knew he wasn't using it himself, so who was? Another thing, the house hadn't been sold, and, doing a little snooping on my own account, I had learned that the asking price was a hundred and twenty thousand, which was plain silly. On the other hand, if Marko was getting money to Wolfe, that didn't prove that I was ever going to see him again, and there was no hurry about selling the house until the bank balance began to sag; and also there was Wolfe's safe deposit box. Visiting his safe deposit box was one item on the select list of purposes for which Wolfe had been willing to leave his house.
I did not really want to leave New York, especially to go as far as Norway. I had a feeling that I would about be passing Sandy Hook when word would come somehow, wire or phone or letter or messenger, to Thirty-fifth Street or 1019, in a code that I would understand-if I was there to get it. And if it did come I wanted to be there, or I might be left out of the biggest charade Wolfe had ever staged. But it hadn't been days or weeks, it had been months, and my friend was pretty good at several things, including riding me about hanging on forever to the short end of the stick, so we had reservations on a ship that sailed August twenty-sixth.
Four days before that, August twenty-second, a Tuesday afternoon, I was sitting at my desk at 1019, to keep an appointment with a man who had phoned. I had told him I was soon leaving for a month's vacation, and he hadn't felt like giving a name, but I thought I recognised the voice and had agreed to see him. When he walked in on the dot, at 3.15, I was glad to know that my memory for voices was holding up. It was my old cell mate, Max Christy.
I got up and we shook. He put his panama on the desk and glanced around. His black mop was cut a little shorter than it had been in April, but the jungle of his eyebrows hadn't been touched, and his shoulders looked just as broad in grey tropical worsted. I invited him to sit and he did.
“I must apologise, I said, “for never settling for that breakfast. It was a life-saver.
He waved it away. “The pleasure was mine. How's it going?
“Oh-no complaints. You?
“I've been extremely busy. He got out a handkerchief and dabbed at his face and neck. “I certainly sweat. Sometimes I think it's stupid, this constant back and forth, push and shove.
“Yes, I suppose so. You never phoned me. Did you?
“The number, I said, “is Churchill five, three two three two.
“But you never called it.
“No, sir, I admitted, “I didn't. One thing and another kept coming up, and then
I didn't care much for your line about if I got taken in and my being given a trial. I am by no means a punk, and the ink on my licence dried long ago. Here, look behind my ears.
He threw back his head and haw-hawed, then shut it off and told me soberly, “You got me wrong, Goodwin. I only meant we'd have to go slow on account of your record. He used the handkerchief on his forehead. “I certainly do sweat. Since then your name has been discussed a little, and I assure you, you are not regarded as a punk. We have noticed that you seem to have plenty of jobs since you opened this office, but so trivial for a man like you. Why did you turn down the offer from the Feds?
“Oh, they keep such long hours.
He nodded. “And you don't like harness, do you?
“I've never tried it and don't intend to.
“What have you got on hand now? Anything important?
“Nothing whatever, important or otherwise. I told you on the phone, I'm taking a vacation. Sailing Saturday.
He regarded me disapprovingly. “You don't need a vacation. If anybody needs a vacation it's me, but I don't get one. I've got a job for you.
I shook my head. “Not right now. When I get back maybe.
“It won't wait till you get back. There's a man we want tailed and we're short of personnel, and he's tough. We had two good men on him, and he spotted both of them. You would need at least two helpers; three would be better. You use men you know, handle that yourself, and pay them and expenses out of the five hundred a day you'll get.
I whistled. “What's so hot about it?
“Nothing. It's not hot.
“Then who's the subject, the Mayor?
“I'm not naming him. Perhaps I don't even know. It's merely a straight tailing job, but it has to be watertight and no leaks. You can net three hundred a day easy.
“Not without a hint who he is or what he looks like. I waved it away. “Forget it. I'd like to oblige an old cell mate, but my vacation starts Saturday.
“Your vacation can wait. This can't. At ten o'clock tonight you'll be walking west on Sixty-seventh Street halfway between First and Second Avenues. A car will pick you up, with a man in it that wants to ask you some questions. If your answers suit him he'll tell you about the job-and it's your big chance, Goodwin.
It's your chance for your first dip into the biggest river of fast dough that ever flowed.
“What the hell, I protested, “you're not offering me a job, you're just giving me a chance to apply for one I don't want.
It was perfectly true at that point, and it was still true ten minutes later,when Max Christy left, that I didn't want the job, but I did want to apply for it. It wasn't that I had a hunch that the man in the car who wanted to ask me some questions would be Arnold Zeck, but the way it had been staged gave me the notion that it was just barely possible; and the opportunity, slim as it was, was too good to miss. It would be interesting to have a chat with Zeck; besides, he might give me an excuse to take a poke at him and I might happen to inadvertently break his neck. So I told Christy that I would be walking on
