Blunderer, The by Highsmith Patricia

Author:Highsmith, Patricia [Highsmith, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Crime, Fiction, Modern Classics, Novel, Thriller
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 1954-01-08T03:00:00+00:00

24

There was very little work for Walter in the office that week, because Dick Jensen had already taken over Walter’s tasks in anticipation of his six weeks’ leave. Walter took advantage of it and left earlier in the afternoons. The office depressed him even more than the house in Benedict. He went in to see Dick around three in the afternoon on Thursday.

“Dick, let’s get out of here next month,” Walter said. “Let’s call up Sherman and tell him we’ll sign the lease for December first or the middle of November, if we can get the office then.” Sherman was the rental agent for the 44th Street building they had chosen as an office location.

Dick Jensen looked at him solemnly for a minute, and Walter realized he had sounded a little hysterical, that Dick probably thought he was a little hysterical because of Clara.

“Maybe we ought to let things cool down for a while,” Dick said. “It goes without saying that I—I know you had nothing to do with it, Walt, but it’s a bad thing to try to get a new law office launched on.”

“The people we’re going to have as clients won’t care a hang about that,” Walter said.

Dick shook his head. He was standing behind his desk. There was a worried expression on his face. “I don’t think it’s fatal to us, Walt. But I think you’re more upset by all this than you know. I’m just trying to keep us both from doing anything hastily.”

He could only mean, Walter thought, that he didn’t want to be a partner in a new office that had a good chance of failing because of the other partner’s bad name. And yet Dick had made such a fine speech Tuesday about his confidence in him, how sure he was of his integrity. “You said you had no doubt it’d blow over. By December first it certainly will have blown over. I only meant we’d better give Cross notice, a month if you like, and get our publicity started. If we wait till December first for all that it’ll be the middle of January before we see our first client.”

“I still think we’d better wait. Walt.”

Walter looked at Dick’s soft body in the conservatively cut suit, the vest slightly bulging over hundreds of bacon-and-egg breakfasts, leisurely three-course lunches. Dick had a cheerful, easy-going wife at home, alive and breathing. He could afford to be calm and wait. Walter tossed his briefcase down and put on his topcoat.

“Taking off?” Dick asked.

“Yes. This place depresses me. I can just as well read this stuff at home.” Walter walked to the door.

“Walt—”

He turned round.

“I don’t suppose it’s too soon to give Cross notice. I didn’t mean that. I think we ought to give him a month. So next Monday—that will be the first of November, I suppose we could.”

“All right,” Walter said. “I’ve got my letter written. I only have to put a date on it.”

But as he went out to the elevator, it

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