I didn’t say anything, and Bertha went on after a minute, “She told me how important it was that the thing be handled so skilfully that the man would have no idea he was being shadowed or that anyone was checking up on him. In case he got wise, he’d report back to the aunt and then there would be the devil to pay. If the aunt thought the niece had hired private detectives, there’d be a real estrangement.”
“Meaning the niece wouldn’t inherit the aunt’s money under a will?”
Bertha said, “When I said an estrangement, what do you think I’m talking about? Of course it’d mean the loss of an inheritance. I told her it would be as smooth as a cake of wet soap on the bathroom floor. I guaranteed no one would know there was a thing in the wind.”
“You didn’t warn me to be that careful,” I said.
“Why should I? You’re supposed to know your way around. Anyhow, she paid in advance.”
“I just wanted to get it straight,” I said.
“Well, you’ve got it straight now.”
“And so you told her I’d take over the case?”
“That’s right. I told her I’d have you handle it personally; that it would cost more money that way, but that you were the best operator in the city.”
Bertha waited a few minutes, apparently thinking that over, then frowned, and Said, “When you come right down to it, something is screwy at that. This Bushnell babe wasn’t at all bad-looking.”