“On my own,” I interrupted.
Dr. Alftmont nodded.
The woman had kept her eyes on me in steady appraisal. She said, “Go ahead, Mr. Lam.”
I said to Doc Alftmont, “I presume Bertha Cool did most of the talking.”
He nodded.
I said, “Bertha wanted to convince you you were in a jam, so you’d kick through with some more money. Is that right?”
“Well,” he said, after a moment, “it amounted to that.”
“All right,” I said. “That’s her end of it. That’s taken care of. My end is to do the actual work. It’s up to me to get you out of this jam. I want you to talk with me.”
“What,” he asked, “do you want to talk about?”
“I want to know what you’re up against, and I want to know what I’m up against.”