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Tarneverro laughed. “Oh, he'll come around. I have offended him, quite unintentionally.” He looked thoughtfully at Charlie. “By the way, Inspector, this is a happy meeting. I was thinking of calling you up. Just how do you plan to spend the evening?”

“I attend Rotary Club banquet in this hotel," Chan explained.

“Good. You'll be here some time?”

Chan nodded. “I fear so. It happens very few after-dinner speeches are equipped with self-stopper.”

“Until eleven, perhaps?”

“It seems terribly possible.”

“I am dining at a friend’s house down the beach,” Tarneverro said. “At the house of Miss Shelah Fane, in fact. Some time between now and eleven o'clock I may have a very important message for you, Inspector.”

Chan’s eyes opened slowly. “A message? Of what nature?”

Tarneverro hesitated. “This morning you happened to speak of certain murder cases in Los Angeles that remain unsolved. I told you then that I preferred to keep out of that sort of thing. We are not always able to follow our preferences, Inspector.” He moved away.

“One moment,” said Chan. “You have sought to quench the fire of my curiosity by tossing upon it a handful of straw. May I repeat my question—what sort of message?”

The fortune-teller gave him a long look. “A message calling upon you to arrest the murderer of—but there, I mustn’t say too much. There’s many a slip, as you have no doubt learned from your own experience.