I blinked. “Listen, lady,” I broke in. “Maybe you can tell me what happened? I’ve been away for a few days, an’ I’ve got some news to catch up on.”
“Why, surely.” She was ready to give me the whole set-up. I could see that. The trouble was that when a dame like this once got started, it was difficult to stop her. Anyway, I told myself, I’d got the whole day, so I should worry.
“You go right ahead an’ tell me all about it,” I said, lighting a cigarette and giving her one.
Her eyes grew big again. “Well, I don’t know if I ought… but you being her boy friend… well, it’s different, isn’t it? I mean to say… I wouldn’t tell anyone… what I mean is I don’t go talking about people to anyone…. Well, I guess you can read character… you can tell that, can’t you?”
I said, “Sure. Don’t you worry about that.”
“Well, Mardi came back from lunch about a week ago… she seemed all up in the air… sort of dreamy… and the girls thought she’d been out with her beau or something… then Lu calls her in… Lu is Mr. Spencer, the big shot of our firm… but I expect you’d know that… well, Mardi goes in and she stays inside for some time… then I heard Lu getting mad… he gets awful mad sometimes… he shouts and bangs around no end… well, I thought Mardi was getting into trouble, so I listened outside the door…. I don’t do that ever, really… you see, Mardi was a friend of mine…. I just thought I’d be there in case Lu got really mad… but he shouted so much I couldn’t hear what he said. Mardi said, ‘I’m sorry, Mr. Spencer, but it’s really my own business who I lunch with’, and that made Lu crazy as a bug… by that time some of the other girls had come and were listening…. Lu says it’s okay with him… but Mardi could pack up and get out… so she comes out quietly… you know how like a lady she behaves… and away she goes. Lu comes out and stands in the doorway and watches her go… we don’t have a chance to say good-bye… that’s all I can tell you.”
I said, “Haven’t you heard from her since?”
She shook her head. “No… I just can’t make it out. We’ve all been waiting to hear from her… but not a word.”
“Do you know where she lives?” I asked.
She wasn’t as dumb as I thought she was. Her eyes suddenly hardened. “Hey!” she said. “You her boy friend, and you don’t know where she lives?”