You Can Say That Again

Начало книги

For the past week, I had been sitting, alone, in my walkup apartment, staring into space and waiting. I had run out of cash, and even worse, out of credit. My lifeline, right at this moment, was the telephone.

When the bell rang — the first time in seven, gruesome days — I nearly broke a leg getting to the receiver.

‘This is Lu Prentz’s secretary.’

‘Hi, Liz!’ I wasn’t a bit-part actor for nothing. I instilled into my voice sincere pleasure: not a desperate screech for help, but smooth, no panic, completely at ease. ‘You just caught me. I was on my way out.’

I knew this crummy dialogue wouldn’t jell with Liz Martin, but I knew she would go along with it. She had had enough experience, working with Lu Prentz, to know all his clients were desperate for work.

‘Mr. Prentz wants to see you urgently, Mr. Stevens,’ she told me. ‘May he expect you?’

‘What does that mean — urgently?’

‘After lunch. Three o’clock?’

Читать дальше →