Phillips swallowed a superior smile. “The O. R. Daley’s tied up now and loading. When the ship is casting off all the elevator people are gone and everyone connected with the ship has an assignment. They wouldn’t pay much attention to a guy on the wharf.”

“Someone must have seen him,” I said stubbornly. “What about it, Mr. Margolis? Any problem with you if I talk to the men on the elevator?”

Margolis shrugged. “Everyone liked your cousin, Miss Warshawski. If they’d seen anything they’d have come forward with it by now … But you think it’ll do some good I don’t mind. They’ll break for lunch in two shifts starting in twenty-five minutes.”

I scanned the wharf. “Maybe you could show me exactly where my cousin went in.”

“We really don’t know,” Phillips responded, his deep voice trying to hide impatience. “But if it will make you feel better in some way … Pete, maybe you could take Miss Warshawski down.”

Margolis looked back at the elevator, hesitated, then reluctantly agreed.

“This isn’t the ship that was here then, is it?”

“No, of course not,” Phillips said.

“Know which one was?” I asked.

“There’s no way of knowing that,” Phillips said, just as Margolis said, “The Bertha Krupnik.”

“Well, maybe you’re right.” Phillips gave a strained smile. “I keep forgetting that Pete here has the day-to-day details of this operation at his fingertips.”

“Yup. It was supposed to be the Lucella Wieser. Then she had that accident—water in the hold or something—and they brought up three old tubs to take her load. The Bertha was the last of ’em. Pilot’s an old friend of mine. He like to’ve lost his lunch when he heard about Boom Boom … your cousin, I mean. He was a hockey fan himself.”

“Where’s the Bertha Krupnik now?”

Margolis shook his head. “No way of knowing that. She’s one of Grafalk’s, though. You could ask them. Their dispatcher would know.” He hesitated for a minute. “You might want to check with the Lucella. She was tied up over there.” He pointed across the old boat at our feet to another pier about two hundred yards away. “They moved her over out of the way while they cleaned out her holds. She moved out yesterday or the day before.” He shook his head. “Don’t think anyone’s going to be able to tell you anything, though. You know what people are like. If they’d seen your cousin go in they’d have said something fast enough at the time.”

Unless they were embarrassed at not doing anything to help, I thought. “Where’s Grafalk’s office?”

“Do you really want to go there, Miss Warshawski?” Phillips asked. “It’s not the kind of place you should just go into without some sort of credential or justification.”