“When was the second time you met her?”
“Last night. She came in and gave me the key; said Josephine Dell had a job working for a man who did a lot of travelling and wasn’t going to be here, so they were giving up the apartment. There’s a provision in the signed rules by which the tenant agrees to pay a cleaning charge on moving out of the apartment. The cleaning charge on this apartment was five dollars. I asked Myrna Jackson about it. She said that she was not going to pay half of it, that she wasn’t going to move into a place for four weeks, and then pay two dollars and a half to have it cleaned, when the person who was already in there was obligated to pay the whole five dollars anyway. It seems the girls had had some words about it. I think they finally compromised, and Myrna Jackson paid a dollar, and Josephine paid four. I know there was some kind of a settlement they worked out. I think they were both a little upset about it; but it was Myrna Jackson who finally gave me the keys and the envelope with the cleaning charge in it. I told Miss Jackson that if she wanted to stay on in the place alone the raise in rent wouldn’t be effective. Miss Jackson really seems like a nice sort, exactly the type I like for tenants.”
“Did she stay?”
The manager laughed. “She did not. She said she had nothing against me personally, but that I could tell the bank that owned the place she wouldn’t stay in it if it was the last apartment on earth. It seemed she’d packed up her things and moved that afternoon. She came back to adjust matters with Miss Dell and get the cleaning charge straightened out. Miss Jackson seemed rather flushed and angry. I gathered the two girls had had some words.”
“And she left a forwarding address?” Bertha asked.
“There’s ten dollars in it for me?”
“Yes.”
“When I give the address?”
“No. When I find her.”
“How do I know you’ll tell me when you find her?”