“All the more reason why I should have a talk with her,” he said. “These things can usually be arranged.”
“Don’t be too sure about that. Then there’s this little incident that happened to me,” I said mildly. “I was also kidnapped and held prisoner for five days, and also had a certain amount of drug pumped into me. That’s another little thing that should he reported to the police.”
“Why talk yourself out of a good job?” he returned, and for the first time since I had been in the room he allowed himself a slight grin. “I was about to suggest an extra retainer: say another five hundred dollars.”
That made my new hat a certainty.
“That tempts me. We might call it an insurance against risks,” I said. “But it would have to be over and above the fee you will pay for the work we are doing.”
“That’s all right.”
“Well, perhaps we might leave Anona Freedlander for the moment and go on with the story,” I said. “There’s quite a bit more; it gets better as it goes along.”
He pushed back his chair and got up. I watched him cross to a cellaret against the opposite wall and return with a bottle of Haigh & Haigh and two small glasses.
“Do you use this stuff?” he asked as he sat down again.
I said I used it whenever I could.