Mile High by Richard Condon

days. That and his money gave him an edge. They sat in silence for one minute. Then three minutes. After about four minutes Goff said imperturbably, “What can I do for you?”
    â€œI am an attorney. Dean Glass said you were a gifted briefs man.”
    â€œThank you.” Goff did something indefinable with his pale left hand, exposing his open palm, making a loosely clenched fist, then opening it to release nothing, thus turning his two words into a sardonic statement.
    â€œThat is what I know about you as a lawyer. What will I find when I investigate the rest?”
    â€œDo you think that will be necessary?”
    Eddie nodded pleasantly.
    â€œIf it is necessary to investigate an attorney at law beyond questioning the dean of his law school, then the retainer must be extraordinary. If that is so, why aren’t you in Wall Street talking to one of the big firms? I would add that it might be more in line if I were to investigate you.”
    â€œThat seems indiscreet for an attorney at law to say.”
    â€œI’m not in a popularity contest.”
    â€œYou can investigate me. I am Edward Courance West. Paddy West’s son.”
    Goff sat up very straight and his hard eyes began to be transformed into eyes that were looking at the golden medina. He stood up, walked around his desk and shook Eddie’s hand again. “I am very glad to know you, Mr. West. Now let me tell you about myself.” He moved slowly back to his chair behind the desk talking persuasively as he went.
    â€œI am Arnold Goff, twenty-five years old. My father is head of Goff Lite-Wayts, a leading dress house on 39th Street that has a triple-A rating. I am an only son and my parents are proud of me. I am unmarried but engaged to a young woman, Bella Radin, age twenty-three. Her family runs nickelodeons, and we will marry as soon as my circumstances permit. My father would happily finance the marriage, and for that matter so would hers, but we have declined these offers. I have had no clients other than my father’s firm, which I refuse to charge. I could pick up cases around the criminal courts if I wanted to live like that, if I had become a lawyer to do that. So, on the surface, I have no income. But I have. I gamble for a living and I am good at it. Not lucky. I am in the strictest sense of the word a professional gambler. Lightning calculator. If the truth were faced, I am even better with figures than I am at the law. But full-time gambling is out of the question while my parents are alive. They educated me to be a lawyer.” Goff’s telephone rang. “It’s either my father, my mother, or Bella, my fiancée,” he said ruefully. “Want to bet, Mr. West? I’ll give you a good price.” The phone rang again.
    â€œWhat price?”
    â€œBet ten against those three names and win a hundred.”
    â€œWhat price if I name the caller, against those three?” The phone rang.
    â€œName the caller and you get twenty-five to one.”
    Eddie took out his wallet. “Can you cover a hundred dollars?” He slid a one-hundred-dollar bill across the glass-topped desk.
    â€œYou’re covered. Who’s calling?”
    â€œA man named Willie Tobin,” Eddie said. Goff picked up the phone and spoke into it with a casual drawl. “Hello? Who is calling, please?” He handed the instrument across the desk. “It’s for you, Mr. West,” he said almost gaily. “Mr. Bill Tobin.”
    â€œMike Segal called with a contract for an unlimited,” Willie told Eddie. “It’s for Benny. Okay?”
    â€œOkay,” Eddie said. “Give it to Judge Ornstein. He’s Supreme Court in Suffolk County but he’s sitting in Brooklyn today as an extra to help clear up the calendar. Tell him I said hello to his wife.” Eddie hung up and pushed the phone back toward Goff. “This is the retainer, Mr. Goff,” Eddie said. “I want you to