Champagne for One

"This is Laidlaw. I’ve got to see Wolfe. Quick."

"He’s here. Come ahead."

"I’m afraid to. I just left the District Attorney’s office and got a taxi, and I’m being followed. I was on my way to see Wolfe about what happened at the District Attorney’s office but now I can’t because they mustn’t know I’m running to Wolfe. What do I do?"

"Any one of a dozen things. Shaking a tail is a cinch, but of course you haven’t had any practice. Where are you?"

"In a booth in a drugstore on Seventh Avenue near Sixteenth Street."

"Have you dismissed your taxi?"

"Yes. I thought that was better."

"It was. How many men are in the taxi tailing you?"

"Two."

"Then they mean it. Okay, so do we. First, have a Coke or something to give me time to get a car-say, six or seven minutes. Then take a taxi to Two-fourteen East Twenty-eighth Street. The Perlman Paper Company is there on the ground floor." I spelled Perlman. "Got that?"

"Yes."

"Go in and ask for Abe and say to him, ‘Archie wants some more candy.’ What are you going to say to him?"

"Archie wants some more candy."

"Right. He’ll take you on through to Twenty-seventh Street, and when you emerge I’ll be there in front, either at the curb or double-parked, in a grey Heron sedan. Don’t hand Abe anything, he wouldn’t like it. This is part of our personalized service."

"What if Abe isn’t there?"

"He will be, but if he isn’t don’t mention candy to anyone else. Find a booth and ring Mr Wolfe."

I hung up, scribbled "Laidlaw" on my pad, tore the sheet off, and got up and handed it to Wolfe. "He wants to see you quick," I said, "and needs transportation. I’ll be back with him in half an hour or less."

He nodded, crumpled the sheet, and dropped it in his wastebasket; and I wished the trio luck on their mother hunt and went.

At the garage, at the corner of Tenth Avenue, I used the three minutes while Hank was bringing the car down to go to the phone in the office and ring the Perlman Paper Company, and got Abe. He said he had been wondering when I would want more candy and would be glad to fill the order.