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"What do you mean, 'off the top of your head'?" H. Richard Detweiler asked coldly.
"Dick, I'm not a criminal lawyer," Brewster C. Payne said.
"Oh, great! We come here to see how we can keep our daughter from getting shot-again-by the Mob, and you tell me 'Sorry, that's not my specialty.' My God, Brewster!"
"Settle down, Dick," Payne said. "You came to the right place."
He walked to his door.
"Irene, would you ask Colonel Mawson to drop whatever he's doing and come in here, please?"
"Mawson?" Detweiler said. "I never have liked that son of a bitch. I never understood why you two are partners."
"Dunlop Mawson is reputed to be-in my judgmentis – the best criminal lawyer in Philadelphia. But if you think he's a son of a bitch, Dick-"
"For God's sake," Grace said sharply, "let's hear what he has to say."
Colonel J. Dunlop Mawson (the title making reference to his service as a lieutenant colonel, Judge Advocate Generals' Corps, U.S. Army Reserve, during the Korean War) appeared in Brewster C. Payne's office a minute later.
"I believe you know the Detweilers, don't you, Dunlop?" Payne asked.
"Yes, of course," Mawson said. "I've heard, of course, about your daughter. May I say how sorry I am and ask how she is?"
"Penny is addicted to cocaine," Grace Detweiler said. "How does that strike you?"
"I'm very sorry to hear that," Colonel Mawson said.
"There is a place in Hartford," Grace said, "that's supposed to be the best in the country. The Institute for Living, something like that-"
"Instituteof Living," Payne said. "I know of it. It has a fine reputation."
"Anyway, she's going there," Grace Detweiler said.
"I had a hell of a time getting her in," H. Richard Detweiler said.
" 'I'?" Grace Detweiler snapped, icily sarcastic.
"Really?" Payne asked quickly. He had seen Grace Detweiler in moods like this before.
"There's a waiting list, can you believe that? They told Dotson on the phone that it would be at least three weeks, possibly longer, before they'd take her."
"Well, that's unfortunate, but-" Colonel Mawson said.
"Wegot her in," Detweiler said."We had to call Arthur Nelson-"
"Arthur Nelson?" Payne interrupted. "Why him?"
Arthur J. Nelson, Chairman of the Board of Daye-Nelson Publications, one of which was thePhiladelphia Ledger, was not among Brewster C. Payne's favorite people.
"Well, he had his wife in there, you know," Grace Detweiler answered for her husband. "She had a breakdown, you know, when that sordid business about her son came out. Arthur put her in there."
"Yes, now that you mention it, I remember that," Payne said. "Was he helpful?"
"Very helpful," H. Richard Detweiler said.
"Dick, you're such an ass," Grace said. "He was not!"
"He said he would do everything he could to minimize unfortunate publicity," H. Richard Detweiler said. "And he gave us Charley Gilmer' s name."
