“Your wife does. Get it from her.”

“I can’t!”

“That’s your problem, Foster. But let me tell you this: I sort of liked Peggy myself. I wouldn’t mind seeing the twenty grand—but I’d be just as happy if it didn’t come through, and I could turn in the rat who murdered her. Take your pick. So long, Foster.”

I was holding a dead phone.

* * *

I stood there frozen a minute or so. I couldn’t just walk back into the parlor and say to Helen, “Dear, I need twenty thousand dollars in a hurry, to pay off a guy who’s blackmailing me. You see, there was this girl I was seeing on the side, and I—”

No. I couldn’t do that.

Helen called in, “Mike, are you off the phone yet?”

“Yes,” I said. My voice was so strained it sounded like somebody else’s.

“That’s good. Anything important?”

“Just some office stuff,” I told her. “Some guy who can’t make up his mind which end is up and has to ask advice. Nothing much.”

“Bring in the ice cubes when you come back, will you, Mike?”

I brought in the ice cubes and put them down in front of her. I poured myself a stiff drink and tossed it down like cough medicine. The stuff was good, but didn’t help to melt the cold hard knot of fear that was forming inside me.

Twenty thousand dollars. In a week.

And I had no way of knowing whether Harrison would keep his word after all. Suppose he took the money and then turned me in anyway?

The hell with that. I had to take my chances. And I had to get the money. Right now.

There was only one place I could get it.

I said, “Helen, put down the book a minute, won’t you?”

She frowned and stuck a placemaker in. “Something on your mind, dear?”

“Yes. This business of the bank accounts being in your name.”

“Mike, if you’re going to start that again—!” She reached for her book.

“We’ve been married six years,” I said. “Seems to me I ought to start wearing the pants around here. What happens if I need a lot of money suddenly—I have to come crawling to you, don’t I? I’m sick of it! I feel like I’m being kept.”

Color rose to her cheeks. “Mike!”

“Well, that’s how it seems sometimes.”

“I can’t alter the will. You know you can have all the money you need, Mike.”

I took a deep breath. “Can I?”

“Have I ever denied you, Mike?”

“All right,” I said. I leaned forward in the big plush chair and knotted my hands together. “Helen, I want twenty thousand dollars by the end of the week.”

“Twenty thou—Mike, whatever for?”