In the Best Families

There was no use discussing an operation until I found out if I had any operators. Having their phone numbers in my head, I suggested that we stop at a drug store and use a booth, but Roeder didn't like that. He thought it would be better to go to my office and phone from there, and I had no objection, so he told the driver to go over to Madison and downtown.

At that hour, getting on towards eleven, Madison Avenue was wide open, and so was the curb in front of the office building. Roeder told the driver we would be an hour or more, and we left him parked there. In the brighter light of the elevator the pleats of Roeder's face were less noticeable, and he didn't look as old as I would have guessed him in the car, but I could see there was a little grey in his beard. He stood propped in a corner with his shoulders slumped and his eyes closed until the door opened for the tenth floor, and then came to and followed me down the hall to 1019. I unlocked the door and let us in, switched on the light, motioned him to a chair, sat at the desk, pulled the phone to me, and started dialling.

“Wait a minute, he said gruffly.

I put it back on the cradle, looked at him, got a straight clear view of his eyes for the first time, and felt a tingle in the small of my back. But I didn't know why.

“This must not be heard, he said. “I mean you and me. How sure are you?

“You mean a mike?

“Yes.

“Oh, pretty sure.

“Better take a look.

I left my chair and did so. The room being small and the walls mostly bare, it wasn't much of a job, and I made it thorough, even pulling the desk out to inspect behind it. As

I straightened up from retrieving a pencil that had rolled off the desk when I pushed it back in place, he spoke to my back.

“I see you have my dictionary here.

Not through his nose. I whirled and went rigid, gaping at him. The eyes again-and now other items too, especially the forehead and ears. I had every right to stare, but I also had a right to my own opinion of the fitness of things. So while staring at him I got myself under control, and then circled the end of my desk, sat down and leaned back, and told him, “I knew you all-

“Don't talk so loud.

“Very well. I knew you all the time, but with that damn' driver there I had to-

“Pfui. You hadn't the slightest inkling.

I shrugged. “That's one we'll never settle. As for the dictionary, it's the one from my room which you gave me for Christmas nineteen thirty-nine. How much do you weigh?

“I've lost a hundred and seventeen pounds.