In the Last Analysis by Amanda Cross

Author:Amanda Cross [Cross, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: cookie429, Kat, Extratorrents
ISBN: 978-0-307-80212-5
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2011-07-19T14:00:00+00:00

Ten

JERRY emerged, like a groundhog, from his place of hibernation into the sunlight. He had seen halves of two movies, and had only the haziest idea of what either was about, but he suspected that the two halves combined made a more interesting movie than either of them whole would have done. His mind, in any case, had been on other things. Why, for example, had he not asked Richard Horan about telephone calls to Emanuel’s office? If Horan had arranged for those phone calls canceling the appointments, he might, in his confusion at Jerry’s question, have indicated it. On the other hand, if Horan had paid someone to make the calls, Jerry’s mentioning them would have put Horan, who seemed at any rate to have no suspicions about Jerry—apart from those about his sanity—on his guard. It seemed to Jerry that being a detective involved, more than any other profession, the constant traveling up dead-end roads. And no one, of course, ever bothered to put up signs on the roads saying Dead End.

Jerry, worried lest he miss Dr. Barrister’s nurse, took a taxi from the movie theater to the office where, all unknowingly, she awaited (he hoped) his arrival. He had spent none of Kate’s money and an uncomfortably large chunk of his own. He could not, in decency, charge Kate for the chamois, or the movie, or the taxi the movie had necessitated. Well, perhaps he could charge her for the chamois—after all, without that previous glimpse of Horan he would not have recognized him in the advertising office—which would have made, of course, no difference whatever. In the movie, however—and with this Jerry consoled himself—he had worked out a plan for approaching the nurse. That the plan would, had she known of it, have given Kate the screaming heebie-jeebies, could not, in this moment of desperation, deter Jerry for an instant.

The sign outside Dr. Barrister’s office read: RING AND WALK IN. Jerry did so. The nurse was there, working at a typewriter, alone. “Yes?” she said to Jerry, obviously mystified at his presence, his sex, and his errand. Seen this close, she was neither as young nor as pretty as Jerry had thought.

“It’s about my wife,” Jerry said. He sounded, to himself, extremely unconvincing, but hoped the nurse would put it down to uxorial nervousness. The nurse seemed undecided whether to laugh or call the police. “She, that is, we, that is—we wanted to have a baby. Is it all right if I sit down?” he added, doing so.

“The doctor isn’t here,” the nurse said, and then immediately regretted, it was clear from her expression, having admitted the fact to this lunatic. She barricaded herself behind an official attitude. “If your wife cares to call and make an appointment, or if you wish to make one now …” She took an appointment book from her desk and hovered over it, pen in hand. “Who recommended you to Dr. Barrister?” she horribly asked.

It was then that Jerry marshaled his by no means negligible reserve of charm.

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