Belder added hastily, “Of course, Mrs. Cool, but they’re the women who are genuine; who don’t try to be something they aren’t. They’re the wholehearted, understanding women... Oh, you’d have to see Theresa to understand what I mean. She’s around forty-eight and she has hypnotized herself into the belief she looks about thirty-two. She’s still got a swell figure — I’ll say that for her. She keeps her weight down but— Oh, the hell with her. It makes me sick to talk about her.”
Bertha said, “You’re going to keep on talking about her just the same. We’ve got to find out where she’s connected with this letter. She has a stooge in it somewhere.”
“How do you mean?”
“If your wife is called on the telephone, the voice of the person talking to her must be that of a stranger; and the person she meets must be a total stranger. A friend would simply ring up and say, ‘Hello, Mabel. Don’t quote me in this, but that husband of yours is on the loose again!’ And her own mother could hardly ring her up and try to disguise her voice and say, ‘Mrs. Belder, I’m a stranger to you, but I—’ Do you get me?”
“I get you,” Belder said.
“Therefore,” Bertha pointed out, “your mother-in-law has a stooge. Someone who’s a stranger to your wife. She’ll ring up, say, ‘Mrs. Belder, I’m the one who wrote you that letter. Would you like to talk with me?... Well, I can’t come to your house for certain obvious reasons, but if you’ll meet me — etc. etc.’ Do you get me?”
“I get you.”
Bertha heaved herself wearily out of her chair. “Well, I guess I’ve got to follow your wife, find out who she meets, shadow that person to Mrs. Goldring— Hell, it’s going to be a chore.”
Belder said, “Once you’ve done it, though, we can go to my wife and show her that her mother has been—”
“Don’t be silly,” Bertha interrupted. “Mrs. Goldring would say we were all liars and make her daughter believe her. No, we’ll go to Mrs. Goldring then.”