The Sandler Inquiry Part 100

"Chisel what up?" Thomas asked.

Hammond looked back as if to answer a silly self-evident question.

"Why, the floor, of course," he said. He pondered it for a moment.

"Can't bring a drill in'" he planned.

"Too much noise. Can't use electricity anyway." He paused, then concluded.

"Have to use hammers and chisels" he said.

"A lot of work. Muscle mostly." He rose.

"Take us a while, probably," he said in conclusion.

"Us?" asked Thomas nervously Hammond smiled and Leslie managed a vague t.i.tter of laughter.

"Relax," said Hammond.

"We have specialists. We can have the floor up in a few hours."

"How long is'a few'?" asked Daniels.

Hammond eyed the concrete area intently. Thomas shifted his own gaze to the floor. He was reminded of the small church in Devonshire, where former parish ministers were interred beneath the stones of the floor.

"Eighteen to twenty-four hours'" said Hammond flatly.

"That's a guess, an educated guess."

Thomas looked back to Hammond, a.s.sessing him carefully now.

"I want to bring someone else in here, "Daniels said.

"What?" snapped Hammond. Leslie watched Thomas cautiously and curiously.

Thomas repeated, though it wasn't necessary. Hammond dismissed it out of hand.

"You want to find out about Arthur Sandler?" Thomas asked.

"You want to know about your d.a.m.ned counterfeit? You want to know where the espionage angle leads you? You'll let me bring two more people in here "Who are they?" asked Leslie, ready to negotiate.

"Doesn't matter," said Hammond quickly.

"No-' She held up her hand.

"Who are they?" she repeated.

"I won't tell you. You'll refuse if I tell you."

"Then why should we permit it?"

"Because I can see everything starting to fall into place Thomas explained.

"All of it. Look. When you're an attorney you're trained to put pieces of a story together and form a whole story, something which becomes the functioning truth in a case. That's what I want to do. I want to link your story with another story. I want to eliminate the contradictions. Let me do that, let your mechanics chisel up that floor, and we'll be d.a.m.ned close to a solution."

Hammond was hesitant. Thomas looked to Leslie, then back to Hammond.

"Your alternative is going back to Washington empty fisted " "Thomas said to Hammond.

"And you, Leslie, your alternative is not finding the man who probably still wants to kill you."

Hammond looked to Leslie.

"Trust me" Daniels said simply, preparing to rest his case.

"With any kind of luck, IM produce the missing man you're looking for.

Alive. Within twenty-four hours."

Hammond was indignant.

"I thought you said you didn't-"

'-know anything?"

"Yes " "I didn't. But unlike you, I've seen both sides of this. I've figured it out."

A strange look came over Hammond, one of superiority or pomposity. Or was it challenge?

"Including about your father?" he asked.

"I can't be blind forever. It's making sense."

Hammond sighed. He was tired and in a mood to concede a point if it would bring things closer to the point of resolution.

Under normal circ.u.mstances, he conceded nothing. Everything was done his way. A man like Daniels would never be out of his sight. And he was as skeptical as he was tired.

"Where do you make contact with these people?"

"One telephone call. And I bring them in' Hammond grimaced. It wasn't that he didn't like it; he hated it.

He looked to Leslie. So did Thomas, seeing where the tie-breaking vote would go.

"Seems to me," she said with gentle intonations to Hammond, 'that we might do well to trust him' "All right, said Hammond.

"It better work. Otherwise I'll find you again. , Thomas smiled. It would work. It had to! With all the pieces gliding together as they were, how could they not fit the way he wanted them? Then again, how had he not seen it earlier? How had he been so blind to a man he'd been so close to?

"Watch those d.a.m.ned subway trains when you come out of the crawl way Hammond muttered, by way of send-off.

Thomas recalled. The crawl way Dirty, dark and evoking claustrophobia.