“It’s nearly half-past six. If I offer to buy her a meal — I doubt if that’s the right approach.”
“You know the approaches to women, I don’t.”
“Yeah.” I sat at my desk and pulled the phone to me. “If you ask me this stunt you’ve hatched is a swell approach to a trip to the hoosegow. For both of us.”
He grunted. I started dialing a number.
V
New York can have pleasant summer evenings when it wants to, and that was one of them — warm but not hot and not muggy. I paid the taxi driver when he rolled to the curb at the address on Fifty-first Street east of Lexington, got out, and took a look. In bright sunshine the old gray brick building would probably show signs of wear and tear, but now in twilight it wasn’t too bad. Entering the vestibule, I scanned the tier of names on the wall panel. The one next to the top said DEVLIN — BERK. I pushed the button, shoved the door open when the click came, went in, glanced around for an elevator and saw none, and started to climb stairs. Three flights up a door stood open, and there waiting was Delia Devlin.
I told her hello, friendly but not profuse. She nodded, not so friendly, hugged the wall to let me pass, shut the door, and went by me to lead the way through an arch into a living room. I sent my eyes around with an expression of comradely interest. The chairs and couch were attractive and cool in summer slips. There were shelves of books. The windows were on the street, and there were three doors besides the arch, two of them standing open and one not quite closed.
She sat and invited me to. “I can’t imagine,” she said in a louder voice than seemed necessary, in spite of the street noises from the open windows, “what you want to ask me that’s so mysterious.”
Sitting, I regarded her. Only one corner lamp was on, and in the dim light she wasn’t at all bad looking. With smaller ears she would have been a worthy specimen, with no glare on her.
“It’s not mysterious,” I protested. “As I said on the phone, it’s private and confidential, that’s all. Mr. Wolfe felt it would be an imposition to ask you to come to his office again, so he sent me. Miss Berk is out, is she?”