An Evil Guest by Gene Wolfe

shook her head. “I took a cab. I don’t have a car.”
    “I do,” Gideon told her. “I have one here, I mean. Not the one we used last night. I’ll be happy to give you a lift when we’ve finished eating.”
    L ATER , in a small brown convertible with the top up, Cassie asked, “Is my phone tapped, by the way?”
    “I don’t know. It isn’t tapped by me, if that’s what you mean. It’s possible that the man in those pictures has tapped it already, although it is not probable. What is, is that he’ll tap it soon.”
    “I was thinking of your pet cop,” Cassie said.
    “He may have, though I doubt it. I think it’s much more likely that he talked to Sharon Bench—or that Sharon talked to him.”
    “I hadn’t thought of that.” Small white teeth nibbled at Cassie’s lower lip. “I didn’t know she knew him.”
    “He’s a detective lieutenant and she’s a reporter. It would be surprising if they did not know each other. You called Sharon and asked about me. Didn’t it occur to you that when you had hung up Sharon might call others to try to get more information for you?”
    “No. It should have. How did you get him to pick me up for you?”
    “By telling him the truth. I told him that I thought I knew who had committed a crime he’s investigating. I named the man, and said that I was trying to locate him. As I am. I asked him to help me, promising to help him in return, as I have in the past. Do you want his name? I’m afraid I haven’t memorized his badge number.”
    “No. I want—are you going to tell me the truth?”
    Gideon nodded. “If I can, yes.”
    “Good. Where are you taking me?”
    “Back to your apartment.”
    Cassie glanced at her watch. “I’ll need to get a cab to the theater before long.”
    “I may be able to drive you. There’s something in your apartment I need to show you. After I do, you and I will have to talk a little more.”
    “We won’t have much time. I hope you realize that our romance is going to be all over town after five o’clock.”
    For a moment, Gideon’s eyes left the traffic ahead. “As fast as that? In a newspaper?”
    “Not in the
Sun-Trib
. That won’t hit the streets till tomorrow, but Sharon does a gossip spot on Channel Three. It’s the same company that owns her paper. Want to watch in my apartment?”
    “I do indeed.” Gideon was smiling.
    “You want everybody talking about us?”
    “Correct.” He nodded emphatically. “Fundamentally, there are two ways to find a man, Miss Casey. One is to go looking for him. The other is to have him come looking for you.”
    “Okay . . .”
    “I’ve tried the first, and failed. Now you and I are trying the second.”
    “This is the man that cop wants, isn’t it? And it’s the man in those pictures.”
    Gideon nodded.
    In the elevator he said, “I want you to go into your apartment. Shut the door, but don’t lock it. When I knock in a minute or two, let me in.”
    “What are you up to, Dr. Chase?”
    “I want to see whether your neighbors have come home, that’s all.”
    “They’re on vacation.”
    The elevator stopped, its doors sliding open. He motioned urgently, andCassie stepped out and unlocked the door of her apartment, entered, and shut it behind her. A moment later, she heard his loud knock at the door of 3B.
    J IMMY’S smile fairly glowed as he opened the stage door for her. Jimmy was at least sixty, probably nearer seventy; he always smiled, but Cassie had never seen him smile quite so warmly.
    She smiled back. “Everything all right, Jimmy?”
    His smile widened. “Everything’s fine now that you’re here, Miss Casey.”
    Her tiny dressing room seemed to be exactly as it had been the night before. Was the phone tapped? Was the room bugged? Cassie decided that the answers were no and yes. No, because there was no phone. Yes, because there were roaches.
    Quite a lot of them, really; but everybody knew that it was the fly on the wall that spied on you. The roaches hid