@@@@@ “He said to tell you that le grand
@@@@@
“He said to tell you that le grand professeur owed him twenty thousand dollars and ‘he’ wasn’t
where he was supposed to be last night, which I assumed was the RitzOh, Christ, he doesn’t understandWhat did you say?”
“I didn’t like his language or his attitudeI told him I hadn’t the vaguest idea where you were
He knew I was lying, but there wasn’t anything he could doLying’s something he knows about
“I can’t imagine that twenty thousand is such a problem for you—”
“It’s not the money, it’s the method of payment
“For what?”
“Nothing
“I believe that’s what you call a contradiction, Randy
“Shut up!”
The telephone rangGates lunged up from the chair and stared at itHe made no move to go to
the desk; instead, he spoke in a guttural voice to his wife“Whoever it is, you tell him I’m not hereI’m away, out of town—you don’t know when I’ll be back
Edith walked over to the phone“It’s your very private line,” she said as she picked it up on the
third ring“The Gates residence,” began Edith, a ploy she had used for years; her friends knew who
it was, others did not matter to her any longerYes? I’m sorry, he’s away and we don’t
know when he’ll return Gates’s wife looked briefly at the phone, then hung upShe turned to her
husband“That was the operator in ParisSomeone was calling you, but when I said
you weren’t here, she didn’t even ask where you could be reachedShe simply got off the line—
very abruptly
“Oh, my God!” cried Gates, visibly shakensomething’s gone wrong,
someone lied!” With those enigmatic words the attorney whipped around, and raced across the
room, fumbling in his trousers po