Cunweather glanced again at his wife. She maintained a stony stare of silent attention. When Cunweather failed to receive any signal, he turned to Mrs. Cool. “Well now,” he said, “that would help. Of course, Mrs. Cool, I’ll be frank with you; one of our objections to hiring outside help is that they sometimes try to do a little chiseling on the side. We don’t like that. I think Mr. Lam has told you it isn’t healthy to try to chisel on us.”

Bertha Cool said, “Don’t try to frighten me. My health is very good. I have a damn strong constitution.”

“Ha! ha! ha!” Cunweather laughed. “That’s good! A strong constitution. Yes, Mrs. Cool, I’m satisfied you have. I like the way you handle yourself. I think we could offer you employment.”

Mrs. Cool said, “When I leave here, I’m going to see Sandra Birks. If you want me to work for you and there’s enough money in it, I’ll work for you. If Sandra Birks wants me to work for her and there’s enough money in it, I’ll work for her. I want to pick the job that offers the most money.”

“You mean you want me to make an offer?”

“Yes.”

“And then you want to see Mrs. Birks and see what she has in mind?”

“Yes.”

“And accept the best offer?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t think I’d like that,” Cunweather said. “I’m quite certain I wouldn’t like it. I don’t think it would be ethical.”

“Don’t lose any sleep worrying about my ethics,” Bertha Cool said. “I’m putting cards on the table.”

“Yes, I can see you are, Mrs. Cool—are you going to tell Sandra Birks that you had this chat with me?”

“That depends,” she said.

“On what?”

“On what Sandra Birks wants me to do, and how much money there is in it.”

“We wouldn’t like you to mention that you were here. We’d consider it a violation of a confidence,” Cunweather said.

“I wouldn’t,” Bertha Cool retorted. “You didn’t invite me here. I found the place.”

“You’re making things rather difficult,” Cunweather said.

Bertha Cool sighed, “We’re doing a hell of a lot of talking without getting any place.”

Cunweather said soothingly, “Look here, Mrs. Cool, I’m interested in your proposition, but I have to know a little more before I fix my price. I can’t go it blind.”

“What do you want to know?”

“I want to know that you can really put your finger on Morgan’s sweetie. I want to know that you really served Morgan Birks, and weren’t being victimized by a clever hoax.”

“What do you mean by that?”