despite jonah’s objections, taffy was intrigued enough by the story of the poker game to want to look into it further.
she did not want jonah to know what she was doing, and she most certainly did not want any of the long nosed people in town to know, so she not only went out of town to pursue the matter, she went all the way to kansas city.
she looked up her best friend, geraldine miller, formerly geraldine barker. geraldine had been married for about a year to bob miller, a man twenty-five years older than herself, and many millions richer than anyone in jamestown, even jonah.
geraldine liked anything to do with money, not just having it and spending it but thinking and talking about it.
taffy felt sure geraldine would be interested in the poker game story.
and even if she were not, it would be nice to talk to geraldine again, because taffy had missed her since her marriage and move to kansas city.
taffy and geraldine had always both wished they had been born men, so that they could talk about money and politics, and not just about clothes and children and marriages and horses and dogs.
taffy believed she had great influence over her father’s business dealings, and geraldine believed the same about her husband’s. both were skeptical about the other’s claims but never said so out loud.
and so they found themselves on a cool spring afternoon enjoying tea in the tastefully appointed drawing room of geraldine’s town house.
birds chirped and butterflies danced in the trees outside the french windows.
“well, my dear,” said geraldine, after taffy had finished her account. “that ls a very interesting story, but i do not know what you could possibly find out about it or do about it after all this time.”
“i do not know either,” taffy replied, “but i thought it might be worth trying to do so, if i could find someone who could handle the enquiry discreetly enough, and for a reasonable fee.”
geraldine smiled and put down her teacup. “as it happens, i know just the person. if anyone could handle such a job, it is probably he.”
somewhat taken aback by so swift and positive a response, taffy decided not to ask how geraldine knew this person and if she had ever actually used his services, but simply asked,
“is he - a lawyer?”
“oh, no!” geraldine laughed. “nothing so grand as that. but nothing so disreputable as a so-called private detective either. no, mister tenner is satisfied with the neutral nomenclature of ‘enquiry agent’.”
“mister tenner?”
“yes, mister ted tenner. he has an office not far from the raphael hotel. i can give you a letter of introduction or even accompany you myself.”
“that would be very nice,” taffy replied. “and this mister tenner is highly thought of?”
“oh yes, for what he does. he is a very confident individual, very gentlemanly. prides himself on being able to gain information by gaining people’s confidence.”
taffy was not quite sure she liked the sound of that. “i see,” she managed to say.
geraldine smiled. “i must also warn you that mister tenner considers himself quite the charmer with the ladies. not perhaps quite so charming as he imagines. but then, is any man?”
“but surely,” taffy replied, “he does not attempt to employ this real or imagined charm on married women?”
“ha. ha! only in the most teasing and gentlemanly fashion. but after all, my dear, you are not married, are you?”
taffy blushed slightly. “no, i am not.” she did not think geraldine had ever addressed her in quite such a fashion before.
taffy wondered if being a married woman was spoiling geraldiine a little bit.
“we can go over and see mister tenner this afternoon, if you like,” said geraldine. “i will call and see if he is in.”
“yes, i would like that,” said taffy, recovering her composure.
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