“She is within thirty days of the end of her rope. In fact, she’d gone through everything she had more than a month ago. She’s been getting by ever since on desperate expedients, and on the strength of the fact that her credit has always been good. She came to Los Angeles in order to persuade her daughter, Mabel, to throw Everett Belder over, get a divorce, and live with Mrs. Goldring and Carlotta — furnishing the entire finances, of course.”
“You seem to know a lot about it.”
“I’ve made it my business to know everything that concerns Carlotta’s welfare.”
“All right, where do I come in? Exactly what do you want me to do?”
Her visitor smiled. “It seems such a simple thing,” she said, “simple — and yet so terribly, so vitally important.”
“Well, come on. What is it?”
“I want some information.”
Bertha said with a touch of sarcasm, “You’d be surprised how many of my clients do.”
The woman smiled, opened her purse, took out a flat wallet. She flipped this open and took out a fifty-dollar bill. She tossed it casually on Bertha’s desk. “I’m paying you in advance, you see.”
Bertha’s eyes caressed the money, then shifted to her visitor. “What’s it for?”