“You were frightened away?”
“Yes.”
“What frightened you?”
“A young, well-dressed chap I thought was a detective.”
“Why, whatever happened, Mr. Lam?”
I said, “He was tall and was wearing a grey double-breasted suit and was smoking a cigarette. He got out of his car at just about the same time I did, and looked me over. Then he walked past me and came up the steps and rang the bell here at the house. I drove around the block and parked where I could watch his car. I waited for him to come out. I thought — well, I felt sure that he was a detective working for the insurance company and checking up on me. I almost passed you up. But your case was exactly typical of the cases I wanted to investigate, so I decided to make another try.”
“He wasn’t a detective,” she said, “surely he wasn’t a detective. He’s — why, he’s a nice young man, just the same as you are.”
I laughed and said, “Well, that’s a load off my mind. He’s a friend, then. You’ve known him for a while?”
“Not too long.”
I waited.