Free Murder Among Children by Donald E. Westlake

Any close friends outside this group?”
    “Willy Fedders,” Selkin said, “but he’s off in summer stock.”
    Vicki said, “Whatever happened to that girl Chris? Remember her?”
    Hulmer said, “She married some guy in the Navy, moved out to California or some place.”
    Ralph Padbury, somewhat diffident, leaned forward to say, “What about Ed Regan?”
    Selkin said, “Right.” To me he said, “Ed’s a guy lives in the building where Terry lived before he moved in over Thing East.”
    “What’s the address?”
    “On Eleventh Street, East Eleventh Street. What is it? Three-eighteen A. It’s a building in back, you go through three-eighteen and it’s behind there.”
    “Fine. Anybody else?”
    They thought it over, tossed names back and forth a little, and then decided there weren’t any more close friends of Wilford’s in town right now. Casual acquaintances, but no one who could do me any good. So I moved on, saying, “About Thing East. Whose idea was it to begin with?”
    Vicki said, “Terry. He talked to Abe about it first, didn’t he, Abe?”
    “He talked to George first,” Selkin said. “He and George came to me, and then the three of us talked to Ralph. Well, the four of us, Robin was there, too.”
    Ralph Padbury leaned forward again, saying carefully, “Of course, I was never actually a partner in the enterprise. They came to me for advice about some of the legal aspects.”
    “I understand that. Did Terry know about the available building when he got the idea?”
    Vicki said, “That’s what made him think of it. Ed told him about these religious nuts, and the building, and all.”
    “Ed. You mean Ed Regan?”
    Selkin said, “Ed’s mother is in this religious group.”
    “All right. So Terry got the idea, and went first to George Padbury. Why him first?”
    Ralph Padbury answered for his brother, saying, “George worked in a couple of coffee houses, he knew about running them.”
    “He was a manager?”
    “No. He was a cook.”
    “All right. Then the two of them came to you,” I said to Selkin. “Why you next?”
    Selkin rubbed thumb and first finger of his right hand together. “Money,” he said. “They knew I had some money, and I’m the business type. I’m the manager.”
    “And Robin was there because she was Terry’s girl friend, is that it?”
    Vicki said, “And she’s a waitress. I mean, she was. She and me, we’re the waitresses.”
    “Who brought you in?” I asked her.
    “Robin. We’ve been friends since way back in high school.”
    I turned to Hulmer. “What about you?”
    “Same as Abe,” he said, smiling. “I had some money. Besides, these days you’ve got to have a spade whatever you start up. It’s token integration.”
    Selkin said, “Hulmer’s a mechanic and a hi-fi repairman and everything else like that. He picked up all the kitchen equipment and the tables and everything, fixed everything up.”
    Nodding, Hulmer grinned at Selkin and said, “That, too, Abe. I’m just putting the man on. He’s hip.” He turned to me, saying, “Aren’t you, Mr. Tobin?”
    “Nobody you call mister is hip,” I told him.
    He laughed and said, “There you go, Abe. You see what I mean?”
    I said, “Who approached you about the coffee house, Hulmer?”
    “Terry,” he said. “Him and George, they came to see me where I was working.”
    “Where was that?”
    “Stereo Fixit, on Eighth Street.”
    “Did you people all quit your jobs for this?”
    “Had to,” said Selkin. “It’s full-time work, opening a place like that.”
    “I guess it would be. All right, let’s move on. Keys to the front door. I suppose each of you has a key.”
    “Not me,” said Padbury.
    “That’s right, you wouldn’t have. But the rest of you do.”
    They all nodded agreement.
    I said, “Anybody else? Besides the six partners, you three and Robin and Terry and George, did anybody else have a key?”
    They shook their heads, and Selkin said, “There wasn’t any