonner.”
    “The poor devil,” Fox laughed. “With two of you after him—”
    “Oh, no,” Amy protested. “That’s the trouble. If she had been working him, she would certainly have let me know. I was given to understand that she had never met him or even seen him. This morning, when I phoned her, I gave her an opening to tell me about her meeting with him Saturday, but she still pretended she had never seen him. So obviously she is double-crossing Tingley. And making a fool of me.”
    Fox frowned and pursed his lips. “Not obviously. Conceivably.”
    “Obviously,” Amy insisted stubbornly. “I’ve triedto think of another explanation, and there isn’t any. You should have seen how confidential they were.”
    “They didn’t see you?”
    “No. I’ve been trying to decide what to do. Much as I dislike my uncle, I