Champagne for One

"That’s a long story. Also complicated. Just say I’m nosy by nature, that’s why I’m in the detective business. Maybe I’m trying to scare up a client. Anyway, I’m not asking you to attend a death by poisoning, as you did me, though you didn’t know it. I just want you to make a phone call."

"I can’t, Archie."

"No? Why not?"

"Because I’m not in a position to. It wouldn’t be- It might look as if- I mean I just can’t do it."

"Okay, forget it. I’ll have to feed some other curiosity-I’ve got plenty. For instance, my curiosity about why you asked me to fill in for you because you had such a cold you could hardly talk when you didn’t have a cold-at least not the kind you tried to fake, I haven’t told the cops about that, your faking the cold, so I guess I’d better do that and ask them to ask you why. I’m curious."

"You’re crazy. I did have a cold. I wasn’t faking."

"Nuts. Take care of yourself. I’ll be seeing you, or the cops will."

Silence, a short one. "Don’t hang up, Archie."

"Why not? Make an offer."

"I want to talk this over. I want to see you, but I don’t want to leave here because I’m expecting a phone call. Maybe you could come here?"

"Where is here?"

"My apartment. Eighty-seven Bowdoin Street, in the Village. It’s two blocks south-"

"I know where it is. I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Take some aspirin."

When I had hung up, Fritz, who was at the sink, turned to say, "As I thought, Archie. I knew there would be a client, since you were there."

I told him I’d have to think that over to decide how to take it, and went to the office to tell the conference it would have to manage without me for a while.

Chapter Seven

There’s no telling what 87 Bowdoin Street had been like a few years back-or rather, there is, if you know the neighbourhood-but someone had spent some dough on it, and it wasn’t at all bad when you got inside. The tile floor was a nice dark green, the walls were a lighter green but the same tone, and the frame of the entrance for the do-it-yourself elevator was outlined with a plain wide strip of dull aluminium. Having been instructed over the intercom in the vestibule, I entered the elevator and pushed the button marked 5.