“What’s it worth to know?”
“Nothing.”
“I’ll tell you for a hundred bucks.”
“I wouldn’t want to take advantage of you that way.”
“I’ll tell you for fifty bucks.”
I shook my head.
“Twenty-five.”
“I don’t want him,” I said. “I don’t care where he is. Why don’t you peddle the news to Noonan?”
“Yes, and try to collect. Do you only perfume yourself with booze, or is there any for drinking purposes?”
“Here’s a bottle of so-called Dewar that I picked up at Cedar Hill this afternoon. There’s a bottle of King George in my bag. What’s your choice?”
She voted for King George. We had a drink apiece, straight, and I said:
“Sit down and play with it while I change clothes.”
When I came out of the bathroom twenty-five minutes later she was sitting at the secretary, smoking a cigarette and studying a memoranda book that had been in a side pocket of my gladstone bag.
“I guess these are the expenses you’ve charged up on other cases,” she said without looking up. “I’m damned if I can see why you can’t be more liberal with me. Look, here’s a six-hundred-dollar item marked ‘Inf.’ That’s information you bought from somebody, isn’t it? And here’s a