"But we weren't, were we? Your words, which broke my heart, are burned in my memory: 'I'm sure you're a very nice fellow, but I'm just not interested. Okay?' I cried myself to sleep that night."

She shook her head in amazed disbelief.

"I'll tell you what I'm going to do, Susan, since I am a Boy Scout and we are sworn not to lie to girls' mothers. You call your mother, and tell her we're going to have dinner in town. That way, I don't have to lie to your mommy, or eat alone."

"I meant it when I said I'm just not interested," Susan said. "There's somebody else."

And would his name, perchance, be on the FBI's Most Wanted List?

"Really?"

"You're not making this easy for me, are you?"

"Well, my my father's lawyer didn't call father's lawyer didn't call your your father, demanding to know what father, demanding to know what you you had done with the family virgin." had done with the family virgin."

"I'm sorry about that, I really am."

"You can't imagine how humiliating that was, to walk into my home and have my mommy and daddy waiting for me, wringing their hands, looking at me with sad eyes, to ask what terrible things I had done with your your daddy's precious baby. That p.i.s.sed me off, just a smidgen." daddy's precious baby. That p.i.s.sed me off, just a smidgen."

"I said I was sorry."

"Tell me about 'someone else.' "

"You don't know him."

I hope to rectify that situation in the very near future.

"That's what this whole thing was all about," Susan went on. "My parents don't like him, can't stand him."

I can't imagine why not. What is this bulls.h.i.t, anyway?

"And he didn't want me to go to Daffy's party," Susan said, and met Matt's eyes. "And we fought about that. So he came to Philadelphia, and when I left the party he was waiting for me in the lobby of the Bellvue. And we went to my room. And had a fight. And made up. And I didn't call my mother, the way she expected me to, and when she called the hotel-I knew it had to be her, who else would call me at half past two?-she was the last person in the world I wanted to talk to-how could I, with him there?-so I didn't answer the phone. And that started everything else that happened. Mother called Daffy-"

"You were in your room the whole time?"

"Yes."

"With Whatsisname?"

"Yes."

"What's Whatsisname's name?"

"None of your business, is it, really?"

Christ, Wohl was right. These people are dangerous. She looked me right in the eye and lied through her teeth. Or is that indicative of anything more significant-that, as a general rule, females are good liars?

"Just curious, is all. I thought maybe if we became pals, I could learn something from him."

"Like what?"

"Man stuff," Matt said. "I mean, what the h.e.l.l, I struck out with you in about twenty seconds flat, and this guy, well, he really captured the fair maiden's heart, didn't he? Right up to the room, spend the night. You didn't even want to talk to Mommy."

"Daffy said you could be a p.r.i.c.k," Susan said.

"Guilty. But just to prove Daffy wrong one more time, I'll call your mother and tell her something's come up, and I won't be able to come to dinner after all."

She looked at him a long moment.

"You don't know my mother. She's determined to meet you. If you don't come tonight, she'll ask about tomorrow night, and the night after that. And if that doesn't work, she'll come to Philadelphia after you."

"Well, that's understandable. I am a very eligible bachelor. There is a long list of mothers with family virgins they're trying to get rid of after me. She'd have to take a number and wait in line."

"You son of a b.i.t.c.h, you're unbelievable," Susan said, and laughed. "Will you?"

"Will I what?"

"Be a good guy. Go along with we were out late listening to Dixieland. I'd really appreciate it."

"How much? What's in it for me?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well," Matt said, and he heard Jason Washington's melodious voice in his mind, "if I do this for you, it would seem only fair that you take pity on a lonely boy banished to the provinces far from home and loved ones and have dinner with me. A couple of times. Several times. I really hate to eat alone."

"You're serious?"

"I'm always serious."

"But I don't like you."

"Then why did you stay out until the wee hours with me? Or didn't you?"

"I don't want to get involved with you. You understand that?"

"Women have been known, I'm told, to change their minds."

"This one won't."

"Time will tell. Your choice, Susan."

"You like having something to hold over me, don't you?"

"Truth to tell, I find it interesting."

"Okay," Susan said. "If you get your kicks from something like this, okay. So long as it's clearly understood we're talking about dinner. Period."

"Meaning what?"

"I'm not going to bed with you."

"I don't recall making the offer. And how could I hope to compare with good ol' Whatsisname who made you forget to call Mommy? And what about about ol' Whatsisname? What are you going to tell him about us going out?" ol' Whatsisname? What are you going to tell him about us going out?"

