Rosenkrantz swiveled around in his chair, waiting to see if any other calls were to be made. Smith took a deep breath.
"You'll make copies of the tape when you can, Joe?"
"Sure," said the operator, sympathetically.
"Well," said Lydman, at the rear of the group, "that's another one lost. Tomorrow we'll open a permanent file on Yoleen, as Pete suggests."
"Yes, I imagine they'll give us more business," agreed Parrish.
Lydman growled.
"I'll give them the business next time!" he threatened. "Well, that kind of damps the pile for tonight. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm in no mood now to be clever."
Smith straightened up abruptly.
"Now ... now ... wait a minute!" he spluttered. "I mean, we all feel pretty low, naturally. Still, this wasn't the main ... serious as this was, we were trying to push on this other case, to get a start anyway."
Here we go again, thought Westervelt. Shall I try to trip him up if anything happens, or shall I just get out of the way?