Call After Midnight Read Online Free PDF

restaurant and sat down at a table. Fifteen minutes later the waitressbrought their salads, which were cloaked in homemade mayonnaise and tarragon. Tim looked at the lettuce and arugula on his fork and sighed.
    â€œThis is rabbit food. Give me a greasy burger any day.” He stuffed a forkful of the salad into his mouth and looked across the table at Nick. “So what’s bugging you? The new post got you down already?”
    â€œIt’s a damned slap in the face, that’s what it is,” said Nick. He drained his cup of coffee and motioned to the waitress for another. “To go straight from being number two man in London to shuffling papers in D.C.”
    â€œSo why didn’t you resign?”
    â€œI just might. Since that fiasco in London, my career’s been shot. And now I’ve got to put up with this bastard, Ambrose.”
    â€œIs he still out of town?”
    â€œOne more week. Till then I can do the job my way. Without all that bureaucratic nonsense. Hell, if he rewrites any more of my reports to make ’em ‘conform to administration policy,’ I’m going to puke.” Nick put his fork down and scowled at the salad. The mention of his boss had just ruined his appetite. From the very first day, Nick and Ambrose had rubbed each other the wrong way. Charles Ambrose reveled in the bureaucratic merry-go-round, whereas Nick always insisted on getting straight to the point, however unpleasant. The clash had been inevitable.
    â€œYour trouble, Nick, is that even though you’re an egghead, you don’t talk gobbledegook like all the others. You’ve got ’em all confused. They don’t like guys they can understand. Plus you’re a bleeding-heart liberal.”
    â€œSo? You are, too.”
    â€œBut I’m also a certified nerd. They make allowances for nerds. If they don’t, I shut down their computers.”
    Nick laughed, suddenly glad for the company of hisold buddy, Tim. Four years of being college roommates had left strong bonds. Even after eight years abroad, Nick had come home to find Tim Greenstein just as bushy and likable as ever.
    He picked up his fork and finished off the salad.
    â€œSo what’re you going to do with this Fontaine case?” Tim asked over dessert.
    â€œI’m going to do my job and look into it.”
    â€œYou gonna tell Ambrose? He’ll want to hear about it. So will the guys at the Company, if they don’t already know.”
    â€œLet ’em find out on their own. It’s my case.”
    â€œIt sounds like espionage to me, Nick. That’s not exactly a consular affair.”
    But Nick didn’t like the idea of turning Sarah Fontaine over to some CIA case officer. She seemed too fragile, too vulnerable. “It’s my case,” he repeated.
    Tim grinned. “Ah, the widow Fontaine. Could it be she’s your type? Though I can’t quite see the attraction. What I really can’t see is how she hooked that husband. Blond Adonis, wasn’t he? Not the kind of guy to go for a woman in horn-rimmed glasses. My deduction is that he married her for reasons other than the usual.”
    â€œThe usual? You mean love?”
    â€œNaw. Sex.”
    â€œJust what the hell are you getting at?”
    â€œHmm. Touchy. You liked her, didn’t you?”
    â€œNo comment.”
    â€œSeems to me the old love life’s been pretty barren since your divorce.”
    Nick set his coffee cup down with a clatter. “What’s with all these questions?”
    â€œJust trying to see where your head’s at, Nick. Haven’tyou heard? It’s the latest thing. Men opening up to each other.”
    Nick sighed. “Don’t tell me. You’ve been to another one of those sensitivity training sessions.”
    â€œYeah. Great place to meet women. You should try it.”
    â€œNo, thanks. The last thing I need is to join some big cry-in with a bunch of neurotic