“And looked and listened?”

“Yes.”

“What did you see?”

I shook my head.

She got mad then. “Listen,” she said, “you’re either the damnedest fool I’ve ever seen, or the coolest. How did you know I wouldn’t call the cops when you didn’t slip me that two hundred under the table?”

“I didn’t.”

“You’d better get along with me. Do you know what’d happen if I took down that telephone receiver and called the cops? For God’s sake, be your age and snap out of it.”

I tried to blow a smoke ring.

She got to her feet and started toward the telephone. Her lips were clamped tightly, and her eyes were full of fire.

“Go ahead and call them,” I said. “I was getting ready to call them myself.”