“Hello, Wally,” Wohl said. “How are you?”

“Wally, we should leave,” Helene said.

“Not on my account, I hope,” Wohl said.

“Inspector-” Milham began, and then stopped. Wohl looked at him curiously. “Inspector, Mrs. Kellog got a death threat last night.”

“Damn you, Wally,” Helene said.

“Did you really?” Wohl asked. “Please sit down, Mrs. Kellog. Let me get you a cup of coffee.”

“I don’t mean to be rude, but…”

“Helene, honey, we just can’t pretend it didn’t happen.”

“Please, sit down,” Wohl repeated.

She reluctantly did so.

“Mrs. Kellog, you’re with friends,” Wohl said.

The door buzzer sounded again. Helene glanced toward the stairway with fright in her eyes.

“That has to be McFadden,” Wohl said. “You want to let him in, Matt?”

It was McFadden, laden with a kraft paper bag.

“I stopped by McDonald’s and got some Egg Mc-Muffins,” he said, handing Matt the bag as he reached the top of the stairs. “I thought maybe you hadn’t eaten.”

“I really want to go,” Helene said, getting up from the table.

“Who’s that?” McFadden asked.

“Charley, this is Mrs. Helene Ke1log,” Wohl said. “Mrs. Kellog, this is Detective McFadden.”

“Please, Wally,” Helene said.

“I’m going to have to be firm about this,” Wohl said. “If you’ve had a death threat, I want to know about it. If you won’t tell me about it, Mrs. Kellog, Wally will have to.”

“I knew we shouldn’t have come here,” Helene said, but, with resignation, she sat back down.

“At least we have enough food,” Wohl said. “Have you had any breakfast, Mrs. Kellog?”

“No,” she said softly.

“Have an Egg McMuffin and a cup of coffee,” Wohl said. “Wally will tell me what’s happened, and then you can fill in any blanks.”

Milham looked as if he was torn between regret that he had to tell Wohl and relief.

“Helene called me at the Roundhouse last night,” he said. “She told me there had been a telephone call.”

“Where was she?”

“At my mother’s,” Helene said. “I mean, I got the call at my mother’s. I called Wally from the Red Robin Diner.”

“And what exactly did your caller say?”

“He told me that unless I kept my mouth shut, I’d get the same thing that happened to Jerry,” Helene said.

“In just about those exact words?”

“He used dirty words,” she said.

“You didn’t happen to recognize the voice?” Wohl asked. She shook her head.

“I can certainly understand why you’re upset,” Wohl said.

“Upset? I’m scared to death. Not only for me. I’m afraid for my mother and father.”

“Well, I was about to say, you’re safe now. We’re friends, Mrs. Kellog. You think this call came from somebody on the Narcotics Five Squad?”

“Of course it did,” Helene snapped. “Who else? What I’d like to know…”

Wohl waited a moment for her to continue, and when she did not, he asked, gently: “What would you like to know?”

“Nothing, forget it.”

“She’d like to know how that damned Five Squad heard she’d talked to Washington,” Wally Milham said. “And so would I.”

“And so would I,” Wohl said. “We’ll find out. And until we do, until we get to the bottom of this, you won’t be alone, Mrs. Kellog. You’re living with your mother for the time being?”

“I was. Not now. I don’t want them involved in this.”

“So where will you be staying?”

“Helene stayed in a motel last night,” Milham said.

“That can get kind of expensive,” Wohl thought aloud. “Isn’t there some place you can stay?”

Helene and Wally looked at each other helplessly. “She could stay here,” Matt heard himself say. The others looked at him in what was more confusion than surprise. “My mother’s been on my back for me to stay with her for a couple of days.”

“I couldn’t do that,’ Helene said.

“I know it’s not much,” Matt said. “But if anybody was looking for you, they wouldn’t look for you here. And there’s a rent-a-cop downstairs twenty-four hours a day. And it’s just going to sit here, empty.”

“Jesus, Payne,” Milham said. “That’s very nice of you, but…”

“Why not?” Matt said. “I mean, really, why not?”

“I told you you were among friends, Mrs. Kellog,” Wohl said. “I think it’s a good idea.”

“I just don’t know,” she said, and started to sniffle.

“I think you should, honey,” Milham said.

“OK. It’s settled,” Matt said.

“Thank you very much,” Helene said, formally. “Just for a few days.”

“Wally, you take her to get her things, and then come back here,” Wohl ordered.

“Right,” Milham said, and then, quickly, as if he was afraid she would change her mind, “Come on, honey. Let’s go.”

“If I’m not here when you get back, I’ll leave a key with the rent-a-cop,” Matt said.

Helene looked at him.

“Wally was right,” she said. “He said you were a very nice guy.”

When they had gone down the stairs, and heard the door close after them, Wohl said, “That was nice of you, Matt.”

“Christ, they can’t afford living in a motel,” Matt said.

“And won’t your mother be pleasantly surprised to have you at home?” Wohl asked drolly. He stood up and went to the telephone and dialed a number.

“Inspector Wohl for the Chief,” he said a moment later, and then: “Chief, I promised to let you know if anything interesting happened. The Widow Kellog got a death threat-specifically, ‘Keep your mouth shut, or you’ll get the same thing as your husband,’ or words to that effect embroidered with obscenity-last night.”

The outraged, familiar voice of Chief Inspector Lowenstein could be heard all over the kitchen: “I’ll be goddamned! Where is she?”

“With Detective Milham. He took her to fetch some clothing. Matt Payne offered her his apartment to stay in.”

“That really burns me up,” Lowenstein said, unnecessarily adding, “what happened to her. That was nice of Payne. What are you going to do about it?”

“I’m going, first of all, to have someone sit on her. Discreetly.”

“Your people?”

“My people, and since we’re going to have to do this around the clock, I’d like to borrow one of yours for as long as this lasts.”

“Who?”

“McFadden. He was here, at Payne’s apartment, when this came up.”

“Northwest Detectives? That McFadden? The one who took down Dutch Moffitt’s murderer?”

“That McFadden.”

“OK. He’s yours. I’ll call Northwest Detectives.”

“Thank you. And then I’m going to give this to Weisbach and Washington. What I would like to know is who told Narcotics Five Squad that she’d talked to Washington.”

“You don’t know for sure that they know that,” Lowenstein said.

“No. But it strikes me as highly probable.”

Lowenstein grunted, and then said: “Peter, if you need anything else, let me know. Keep me posted. And thank you for the call.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you.”

He hung up the telephone, then leaned against the wall.

“It’s time, I think,” he said thoughtfully, “that we practice a little psychology. That woman is frightened. I think she knows more about what’s going on dirty with that Five Squad than she’s told anybody, including Milham, and right now, he’s the only cop she really trusts. She trusts Matt a little, because Milham likes him, and because he offered the apartment. And she thinks that Washington is straight, otherwise she would never have gone to him. So we’ll try to build a little trust by association.”

He turned back to the telephone and dialed a number.

“Jason, is Weisbach there?” he asked, and when the reply was that he wasn’t, added: “Put out the arm for him, please, and ask him to meet me at Payne’s apartment right away. I want you here, too, Jason. Right away.”

They could not hear what Washington replied.

“The Widow Kellog got a death threat telephone call this morning, telling her to keep her mouth shut or get the same thing that happened to her husband. Matt offered his apartment as a place for her to stay. Milham just took her to pick up some clothes. When they come back here, I want her to feel she’s surrounded by cops she can trust.”