In the Best Families

Los Angeles. The cops might not like it too well if you tied in with a local like Wilts or Brownie Costigan, but what's wrong with me? You never heard of me before. You're in business as a private detective. I want to hire you, at a good price, to keep a tail on a man named Rackham and report to me on his movements.

That's all, a perfectly legitimate job.

We had crossed Park Avenue. The light was dim enough that I didn't have to be concerned about my face showing a reaction to the name Rackham. The reaction inside me was my affair.

“How long would it last? I inquired.

“I don't know. A day, a week, possibly two.

“What if something hot develops? A detective doesn't take a tailing job sight unseen. You must have told me why you were curious about Rackham. What did you tell me?

Roeder smiled. I could just see the pleats tightening. “That I suspected my business partner had come east to make a deal with him, freezing me out.

“That could be all right if you'll fill it in. But why all the mystery? Why didn't you come to my office instead of fixing it to pick me off the street at night?

“I don't want to show in the daytime. I don't want my partner to know I'm here.

Roeder smiled again. “Incidentally, that's quite true, that I don't want to show in the daytime-not any more than I can help.

“That I believe. Skipping the comedy, there aren't many

Rackhams. There are none in the Manhattan phone book. Is this the Barry Rackham whose wife got killed last spring?

“Yes.

I grunted. “Quite a coincidence. I was there when she was murdered, and now I'm offered the job of tailing him. If he gets murdered too that would be a coincidence. I wouldn't like it. I had a hell of a time getting out from under a bond as a material witness so I could take a vacation. If he got killed while I was on his tail-

“Why should he?

“I don't know. I didn't know why she should either. But it was Max Christy who arranged this date, and while he is not himself a marksman as far as I know, he moves in circles that like direct action. I waved a hand. “Forget it. If that's the kind of interest you've got in Rackham you wouldn't tell me anyhow. But another thing: Rackham knows me. It's twice as hard to tail a guy that knows you. Why hire a man that's handicapped to begin with? Why not-

I held it because we had stopped for a red light, on Fifth Avenue in the

Seventies, and our windows were open, and the open window of a car alongside was only arm's distance away.