Dinner at Flapjacks had not been the event I had imagined but Evelyn's lead about the Mad Maze Gallery got me out of the office and Daisy's volcanic glare. 

I parked on the street and walked up to the front entrance. The wall outside was covered in abstract designs. Some call it art - I call it graffiti. I went inside and a guy with a large brush and an artist's pallet was doing the lobby in a similar fashion.

He nodded me toward the inside and I wandered through a room of paintings and some sculptures to a door marked, Office - please knock.

I knocked and went in. A young man sat behind a big desk covered in catalogues and drawings.

"You Raven?" I asked. He had a bit of a mangled ear and I wondered if there was some van Gough influence involved.

He looked up and nodded.

"I'm looking for a man named Crooked Smile. I understand he works here?"

Raven gave me the once over and asked who I was. I told him and he picked up his phone and dialed a number. There were some mumbled words I couldn't make out then he hung up and said, "Top floor."

I just nodded back; conversation was getting too intense.

The top floor was one big room of bare walls and various sized canvases stacked against the wall. A large skylight looked down on an easel with a large canvas being attacked by a super focused artist.

I walked over and looked at the painting. It was actually something I could recognize and before I could speak, he turned around on his stool and humphed.

"You Gunn, the P.I.?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"Let's just say a model I painted once tipped me."

Daisy! Why would she?"

"So whadda ya want to know?"

I would be talking with her at great length. 

"What can you tell me about Shamus McGinty that would get him zotzed in an alley?"

"You should be asking them two broads that have the biggest interest in his business dealings."

"Which two?"

"The ones that own the Baker's Tin and The Ritzy Muffin. McGinty was movin' their product ever since prohibition then suddenly there was a break in the chain."

"Meaning?"

"Shamus wanted a bigger cut." 

He turned back to the painting and began working again. 

"Say . . . that model you painted. You wouldn't have any uh . . . sketches . . . ?"

No reply. I guess not. My little interview was over. 

***************

So Shamus was trying to wangle a bigger cut. That little fact threw a different light on the two women I didn't really want to bug. Miss Caroline Grace and Myna Darkly might know a lot more about this than they let on.

I wasn't sure how to deal with them. Caroline Grace was a potential source of serious cabbage and I also didn't want to damage a free muffin source

Maybe a drive past my cop friends might give me some poop - or I could be real gutsy and visit Lulu, McGinty's wife.

We had a nodding acquaintance once - before Brody. 

***************

I knew most of the players in this little drama but there was one that knew more, my old pal Unger. They called him 'The Book' 'cause he had one on everybody that mattered when it came to wheelin' and dealin'.

The problem with Unger was he didn't work for nothing. I found him in the back of his favourite gin mill reading the financial page of the paper and snacking on licorice allsorts. 

"Ah, Mr. Tres Gunn, greetings."

I gave a stubby wave and slid into the booth beside him. He glanced at the gorilla standing at ease beside him and the man melted away into a dark corner of the bar.

"So, Mr. Gunn, to what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Shamus McGinty."

Owl eyes closed sleepily. "That's who not what, Mr. Gunn."

"C'mon, Unger."

"And am I to presume you have the prerequisite compensation for my significant wisdom?"

"You know I'm good for it."

There was a grating, guttural laugh and he patted my hand, leaving it resting on my fingers.

"My dear boy, that was accepted several exchanges ago. I'm afraid the bank is closed."

***************

Swell.

My secretary is ambushing my interviews and my so called friends are clamming up. Maybe Crooked Smile offered the best lead. With a plan, such as it was, I headed back to the office and a chat with Daisy.