Synopsis

It was a few minutes before eleven when I unlocked our door. The dumb lamp we had in the two-by-four "foyer" was on. The lamp looked like a drippy flower and cost fifty-seven bucks strictly because it was imported from Denmark. If all their lamps are like this job they must be blind over there. I could just about make out the couch opened as a bed, was surprised Mary was in the hay so early. I called out softly, "Babes?" She didn't answer. I took off my coat and tie, then my shoulder holster, went through my pockets and put everything on the table beside the lamp. I dropped my suit on the floor; it was due for the cleaner's anyway and we only had one closet and no room for soiled clothes. I went to the John and washed, afraid I'd wake Mary if I moved the Chinese screen in front of our "kitchenette" for a snack. For a hundred and twenty bucks a month you'd think we'd have room enough to move around. But not at this "good" address on East Sixty-ninth Street. Still I couldn't entirely blame Mary, I got some kicks out of living in a swank t, and all the modern nutty furniture we were in hock for. And yesterday almost all my pay check went for old bills. What kicks. But the old r...