The leander pearls
i was sitting in my office, busy doing nothing. No phone calls, no messages. Nobody in Los Angeles seemed to need a private detective today.
A warm wind blew in at the window, bringing with it the smell of the oil-burners from the hotel opposites.
I was just thinking about going to lunch when Kathy Horne came in.
Kathy was a tall blonde with sad eye who had once been a police woman. she lost her job when she married a cheap little crook called Johnny Horne, hoping to make him into an honest man. Now Johnny was back in prison again, and Kathy worked at the mansion House Hotel across the road, selling cigars, and waiting to try again with Johnny.
She sat down and lit a cigarette.
'Did you ever hear of the Leander pearls?' she asked.
'God, that old blue suit of yours is so shiny. I must have money in the bank, the clothes you wear.'
'No,' I said, 'to both you ideas. I never heard of the Leander pearls, and I don't have any money in the bank.'
'Then maybe you' d like to make yourself a cut of twenty five grand.'
I put my cufaratte out. How was Kathy Horne going to put her hand on twenty- sive thousand dollars?
' I was nineteen years ago,' Kathy went on.'A guy up north named Sol Leander bought the pearls for his wife-just two of them. They cost two hundred grand.'
'How can you wear something as big as a football?' I asked.
' I see you don't know a lot about pearls,'Kathy said. ' It's not just how big they are. well, they're worth more now. and the insurance company is still offering a reward of twenty-five grand for them.'
'As, I get it.' I said. ' somebody stole them.'