"Live in the third person?"
"Haven't you noticed? It was never 'I'm doing this' or 'I'd like that' with Roy. It was always 'Roy Audibon is getting an idea' or 'Roy Audibon would like a drink.' He was his own audience. What was the matter with you in the taxi, Jordan?"
She took the wind out of him. He could never accustom himself to the sudden corners in her conversation. Each time he imagined he had concealed something from her, she waited patiently and then came around a corner unexpectedly into the heart of the concealment.
"Was it anything to do with the enemies you were talking about?" she asked.
"Yes," he said. "That's it exactly."
"Do you want to talk about it now?"
"Let's find a place."
They pushed through the crowd. The party was getting high and many men laid loving hands on Gabby. When she gently disengaged herself, they persisted in following her, offering drinks, cigarettes, canapes, conversation, or any other service she required. Lennox was annoyed and reminded of the three men at the McVeagh party who had offered to take the drunken professor home for her. Gabby couldn't help acquiring a coterie of men anxious to make themselves useful.
Suidi's private office was jammed. Le Jazz Hot goggled at Lennox and waved to him, excitedly trying to thank him. Lennox shook his head in warning and left. He and Gabby tried the stock rooms. They were all occupied. In a wrapping room stacked with acetate blanks were Cooper and Tooky Ween. Cooper was flustered and almost incoherent. Ween was aggressive.
As Lennox was about to withdraw, he heard Ween say: "Then we got to work up some other kind of financial arrangement on our tune." Jake stopped and squeezed Gabby's elbow in warning.