He intended to ask Robert Maus at the breakfast table but missed him. He asked Mrs. Marron; she was of no help. He asked Hixie when she reported for ham and eggs and country fries with cinnamon toast, but she had not the faintest idea. Dan Graham failed to appear for breakfast, and when Qwilleran telephoned the pottery later, there was no answer. Finally he called Robert Maus at his office.
"I regret to say that. . . it escapes my memory," the attorney said, "but allow me to consult a copy of the contract."
Qwilleran mumbled an excuse about writing something and needing the information in a hurry.
"No," said Maus after consulting the files. "I see no evidence of a middle name or initial."
Qwilleran phoned Arch Riker at the office and told him about the three-letter word in the typewriter. He said, "I was sure Dan Graham was the type who'd have a middle name like Otho or Oglebert, and I thought Koko might have been trying to tell me something. He's come up with some clues in the past that were no less fantastic."
"I'm glad he's learning to spell," Riker said. "In another six months he should be able to take over your column. How was your dinner last night?"
"Fine, but I didn't learn much. Maus gave me an unlikely story about how he got his black eye."
"Coming downtown for lunch?"
"No, I want to stay home and write my review of the Toledo Tombs. This gourmet racket is full of absurdities, and it's going to be hard to strike the right note — halfway between adulation and a horse laugh."
"Don't offend any restaurant owners," Arch warned him, "or the advertising department will be on my neck. . . Any news about Joy?"
"No. Nothing."
Qwilleran had another reason for wanting to stay home: to be near the phone in case she called. He knew it was too soon to expect a message in the mail; she had been gone hardly more than twenty-four hours. And yet he rushed downstairs when the mail delivery came at eleven o'clock and was disappointed to find nothing in his slot in the foyer. Then he convinced himself that any communication from Joy would be addressed to his office; she would be smart enough for that! A letter in her handwriting would be too easily recognized at Maus Haus. He wondered if the post office was equipped to cope with a letter addressed to "Juu Qwwww" at the "Duuy Fwxwu."
He spent the next hour at his typewriter, trying to write a slyly objective report on the Toledo Tombs. After several fruitless starts, he abandoned his subject and began a profile of Robert Maus — with his pride (sharp knives, lots of butter) and his numerous prejudices. Maus abhorred tea bags, pressure cookers, canned fruit cocktail, bottled mayonnaise, instant coffee, iceberg lettuce, monosodium glutamate, eggs poached in geometric shapes, New England boiled dinners, and anything resembling a smorgasbord, salad bar, or all-you-can-eat buffet.
Once or twice Qwilleran stopped and listened. He thought he could hear someone singing. It was rare to hear live song — not radio and not television. Somewhere a man was singing a Scottish air, and the newsman's Mackintosh blood responded.
Qwilleran was poking at the keys, quoting Maus on the horror of potatoes baked in foil, when there came a knock on the apartment door. Standing in the hall was his elderly neighbor with her white hair and floury face powder, her crossword puzzle and abundance of costume jewelry.
"Forgive me for intruding," Miss Roop said, fingering her three strands of beads, "but this puzzle has me stumped, and I thought you might have a good dictionary, being a writer and all. I need an eleven-letter word for a kind of orchid. The first letter is c, and it ends in m."
"Cypripedium," said Qwilleran. He spelled it for her.
Miss Roop gasped, and a look of adoration crept into her small blue wrinkle-framed eyes. "Why — why — why, you are remarkable, Mr. Qwilleran!"
He accepted the compliment without revealing the truth. He had learned the word while playing a dictionary game with Koko a few months before. "Will you come in?" he asked.
She started to back away. "Oh, you're probably busy writing one of your wonderful columns." But her eyes seemed eager.
"It's about time I took a breather. Come on in."
"You're sure it's all right?" She glanced down the hall in both directions before stepping quickly into the apartment with a guilty little shrug.
Qwilleran closed the door behind her, and when she looked apprehensive he explained that he must keep the cats from running into the hall. Koko and Yum Yum were sunning themselves on the blue cushion atop the dining table. Miss Roop glanced at them and stiffened perceptibly.
Koko was stretched full lengrh, and Yum Yum was playing with his tail. He tantalized her by slapping it this way and that, and she grabbed it whenever it came within reach. Airborne cat hairs could be seen glistening in the shaft of sunlight that slanted through the studio window.
The relentless daylight also emphasized the two sets of wrinkles on Miss Roop's forehead, caused by the habit of raising her eyebrows.
Koko caught her disapproving stare and stopped playing games. He rolled over, lifted one hind leg and proceeded to lick the base of his tail. The visitor quickly turned away.
"Will you have a chair?" Qwilleran offered her one of the dining chairs, guessing that she liked to sit up straight. He also offered to make a cup of instant coffee, but she declined hastily as if he had made an indecent suggestion.
Mischievously he asked, "Something stronger?"
"Mr. Qwilleran," she said firmly, "I might as well tell you right now that 1 disapprove of drinking."
"I don't drink either," he admitted in his best chummy tone, without adding the grim reason why.
Again she beamed at him with so much warmth that she embarrassed herself and began to talk self-consciously — too much, too loud, and too fast. "I love my work. Mr. Hashman was a brilliant man, rest his soul. He taught me everything 1 know about restaurant management. He sold out a long time ago, and now the Heavenly Hash Houses are a very big fast-food chain; you probably know that. They're owned by three brilliant businessmen — "
"Perhaps I should write a column on the history of the Hash Houses, since they originated in this city." Qwilleran told himself it would be a neat way of sidestepping the quality of the food. "Would you be willing to be interviewed?"
"Oh, dear, no! Don't mention me! I'd rather you would write about the three brilliant men who expanded the chain from three restaurants to eighty-nine."
All uniformly mediocre, thought Qwilleran. He reached for his pipe and then changed his mind, convinced that his visitor would disapprove. With circumspection he attempted to pump her for information.
"I'm hoping to write several stories on the gourmets who live at Maus Haus. Do you have any suggestions as to where I should start?"
"Oh, they're all interesting individuals, take my word for it," she said enthusiastically.
"Certainly a varied group. Do they all get along well?"
"Oh, yes, they're lovely people, all very agreeable."
"How about Max Sorrel? Is he a success as a restaurateur?"
"Oh, he's an excellent businessman. I admire Mr. Sorrel greatly."
"Seems to have an eye for the ladies."
"He's a handsome man, with a charming personality, and very fastidious."
Qwilleran felt he was holding a conversation with a computer. He cleared his throat and tried another approach. "You weren't at dinner Tuesday night, but there was a flare-up at the table. William was scolded for incompetence."
"We should all make allowances for youth," Miss Roop said firmly. "He's a nice boy — very friendly. I'm an old lady with white hair, but he talks to me as if we were the same age."
Qwilleran had always had a faculty for inducing people to talk frankly. The look of concern in his eyes and the downward curve of his heavy mustache combined to make him appear sympathetic and sincere, even when he was purely inquisitive, but his technique failed to work with Charlotte Roop. He merely learned that Rosemary was attractive, Hixie amusing, and Robert Maus brilliant — absolutely brilliant.