If Cranston’s guess was wrong, so was Margo’s conclusion as was later to be proved!
CHAPTER V
MINUTES mean much in Manhattan. They produce surprising meetings, curious situations that often seem like something designed by fate’s hand. Yet for all the remarkable coincidences that occur, there are many more that miss. People who haven’t met for years may pass within a block of one another, or just around the corner, without ever realizing it.
Similarly, for every singular occurrence that a person may witness by chance, a dozen other similar incidents may remain unobserved because of the same freak. Usually though, there is a direct cause; this time it was a taxicab.
If Shrevvy’s cab hadn’t been at Cranston’s call, things would have taken a different turn. The slight delay that Cranston avoided by having the cab handy, caused him to miss a bit of luck that fate would otherwise have tossed right in his lap.
Another cab stopped in front of the Chateau Parkview just after Cranston’s pulled away. From it stepped a girl, an attractive blonde dressed in blue, which made her floral decoration seem rather drab and therefore conspicuous in a negative way.
The blonde was wearing a bunch of lilacs.
Looking about, the girl frowned rather prettily, then entered the lobby and stared at the people there. Her eyes returned to the door, then roved the lobby again, missing the young man who entered at that moment.
He was a rugged type, this young man, and his stolid expression made him look older than he was. He had a slight limp, but he wasn’t tired when he paused just inside the doorway. The reason that he paused was because he expected someone to be looking for him, which was evidenced by the way he took a stance well in the open of the lobby.
Against the dark brown of his suit, the flower that the young man wore in his lapel stood out very sharply, except that it wasn’t exactly a flower.