'Lehman did,' I said.
'Mr. Lehman has a remarkable memory.'
'May I see the file?'
'No, I'm sorry, but it is confidential. All our files are.' I thought about taking it. She must have sensed, that because she got up briskly and put it back in the file and locked it. 'Perhaps you'd like to see some of the facilities here?' she said, and opened her office door. Another of the King's African Rifles was standing at parade rest.
'Place looks like the Grambling locker room,' I said.
Gretchen smiled and we went along the corridor past the sentry and into the elevator. 'First floor is health club and screening,' she said.
'Nicely done,' I said.
'I beg your pardon?'
'You were afraid I might snatch the file on you so you locked it up and walked me out into the corridor past the footman without even hinting at distress. Very smooth.'
'I had no such fear,' Gretchen said.
'You should have,' I said. 'The minute you said it was confidential I wanted to see it'
'There's nothing in that file, Mr. Spenser. Confidentiality is simply our policy.'
'Sure,' I said.
We got off the elevator and walked a short paneled corridor and into the health club. It was carpeted and mirrored and staffed with female training assistants in white short shorts and yellow halter tops. To the left a waterfall cascaded down a marble wall into a full-size Olympic pool. There were two men in Speedo racing suits swimming laps. To the right was a bar that sold beer, wine coolers, Perrier, yogurt shakes, and fruit juice. There were also health sandwiches listed on a blackboard. Today's special was jack cheese, avocado slices, sunflower seeds, and alfalfa sprouts on seven-grain bread. The rest of the room was devoted to Nautilus equipment, a profusion of it in chrome and colors. Several men in state-of-the-art sweats were working out, while a training assistant stood by with their chart, offering water after each exercise and cheering them on.
'We have the most complete Nautilus setup in Massachusetts,' Gretchen said. 'We also have massage rooms, whirlpool, steam, sauna, inhalant and tanning rooms, each staffed by a highly trained professional.'
I opened a door marked MASSAGE. There was a plump guy getting a massage, a towel draped across his butt. The masseuse was dressed like the training assistant except that she had on yellow high-heeled backless shoes.
We moved on and looked at the racquetball courts. We went into the screening room, a small movie theater, attended by a young woman dressed like an old-time movie usher. 'We run a continuous program of adult entertainment,' Gretchen said, 'rather like the old newsreel theaters in train stations.'
The current feature showed a woman wearing horn-rimmed glasses and white stockings having intercourse with a skinny black-haired guy on the banister of a flight of stairs.
'Precarious,' I said.
'We have a library of several thousand adult film classics,' Gretchen said.
The woman on the screen told her lover in an excited way that she wanted 'more, more, more.'
'Classics,'' I said.
We went back in the elevator and went up a flight.
'This is the lounge and library,' Gretchen said.
It was a big room lined on three walls with books. Along the fourth wall was a bar. There were leather chairs and reading lamps and a cocktail waitress dressed like Hollywood's idea of a prim librarian stood near the bar with her round tray. No one else was there. The titles were mostly simple pornography with a scattering of works like The Decameron, to make the readers feel less like perverts. We moved on.
There was a restaurant staffed with waitresses dressed like French maids, a nightclub that opened after nine. I didn't ask what the waitresses wore.
'What's on the fourth floor?' I said.
'Guest rooms for the members.'
'Complete with hostesses?' I said.
Gretchen smiled. 'All of our girls are hostesses,' she said.
'Which kind of hostess was Ginger Buckey?' I said.
'I'm not sure, I think she was assigned to the guest floor.'
'What are the duties of a guest floor hostess?' I said.
'Maid service, butlery. There's a pantry there, they are a bit like a concierge, and there are enough so that the members get immediate personal attention at any hour.'
'Turn-down service, two chocolate mints on the pillow, that sort of thing,' I said.
'Among many others,' Gretchen said. 'The girls are there to serve the needs of the members.'
'Including sexual service,' I said.
'We are not a house of prostitution, Mr. Spenser. Nor are we a college dormitory. The girls are free to form relationships with the guests, should they choose to.'
