Then I realized I couldn’t. I would eventually have to go back to the Claremont or leave Jack Donovan in the lurch. After all, the only real problems I had with Adeline Head were that she was popping into my life with startling regularity (considering I had never formally met her), that she’d abandoned my booth at the Centaur Luncheonette, and that she’d been spying on Gail and me during our morning on Lake Merritt. All I wanted was to ask her why she’d been monitoring us through binoculars and why she’d gone to the trouble of writing Nancy and me a check that said there was no charge.

I knocked on the ladies’ room door. There being no reply—was I really expecting a “Come in?”—I did the unthinkable and opened the door slowly, stepping into the room with my back turned. The room made an inverted L, and I stood in the crook of that right angle, staring at a paper-towel dispenser as I called out, “Excuse me. I just wanted to have a short word with you.”

There was a long pause. Finally she answered, “What about?” It was hard to tell much from her voice except that it seemed educated and youthful.

I offered, “It seems like our paths keep crossing, and I was wondering how much I can reasonably attribute this to coincidence.”

Again she seemed to consider her reply. “Well,” she said at last, “right now it seems like we can attribute our paths crossing to you.”

“How do you mean?” I asked.

“Oh, I don’t know,” she answered in a sarcastic tone. “The fact that it says ‘Ladies’ on the door.”

“You were watching me,” I protested. “Last week. At Lake Merritt.”

There was a pause. “I live along Lake Merritt. I walk through the park there every day. I watch lots of people—I find people interesting, including the odd man now and then, and you certainly are the odd man. Look, if you want to discuss this in a sane fashion, walk out of here, past the elevator, and you’ll see the second door on your right is marked ‘Litras Imports, Inc.’ Step inside and tell them you’re there to have a word with Miss Patnode. They’ll tell you I’ll be back in a few minutes. I’d very much appreciate it if you’d not say where we met.”

I suddenly thought it possible I’d made a slight mistake. I stepped out of the ladies’ room and bumped into a stout fellow in a three-piece suit of dark green tweed who was exiting the men’s room. He looked as if I’d made his day.