WITH CHARLOTTE VIVIEN not at home I was relieved of any imperative to organize surveillance of her. Can't tell a guy or a gal to follow someone if you don't know where the someone is. Right? Am I right?
I headed home. I was hungry.
I wasn't back long enough to get a mouthful when the bell rang.
I knew who it was going to be. I went to the desk and turned on the tape recorder. Then I answered the door.
It was the Bear and the Frog. No Kate King or Gorilla.
“Where the hell have you been?” the Frog asked me in her high “funny” voice. “What do you think this is? A game?”
“What do you expect? The rest of my life to stop? I made your call to Channel 43 but then I had another client to visit.”
“You also used a telephone,” the Bear said. She too spoke at an artificial pitch, but low-voiced. Almost a growl. “At 38th and Meridian.”
“That's perfectly true,” I said.
“Was it to the police?” Bear asked.
“No,” I said. “Not this time.”
The Frog fumed behind her mask. “Don't you care that somebody might die while you mess around?”
“If what you want is buttons to push, go find a soft-drink machine. You coming in or not?”
They came in.
“Sit down,” I said. “Once you're comfortable I'll tell you my conditions for taking this job.”
“Your conditions?” the Bear said.
“Your hearing is acute.” I brought a second chair from the bedroom and I faced them across the desk.
“What we're talking here is a job, not club membership. So I'll need money for my time and my expenses. A couple of thousand dollars to start. I will account for it in detail but not on paper. Do you have that much with you?”
“Yes,” she said.
“I'll need a way to contact you if I have to.”
The Bear said, “What, you mean like a phone number?”
“That would be ideal.”
“No. Absolutely not.”
“Well, think up something else. But I need a way to get in touch in a hurry.”
The Animals looked at each other.
“We'll see what we can do,” the soprano Frog said.
“I won't go to the police about you, but if they come to me, what I do will depend on the pressure they apply.”
“We thought it might,” the Frog said.
“Finally,” I said, “while the job lasts you will plant no more bombs.”
They exchanged looks but said nothing.
“I have a license to protect. If the police find out I'm working for you I will need a compelling reason why I didn't come to them at the beginning. The fact that I was able to keep you from planting more bombs is that reason. Do you understand and agree to my conditions?”
The Frog looked at the Bear, who nodded. The Frog said, “Yes.”
“I was afraid you would,” I said.