The Father Hunt

"Me," I said. "In a drugstore with the client, having refreshments. The letters have been mailed, with enclosures, and she is taking the box home as a souvenir of her mother or father, I don't know which. Three items. First, what I started to tell you this morning when you bellowed at me. Cramer may phone, so you ought to know that I rang Stebbins Saturday afternoon. I told him that you and I were discussing crime the other day and the hit-and-run that killed a woman named Elinor Denovo came up, and I wondered if they had got a lead. He told Cramer, and of course Cramer thinks that the simplest question from you or me means that we've got something hot. I told him that we only knew what we read in the papers. If he phones, you-"

"Pfui. What else?"

"Second, you said Friday evening that my next stop after the bank would be Raymond Thorne. Any change?"

"No."

"Third, the bank was pie. The checks were drawn by the Seaboard Bank and Trust Company, the third largest bank in town, payable to bearer, and I took a look at it in the International Bank Directory. I won't mention his name on the phone, but you remember that one winter evening about a year and a half ago a man sat in the office and said to you, quote, 'I have never spent an hour in a pink bedroom,' end quote. Well, he's on the Board of Directors of the Seaboard Bank and Trust Company."

"Indeed." A five-second pause. "Satisfactory."

"All of that. The kind of break you read about. Shall I take him first instead of Thorne?"

"I think not." Another pause. "It needs reflection."

"Okay. Don't stand in the hall at lunchtime. I may not make it."

When I got back to the table Amy had started her third cup of coffee. As I sat she said, "I've been thinking. You're wonderful, Mr. Goodwin. Simply wonderful. 1 wish… I want to call you Archie."

"Try it and see what happens. I might like it. Since you say your mother was being sarcastic when she tagged you Amy I suppose you wish your name was Araminta or Hephzibah, or you pick it."

"I could pick a better one."