It was not a plan that Verna could carry out for herself, however, which was why (after she had called Coretta on Sunday evening) she had put on a sweater and walked to the diner for a talk with Myra May. She told the whole story, from start to finish, laying all her cards on the table. But while Myra May had been intrigued by Verna’s suspicions (she read the newspapers and listened to the radio and was as interested as the next person in what those gangsters were doing up there in Chicago), she had at first said a firm “no” to Verna’s proposal, which appeared to violate certain important rules of the Darling Telephone Exchange.

But after Verna have finished explaining her plan and why she felt it was necessary, and especially after she had offered to work on the switchboard during the next day’s noon dinner hour (the diner’s busiest time), Myra May had agreed. With Lenore gone to Mobile for a few days and Violet still up in Memphis taking care of her dead sister’s new baby, Myra May was stretched as thin as a rubber band and just about as ready to snap. Most times of the day, she could handle both the diner and the switchboard if she had to, but not during the noon dinner rush, so Verna’s offer was welcome. Anyway, both Myra May and Verna were Dahlias, and Myra May knew that another Dahlia wouldn’t ask for that kind of help unless she really needed it.

Verna’s plan—she thought of it as Phase One—had two parts. The first part involved a phony telegram, which she wrote on one of the blank Western Union forms she got at the Exchange. There were three short sentences: MR C WANTS YOU CALL NOON MONDAY STOP USE PHONE BOOTH STOP NOT HOTEL PHONE STOP. It was not signed. She paid Mr. Musgrove’s boy to deliver this fake telegram to the hotel on Sunday night.

To Verna’s analytic mind, the telegram was a very simple test, with two—and only two—possible outcomes. If Mr. Gold passed the test by making the call, it was because he was a member of the Capone gang and knew who Mr. C was and how to reach him. If he didn’t make the call and therefore failed the test, it was because he had no idea who he was supposed to call, at what number. Of course, failing the test didn’t mean that the man wasn’t up to some nefarious purpose. It just meant that he wasn’t connected to those gangsters in Cicero.