"As I went out I stopped in front of Hoag’s bench and looked at him through the glass. Presently he looked up and stared at me, then looked down again. I’m sure I would have spotted it if he had recognized me. A case of complete skeezo, sheezo ... how do you pronounce it?"
"Schizophrenia. Completely split personalities. But look, Teddy—"
"Yeah?"
"You did talk with him. I saw you."
"Now slow down, puss. You may think you did, but you must have been looking at two other guys. How far away were you?"
"Not that far. I was standing in front of Beecham’s Bootery. Then comes Chez Louis, and then the entrance to the Acme Building. You had your back to the newspaper stand at the curb and were practically facing me. Hoag had his back to me, but I couldn’t have been mistaken, as I had him in full profile when the two of you turned and went into the building together."
Randall looked exasperated. "I didn’t speak with him. And I didn’t go in with him; I followed him in."
"Edward Randall, don’t give me that! I admit I lost the two of you, but that’s no reason to rub it in by trying to make a fool of me."
Randall had been married too long and too comfortably not to respect danger signals. He got up, went to her, and put an arm around her. "Look, kid," he said, seriously and gently, "I’m not pulling your leg. We’ve got our wires crossed somehow, but I’m giving it to you just as straight as I can, the way I remember it."
She searched his eyes, then kissed him suddenly, and pulled away. "All right. We’re both right and it’s impossible. Come on."
" ‘Come on’ where?"
"To the scene of the crime. If I don’t get this straightened out I’ll never sleep again."
The Acme Building was just where they had left it. The Bootery was where it belonged, likewise Chez Louis, and the newsstand. He stood where she had stood and agreed that she could not have been mistaken in her identification unless blind drunk. But he was equally positive as to what he had done.
"You didn’t pick up a snifter or two on the way, did you?" he suggested hopefully.
"Certainly not."
"What do we do now?"
"I don’t know. Yes, I do, too! We’re finished with Hoag, aren’t we? You’ve traced him down and that’s that."
"Yes ... why?"
"Take me up to where he works. I want to ask his daytime personality whether or not he spoke to you getting off the bus."
He shrugged. "O.K., kid. It’s your party."
They went inside and entered the first free elevator. The starter clicked his castanets, the operator slammed his doors and said, "Floors, please."
Six, three, and nine. Randall waited until all those had been served before announcing, "Thirteen."
The operator looked around. "I can give you twelve and fourteen, buddy, and you can split ‘em."
"Huh?"
"There ain’t no thirteenth floor. If there was, nobody would rent on it."
"You must be mistaken. I was on it this morning."
The operator gave him a look of marked restraint. "See for yourself." He shot the car upward and halted it. "Twelve." He raised the car slowly, the figure 12 slid out of sight and was quickly replaced by another. "Fourteen. Which way will you have it?"
"I’m sorry," Randall admitted. "I’ve made a silly mistake. I really was in here this morning and I thought I had noted the floor."
"Might ha’ been eighteen," suggested the operator. "Sometimes an eight will look like a three. Who you lookin’ for?"
"Detheridge & Co. They’re manufacturing jewelers."
The operator shook his head. "Not in this building. No jewelers, and no Detheridge."
"You’re sure?"
Instead of answering, the operator dropped his car back to the tenth floor. "Try 1001. It’s the office of the building."
No, they had no Detheridge. No, no jewelers, manufacturing or otherwise. Could it be the Apex Building the gentleman wanted, rather than the Acme? Randall thanked them and left, considerably shaken.
Cynthia had maintained complete silence during the proceedings. Now she said, "Darling—"
"Yeah. What is it?"
"We could go up to the top floor, and work down."
"Why bother? If they were here, the building office would know about it."
"So they would, but they might not be telling. There is something fishy about this whole business. Come to think about it, you could hide a whole floor of an office building by making its door look like a blank wall."
"No, that’s silly. I’m just losing my mind, that’s all. You better take me to a doctor."
"It’s not silly and you’re not losing your grip. How do you count height in an elevator? By floors. If you didn’t see a floor, you would never realize an extra one was tucked in. We may be on the trail of something big." She did not really believe her own arguments, but she knew that he needed something to do.
He started to agree, then checked himself. "How about the stairways? You’re bound to notice a floor from a staircase."
"Maybe there is some hanky-panky with the staircases, too. If so, we’ll be looking for it. Come on."
But there was not. There were exactly the same number of steps—eighteen—between floors twelve and fourteen as there were between any other pair of adjacent floors. They worked, down from the top floor and examined the lettering on each frosted-glass door. This took them rather long, as Cynthia would not listen to Randall’s suggestion that they split up and take half a floor apiece. She wanted him in her sight.
No thirteenth floor and nowhere a door which announced the tenancy of a firm of manufacturing jewelers, neither Detheridge & Co. nor any other name. There was no time to do more than read the firm names on the doors; to have entered each office, on one pretext or another, would have taken much more than a day.
Randall stared thoughtfully at a door labeled: "Pride, Greenway, Hamilton, Steinbolt, Carter & Greenway, Attorneys at Law." "By this time," he mused, "they could have changed the lettering on the door."
"Not on that one," she pointed out. "Anyhow, if it was a set-up, they could have cleaned out the whole joint, too. Changed it so you wouldn’t recognize it." Nevertheless she stared at the innocent- seeming letters thoughtfully. An office building was a terribly remote and secret place. Soundproof walls, Venetian blinds—and a meaningless firm name. Anything could go in such a place—anything. Nobody would know. Nobody would care. No one would ever notice. No policeman on his beat, neighbors as remote as the moon, not even scrub service if the tenant did not wish it. As long as the rent was paid on time, the management would leave a tenant alone. Any crime you fancied and park he bodies in the closet.
She shivered. "Come on, Teddy. Let’s hurry."
They covered the remaining floors as quickly as possible and came out at last in the lobby. Cynthia felt warmed by the sight of faces and sunlight, even though they had not found the missing firm. Randall stopped on the steps and looked around. "Do you suppose we could have been in a different building?" he said doubtfully.
"Not a chance. See that cigar stand? I practically lived there. I know every flyspeck on the counter."
"Then what’s the answer?"