"He's not here. He's out of town. That won't be a problem."

Casing his next bank robbery, no doubt.

"Good."

"Don't slip tonight, and let on that I came here," she said, and pushed herself off the couch.

"Rest a.s.sured, my dear Susan, your deepest, darkest secrets are safe with Matt Payne. At least for the moment."

[image]

"Inspector," Officer Paul O'Mara announced, sticking his head in Wohl's office door, "Detective Payne is on Three."

"Tell him to hold on," Wohl said.

He looked at the people in his office with him-Captains Mike Sabara and David Pekach and Lieutenant Jack Malone, with whom he had been discussing the plans for the retirement party of a Highway Patrol sergeant-shrugged his shoulders, said, "Sorry. I'll be as short as I can," and motioned them out of his office.

He waited until the door was closed, then picked up his telephone.

"Go ahead, Matt."

"She just left, boss."

"Then that was was our lady friend-in your room?" our lady friend-in your room?"

"Yes, indeed. Your timing was perfect."

"What did she want?"

"After I talked to Jason, I called her house. She wasn't there, but her mother invited me to dinner. And then she apparently called Susan and told her I was coming, and obviously that I'm at the Penn-Harris. So she came here to ask me to go along with the story that we were out all night in Philadelphia."

"She gave you a reason?"

"Looked me right in the eye, with those beautiful, innocent blue eyes, and told me there is a boyfriend, no name given, of whom her parents disapprove-"

"You think she's talking about Chenowith, or the other one? What's his name?"

"Edgar L. Cole. No, for one thing that acne-faced sc.u.mbag is hardly her type. I think this this boyfriend was invented-along with the rest of the story-after her mother called and told her to guess who's coming to dinner." boyfriend was invented-along with the rest of the story-after her mother called and told her to guess who's coming to dinner."

"Okay. Go on."

"It was quite a story. She told me that she and the boyfriend had a fight about her going to Chad Nesbitt's party. When she went anyway, so goes her tale, he followed her to Philadelphia. When she returned to the Bellvue, the boyfriend was waiting for her in the lobby. They went to her room, fought some more, and then made up. She implied-without any detectable embarra.s.sment-that they sealed the peace in a carnal fashion, and were having at it with such enthusiasm that she forgot to call her mother, and then, when Mommy called, she didn't want to play coitus interruptus by answering the phone."

"No chance that might be true?"

"Peter, her bed was not slept in."

The reason he knows that not only germane, but important-to-this-investigation, information, Wohl thought, resignedly, Wohl thought, resignedly, is that he went into her room. This is obviously not the time to jump on his a.s.s for a technical illegality. is that he went into her room. This is obviously not the time to jump on his a.s.s for a technical illegality.

"Was she suspicious about you suddenly appearing in Harrisburg? In a cop sense, I mean?"

"At first, yeah. But I explained it."

"You gave her the story you're looking for hidden money? And she bought it?"

"I think so."

"Now what happens?"

"I made a deal with her," Matt said. "I go along with the she-was-with-me story for her parents, and she goes to dinner with me, keeps me company while I'm all alone in Harrisburg, so to speak."

"You blackmailed her, in other words?"

"Yeah. Sort of."

"You don't think pushing yourself on her will make her suspicious?"

"Only that I'm trying to get into her pants."

"Are you?"

"I am prepared to make any sacrifice in the line of duty," Matt said.

"That would really be stupid, Matt," Wohl said.

"Hey, that was a joke. You really think I'm that stupid?"

"I hope not."

"I'm not," Matt said firmly.

"Okay. Matt, if it should ever come up, I just now gave you a long, firm lecture on the price you would have to pay for disobeying Denny Coughlin's clear order to you that you're not to do anything but locate Chenowith and friends for the FBI."

"Okay." Matt said. "Lecture received and duly noted."

"Don't misunderstand me. I'm just trying to save time. You disobey that order and I'll have your a.s.s, Matt. Coughlin's serious about this, and so am I."

"Yes, sir," Matt said.

"I'll bring you up on charges, Matt. Understand that."

The trouble with that dramatic threat is that Matt knows that it's empty. If he gets lucky and grabs these people, or any one of them, it'll be in all the papers, and we're not going to discipline a policeman for doing something the public expects policemen to do; that gets in the papers, too.

"Yes, sir," Matt said.