The Case of the Crumpled Knave
Page 22
“I think I’m glad I told you,” Norman said almost to himself. “I’ve known you—what is it?—only twenty-four hours and already I want to go telling you things … everything. It’s a hell of a note.”
Abruptly she dropped the paper. “Look, darling. I’ve got to make a phone call before we go. My agent wanted me to get in touch with him, and he leaves his office about now. Mind?”
“Not at all. Good luck.”
Norman returned to the piano. He wished that Sarah did not toss the term darling about with such indiscriminate blitheness. How was he ever to tell if she really … He felt differently about the Chloe business now that he’d told it. He hadn’t been quite a fool. It was best for both of them. And without that quixotic gesture he would not be here now, knowing Sarah and thinking of her and playing They Wouldn’t Believe Me.
He started to his feet as the door opened. But it was only the landlady. She advanced to him with a folded note in her outstretched hand. “Miss Plunk said to give you this.”
“To give me—?”
“She went out.”
He unfolded the note and read:
Some other night maybe?
Sorry, darling.
The landlady did not approve of his language.
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About the Author
Anthony Boucher was an American author, critic, and editor, who wrote several classic mystery novels, short stories, science fiction, and radio dramas. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1939 by the Estate of Anthony Boucher
Cover design by Ian Koviak
ISBN: 978-1-5040-5741-7
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