“What do you mean?” Elsie asked.
Bertha said, “Dolly Cornish was in apartment 15B down at the Locklear Hotel Apartments. The place is as stiff as a starched collar. Put on your most grand-dame air. Don’t act human; look down your nose at the male impersonator that’s behind the counter. Tell him you want to look over his vacancies, if he has any. String him along.”
“When do you want me to do it?” Elsie asked.
“As soon as you can get a cab,” Bertha said. “I’ll be waiting around the corner. You’ll see me, but don’t speak to me. After you come out, walk around the corner and I’ll tag along.”
Bertha hung up the receiver, decided she had five minutes to wait before Elsie could possibly get there. She walked over to the news-stand, looked over some of the magazines, then strolled up to the corner, waiting. She saw Elsie Brand enter the apartment hotel, emerge some fifteen minutes later. Bertha sauntered around the corner and Elsie joined her.
“Well?” Bertha asked.
“Did I hand that clerk a line!” Elsie said. “He mentioned they’d require references for a single woman. I asked him if the Mayor of the city and the Governor of the state would be all right. He called an assistant manager to show me around. They only have two vacancies. One of them is 15B.”
“It’s vacant?” Bertha asked.
Elsie nodded.
Bertha frowned. “What would you do,” she asked, “if you were renting a piano, and wanted to move it?”