interest in the locked room, taking notes and muttering about renting so many rooms and sanitary conditions and everything I could think of. I’m pretty sure I had calmed their fears. But I stopped at a phone on the corner and called Toni. She arranged for some of her operators to stand at the apartment house entrances once I left and make sure they didn’t try to move their prisoner.”
“Suppose they had?”
“They would have been stopped, of course. Those operators are large men with weapons. Fortunately, nothing happened. The operators are still there, by the way, connected to Toni by cellular phones. You and I will go around to meet Toni at seven as previously scheduled and then we’ll go and liberate Reed. He didn’t sound at all bad, not in pain or weak or anything, so I don’t think there’s much to worry about. What time is it now?” Harriet gazed at her watch. “That late?” she exclaimed, in what Kate thought a highly irritating manner. “Perhaps we better get going soon.”
“Toni said to bring Banny,” Kate said. “But surely,if we’re going to storm that apartment and rescue Reed—”
“We’re not going to storm the apartment. We’re going to pay a call, three well-dressed ladies complete with puppy. I, as the inspector of the afternoon, will say that my two companions are particularly eager to take over this apartment and may they please look at it. I shall remind them that they are probably there illegally, and it would be better for them if they cooperated. Once in, we’ll spring Reed, with Toni in charge, definitely in charge. The two operators will be outside the apartment, available if needed. Banny is to come along, first to give you a reason to be in the park, and second to make our visit look innocent and what it pretends to be. One hardly enters an apartment with evil intent accompanied by a large puppy. Of course, if you’d rather wait for Reed here, you and Banny—”
“We’re on our way,” Kate said, getting her jacket and Banny’s leash. “I’m going to have a word or two or three to say about your high-handedness in this whole matter. Or perhaps I should say Toni’s high-handedness.” Kate ushered Harriet out, locked the door, and awaited the elevator with unconcealed impatience.
The whole operation of freeing Reed could not qualify for a place in any account of dramatic rescues. Harriet, using the method she’d described to Kate, bullied herself, Toni, Kate, and Banny through the apartmentdoor. All the young women were home. Kate’s student recognized her and blanched, although, as they would later discover, her look of horror was merely at seeing her professor under these circumstances; she had not known Kate’s connection to the man she and her roommates were imprisoning when she agreed to go along with the scheme.
Harriet immediately began showing the layout in the manner of a real estate agent, flinging open doors and identifying the rooms. When they came to the room where Reed had been heard singing “Loch Lomond,” Harriet tried the door and reacted with shocked disbelief to find it locked. “Open this door at once,” she imperiously said.
“One of our roommates is sick in there,” the renter of the apartment said. “We really can’t disturb her. That room is no different than the others.”
“
From
the others, please,” Harriet insisted. “Let us try to preserve what is left to us of a once proud language. No different it may be, but we want to see it. We will tiptoe in no farther than the entrance to look around.” Banny, meanwhile, had jumped up on the door, perhaps feeling it her doggy duty to embody Kate’s fervor.
“What a cute puppy,” the young woman said, a last diversionary tactic.
“Open the damn door—
now
,” Toni ordered. For a moment Kate expected her to flourish a revolver, but she withheld that gesture, if only for a moment.“Open the door or I’ll force it open,” she said. She retreated down the hall,
“Suppose they had?”
“They would have been stopped, of course. Those operators are large men with weapons. Fortunately, nothing happened. The operators are still there, by the way, connected to Toni by cellular phones. You and I will go around to meet Toni at seven as previously scheduled and then we’ll go and liberate Reed. He didn’t sound at all bad, not in pain or weak or anything, so I don’t think there’s much to worry about. What time is it now?” Harriet gazed at her watch. “That late?” she exclaimed, in what Kate thought a highly irritating manner. “Perhaps we better get going soon.”
“Toni said to bring Banny,” Kate said. “But surely,if we’re going to storm that apartment and rescue Reed—”
“We’re not going to storm the apartment. We’re going to pay a call, three well-dressed ladies complete with puppy. I, as the inspector of the afternoon, will say that my two companions are particularly eager to take over this apartment and may they please look at it. I shall remind them that they are probably there illegally, and it would be better for them if they cooperated. Once in, we’ll spring Reed, with Toni in charge, definitely in charge. The two operators will be outside the apartment, available if needed. Banny is to come along, first to give you a reason to be in the park, and second to make our visit look innocent and what it pretends to be. One hardly enters an apartment with evil intent accompanied by a large puppy. Of course, if you’d rather wait for Reed here, you and Banny—”
“We’re on our way,” Kate said, getting her jacket and Banny’s leash. “I’m going to have a word or two or three to say about your high-handedness in this whole matter. Or perhaps I should say Toni’s high-handedness.” Kate ushered Harriet out, locked the door, and awaited the elevator with unconcealed impatience.
The whole operation of freeing Reed could not qualify for a place in any account of dramatic rescues. Harriet, using the method she’d described to Kate, bullied herself, Toni, Kate, and Banny through the apartmentdoor. All the young women were home. Kate’s student recognized her and blanched, although, as they would later discover, her look of horror was merely at seeing her professor under these circumstances; she had not known Kate’s connection to the man she and her roommates were imprisoning when she agreed to go along with the scheme.
Harriet immediately began showing the layout in the manner of a real estate agent, flinging open doors and identifying the rooms. When they came to the room where Reed had been heard singing “Loch Lomond,” Harriet tried the door and reacted with shocked disbelief to find it locked. “Open this door at once,” she imperiously said.
“One of our roommates is sick in there,” the renter of the apartment said. “We really can’t disturb her. That room is no different than the others.”
“
From
the others, please,” Harriet insisted. “Let us try to preserve what is left to us of a once proud language. No different it may be, but we want to see it. We will tiptoe in no farther than the entrance to look around.” Banny, meanwhile, had jumped up on the door, perhaps feeling it her doggy duty to embody Kate’s fervor.
“What a cute puppy,” the young woman said, a last diversionary tactic.
“Open the damn door—
now
,” Toni ordered. For a moment Kate expected her to flourish a revolver, but she withheld that gesture, if only for a moment.“Open the door or I’ll force it open,” she said. She retreated down the hall,
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