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“She’s busy,”
said the woman and kept typing.
“I sometimes suspected that the mysterious E. M. Hock was a she.”
“What aroused your suspicion?”
“A higher than usual degree of horse sense in her reporting and a distinct shortage of bombast. What’s the E. M. stand for?”
“Edna Matters.”
“Why keep it secret?”
“To derail expectations. Who are you?”
“Isaac Bell. Van Dorn Detective Agency.”
She turned around, looked him over with severe gray-green eyes softened only slightly by the boyish cut of her hair. “Are you the private detective who just happened to be with Mr. Hopewell when he was shot?”
Her ears, thought Bell, were exquisite, and he was struck forcibly by how attractive a woman could be with the shortest hair he had ever seen.
“We’re investigating for the Corporations Commission.”
“Do you know anything about oil?”
“I’m an expert.”
A dark eyebrow rose skeptically. “Expert? How? Did you work in the oil fields?”
“No, Miss Matters.”
“Did you study chemical engineering?”
“No.”
“Then how’d you become an expert?”
“I read your articles.”
She turned away, poised her fingers over the typewriter keys, and stared at the sheet of paper in the machine. She banged away at the keys. A smile quirked the corner of her mouth and she stopped typing.
“O.K., we have something in common, Mr. Bell: Private detectives flatter their subjects as shamelessly as newspaper reporters to make them talk.”
“I sincerely meant to compliment E. M. Hock’s History of the Under- and Heavy-handed Oil Monopoly. You’re a wonderful wordsmith, and you seem to be in command of your facts.”
“Thank you.”
“Besides, I would not bore a beautiful woman by flattering her good looks, which she must hear every day.”
“Mr. Bell, do me the courtesy of leaving my ‘womanliness’ out of this conversation.”
That would be like discussing the nature of daylight without mentioning the sun—a concept Isaac Bell kept to himself in the interest of garnering evidence from a savvy newspaper reporter sent to cover the fire.
—
“Are you by any chance related to Bill Matters?”
“He’s my father.”
