Before Midnight

I thought, my God, all for nothing, he's got another idea about splitting the pot and yanked me up here to sell it. I took a chair and he sat on the edge of the bed, which hadn't been made.

"I just got something in the mail," he said, "and I'm not sure what to do with it. I could give it to the police, but I don't want to. The ones I've seen haven't impressed me. Do you know a Lieutenant Rowcliff?"

"I sure do. You can have him."

"I don't want him. Then there's those advertising men with Dahlmann at that meeting, that's where I met them, but I've seen them since, and they don't impress me either. I was going to phone a man I know in Chicago, a lawyer, but it would take a lot of explaining on the phone, the whole mess. So I thought of you. You know all about it, and when you were here the other day I offered you a drink. When I offer a man a drink without thinking, that's a good sign. I can go by that as well as anything. I've got to do something about this and do it quick, and the first thing is to show it to you and see what you say."

He took an envelope from his pocket, looked at it, looked at me, and handed it over. I inspected the envelope of ordinary cheap white paper, which had jagged edges where it had been torn open. Typewritten address to Mr. Philip Younger, Churchill Hotel. No return address front or back. Three-cent stamp, postmarked Grand Central Station 11:00 PM APR 17 1955. It contained a single sheet of folded paper, and I took it out and unfolded it. It was medium-grade sulphide bond, with nothing printed on it, but with plenty of something typewritten. It was headed at the top in caps: ANSWERS TO THE FIVE VERSES DISTRIBUTED ON APRIL 12TH. Below were the names of five women, with a brief commentary on each. I kept my face deadpan as I ran over them and saw that they were the real McCoy.

"Well," I said, "this is interesting. What is it, a gag?"

"That's the trouble--or one trouble. I'm not sure. I think it's the real answers, but I don't know. I'd have to go to a library and check. I was going to, and then I thought this is dynamite, and I thought of you. Isn't that the first--hey, I want that! That's mine!"