The Anonymous Client

manner was crisp, efficient, businesslike.
    And cold.
    Steve didn’t understand it. All right, so it was almost ten o’clock. He was late. Surely the boss had a right to be late every now and then.
    “Good morning,” Steve said.
    “Good morning.”
    “Any calls?”
    “No.”
    “Any mail?”
    “On your desk.”
    Steve Winslow gave her a look, wondering what he’d done wrong. He couldn’t figure it out. He shrugged and went into his inner office.
    Steve walked around behind his desk, started to sit down, stopped, and grinned. There on the desk blotter lay a pink, perfumed envelope.
    Steve chuckled. Women. You could have a sexual revolution, women’s liberation, and the whole bit, but some things never changed. Tracy Garvin was having a jealous snit.
    Steve picked up the envelope. It really reeked of perfume. No wonder it set her off.
    Well, there was an easy way to fix that. All Steve had to do was call Tracy into the room and let her open the envelope and pull out the two Bradshaw letters.
    Except Steve didn’t want Tracy to know he had them. No, explanations were out. Tracy was just going to have to sulk. Well, she’d get over it.
    The intercom buzzed. There. She was over it already. Steve picked up the phone.
    “Yes.”
    “A Miss Judy Meyers to see you,” Tracy said. Her voice could have cut glass.
    Steve sighed. No, this just wasn’t his day.
    Being an actress, Judy Meyers made an entrance. She swept into the room wearing a rather daring evening gown, closed the door behind her, and made an elaborate pantomime of looking around furtively before saying in a stage whisper, “Is the coast clear?”
    Steve Winslow cracked up. “I should have known better than to ask an actress. My god, you even dressed for the part,”
    Judy looked at him. “What do you mean, dressed for the part? I have an audition in a half hour.”
    “Oh?”
    “And not as a gun moll, either. A woman doctor.”
    “Oh.”
    Judy frowned. “You think I look cheap? Too flashy? Overdressed?”
    “No, no,” Steve said. “I’m just not used to seeing you dressed up in the morning. I didn’t know you had an audition.”
    “I look too slinky, is that it?”
    “No, no. Really.”
    “’Cause I value your opinion,” Judy said. “I mean, you were an actor, you’ve always given me good advice about auditions and—Say! Nice mail.”
    Steve looked down at the letter that was still lying on his desk. In spite of himself, he started giggling.
    Judy stared at him. “What’s so funny?”
    He shook his head, but he couldn’t stop giggling. “I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s just too funny. I have a secretary out there giving me the cold shoulder because of this envelope. This envelope happens to contain a bit of evidence that I mailed to myself because I don’t want the cops to get their hands on it. I can’t tell her because I don’t want her to know about it. The cops have grilled her once about my business, and they may grill her again. That’s for starters. What she thinks of you, I wouldn’t even want to imagine.”
    Judy cocked an eyebrow at him. “Whatever have you done to make the poor girl so possessive?”
    “Absolutely nothing.”
    Judy nodded. “Ah, the old indifferent act. Good move. Gets them every time.”
    “Yeah.”
    Judy looked at him. “You’re really in trouble, aren’t you?”
    “Why do you say that?”
    “Because I’m bantering with you, and you’re not bantering back. In fact, you just told me about your secretary giving you a hard time, which is totally out of character for you, and not something you’d ordinarily tell me. Which means you’re so preoccupied with something you can’t think of anything to say other than the simple truth. So what’s wrong?”
    Steve sighed. “Yesterday I testified before the grand jury. I’m holding out evidence in a murder case. The D.A. knows it, and if he can prove it he’s going to try to get me disbarred.”
    Judy looked at him. “Oh. Good. I thought it was something serious.”
    Steve shot her a look.
    “Sorry,” Judy said. “I can’t help myself. Here, let me make your day.” She reached down the front of her dress and pulled out a piece of paper. “Ta da!”
    “You got it.”
    “Damn right, I got it. Is this it?”
    Steve unfolded the paper. Smiled. “That’s it, all right.”
    “Great. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
    “The main thing is to forget you ever saw this.”
    “Consider it done. Are you sure you can’t