“Is something wrong?” she asked.
“No, no. No. No.”
“You keep looking around the room.”
“Habit. Check it out, you know, known criminals, you know, types. Occupational hazards.”
“My, you’re nervous,” she said. “Does my dress make you nervous?”
“No, it’s a very nice dress.”
“I wish I had the guts to really wear it naked underneath,” Anne said, and giggled.
“Well, you’d get arrested,” Kling said. “Section 1140 of the Penal Law.”
“What do you mean?”
“Exposure of person,” Kling said, and began quoting. “A person who willfully and lewdly exposes his person, or the private parts thereof, in any public place, or in any place where others are present, or procures another so to expose himself, is guilty of a misdemeanor.”
“Oh, my,” Anne said.
“Yes,” Kling said, suddenly embarrassed.
“‘Private parts,’ I love that.”
“Well, that’s what we call them. I mean, in police work. I mean, that’s the way we refer to them.”
“Yes, I love it.”
“Mmm,” Kling said. “Hey, here’re the drinks.”
“Shall I mix it, sir?” the waiter asked.
“What?”
“Did you want this mixed, sir?”
“Oh. Yes. Yes, just a little water in it, please,” he said, and smiled at Anne and almost knocked over her martini. The waiter poured a little water into the Scotch and moved away.
“Cheers,” Kling said.
“Cheers,” Anne said. “Do you have a girlfriend?”
Kling who was already drinking, almost choked. “What?” he said.
“A girlfriend.”
“Yes,” he answered glumly, and nodded.
“Is that why you’re so worried?”
“Who’s worried?” he said.
“You shouldn’t be,” Anne said. “After all, this is only a business meeting.”
“That’s right, I’m not worried at all,” Kling said.
“What’s she like? Your girlfriend?” Anne said.
“Well, I’d much rather discuss the conversation you had with Mrs. Leyden.”
“Are you engaged?”
“Not officially.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means we plan on getting married someday, I guess, but we…”
“You guess?”
“Will, no, actually there’s no guesswork involved. We simply haven’t set the date, that’s all. Cindy’s still in school, and…”
“Is that her name? Cindy?”
“Yes. For Cynthia.”
“And you say she’s still in school? How old is she?”
“Twenty-three. She’s finishing her master’s this June.”
“Oh.”
“Yes, and she’ll be going on for her doctorate in the fall.”
“Oh.”
“Yes,” Kling said.
“She must be very bright.”
“She is.”
“I hardy finished high school,” Anne said, and paused. “Is she pretty?”
“Yes.” Kling took another swallow of Scotch and then said, “I’m supposed to be the detective, but you’re asking all the questions.”
“I’m a very curious girl,” Anne said, and smiled. “But go ahead. What do you want to know?”
“What time did you call Mrs. Leyden last Friday?”
“Oh, I thought you were going to ask some questions about me.”
“No, actually I…”
“I’m twenty-five years old,” Anne said, “born and raised right here in the city. My father’s a Transit Authority employee, my mother’s a housewife. We’re all very Irish.” She paused and sipped at the martini. “I began working for AT&M right after I graduated high school, and I’ve been there since. I believe in making love not war, and I think you’re possibly the handsomest man I’ve ever met in my life.”
“Thank you,” Kling mumbled, and hastily lifted his glass to his lips.
“Does that embarrass you?”
“No.”
“What does it do?”
“I’m not sure.”
“I believe in speaking honestly and frankly,” Anne said.
“I see that.”
“Would you like to go to bed with me?”
Kling did not answer immediately, because what popped into his mind instantly was the single word Yes! and it was followed by a succession of wild images interspersed with blinking neon lights that spelled out additional messages such as You’re goddamn right I’d like to go to bed with you and when? and Your place or mine? and things like that. So he waited until he had regained control of his libido, and then he calmly said, “I’ll have to think it over. In the meantime, let’s talk about Mrs. Leyden, shall we?”
“Sure,” Anne said. “What would you like to know?”
“What time did you call her?”
“Just before closing time Friday.”
“Which was?”
“About ten to five, something like that.”
“Do you remember the conversation?”
“Yes. I said, ‘Hello, may I please speak to Mrs. Leyden?” and she said, ‘This is Mrs. Leyden.’ So I informed her that her husband had wired us from California to ask that she send him a fresh checkbook, and she said she knew all about it, but thanks anyway.”
“She knew all about what?”
“The checkbook.”
“How’d she know?”
“She said her husband had called from the Coast that morning to say he’d be in San Francisco all weekend, and that he’d be moving on to Portland on Monday morning and wanted her to send a fresh checkbook to the Logan Hotel there.”
“What time had he called her?”
“She didn’t say.”
“But if he’d already called her, why’d he bother sending a wire to the company?”
“I don’t know. Just double-checking, I guess.”
“I wonder if he called her again later to say he’d be coming home instead?”
“She didn’t mention getting two calls.”
“This was close to five, you said?”
“Yes, just before closing.”
“Was he normally so careful?”
“What do you mean?”
“Would he normally make a call and then back it with a wire asking the company to convey the identical information?”
“He may have sent the wire before he called his wife.”
“Even so.”
“Besides, the company paid his expenses, so why not?” Anne smiled. “Have you thought it over yet?” she asked.
“No, not yet.”
“Think about it. I’d like to. Very much.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re stunning.”
“Oh, come on,” Kling said.
“You are. I’m not easily impressed, believe me. I think I’m in love with you.”
“That’s impossible.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“Sure it is. A person can’t just fall in love with a person without knowing anything about the person. That only happens in the movies.”
“I know everything there is to know about you,” Anne said. “Let’s have another drink, shall we?”
“Sure,” Kling said, and signaled the waiter. “Another round,” he said when the waiter came over, and then turned to Anne, who was watching him with her eyes wide and her cheeks flushed, and he suddenly thought, Jesus, I think she really is in love with me. “Anyway, as you said, this is a business meeting, and…”
“It’s a lot more than that,” Anne said, “and you know it. I think you knew it when you agreed to meet me, but if you didn’t know it then, you certainly know it now. I love you and I want to go to bed with you. Let’s go to my apartment right this minute.”