“But why pick up this construction job?”
“Oh, I just saw an opportunity to get in on something.”
“That doesn’t sound convincing to me.” I waited.
Bertha took a deep breath. “Dammit,” she said, “I’ve got a lot of executive ability. Since you came in as a partner, I have been doing too much deep-sea fishing. Sitting out there on the barge, and thinking about the way that young boys are dying, just because us older folks haven’t carried out our share of the responsibility— Well, we’ve gone into this construction business, and that’s all there is to it. Don’t bother too much about it. I’ll call on you from time to time for anything I need, but for the most part Bertha can handle it.”
The telephone rang before I could say anything.
Bertha snatched up the receiver with an eagerness which showed how much she welcomed the interruption. She held it to her ear, said, “Hello! Oh, hello — I was trying to get you. Where are you... No, no. I was trying to get you... Oh, you did. Well, isn’t that strange? Well, tell me what you have to say first... Oh, all right, if you insist. Better brace yourself. We’ve got some news for you... That’s right. We’ve found her. Down at the Gulfpride Apartments on St. Charles Avenue... No. The Gulfpride. G-u-l-f-p-r-i-d-e. That’s it... Oh, that’s a professional secret. We’ve got our way of uncovering leads. It was a pretty cold trail, but we’ve been working like dogs ever since you left. You’d be surprised at the number of leads we’ve run down... No, I haven’t talked with her yet. Donald did... Yes, my partner, Donald Lam.”
There was an interval during which I could hear the rasping, metallic sound of his voice coming through the telephone transmitter. Bertha sat there and listened. She said, “Well-yes-I guess I can.”
She looked at me, hurriedly thrust her palm over the transmitter, and said, “He wants me to go down there and see her early in the morning.”
“Why not?”
She hastily removed her hand from the mouthpiece, said, “Yes, Mr. Hale, I understand,” clapped her palm back over it, and said, “He wants me to cultivate her, win her confidence, pump her.”