Detective

bank?”
    “Of course not. You can’t do it through normal channels. You would have to do what Albrect did.”
    “What was that?”
    “Come to Miami and check me out.”
    “Oh,” he said.
    “When’s the next time you’re going to be in Miami?”
    “I don’t know. None of my accounts are in Miami. Maybe, with Albrect gone—but we haven’t worked that out yet.”
    “Then this will have to wait,” I told him. “I’m due back in New York in three months. I can bring you references then. I admit that’s not the same as if you got them yourself, but it’s the best I can do.”
    “I see,” he said. He did not sound happy.
    “Wait a minute,” I said. “I know you can’t take a chance on me on a thing like that without checking me out, I understand that. But Albrect did check me out, and he got a complete credit check in writing before he said he’d O.K. the deal.”
    “So?”
    “So wouldn’t that satisfy you?”
    “Maybe. Where would it be?”
    “In his office. Where else?”
    Albrect’s office was identical to Murphy’s, with the exception that, where Murphy’s was immaculate, Albrect’s was a holy mess. Files, letters, circulars, price lists, catalogues and memos were strewn everywhere, including the couch, the chairs, the coffee table, and the bar. A mound of it reposed on his desk.
    It hadn’t taken much to persuade Murphy to search the office. The police had given it a once over, told the company to lock the office, and left. They’d never know we’d been in there. Besides, they’d never promised Murphy a thousand a month.
    “The police do this?” I asked as we ploughed through the mound on Albrect’s desk.
    He shook his head. “This is the way they found it, this is the way they left it. Albrect’s office was always like this. I thought he kept it this way deliberately so that people’d think he was always busy.”
    “He seems to have succeeded,” I said.
    Murphy was sifting through litter on the bar when I came across a small black notebook, tucked in the bottom corner of Albrect’s top right desk drawer. I palmed it, shoved it into my jacket pocket, kept on looking.
    It was nearly two hours later when we called it quits. I hadn’t found anything else I considered significant and, oddly enough, we had not found any written record of Albrect’s credit approval of Nathan Armstrong.
    “Well, that’s it,” I said. “We’re just gonna have to put this on hold till next time.”
    Murphy’s regret was genuine. “That’s really a shame,” he said. “I don’t see why I can’t check your credit over the phone.”
    “You wouldn’t understand,” I told him. “It involves talking to some people you can’t talk to on the phone. What I mean is, they wouldn’t talk to you. I took Albrect to them in person and they were able to satisfy him that my credit was good. But it took a face-to-face meeting and a personal introduction.”
    Murphy didn’t want to let go. “Well, maybe I could go without a credit check,” he said.
    Christ! I realized I’d better ease off the sales pitch before I wound up with 50 thousand fucking towels. Fortunately, Murphy let it drop.
    “Well,” I said. “This trip’s a total washout for me.”
    “Yeah. It’s a shame.”
    “It’s not just the order. See, I’m an old riverboat gambler from way back, you know. Albrect told me there was a casino operating right here in Manhattan. He was gonna take me there tonight.”
    “Is that right,” Murphy said with a grin. “Well, Mr. Armstrong, things aren’t as bad as you think. I’d be delighted to take you there myself.”
    “Oh, you know the place?” I asked.
    “Know it?” he said. “Hell, I’m the one who told Albrect about it.”
    Son of a bitch! First rattle out of the box. Murphy was Dumbo.

6.
    T HE L OCKSMITH T URNED THE K EY in his hands, looking it over. “It’s the key to a safe deposit box,” he told me.
    That was interesting, seeing as how the key had been tucked in the plastic fold of the cover of Albrect’s address book.
    “You mean in a bank?” I asked.
    “I don’t know where else you’re gonna find a safe deposit box.”
    “Can you tell me which bank?”
    “Nope.”
    “Well, what can you tell me?”
    “Well, it ain’t any bank around here.”
    “How do you know that?”
    “Cause I never seen this blank before. If it was for a bank around here, I would have this blank.”
    “What do you mean by around here?”
    “Huh?”
    “How large an area you