Free The Whenabouts of Burr by Michael Kurland Page A

a—you know—Roman. Like he’d just come off a movie set. With the funny-looking armor and the kilt and the leggings: like that. There was another guy in the room, laying down with a towel over his face. He says he heard the door open and felt the draft, but didn’t see anyone, because he had a towel on his face.”
    â€œA Roman?” Ves repeated.
    â€œI called the police,” the attendant said. “But that was sure a mistake. Two guys came out to question me. One of them decided I must have made the whole thing up and there was no guy; the other one thinks maybe I killed the guy and got rid of the body. They made me look through a couple thousand pictures and tell me they’ll keep in touch. That’s the last I hear. So the next time, I don’t call no one.”
    â€œThe next time…” Swift said.
    â€œYeah. ‘I shall make use of your facility,’ he says, flipping me this gold coin and trotting into the steam room. I thought he meant something dirty, talking like that. I was about to go after him and tell him we didn’t do that kind of thing, but I was distracted by the coin. It was a Stella, and I’d never seen one. Run across the word in puzzles all the time.”
    â€œStella?” Swift asked.
    â€œA four-dollar gold piece. There were less than five hundred of them minted. That’s what the guy I sold it to said. There’s a large star on the back and the word Stella , that’s Latin for star.”
    â€œWhose picture is on the front?” Ves asked.
    â€œLiberty. With her hair down. Kind of a chubby-looking face.”
    â€œWhat happened to the gentleman who gave you the coin?” Ves asked.
    â€œHave no idea. He never came out of the steam room. That’s when I started searching for hidden panels, but I did a careful cross-check of the room sizes, and there’d be nowhere for a panel to go.”
    â€œSo no panels,” Nate said.
    The attendant shrugged. “Maybe a panel,” he said, “but it don’t go anywhere.”
    â€œSo where did those three men disappear to?” Nate demanded, getting slightly annoyed with the attendant’s matter-of-fact attitude.
    The attendant put his lips together and pushed them in and out for a minute. “I thought a lot about that,” he said. “Did you ever hear of the fourth dimension?”
    Ves shook his head. “This approaches the sublime,” he said. “It has certainly passed the ridiculous. If I assume the good faith of both of you, if not the good sense, I must conclude that the secret of the disappearance—of the three disappearances—is a secret of the building.” He waggled a finger at the attendant. “Do you know how old it is?” he asked. “When it was built—and by whom?”
    â€œLong time ago,” the attendant said. “Guy named Pronzini worked here when I started. Retired last year, after forty years. Can you feature that—forty years. Started a chicken farm. He told me before the war this used to be a fancy place. I guess that would be World War Two.”
    â€œThis place dates back to the twenties at least,” Ves said. “Maybe a couple of decades older than that. They haven’t built these palaces of pleasure for some time.”
    â€œYeah,” the attendant said. “That’s what I thought.”
    â€œWell, we’ll just look around,” Ves said. “You can never tell what they thought it was essential to build into a place like this, back in those far off days.”
    â€œI looked,” the attendant said.
    â€œI’m sure you did,” Swift told him.
    â€œBut it’s our job,” Ves said. “You wouldn’t want to stop us from doing our job, would you? You understand.”
    â€œOh,” the attendant said. “Of course.” He went back behind the counter and picked up his puzzle. “Go ahead, do what you like. I hope