A woman’s voice came back from downstairs, “I would like to see Mr. Burke, please.”

I hit the second switch on the recorder, and my faithful secretary asked, “Do you have an appointment?”

“No, but it’s very important. I don’t mind waiting.”

I thought for a second, contemplated the state of my finances, and selected another switch from the two remaining. “Very well. Please come up and Mr. Burke will see you shortly.”

“Thank you,” came the woman’s voice.

As soon as I hit the opener for the downstairs door, which also sends down the elevator, I went through the back door to the fire escape and climbed out past the connecting window to the second office. I kept going until I was near the end of the building, where I had a periscope mounted to give me a view of the entire hall from the elevator on down. It was a miserable arrangement even with the floodlights in the corridor-when it was raining or dark outside, you couldn’t see that much-but at least you could tell if it was more than one person outside the office door. It wasn’t this time and I went back inside.

Pansy growled softly. I adjusted the fake Persian rug on the right-hand wall (the second office is against the left wall) so that it looked as though there were a connecting door, and I opened the outer door just as she was getting ready to knock again. I motioned her to come inside and sit on the low couch next to my desk, activated a switch to open the phony intercom, and said “Sally, hold my calls for a while, okay?” A quick push of the second switch got me “Certainly, Mr. Burke.” I then turned to look at my new client.

The low couch usually bothers people but this lady couldn’t have cared less. I guess she measured about five feet total (maybe an inch or so less), white-blonde hair, high forehead, thin nose, wide-set dark eyes, and a kind of thick chunky build you would call buxom if you hadn’t had a look at her from the waist down.