Status Quo Read online

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  In the corridor outside the Boss' suite of offices, Larry said to Steve,"You take Miss ... ah, Zusanette to my office, will you Steve. I'll bethere in a minute."

  He opened the door to the anteroom and said, "LaVerne, we've got a girl inmy office--"

  "Why, Larry!"

  He glowered at her. "A suspect. I want a complete tape of everything said.As soon as we're through, have copies made, at least three or four."

  "And, who, Mr. Woolford, was your girl Friday last year?"

  "This is important, honey. I suppose you've supplied me with a secretarybut I haven't even met her yet. Take care of it, will you?"

  "Sure enough, Larry."

  He followed Steve and the girl to his office.

  Once seated, the girl and Steve in the only two extra chairs the cubicleboasted and Larry behind his desk, he looked at her in what he hoped wasreassurance. "Just tell us where you got the money, Zusanette."

  Steve reached out a hand suddenly and took her bag from her lap. Shegasped and snatched at it, but he eluded her and she sat back, her chintrembling again.

  Steve came up with a thick sheaf of bills, the top ones, at least, allfifties and tossed them to Larry's desk. He took out a school pass andread, "Susan Self, Elwood Avenue." He looked up at Larry and said, "That'sright off Eastern, near Paterson Park in the Baltimore section of town,isn't it?"

  Larry said to her, "Zusanette, I think you'd better tell us where you gotall this money."

  "I found it," she said defiantly. "You can't do anything to me if I simplyfound it. Anybody can find money. Finders keepers--"

  "But if it's counterfeit," Steve interrupted dryly, "it might also be,finders weepers."

  "Where did you find it, Zusanette?" Larry said gently.

  She tightened her lips, and the trembling of her chin disappeared. "I ...I can't tell you that. But it's not counterfeit. Daddy ... my father saidit was as good as any money the government prints."

  "That it is," Steve said sourly. "But it's still counterfeit, which makesit very illegal indeed to spend, Miss Self."

  She looked from one of them to the other, not clear about her position.She said to Larry, "You mean it's not _real_ money?"

  He kept his tone disarming, but shook his head, "I'm afraid not,Zusanette. Now, tell us, where did you find it?"

  "I can't. I promised"

  "I see. Then you don't know to whom it originally belonged?"

  "It didn't belong to anybody."

  Steve Hackett made with a disbelieving whistle. He was taking the part ofthe tough, suspicious cop; Larry the part of the understanding,sympathetic officer, trying to give the suspect a break.

  Susan Self turned quickly on Steve. "Well, it didn't. You don't evenknow."

  Larry said, "I think she's telling the truth, Steve. Give her a chance.She's playing fair." He looked back at the girl, and frowned hispuzzlement. "All money belongs to _somebody_ doesn't it?"

  She had them now. She said superiorly. "Not necessarily to some_body_. Itcan belong to, like, an organization."

  Steve grunted skepticism. "I think we ought to arrest her," he said.

  Larry held up a hand, his face registering opposition. "I'll handle this,"he said sharply. "Zusanette is doing everything she can to co-operate." Heturned back to the girl. "Now, the question is, what organization did thismoney belong to?"

  She looked triumphantly at Steve Hackett. "It belonged to the Movement."

  They both looked at her.

  Steve said finally, "What movement?"

  She pouted in thought. "That's the only name they call it."

  "Who's they?" Steve snapped nastily.

  "I ... I don't know."

  Larry said, "Well, you already told us your father was a member,Zusanette."

  Her eyes went wide. "I did? I shouldn't have said that." But she evidentlytook him at his word.

  Larry said encouragingly, "Well, we might as well go on. Who else is amember of this Movement besides your father?"

  She shifted in her chair uncomfortably. "I don't know any of their names."

  Steve looked down at the school pass in his hands. He said to Larry, "I'dbetter make a phone call."

  He left.

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  Larry said, "Don't worry about him, Zusanette. Now then, this _movement_.That's kind of a funny name, isn't it? What does it mean?"

  She was evidently glad that the less than handsome Steve Hackett had leftthe room. Her words flowed more freely. "Well, Daddy says that they callit the Movement rather than a revolution...."

  An ice cube manifested itself in the stomach of Lawrence Woolford.

  "... Because people get conditioned, like, to words. Like revolution.Everybody is against the word because they all think of killing andeverything, and, Daddy says, there doesn't have to be any shooting orkilling or anything like that at all. It just means a fundamental changein society. And, Daddy says, take the word propaganda. Everybody's got tothinking that it automatically means lies, but it doesn't at all. It justmeans, like, the arguments you use to convince people that what you standfor is right and it might be lies or it might not. And, Daddy says, takethe word socialism. So many people have the wrong idea of what it meansthat the socialists ought to scrap the word and start using something elseto mean what they stand for."

  Larry said gently, "Your father is a socialist?"

  "Oh, no."

  He nodded in understanding. "Oh, a Communist, eh?"

  Susan Self was indignant. "Daddy thinks the Communists are strictly awful,really weird."

  Steve Hackett came back into the office. He said to Larry, "I sent acouple of the boys out to pick him up."

  Susan was on her feet, a hand to mouth. "You mean my father! You're goingto arrest him!"

  Larry said soothingly, "Sit down, Zusanette. There's a lot of things aboutthis that I'm sure your father can explain." He said to Steve, "She tellsme that the money belonged to a movement. A revolutionary movement whichdoesn't use the term revolutionary because people react unfavorably tothat word. It's not Commie."

  Susan said indignantly, "It's American, not anything foreign!"

  Steve growled, "Let's get back to the money. What's this movement doingwith a lot of counterfeit bills and where did you find them?"

  She evidently figured she'd gone too far now to take a stand. "It's notDaddy's fault," she said. "He took me to headquarters twice."

  "Where's headquarters?" Larry said trying to keep his voice soothing.

  "Well ... I don't know. Daddy was awfully silly about it. He tied hishandkerchief around my eyes near the end. But the others complained aboutme anyway, and Daddy got awfully mad and said something about the youngpeople of the country participating in their emancipation and all, but theothers got mad too, and said there wasn't any kind of help I could doaround headquarters anyway, and I'd be better off in school. Everybody gotawfully mad, but after the second time Daddy promised not to take me toheadquarters any more."

  "But where did you find the money, Zusannette?" Larry said.

  "At headquarters. There's tons and tons of it there."

  Larry cleared his throat and said, "When you say tons and tons, you mean agreat deal of it, eh?"

  She was proudly definite. "I mean tons and tons. A ton is two thousandpounds."

  "Look, Zusanette," Larry said reasonably. "I don't know how much moneyweighs, exactly, but let's say a pound would be, say, a thousand bills."He took up a pencil and scribbled on a pad before him. "A pound of fiftieswould be $50,000. Then if you multiply that by 2,000 pounds to make a ton,you'd have $100,000,000. And you say there's tons and tons?"

  "And that's just the fifties," Susan said triumphantly. "So you can seethe two little packages I picked up aren't really important at all. It'sjust like I found them."

  "I don't think there's quite a thousand bills in a pound," Steve saidweakly.

  Larry said, "How much other money is there?"

>   "Oh, piles. Whole rooms. Rooms after rooms. And hundred dollar bills, andtwenties, and fives, and tens--"

  Larry said, "Look, Zusanette, I don't think you're in any position to betelling us whoppers. This whole story doesn't make much sense, does it?"

  Her mouth tightened. "I'm not going to say