“Yes, sir. I had already noticed that magazine there several times, and it just happened to catch your eye. Anyhow, I am secretly infatuated with Tina so I’ll try to help them and will get my finger caught, and you’ll have to butt in again because you can’t get along without me. It will go on like that year after year. Why not take care of it now and live in peace? There are people in Washington who owe you something, for instance Carpenter. Start him working on it. Do you want them hanging in the air on a thread over your head the rest of your life? I don’t. It will cost a measly buck for a phone call, and I can get that from the fifty they have earmarked for us. I have Carpenter’s home number, and I might as well get him right now.”
No comment.
I put my hand on the phone. “Person to person, huh?”
Wolfe grunted. “I got my naturalization papers twenty-four years ago.”
“I wasn’t discussing you. You’ve caught it from Janet,” I said coldly and lifted the phone and dialed.