The door opened. Charley pushed it open before Martin could do anything, and Janey followed him in. Martin was wearing only a silk dressing-gown. He looked puzzledly from Janey to Charley and back to Janey again.

“You ever see this girl before?” Charley demanded belligerently.

“Why, no! I mean—oh, no!”

“That’s right,” Charley said. “She was all dressed up before, but now she’s in her everyday clothes. I made her change. A girl her age don’t have any business dressing up the way she likes to.”

“A girl her age?” Martin repeated, frowning. “Just—how old—is she?”

“She’ll be seventeen next month,” Charley snapped.

Martin looked bewildered. “This is some kind of joke you’re pulling, huh? This is the kid sister of the girl who—who was here earlier.”

“She’s my kid sister,” Charley said. “And she’s the same girl you put your lousy paws all over. Show him the birthmark, Sis.”

Janey had made a point of showing Martin the small birthmark on the inside of her left thigh. Now she hiked her dress up to her hips and sullenly demonstrated the mark again.

“See it?” Charley said. “It’s the same girl. And not even seventeen. There’s a law against that kind of stuff, Martin.”

The architect chuckled. “But how is anyone supposed to know? I could have sworn she was in her twenties when she picked me up in the bar. And she picked me up, no two ways about that.”

“It don’t matter,” Charley said stubbornly. “The law is supposed to protect young girls against themselves, too. It don’t matter who picked who up. You went to bed with her, and that makes you guilty of statutory rape.”

The architect stared expressionlessly at Charley. After a moment he said, “Statutory rape?”

“You heard me. They can put you away a long time for that. And it makes a noisy splash in the papers.”

“Are you going to turn me in?”

Charley shrugged. “All depends on you.”

“Meaning what?”

“Meaning that I don’t want my kid sister’s good name to get ruined by being smeared all over the front pages. So I’m willing to let you get off easy.”

“How easy?”

“Give me five hundred bucks in cash and get yourself out of town by tomorrow, and I’ll forget all about it. Otherwise I go to the cops and tell them that you’re the bastard who seduced my sister.”

Instead of answering, Martin began to laugh.

“What’s so damn funny?” Charley asked.

“Nothing, really. Except that this is such a good dodge I wish I’d thought of it myself!”

Janey and Charley exchanged uneasy glances.

“Huh?” Charley said.

“I mean, this business of sending the girl into a hotel to pick up wealthy-looking strangers, and then dressing her up as a teenager to milk some dough. It’s a lovely idea! And you damn near fooled me, too.”