I moved forward. “Perhaps I can be of some assistance. I’m subletting the apartment to this lady. She’s just moving in. Do I understand that you were living here also?”
“No. I was in Los Angeles, carrying on my work. My wife came on here and had this address. As I understand it, she lived in this very apartment.”
He whipped some folded papers from his inside pocket, unfolded them, looked at something, nodded, and said, “That’s right.”
The big man standing behind him seemed to feel called upon to say something.
“Dat’s right,” he agreed.
Cutler turned to him quickly. “This is the place, Goldring?”
“This is the place. I was standing right here when she opened—”
Cutler interrupted hastily: “I appreciate, of course, that it’s a forlorn chance, but I couldn’t locate the landlady tonight, and I was thinking that perhaps you might have been here for some time, might have known something of the previous tenants, and would be willing to help me.”
Bertha said, “I’ve been here about five hours—”
I laughed and said, “ I’m the one that’s been here for some time. Wouldn’t you gentlemen care to come in and sit down for a moment?”