ccess gone to your head?"

Elshawe had almost forgotten about Skinner. "Shoot," he said.

The police officer rattled off Samuel Skinner's vital statistics--age,
sex, date and place of birth, and so on. Then: "He lived in New York
until 1977. Taught science for fifteen years at a prep school there.
He--"

"Wait a second," Elshawe interrupted. "When was he born? Repeat that."

"March fourth, nineteen-thirty."

"Fifty-three," Elshawe said, musingly. "Older than he looks. O.K.; go
on."

"He retired in '77 and came to L.A. to live. He--"

"Retired at the age of forty-seven?" Elshawe asked incredulously.

"That's right. Not on a teacher's pension, though. He's got some kind of
annuity from a New York life insurance company. Pays pretty good, too.
He gets a check for two thousand dollars on the third of every month. I
checked with his bank on that. Nice, huh?"

"Very nice. Go on."

"He lives comfortably. No police record. Quiet type. One servant, a
Chinese, lives with him. Sort of combination of valet and secretary.

"As far as we can tell, he has made four trips in the past three years.
One in June of '79, one in June of '80, one in June of '81, and this
year he made the fourth one. In '79, he went to Silver City, New Mexico.
In '80 and '81, he went to Hawaii. This year, he went to Silver City
again. Mean anything to you?"

"Not yet," Elshawe said. "Are you paying for this call, or is the City
of Los Angeles footing the bill?"

"Neither. You are."

"Then shut up and let me think for a minute." After less than a minute,
he said: "Martin, I want some more data on that guy. I'm willing to pay
for it. Should I hire a private detective?"

"That's up to you. I can't take any money for it, naturally--but I'm
willing to nose around a little more for you if I can. On the other
hand, I can't put full time in on it. There's a reliable detective
agency here in L.A.-- Drake's the guy's name. Want me to get in touch
with him?"

"I'd appreciate it. Don't tell him who wants the information or that it
has any connection with Porter. Get--"

"Hold it, Terry ... just a second. You know that if I uncover any
indication of a crime, all bets are off. The information goes to my
superiors, not to you."

"I know. But I don't think there's any crime involved. You work it from
your end and send me the bills. O.K.?"

"Fair enough. What more do you want?"

Elshawe told him.

When the phone call had been completed, Elshawe sat