Hoag was standing just behind her.
She gave a most unprofessional squeak.
Hoag smiled with his lips. “Ah, Mrs. Randall!”
She said nothing — she could think of nothing to say. There was a .32 pistol in her handbag; she felt a wild desire to snatch it out and fire. On two occasions, at a time when she was working as a decoy for the narcotics squad, she had been commended officially for her calm courage in a dangerous pinch — she felt no such calm now.
He took a step toward her. “You wanted to see me, did you not?”
She gave way a step. “No,” she said breathlessly. “No!”
“Ah, but you did. You expected to find me at your office, but I chose to meet you — here!”
The corridor was deserted; she could not even hear a sound of typing or conversation from any of the offices around them. The glazed doors stared sightlessly; the only sounds, other than their own sparse words, were the street noises ten stories below, muted, remote and unhelpful.
He came closer. “You wanted to take my fingerprints, didn’t you? You wanted to check them — find out things about me. You and your meddlesome husband.”
“Get away from me!”
He continued to smile. “Come, now. You wanted my fingerprints — you shall have them.” He raised his arms toward her and spread his fingers, reaching. She backed away from the clutching hands. He no longer seemed small; he seemed taller, and broader — bigger than Teddy. His eyes stared down at her.
Her heel struck something behind her; she knew that she had backed to the very end of the passage — dead end.
His hands came closer. “Teddy!” she screamed. “Oh, Teddy!”
Teddy was bending over her, slapping her face. “Stop that,” she said indignantly. “It hurts!”
He gave a sigh of relief. “Gee, honey,” he said tenderly. “You sure gave me a turn. You’ve been out for minutes.”
“Unnnh!”
“Do you know where I found you? There!” He pointed to the spot just under the open window. “If you hadn’t fallen just right, you would have been hamburger by now. What happened? Lean out and get dizzy?”
“Didn’t you catch him?”
He looked at her admiringly. “Always the professional! No, but I damn near did. I saw him, from down the corridor. I watched a moment to see what he was up to. If you hadn’t screamed, I would have had him.”
“If I hadn’t screamed?”
“Sure. He was in front of our office door, apparently trying to pick the lock, when — ”
“Who was?”
He looked at her in surprise. “Why, Hoag, of course — Baby! Snap out of it! You aren’t going to faint again, are you?”
She took a deep breath. “I’m all right,” she said grimly, ” — now. Just as long as you’re here. Take me to the office.”
“Shall I carry you?”
“No, just give me your hand.” He helped her up and brushed at her dress. “Never mind that now.” But she did stop to moisten, ineffectively, a long run in what had been until that moment brand-new stockings.
He let them into the office and sat her carefully in an armchair, then fetched a wet towel with which he bathed her face. “Feel better?”
“I’m all right — physically. But I want to get something straight. You say you saw Hoag trying to get into this office?”
“Yeah. Damned good thing we’ve special locks.”
“This was going on when I screamed?”
“Yeah, sure.”
She drummed on the arms of the chair.
“‘S matter, Cyn?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all — only this: The reason I screamed was because Hoag was trying to choke me!”
It took him some time even to say, “Hunh?”
She replied, “Yes, I know, darling. That’s how it is and it’s nuts. Somehow or other, he’s done it to us again. But I swear to you that he was about to choke me. Or I thought he was.” She rehearsed her experience, in detail. “What does it add up to?”
“I wish I knew,” he told her, rubbing his face. “I wish I did. If it hadn’t been for that business in the Acme Building, I would say that you were sick and had fainted and when you came to you were still kinda lightheaded. But now I don’t know which one of us is batty. I surely thought I saw him.”