Milo March #10

One-1

One

The name is March. Milo March. I’m an insurance investigator. For one hundred dollars a day and expenses. Some people think this ought to make me rich. Maybe it would, if I worked every day in the year. But there are long dry spells when all I do is sit around in my office and wait. …

The phone rang. I picked up the receiver and said hello. “Mr. March,” a strange voice said, “this is Robert Carlin, manager of the Claims Bureau of the Personal and Inland Marine Insurance Association.”

“Yes?” I said. It didn’t mean much to me. I’d heard of the Association, but that was all.

“Your name was suggested to me by Martin Raymond of Intercontinental Insurance,” he said. “Intercontinental is one of our member companies. I wonder if you might come down and talk to me?”

“I guess it could be managed,” I said casually. “What do you have in mind?”

“I’d rather talk about it when we meet. Can you make it today? For lunch?”

“I don’t see why not.”

“Twelve?”

“I’ll be there,” I said.

“Good,” he said, and hung up.

I replaced the receiver and opened the phone book. I looked up the Association. They were way downtown on John Street. I picked up the phone and dialed the number of Intercontinental. When they answered, I asked for Martin Raymond. I repeated the request and added my name when his secretary answered.

“Milo,” he said, coming on. “How’s the boy?”

“Still a boy,” I said, “if you’re careless with a few years. I just had a call from Robert Carlin. What’s the bit?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Carlin is head of Claims for the Association. We had lunch the other day, and he mentioned that they were thinking of hiring an outside man for a special job. I suggested you. That’s the whole script.”

“What’s the job?”

“He didn’t tell me.”

“What kind of a man is Carlin?” I asked.

“Top drawer. He’s a former FBI man and has been with the Association for about fifteen years. We’re a member, but we’ve never asked them to do an investigation for us. I’m told that they do a hell of a good job when they’re called in.”

“Well, thanks for the plug—I think.”

“Nothing,” he said. “You know that I’m always in your corner, boy.”

“It’s nice having you in my corner,” I said, “except for the times when you have your thumb in my eye.”

He chuckled, but it was an executive type sound without any meat on it. “That’s my boy. Always making with the old laugh meter. Well, I’ll see you around, boy.”

“I suppose so,” I muttered, putting the phone down. I looked at my watch. It was shortly after ten-thirty.

There wasn’t much chance that I’d get another phone call. Most of my business came from Intercontinental. I called my answering service and told them I’d be back by two or two-thirty. I went downstairs and went to the nearest bar for a martini. By the time I’d finished it, it was time to go. I got a cab and told the driver to take me to John Street.

It’s a funny thing. I’ve traveled all over the world on jobs, but when I’m in New York, anything that isn’t Greenwich Village, where I live, or Madison Avenue in the mid-forties, where my office is, seems like a major safari. In fact, I’d never been to John Street.

It turned out to be a narrow, busy street. The taxi deposited me in front of number 60 and I went in. A glance at the board in the lobby showed me that the building was full of insurance companies. I went up to Personal & Inland Marine and was shown into Carlin’s office.

He was a wiry little man, probably about fifty. His office, in size and furniture, was pretty much what I was accustomed to seeing in insurance companies—but he wasn’t. He wore a dark shirt and tie and a rumpled suit, which made him look more like an artist than either a vice-president or a former Federal agent. “Let’s go to lunch,” he said as soon as we had shaken hands.

We went downstairs and walked a couple of blocks to Whyte’s. It’s a restaurant so old, it’s practically a tradition downtown. We got a table upstairs and ordered a couple of drinks.

“Are you free to take a job?” Carlin asked when we had our drinks.

“I guess so,” I said. “Depends on what it is. I didn’t know you handed out jobs.”

“We usually don’t. We have six men in the department and they can handle about all we do, but it keeps them busy. That’s why I decided to look around for someone to take this case. If I used one of my own men on it, he might be away too long. Martin Raymond said that you were the best man he knew.”

“Martin doesn’t know very many,” I murmured.

He smiled. “I did some other checking on you before I phoned. You may not have the background that my men have, but it strikes me that you’re just as good.”

“What’s the job?” I asked.

“It’s really two jobs,” he said. “One of our member companies—Great Northern Insurance, to be exact—carried a large policy on a necklace of imperial emerald jade owned by a man here in New York. It was stolen last week. We want you to find it.”

“You’ve at least made me curious,” I said. “I know Great Northern. I used to do some work for them. They have a pretty good bunch of their own investigators. And you’ve got your men. I don’t like to be nosy, but how come you’re passing up so many good investigators for a guy named March? Just for one little necklace.”

“I told you there were two jobs,” he said with a smile. “When this necklace was taken, it was the only thing stolen, although it was in a wall safe with other jewelry. It’s true that the other pieces weren’t as valuable as this one, but they didn’t come from the five-and-ten.”

“How valuable was the necklace?”

“It was insured for one hundred thousand dollars.”

I whistled softly. “It must have been good jade.”

“The best. Some of the stones in the necklace were more than two thousand years old.”

“Go on,” I said. “I still haven’t heard anything about the second job.”

