I said, “That’s why I asked you if you’d had much experience with Bertha Cool. My best guess is that she’ll say that all we were employed for was to find her.”
“And that having found her, your employment is completed, and you’re entitled to the bonus?”
“Exactly.”
I waited for him to get mad. He didn’t. He sat there on the floor, staring at the gun and the yellowed newspaper clippings. A smile twitched at the corners of his mouth; then the smile became a chuckle. “Damn it. Lam, she’s right! Here I am, a lawyer, and I stick my neck out on an agreement of that sort.”
He looked up at me.
I didn’t say anything.
He said, “That is the agreement in a nutshell. I remember the way it was worded now.” He laughed outright.
I said, “I thought I’d tell you, that’s all.”
“Well,” he admitted, “that’s one on me. Okay, I’ll hire the firm all over again and arrange for another bonus. I like the way you work. In the meantime, we’d better get in touch with the police about this gun.”
“What are you going to tell them?”