card from Chemical. It was Manufacturers Hanover before the merger, and I loved going to a bank that you could call Manny Hanny for short. And here, my Visa card. It got crimped, too. See that corner? I tried to straighten it out but I think I only made it worse. I guess it’ll be all right as long as I don’t put it in any machines.”
I gave the cards back to her. “You gave me the right name,” I said. “How come?”
“The same reason you told me your name. We were two ships passing in the night. What reason would I have to lie to you?” She grinned. “Besides, Bernie, I wanted you to be able to get in touch with me.
“How? You’re not in the phone book.”
“I certainly am. G Cooper on East Seventy-eighth Street.”
“But I wouldn’t know to look there, would I? Because I was somehow under the impression that you lived at 304 West End Avenue.”
“You could have called me at work.”
“Where, at Faber Faber?”
“Haber Haber,” she said, “and Crowell.”
“You don’t work there anymore, remember?”
“I sometimes get calls still at the office. They take messages for me. I said I was a paralegal because that’s a lot more impressive than being a receptionist, and since I’m not either one, well, why not pick the one that sounds good?”
“You could have said you were a lawyer.”
“I almost did,” she said, “but I was afraid that might put you off. Some people don’t like lawyers.”
“Really?”
“I know it’s hard to believe. Bernie, I fibbed a little, okay? At the beginning I treated it all as an acting exercise. Improv, you know? We do scenes like that all the time in class. But I wasn’t really lying, any more than you lied to me by not mentioning that you’re a burglar.”
We had stopped walking now, half a block from Number 304. She nodded meaningfully at the building. “Listen,” she said, “I’ve got a great idea. We could go there right now. I’m sure we can bluff our way past the doorman.”
“Unless it’s your Haitian friend.”
“I could have sailed right past him, too, but I wanted him to ring the apartment first. We wouldn’t have to do that this time. We could just walk in as if we lived there.”
“And then what?”
“Then you could open Luke’s door for me.”
“Luke might not like that.”
“I’m positive he’s not there,” she said. “You know what I bet happened? He stole Marty’s cards early in the week. Then he got offered a job out of town. He would have jumped at it, too. But we can always ring his bell first, if you’re nervous about picking his lock with him inside.”
“Sure, that’s a good idea,” I said. “We’ll ring his bell.”
“And if he’s there I’ll just say I came to pick up my clothes. That’s easy enough.”
“And then we can drop in on the Nugents.”
She frowned. “The Nugents? Joan and Harlan Nugent?”
“Those very Nugents. In 9-G.”
“How do you know them?”
“I don’t.”
“Then why did you mention them?”
“You’re the one who mentioned them.”
“You just did, just a minute ago. ‘And then we can drop in on the Nugents,’ those were your very words. Remember?”
“Vividly. But you mentioned them two nights ago when we were standing in front of their building.”
“I did?” She scratched her head. “Why would I do that? I barely know them.”
“Well, you’re still way ahead of me,” I said, “because I don’t know them at all. You asked Eddie when they were coming back from Europe.”
“My God,” she said. “You’re right, I did. But that was after you left, wasn’t it?” She considered this, answered her own question. “Obviously not, or we wouldn’t be having this conversation. The Nugents are an older couple. They live two flights up from Luke.”
“In 9-G, if I remember correctly.”
“You mean I even mentioned the apartment number? You must have thought—”
“That I was being invited to knock off their apartment,” I finished for her. “That’s exactly what I thought. But if you really didn’t know I was a burglar—”
“How could I have known? When a man tells me he’s a bookseller I generally take his word for it.”
“Why did you mention the Nugents?”
“Because I wondered if they were back yet, that’s all. Joan Nugent is an artist, and a couple of times we met in the hall and she asked me about posing for her. The last time I ran into her in the elevator she said she and Harlan were going to Europe, but that she would get