Treasury Department

The Treasury Department enters the investigation through a government contract for specialized paper, not currency. The bidding process placed Herbert Everly, Kane Asche, and Hauck Exman among company representatives in Washington at the same time, creating a possible link that Detective Burton pursues even though a meeting between the three has not been proved.

Role in the Contract

Four or five years before Detective Burton discusses the matter with Burke Devore, the Treasury Department oversaw a government contract for a kind of special paper. Burke recalls that the work concerned import forms and anti-counterfeit material, rather than money. His employer at the time did not bid: the product was not quite within its line, and the company was not seeking additional business.

The Washington Representatives

Companies competing for the contract sent representatives to Washington to speak with Treasury personnel. Burke recalls that his former company stayed out of the bidding, while Detective Burton explains that other companies took part. Among their representatives were Everly, Asche, and Exman, all present in Washington at the same time.

Investigative Significance

The contract supplies a concrete occasion on which the three men could have encountered one another. Burke recognizes the episode as a possible explanation for their connection, but the conversation establishes only that they were there together; it does not prove that they met. Detective Burton nevertheless treats the shared setting as significant, adding that he had spoken with Exman a couple of weeks earlier and disliked the way he acted. The Treasury Department’s role is therefore chiefly evidentiary: its contract brings the men into the same place and period, giving the investigation a plausible link without resolving what passed between them.