“Yes, you do. A friend of Peggy Armour’s, remember? I spoke to you just three or four days ago, at your office? Eh?”

“Oh—yes, I recall now,” I said. I was praying desperately that Helen hadn’t picked up the extension phone. If she were listening—I began to sweat. “I’m afraid I haven’t come up with any information about Miss Armour since I spoke to you,” I said. “And now if you’d excuse me—we have some guests here—”

“Just a second, Mr. Foster,” he said evenly. “Don’t hang up.”

“I’ve told you I have no information. I hardly knew Peg— Miss Armour—at all.” I picked up the phone and dragged the wire its full length, so I could peer out of the alcove into the parlor. Helen was still sitting there, reading unconcernedly. That was some small relief, anyway. “I haven’t seen Miss Armour in months. I’d appreciate it if you’d look elsewhere for her, Mr. Harrison.”

There was a moment’s silence at the other end, and I wondered if he had hung up. But he said, after a long pause, “I think it’s time I put matters squarely on the line to you, Foster.”

I blinked. I knew what was coming. “What are you talking about?” I asked.

“I happen to know that you and Peggy took a cozy little trip upstate a couple of weeks ago. Also that you and she had been shacking up for quite some time. Also that she was expecting a baby. And also—that she didn’t come back from the Adirondacks with you.”

There weren’t too many different things I could say in answer to that. I picked one.

“You’re crazy,” I said. “And if this is a blackmail stunt, I—”

He broke in smoothly with: “Point one, I’m not crazy and point two, this is a blackmail stunt. It so happens that I have a good chunk of documentary proof in my possession, including the late Miss Armour’s diary. I knew Peggy pretty well. I also have some photos of yourself you gave her, and a few letters. It makes a nice neat little package.”

“What do you want, Harrison?”

“Twenty thousand dollars, deliverable in one week or less. You have my address. I want it in small bills, because it’s hard to cash $20,000 checks.”

“And if I don’t come across?”

“Then I mail the package to the police, with a little note telling them they’d better start draining a certain lake in Upper New York State. And just to make things nicer I’ll send photo-stats of the whole works to your wife, so she can think twice about you before she hires a fancy lawyer to defend you. On the other hand, you can pay me and I’ll guarantee to vanish without singing.”

My hands were quivering. I said, “I don’t have $20,000 lying around.”