The night clerk was a little too prim and uncooperative. “I don’t know, sir. We don’t ordinarily rent rooms to people without baggage.” “It’s only for one night. I … haven’t any other place to stay.” The clerk’s eyebrows arched slightly and Tanner guessed what the man was thinking. He could try to bribe him, he thought, but it would be expensive and the clerk impressed him as the type who would scream for the police. “My wife,” he said, looking sheepish. “We had an argument and you know how it is. Locked out and I don’t want to call the cops and let the whole neighborhood know. By morning it’ll probably blow over but right now …” The clerk studied him a moment longer, then relented. He passed over a card for Tanner to sign and took a key off the rack behind him. “It’s on the sixth floor. Bathroom down the hall and there’s a telephone by the stairway.” He took the elevator up and padded down the deserted hallway to his room. He went in, locked the door and jammed a chair in front of it.
