Surrounded

at her, wondering how he could go about asking for a date. "Then they tied you up in the warehouse?"
        "Yes." Unconsciously she rubbed her wrists where the wire had encircled them.
        "I've already talked to the night watchmen," Kluger explained. "I won't waste a lot of time going over old ground."
        "I am awfully tired," she said.
        "I appreciate that, Miss Ledderson," he said, smiling and nodding to show her how sympathetic he was. "Or… May I call you Evelyn?"
        She leaned forward seductively, then winked at him and said, "Why don't you just keep on calling me Miss Ledderson?" Her dark eyes bored straight through him and saw much more than he wanted her to know.
        He colored, looked at his hands, glanced at the spritzing fountain, and felt like a schoolboy caught doing something filthy. "I understand… This must have been difficult for you. I was only trying to be friendly."
        "I know what you were trying to be," she said.
        At that moment, when he realized that she was not the sort of woman who could be easily fooled, Kluger lost all interest in her. Women who could hold their own, women who were sharp and perceptive and not afraid to speak their minds never had appealed to him. They offended his sense of tradition, of male-female lightness. He liked the soft and helpless type, the ones who needed support and guidance from sun up to sunset. He didn't want to have to compete with a woman in the bedroom. It never occurred to him, at least not on a conscious level, that he was afraid of losing that competition.
        His voice had a nasty twist to it now. "You must have known that Rudolph Keski hasn't always been a legitimate businessman."
        "Oh?" She seemed amused.
        "He used to be in the rackets."
        She smiled. "He was in jail, then?"
        "Nothing was ever proved," Kluger admitted.
        "Well, then, it's nothing more than hearsay." She sat back in her chair again. She was obviously pleased with Lieutenant Kluger's discomfort.
        "Did you know about this 'hearsay' reputation of his?" the lieutenant persisted.
        "If I did know," she said, "what possible difference could it make? It couldn't have anything to do with what happened here tonight." Her voice got hard. There was no longer any amusement in it. "You're angry because I saw through you, and you're just trying to irritate and frighten me. I won't sit here and be harassed much longer."
        "You'll sit there until I tell you to leave," Kluger said, an ugly edge to his voice.
        "I'm afraid not."
        "You will-"
        "Do you have any serious questions? Or are you completely stumped? If you have anything serious to ask, you'd better ask it right now," she said, pushing back her chair and getting to her feet.
        Kluger looked down at his hands. They were curled into tight fists. He made an effort to relax. "The manhole cover was off the drain entrance in the warehouse. Do you think they escaped that way?"
        "I wouldn't know."
        "First they tied you up and left you on the north side of the warehouse. Then one of them used an electric cart to move you to the south side of the room. Why?"
        "I guess they were going to be doing something on the north side of the room. Something they didn't want us to see."
        "Could it be that they were going to leave by the drain and didn't want you to know?"
        She shrugged. Her full dark hair bounced on her shoulders. "Why would it matter if we knew? We were all tied up. We couldn't do anything about it."
        Kluger got to his feet because he didn't like to have her staring down at him. "I may want to talk to you again. What's your home phone number and address?"
        "I gave it to the homicide detective," she said, tilting her head impishly to one side.
        "I'll need it, too."
        "You can ask them for it."
        "I'm asking you for it."
        "You can reach me here any weekday afternoon," she said, ignoring the implied command. "I'm an employee of the company and not just of Mr. Keski. Even if the new management hires another woman, I'll have to stay on a few weeks to help her get adjusted. I'm convinced you'll have this all wrapped up by then, Lieutenant." She turned and walked off across the lounge, entered the east corridor, and disappeared around the corner.
        
        At 3:25, Kluger unfolded the blueprints on the card table and