“In the past five years,” he said, “member companies of our association have paid out about two million dollars on stolen jade jewelry. All of it good stuff. We’ve done a little checking and have discovered that other insurance companies have paid out about four million dollars during the same period on jade that was stolen. In some cases other jewelry was taken with the jade, but most times only the jade was stolen. The other jewelry has all shown up somewhere since, but not a single piece of jade has been seen after it was stolen.”

“Somebody’s collecting jade?” I asked.

He nodded. “Looks that way. We believe that all of the thefts were committed or engineered by the same person or persons. Since the thefts have occurred all over the world, it must mean a large and well-organized g**g. That’s the second job. It’ll give you an idea of what you’ll be up against.”

“Only if I get close enough,” I said, shrugging. “What about known jewel thieves? Have they been checked out?”

“Pretty thoroughly. We believe that none of them has been involved in this.”

“Any files on the other cases?”

“The ones from our member companies. We don’t have files on the others. This latest theft, however, may be your best lead, as it’s fresher. If you find the necklace, I think you’ll be right in the middle of the second job.”

“Maybe …”

“Of course, you can conduct the investigation any way you want to,” he said with a smile. “I’ve already been warned about telling you how to do it.”

“Who warned you?”

“Remember John Franklin?”

I nodded. “In charge of investigations for Great Northern. A good man.”

“He said the same thing about you. In fact, he was quite pleased when I told him we were considering you for the job. But he told me that I’d better accept the fact that you’d do it your own way.”

“It’s my way of working,” I said bluntly.

“It’s all right with me,” he said easily. “My information is that you nearly always get results. That’s all we’re interested in.”

“Who would I be working for? You or the other companies involved?”

“For us.”

“No interference from the other companies?”

“I guarantee it.”

“Do you know my rates?” I asked. “A hundred dollars a day and expenses.”

“That is satisfactory. In fact, I think I can promise you that if you pull this off, there will also be a substantial bonus.”

“I won’t fight it,” I said. “I’m very fond of money. Do you have a file on the necklace job?”

“Not much of one. I’ll give it to you when we get back to the office. The necklace belonged to Maxwell Halley, who lives up on Park Avenue. He and his wife were out that evening, and it was the servants’ night off. The thief broke in by jimmying the lock on one of the rear doors, and opened the wall safe without damaging it. That’s about all we know.”

“Somebody who knew the combination?”

“That or someone with an electronic device which permitted him to detect the fall of the tumblers.”

“I suppose the servants were all checked?”

“Thoroughly. The police are inclined to think they’re clean. Mr. Halley swears that none of them knew the combination.”

“The wife?”

He grinned at me. “She was one of our first thoughts. And the police’s. She’s thirty years younger than her husband. But he also swears that she didn’t know the combination, and the police couldn’t stir up even a breath of scandal about her.”

“Okay,” I said. “Some of my best friends are cops, but I think I’ll check it out myself.”

“Good,” he said.

We had another drink and then ate lunch. I went back to the office with him, and he gave me the Halley file and a check for a thousand dollars for advance expenses. It looked lovely. I went back uptown to my office.

The file didn’t tell me much more than Carlin had. Maxwell Halley was a sixty-year-old industrialist, still active in his business and worth several million dollars. His wife was thirty. She was his second wife, and they had been married five years. He had two grown children by his first wife. The Halleys owned considerable jewelry, which was usually kept in a bank vault, being taken out only when it was to be worn, and then it might be kept in the apartment wall safe for a day or two. The insurance company and the police had questioned Mr. and Mrs. Halley and their servants, but the result was nothing. They weren’t even suspicious of anyone. The police had taken the usual steps, but no trace of the necklace had been found. At the time of the theft there had been other jewelry in the safe, valued at about five thousand dollars, but it had not been touched. There had also been about a hundred dollars in cash. It had been left there.

I picked up the phone and dialed the number of Great Northern. I asked the operator for John Franklin.

“Milo March,” I said, when he answered.

“Milo,” he exclaimed. “It’s a long time since I heard from you. How are you?”

“Fine. And you?”

“Great. I was talking about you with someone the other day.”

“I know. I’ve taken the job.”

“I’m glad to hear it, Milo. I told Carlin you were the man for the job.”

“Thanks, John,” I said. “I’ve been looking through the file. Not much in it.”

“Not much,” he admitted.

“The police dig up anything that isn’t in the file?”

“Not a thing.”

“What about the time since the file was typed up? Anything turn up since then?”

“No.”

“You sound too damn cheerful for a man whose company just lost a hundred grand,” I said.

“Why not?” he asked. “The brass here may be a little worried because they don’t know what good hands we’re in. I stopped worrying when Carlin said he was going to hire you.”

“Thanks for nothing,” I muttered. “All I seem to have been given so far is a headache. Usually there’s something to go on. You have any ideas on this?”

“Not really, Milo,” he said. “I don’t think the necklace was taken by any of the known jewel thieves or by anyone in the Halley household. I’m inclined to go along with Carlin in believing there is a big international outfit of new faces. I doubt if you’ll even find them in this country.”