Scam

“No, scratch that. I’m not like that. You say ten minutes?”
    “Well, you tell me. Will this take more than that?”
    She sipped her coffee, thought a bit. “Okay,” she said.
    “Fine. Let’s have it.”
    “Huh-uh,” she said. “You first.”
    I counted the bills under the table, trying to look like I was just being cautious. Actually, I didn’t want her to see how little I had.
    I slapped five twenties on the table. “Here’s a hundred. Talk and it’s yours.”
    She shook her head. “Huh-uh. Hand it over.”
    “What’s the matter? Don’t you trust me?”
    “Sure I do. But you’re the one who wants the information, you’re the one who has to trust me.”
    I slid the bills across the table. They disappeared into the pocket of the yellow slicker.
    “Okay,” I said. “What’s the story?”
    She shrugged. “Perfectly simple. That guy—I was hired to have drinks with him.”
    “Hired?”
    “That’s right.”
    “By who?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “You don’t know?”
    She stuck out her chin. “That’s right. I don’t know. I’m sorry if you don’t like that, but that’s the fact.”
    “How does it happen that you don’t know?”
    “I wasn’t told.”
    I put up my hand. “Please. Start from the beginning. Assume I know nothing. Which is a pretty good assumption. How were you hired? How did you hear about this? How did you know what to do?”
    “Actually, it was my agent.”
    “Your agent?”
    “Yeah. Well, not my theatrical agent. The other one.”
    “The other one?”
    “Yeah. You know. For dancing.”
    “I see. So that agent called?”
    “Right.”
    “What did he say?”
    “It’s a she.”
    “What did she say?”
    “Said a man called, wanted to hire me.”
    “What did you say?”
    “I said, no way. You gotta understand, I don’t do that sort of thing. I’m not a hooker. I dance.”
    “Uh-huh. So what then?”
    “She said it wasn’t like that. I’d get paid for my time, but all I’d have to do is have drinks with some guy.”
    “So?”
    “So, frankly, that didn’t sound any better. But Shelly said, no, she thought it was legit.”
    “Shelly?”
    “My agent. She said it was a legitimate job, it was just for two hours, and all I’d have to do would be to drink in this bar.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “I didn’t either. But Shelly said it was perfectly simple. There was a man this guy wanted kept occupied for two hours.”
    “What?”
    “That’s right. All I had to do was go to this bar and drink with this guy for two hours. After that, I was free to do anything I wanted. I could stay there, I could walk out, I could ditch him, whatever. But for that two hours I didn’t let him out of my sight.”
    “And you agreed to that?”
    “I agreed to listen.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Well, the guy didn’t tell me that. My agent did. Anyway, she talked me into listening to him.”
    “The guy?”
    “Right.”
    “So then you met him?”
    “No, I didn’t.”
    “Oh? I thought you said …?”
    “Yeah, but I didn’t meet him. He called me on the phone. That’s what I agreed to. To let him call me, tell me what he wanted.”
    “So he did?”
    “Yeah.”
    “What did he say?”
    “I was to go to this singles bar. I’d meet a man there. I couldn’t miss him because he was tall and thin. I was to have drinks with him, kid him along, keep him there for two hours. In return for which I would get five hundred bucks.”
    “Less agent fees?”
    “No, free and clear. What Shelly got was her business. The five hundred was mine.”
    “And that’s all?”
    “That’s it.”
    “There was nothing special you were supposed to do?”
    “No, just keep the guy there.”
    “The guy on the phone—did he tell you anything else?”
    “No, that was it.”
    “And you never met him—the guy on the phone?”
    “No, I didn’t.”
    “And that’s all you know about him?”
    “Yeah. Except …”
    “Except what?”
    “He had a funny voice.”
    “Oh?”
    “Yeah. Kind of low and strained. Like he was disguising it.”
    “Oh, yeah?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Was it someone you knew?”
    “No, of course not.”
    “Well, why would he do that if you didn’t know him?”
    “I have no idea.”
    “He didn’t sound like anyone?”
    “I told you. No.”
    “And what did he say?”
    “Just what I said. I should go to the bar, five o’clock. When the guy came in I should talk to him, keep him there till seven.”
    “That’s all he told you to