The Lonesome Badger

18

It was four-thirty when the phone rang in the office of the Beagle Detective Agency. Beagle scooped it up.

“Beagle Detective Agency, Otis Beagle talking.”

“This is Iowa Lee,” a melodious voice said. “Has Mr. Peel returned to the office?”

“Not yet, Beautiful. But I expect him to call in at any minute.”

“I’m afraid he won’t. You see, he came out to the picnic early this afternoon and something, well, something happened that made me suspicious.”

“Picnic?” exclaimed Beagle. “What’s he doing at a picnic?”

“It’s the Lonely Hearts Club picnic. He came out in a taxi. It’s rather involved. You see, we were playing baseball and Mr. Peel went into the woods to find the ball. The two umpires went with him, and well, they haven’t returned. The taxicab driver said they went off in a green Ford.”

Alarm flooded Beagle. “Where are you calling from?”

“A phone booth in Agoura. The... the picnic’s still going on, but I couldn’t get it out of my head that Mr. Peel, had been, well, forcibly taken away.”

“Who were these umpires? Club members?”

“No, of course not. They came in the green Ford. The cabdriver said they’d followed Mr. Peel all the way out from Hollywood.”

“What was Peel doing out at your picnic? He had orders to... to do something else.”

“I guess that’s what he was doing, following Mr. Smallwood. At least that’s what the taxicab driver told me.”

“How long are you going to stay at that picnic?” cried Beagle.

“Why, I’ve already left it. I’m on my way back to town.”

“Come to my office, Iowa.”

She hesitated. “Very well. I’ll be there in a half hour.”

Beagle hung up and stared at the phone. Peel was an amazingly self-sufficient man. He could usually take pretty good care of himself. But Beagle had felt uneasy ever since he had gone into the matter of the lonely hearts. Only financial desperation had made him do it.

He reached for the phone and jerked his hand away as it rang under his fingers. He took off the receiver. “Yes?”

A click sounded in Beagle’s ear and the phone went dead.

“Damn!” exclaimed Beagle.

He got up and going to the file pulled out the top drawer and took out the revolver. He looked at it in aversion, then put it back again.