“Was the evening fruitful? In a professional sense?” Was that a dig? Or was he just being clever?
“I think so.”
“But nothing specific to report?”
“No.”
“Are you somewhere where you can conveniently and confidentially telephone? There’s someone else you really should talk to.”
“Wohl?”
“Matthews.”
“I’m in a glass-walled office off the lobby of the Harrisburg Bank and Trust Company,” Matt said. “It’s private enough, but I would have to call him collect.”
“Give me the number—I should have thought of that anyway—and I’ll suggest he call you. The unattractive lady bandito has apparently struck again.”
“Really? Where?”
“I have only the most rudimentary facts. But I suspect Jack Matthews is happily anticipating providing you with every last detail.”
Matt read the telephone number and the extension off the phone to Washington.
“I am sure that you will be hearing from Matthews within minutes,” Washington said. “And there is one more thing, Matt.”
“What?”
“Peter Wohl is concerned that you might do something foolish. So am I. Allow Mr. Matthews’s associates to deal with this beyond the limitations of what you were ordered to do.”
“Okay.”
“If you were to disobey your orders, and Wohl, so to speak, threw the book at you, he would have my complete support.”
“You have made your point.”
“I devoutly hope so,” Washington said, and hung up.
Three minutes later, Dolores, after first knocking, put her head into the door of the office.
“There is a Mr. Rogers of the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society on line three for you, Mr. Payne. Do you want to take it?”
“Thank you,” Matt said, and picked up the telephone. “Payne.”
“Can you talk?”
“Didn’t you just hear me talking?”
“Christ, Matt!”
“What can I do for you, Mr. Rogers? Don’t tell me I’m overdrawn again?”
He could hear Matthews sigh.
“The Farmers and Merchants Bank of Clinton, New Jersey, was held up yesterday morning. We just heard about it, and I just talked to our Newark office—they have jurisdi
ction. Same modus operandi as the Riegelsville job. Same description of the perpetrator. This time, the haul was nearly sixty thousand dollars.”
“Hairy legs and all?”