Scam

said. “Tell me. This girl. Is there anyone else you saw talking to her? Anyone might be able to help me out?”
    “No one in particular I’m sure half a dozen guys hit on her. But I wouldn’t know who they were.” He picked up the two empty glasses and dunked them in the sink. “Look. You wanna hang out till five o’clock, start asking people if they saw this girl, do me a favor. Don’t. I’m talking to you because I’m a nice guy and I’m the bartender. But to the customers? A private detective in a singles bar is the kiss of death.” He shook the glasses, set them on the bar. He shrugged. “Just a hint.”
    Not exactly the hint I was looking for.

5.
    C RANSTON P RITCHERT WAS NOT PLEASED.
    “You got nothing?” he said.
    “It would seem there’s nothing to get.”
    “What about the girl?”
    “There’s nothing to go on.”
    “You have a description.”
    “That I do. And if you want, I can go back tonight and ask around. But the bartender says that will probably do no good.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because private detectives are not particularly popular in singles bars. They tend to make people nervous.”
    “You don’t have to say you’re a private detective.”
    “Of course not. Pardon me, but I’m making a survey of how many large-busted blondes hang out in singles bars, and have you happened to see one?”
    Pritchert frowned. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
    “I’m sorry,” I said. “But you see the point. It’s very difficult for me to do this job. On the other hand, it would be easy for you. When you get off work tonight why don’t you go to the bar, as you often do, have a drink and ask around?”
    “I don’t want to do that.”
    “Why not?”
    “It would make me seem foolish. I can’t afford to appear foolish with this proxy fight going on.”
    “You think having me asking around doesn’t make you seem foolish?”
    His eyes widened. “You’re not mentioning me.”
    “Are you kidding? I’m asking about the girl. You think no one’s gonna notice she’s talking to someone six foot six?”
    “Hell.”
    “Well, that’s the situation. So far I’ve only talked to the bartender. I could go back during happy hour, work some line, start asking customers. But if you think I can describe the girl and leave you out of it, you must be dreaming.”
    He frowned, thought that over.
    “If you don’t want me to do that,” I said, “there’s nothing I can do. Now, I put in two hours already, one last night and one the day before. That’s a hundred bucks. You gave me a two hundred dollar retainer. If you like, I’ll return a hundred to you now and forget the whole thing. Frankly, that’s what I’d prefer to do, because the bartender has already told me he doesn’t want me hanging around.”
    “You’re not working for the bartender,” Pritchert said.
    “No, I’m not. And I’m not working for you either, unless there’s something I can actually do. Frankly, this whole thing seems a tempest in a teapot.”
    Pritchert frowned. “What do you mean?”
    “I mean just because a girl tries to pick you up in a bar, there’s no reason to assume anything sinister. Now, if the girl showed up, tried to shake you down, that would be something else. But the way things stand, there’s no reason to assume anything of the sort. You met a girl, you had a few too many drinks, you don’t remember everything that happened. Big deal. If you got nothing more to go on, I don’t see how I can help you.”
    “I tell you, it means something.”
    “How do you know that? Intuition?”
    “You can call it what you like. The fact is, I want something done.”
    “What?”
    “I want you to find this girl.”
    “And how would you propose I do that?”
    He took a breath. “You’re the detective. You should be telling me.”
    “I am telling you, I’m telling you it’s a long shot and it’s probably a waste of time. If you want me to go through the motions, I’ll go through the motions. Right now I got a woman in Queens fell down in a McDonald’s and broke her arm. So I gotta be going.”
    “How can I reach you?”
    “Huh?”
    “Suppose I need to reach you during business hours.”
    “Why would you?”
    “I don’t know. But if I did.”
    I took out one of Richard Rosenberg’s business cards. “This is the attorney I work for. The switchboard can always reach me.”
    “You going to work now?”
    “That’s right.”
    “When do you get off?”
    “In the