Someone would have come along sooner or later to open this Valentino's Pandora's box. (The definition of “Pandora's Box” being a “present which seems valuable but which is actually a curse”)
It was not that they left a little pirates map with footsteps telling me where to go and a big X over the spot. But they were very sloppy in their subterfuge and left a trail of clues because of that. It took a while but it was not so hard to piece those clues together.
I had this plan long ago when Affairs Valentino was finally in print... to inscribe a copy to Bill Self and go to his home with it. I planned to hand it to him personally and say, “There's no such thing as the perfect crime, Bill.”
So very much was hidden long before Bill Self arrived to bankroll the further hiding of it all. And boy they crammed that box full didn't they? (Or should I say crates from Ullman's garage?) It would have taken seasoned criminals to pull off what they all tried to do. But realistically how long did they think they could sell the world that cardboard cutout version of Valentino and bury the man with their suffocating fiction? How long could they have hidden the truth? Someone would have come along sooner or later.
….”Pandora's Box”? Or “Pandora's” typewriter? Blessing or Curse, that is the question.
