When the cab had pulled away, I went into the dining-room, had a good breakfast, went up to my room, stretched out in a chair with my feet propped on another chair, and read the morning paper while I was waiting for Hale.
He arrived shortly after ten o’clock.
I shook hands and said, “Well, you certainly made a quick round trip.”
He pulled his lips back from his teeth in his characteristic smile. “I did for a fact,” he admitted. “I didn’t realize I was teamed up with two such fast workers. What happened to Mrs. Cool? I inquired for her, and they said she’d checked out.”
“Yes. She was called back to Los Angeles on an emergency — war work.”
“Oh,” he said. “You’re doing work for the F.B.I, then.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Well, you intimated as much.”
I said, “I’m not familiar with all the partnership business, but I don’t think we are.”
He grinned. “If you were, you wouldn’t admit it?”