Even if she didn't know anything, she
was still edging him into an untenable position. He hastily shifted from
the attempt to identify his business with the label, "private detective
agency."
"Well, here, Mrs. Fleming," he explained. "My business, including
armed-guard and protected-delivery service, and general investigation
and protection work, requires some personal supervision, but none of
it demands my exclusive attention. Now, if you wanted some routine
investigation made, I could turn it over to my staff, maybe put two or
three men to work on it. But there's nothing about this business of yours
that I could delegate to anybody; I'd have to do it all myself, at the
expense of neglecting the rest of my business. Now, I could do what you
want done, but it would cost you three or four times what you'd gain by
retaining me."
"Well, let me decide that, Colonel," she replied. "How much would you
have to have?"
"Well, this collection of your late husband's consists of some
twenty-five hundred pistols and revolvers, all types and periods," Rand
said. "You want me to catalogue it, appraise each item, issue lists, and
negotiate with prospective buyers. The cataloguing and appraisal alone
would take from a week to ten days, and it would be a couple more weeks
until a satisfactory sale could be arranged.
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