a bum one. What do you think? Am I hearing noises?
Rackham picked up his drink, which hadn't been touched, took a little sip, about enough for a sparrow, and put it down again. He sat a while, licking his lips.
“I don't get you, he said wistfully.
“Then forget it. You're ail paid up. I've been known to guess wrong before.
“I don't mean that, I mean you. Why? What's your play?
“I told you, professional pride. If that's too fancy for you, consider how I was getting boxed in, with Zeck on my right and you on my left, I wanted a window open. If you don't like that either, just cross me off as screwy. You don't trust me anyhow. I merely thought that if my guess is good, and if I get approached with an offer of a leading part, and maybe even asked to help with the script, and if I decided I would like to consult you about it, it would be nice if we'd already met and got a little acquainted. I flipped a hand. “If you don't get me, what the hell, I'm ahead six thousand bucks.
I stood up. “One way to settle it, you could phone Zeck and ask him. That would be hard on me, but what can a double-crosser expect? So I'll trot along. I moved towards the door and was navigating a course through the scattered fragments of glass in the path when he decided to speak.
“Wait a minute, he said, still wistful. “You mentioned when you get approached.
“If I get approached.
“You will. That's the way they work. Whatever they offer, I'll top it. Come straight to me and I'll top it. I want to see you anyhow, every day-wait a minute. Come back and sit down. We can make a deal right now, for you to-
“No, I said, kind but firm. “You're so damn' scared it would be a temptation to bargain you out of your last pair of pants. Wait till you cool off a little and get some spunk back. Ring me any time. You understand, of course, we're still tailing you.
I left him.
Several times, walking downtown, I had to rein myself in. I would slow down to a normal gait, and in another block or so there I would be again, pounding along as fast as I could swing it, though all I had ahead was an open evening. I grinned at myself indulgently. I was excited, that was all. The game was on, I had pitched the first ball, and it had cut the inside corner above his knees.
Not only that, it was a game with no rules. It was hard to believe that Rackham could possibly go to Zeck or any of his men with it, but if he did I was on a spot hot enough to fry an egg, and Wolfe was as good as gone. That was why I had tried to talk Wolfe out of it. But now that I had started it rolling and there was no more argument, I was merely so excited that I couldn't walk slow if you paid me.
I had had it in mind to drop in at Rusterman's Restaurant for dinner and say hallo to Marko that evening, but now I didn't feel like sitting through all the motions, so I kept going to Eleventh Avenue, to Mart's Diner, and perched on a stool while I cleaned up a plate of beef stew, three ripe tomatoes sliced by me, and two pieces of blueberry pie. Even with a full stomach I was still excited.
It must have shown, I suppose in my eyes, for Mart asked me what the glow was about, and though I had never had any tendency to discuss my business with him,
I had to resist an impulse to remark casually that Wolfe and I had finally mixed it up with the most dangerous baby on two legs, one so tough that even Inspector
Cramer had said he was out of reach.
I went home and sat in the office all evening, holding magazines open as if I were reading them. All I really did was listen for the phone or doorbell. When the phone rang at ten o'clock and it was only Fred Durkin wanting to know where
Saul and the subject were, I was so rude that I hurt his feelings and had to apologise. I told him to cover the Churchill as usual, which was one of the factors that made it a burlesque, since that would have required four men at least. What I wanted to do so bad I could taste it was call the number Wolfe had given me, but that had been for emergency only. I looked emergency up in the dictionary, and got 'an unforeseen combination of circumstances which calls for immediate action. Since this was just the opposite, a foreseen combination of circumstances which called for getting a good night's sleep, I didn't dial the number. I did get the good night's sleep.
Saturday morning at 1019 I had to pitch another ball, but not to the same batter. The typing of Friday's reports required only the customary summarising of facts as far as Saul and Fred and Orrie were concerned, but my own share took time and thought. I had to account for the full time I had spent in Rackham's suite, since there was a double risk in it: the chance that I was being checked and had been seen entering and leaving, and the chance that Rackham had himself split a seam. So it was quite a literary effort and I spent three hours on it.
That afternoon, when Max Christy called to get the report as usual, and sat to look it over, I had papers on my desk which kept me so busy that I wasn't even aware if he sent me a glance when he got to the middle of the second page, where my personal contribution began. I looked up only when he finally spoke.
“So you had a talk with him, huh?
I nodded. “Have you read it?
“Yes. Christy was scowling at me.
“He seemed so anxious that I thought it would be a shame not to oblige him. It's my tender heart.
“You took his money.
“Certainly. He was wild to spend it.
“You told him you're working for Mrs Frey. What if he takes a notion to ask her?
“He won't. If he does, who will know who to believe or what? I warned him about me. By the way,
