“He went to work for Benson, Philips and Stratton, and then went out on his own. When he came into my office he had just landed the account, a very big account. I understood his work a little, but he didn’t discuss it with me. He was capable of setting up an accounting system and teaching office girls how to run it. His way with me when we worked together was very competent and cool, so very cool, in fact, that I thought he didn’t like what he was doing, as if it were all a lot of paper-shuffling. He set it up, though, carefully, and for the rest of the year I continued to work, it was perfect. The bosses were extremely pleased. I know that they had been afraid that they would have to hire an accountant full-time. In any case, they helped him get new clients.

“He had an office, but he could have just as easily bought a jacket with larger pockets. The day after he died, for something to do, I went down and closed it up. I hadn’t been able to sleep, so I got there at six in the morning. Colin didn’t have a car trunkful of papers. The janitor and I got it all downstairs in two trips in the elevator. When I got home I pushed it all into the crawl space over the garage. It’s there for you to look at.”

“I’ll want to do that,” Leland said.

“He had a secretary, Miss Enid Alma—that’s her whole name. I have her address at home, if you want to see her. She thought Colin was a sweet young man. She typed his letters and took the calls. Colin said she wasn’t bright, but that she could do the jobs he wanted. I think she was married at one time, but I don’t know. She had no dependents. I know that because I sent off her social security for the last quarter and made out her withholding slips for next spring’s filings.