"No... There is a distant cousin in Milan, but we have never seen him."
"Do your husband and the cousin correspond?"
"No."
"Can you think of any reason why your husband would go to visit the cousin---suddenly?"
"There is no reason."
Tanya interjected, "In any case, Lieutenant, if anyone was going to Milan they wouldn't use our Rome flight. They'd fly Alitalia, which is direct and cbeaper---and Alitalia has a flight tonight, too."
Ordway nodded. "We can probably rule out the cousin." He asked Inez, "Does your husband have business in Italy?"
She shook her head.
"What is your husband's business?"
"He is... was... a contractor."
"What kind of contractor?"
Slowly but perceptibly, Inez's grasp of things was coming back. "He built buildings, houses, developments."
"You said 'was.' Why isn't he a contractor now?"
"Things... went wrong."
"You mean financially?"
"Yes, but... why are you asking?"
"Please believe me, Inez," Ordway said, "I've a good reason. It concerns your husband's safety, as well as others'. Will you take my word?"
She looked up. Her eyes met his. "All right."
"Is your husband in financial trouble now?"
She hesitated only briefly. "Yes."
"Bad trouble?"
Inez nodded slowly.
"Is he broke? In debt?"
Again a whisper." Yes."
"Then where did he get money for his fare to Rome?"
"I think..." Inez started to say something about her ring which D.O. had pawned, then remembered the Trans America Airlines time payment contract. She took the now-creased yellow sheet from her purse and gave it to Ordway who glanced over it. The D.T.M. joined him.
"It's made out to 'Buerrero,' " the D.T.M. said. "Though the signature could be anything."
Tanya pointed out, "Buerrero is the name we had at first on the flight manifest."
Ned Ordway shook his head. "It isn't important now, but it's an old trick if anyone has a lousy credit rating. They use a wrong first letter so the bad rating won't show up in inquiry---at least, not in a hurry. Later, if the mistake's discovered, it can be blamed on whoever filled out the form."
Ordway swung sternly back to Inez. He had the yellow printed sheet in hand. "Why did you agree to this when you knew your husband was defrauding?"
She protested, "I didn't know."
"Then how is it you have this paper now?"
Haltingly, she related how she had found it earlier this evening, and had come to the airport, hoping to intercept her husband before departure.
"So until tonight you had no idea that he was going?"
"No, sir."
"Anywhere at all?"
Inez shook her head.
"Even now, can you think of any reason for him going?"
She looked bewildered. "No."
"Does your husband ever do irrational things?"
Inez hesitated.
"Well," Ordway said, "does he?"
"Sometimes, lately..."
"He has been irrational?"
A whisper. "Yes."
"Violent?"
Reluctantly, Inez nodded.
"Your husband was carrying a case tonight," Ordway said quietly. "A small attache case, and he seemed specialty cautious about it. Have you any idea what might be inside?"
"No, sir."
"Inez, you said your husband was a contractor---a building contractor. In the course of his work did he ever use explosives?"
The question had been put so casually and without preamble, that those listening seemed scarcely aware it had been asked. But as its import dawned, there was a sudden tenseness in the room.
"Oh, yes," Inez said. "Often."
Ordway paused perceptibly before asking, "Does your husband know a lot about explosives?"
"I think so. He always liked using them. But..." Abruptly, she stopped.
"But what, Inez?"
Suddenly there was a nervousness to Inez Guerrero's speech which had not been there before. "But... he handles them very carefully." Her eyes moved around the room. "Please... what is this about?"
Ordway said softly, "You have an idea, Inez; haven't you?"
When she didn't answer, almost;with indifference he asked, "Where are you living?"
She gave the address of the South Side apartment and he wrote it down. "Is that where your husband was this afternoon; earlier this evening?"
Thoroughly frightened now, she nodded.
Ordway turned to Tanya. Without raising his voice, he asked, "Get a line open, please, to police headquarters downtown; this extension"---he scribbled a number on a pad. "Ask them to hold."
Tanya went quickly to Mel's desk.
Ordway asked Inez, "Did your husband have any explosives in the apartment?" As she hesitated, he bore in with sudden toughness. "You've told the truth so far; don't lie to me now! Did he?"
"Yes."
"What kind of explosives?"
"Some dynamite... and caps... They were left over."
"From his contracting work?"
"Yes."
"Did he ever say anything about them? Give a reason for keeping them?"
Inez shook her head. "Only, that... if you knew how to handle them... they were safe."
"Where were the explosives kept?"
"Just in a drawer."
"In a drawer where?"
"The bedroom." An expression of sudden shock crossed Inez Guerrero's face. Ordway spotted it.