“Thanks, but I don’t like their coffee. Let’s go across the street to that restaurant.”
“Their coffee is perfectly atrocious.”
Crumweather kept holding my right hand. He looked back over his shoulder toward the door of the restaurant as though expecting something to happen. Nothing did. Reluctantly, he let me withdraw my hand from his. “You haven’t told me about the oil.”
“Going fine,” I said.
“By the way, I find we have some mutual friends.”
“Yes?”
“Yes. Miss Ashbury. Miss Alta Ashbury. I have taken the liberty of asking her to be at my office tomorrow afternoon. I know she’s a very popular young woman and can’t arrange her time to suit the convenience of a crusty old lawyer, but you might impress upon her, Mr. Lam, that it would be very much to her advantage to be there.”
“I’ll tell her if I see her.”
“Well, come and join me in a cup of coffee.”
I shook my head. “No, thanks.”