Over My Dead Body

He groaned. "No one is upstairs. We are deserted. We are ruined. Mr Goodwin, can you tell me-"

"I'm sorry, I can't tell you a darned thing. Has Miss Lovchen been here this morning?"

"She came and stayed a while, but she left."

"How long ago?"

"Oh, my God, I don't know-half an hour." He clapped a hand to his head and stared at Neya. "She said to tell you something if you came-"

Jeanne Miltan's voice sounded: "She went home, Miss Tormic."

"That's it," Miltan agreed. "She said to tell you she went home. That was all. She went home."

"What do you want with her?" a dick demanded.

"Sell her a chance on a turkey raffle. Come on, Miss Tormic."

We went back out to the sidewalk. Halting there, I asked her, "You said 38th Street? East or west?"

She smiled at me. "It's silly for you to go. It's so silly. Why don't you just give it to me?"

"I'd love to," I assured her. I didn't see any sense in antagonizing her if she was my future wife. "I really would." We were moving along to the roadster. "But here's my car and I have to go downtown anyway. Besides, if I don't follow instructions I'll get fired. What's the address?"

"404 East 38th."

"Okay, that'll only take-excuse me a minute." I had caught a glimpse of something comical. "Climb in," I told her, "I'll be right back."

I left her and went down the sidewalk to where a taxi had parked twenty feet behind the roadster. My glimpse had been of the passenger inside ducking out of our sight. As I lifted a foot to the running-board the driver said:

"Busy."

"Yeah, so I see." I stretched my neck to get a better view of Fred Durkin huddled on the seat. So Wolfe was putting a tail on his own client. "I just wanted to save you some trouble. 404 East 38th Street."

I returned to the roadster and got in and started off, telling Neya that I had merely exchanged the time of day with a Russian nobleman friend of mine who was driving a taxicab for his health. She said nothing. Apparently she was concentrating again on Balkan history, or whatever kind it was she was making. I retaliated by concentrating on my driving.