“Good morning! Something I can do for you?”
“You’re Mrs. Cool?”
“That’s right.”
“Bertha Cool, one of the partners of the firm of Cool & Lam?”
“That right,” Bertha said, smiling. “Just tell me what I can do for you. Lots of agencies only handle certain types of cases. We take anything — that there’s money in.” She smiled reassuringly.
The man’s hand went to his inside pocket. “Very well, Mrs. Cool,” he said, “you can take these.”
He shoved some papers into Bertha’s hand. She reached for them, looked at the typewriting on the folded backs and said, “What’s this?”
The answer came with machine-gun rapidity. “Action filed in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. Imogene Dearborne, plaintiff, versus Bertha Cool, defendant. You have there copies of summons and complaint as Bertha Cool an individual, and Bertha Cool a co-partner. Here’s your original summons calling your attention to the seal of court and—”
Bertha drew back the hand that held the papers, started to throw them at him.
“Don’t do it,” the man warned, rattling off the words in rapid-fire tempo without even a pause as he switched in his talk from a description of the papers to the recitation of a formula. “It won’t get you anywhere. If you’re sore, go tell your lawyer about it, don’t blame it on me. That’s all. Thank you. Good morning.”