Masters felt his head to steady it. How had he got himself into this thought-maze?
Another logical question: If the killer had to return to Larry Connor’s office to turn off the air-conditioner, why at the same time hadn’t he restored to Larry’s key-case the key to the back door of the Connor residence, which he had had to borrow at the time he killed Larry in order to get into the Connor house and kill Lila? The fact was, the killer had not restored the key to Larry’s key-case on his return visit to the office. Did this fact invalidate the whole theory?
Not necessarily again. Perhaps it had simply slipped the killer’s mind in the extreme tension of his murderous activities. Or it had not occurred to him that the local police, with their relative inexperience of murder cases, would notice that the key was missing — or, if they did notice, would attach any significance to it.
And also, maybe the country cop would be just observant and smart enough to make a horse’s patoot out of himself!
Masters sighed and shut his eyes and rocked back in his swivel-chair. To quit or go ahead, that was the question.
He began to review the case in his mind. In the chronological order of the review, he was standing again in Larry Connor’s office, having just entered it, and he was seeing Larry Connor stretched out on the sofa, right hand trailing on the floor. There for some reason the scene became fixed, like a stopped film. Masters continued to study it.
After a long time he reached for the report he had found on his desk early that morning. He read it again, carefully.
“Oh!” he said. “Oh, by God!”
From his desk drawer he took a telephone directory and frantically searched for a number.
11
“Oh!” said Nancy. “Oh, by God!”
She was not aware that this was an echo of Lieutenant Masters, several hours delayed; and neither, of course, was David. They were sprawled on their terrace, David trying to finish reading a chapter in the fading light, which was something Nancy had told him and told him not to do. He looked up, startled.
“What’s the matter?”
“I have just this minute thought of something,” said Nancy.
“Thought of what?”
“It’s just incredible.”
“In that case don’t tell me.”
“I mean it’s incredible that I haven’t thought of it before.”
David was properly titillated. “Oh? Yes? Well?”
“Because it was obvious to anyone with half a brain, and it has been all along.”
“Damn it, will you kindly tell me what you’re talking about?”
“Why, the light.”
“Well, you may see the light, but I’m completely in the dark.”
“That’s because you weren’t outside the house, as I was.”
“When?”
“The night Lila was killed. You remember I talked with Larry out front and later with Stanley out back, and some time during that period I saw the light on in Lila’s bedroom? I definitely remember seeing it. Well, the next day, when you and Jack and I went up and found Lila dead in the bedroom, no light was burning. Don’t you see what it means, David? It means that Lila must have been alive after Larry left! Dead people can’t turn off lights!”
The chapter would clearly remain unfinished. David dogeared a page to mark his place and closed the book.
“You’re sure Lila’s light was on after Larry drove off?”
“I’m positive.”
“Hmm!” David cogitated. Nancy waited anxiously for his verdict. After all, the man was her lord and master. David’s face smoothed. “No mystery,” he said cheerfully. “The bulb burned out.”
“Darn, that didn’t occur to me.” Nancy brightened. “But we can check that. Let’s run over there and look at the bulb.”
“We can’t, dear heart. Remember? House locked? Police?”
Nancy was silent. Then she said, “The police do have a talent for getting in the way, don’t they? I suppose I’ll have to call Lieutenant Masters to open the house. Don’t you agree, David?”
“To anything,” said David cravenly, “as long as you leave me out of it. Anyway, it occurs to me that the answer to the doused bedroom light may be very simple. Larry may have come back later and turned it off.”
“No,” said Nancy firmly.
“Why not?”
“Because.”
“Because why?”
“Just because.”
“Oh.” David squirmed uneasily. “Damn it, I’m not fond of any of this! It makes Masters’s nonsense suddenly seem to make sense. That stuff he told you today. Do you suppose he can be right? That one of our neighbors is a murderer?”
“I don’t know... It makes me feel like a kind of traitor... Anyway, aside from who — why?”
“There could have been an unknown reason.”
Nancy sniffed. “In a neighborhood like this everything is known.”
“Is it?” asked David dryly. “Did you know, for instance, that Lila and Jack Richmond had a thing going for a while?”
“Oh, come off it, David!”
“It’s a fact. It lasted for about six months. Jack broke it off.”
“Dave Howell,” exclaimed Nancy, “I simply can’t believe that something like that went on right under our noses without my knowing it!”
“It didn’t go on right under our noses. It went on at a considerable distance from our noses. They were careful to see to that.”
“Then how do you know so much about it?”
“I don’t. I know only the little Jack chose to confide in me. We were at the club drinking, and it suddenly spilled out. I think Jack was in need of a confessor. I gathered the thing got pretty torrid before it cooled off.”
“Isn’t that just like a man? Has an affair with his neighbor’s wife and blabs about it in a bar! That Jack is far too handsome for his own good, if you ask me. Why the hell didn’t you tell me about this before?”
“All men don’t blab,” said David loftily.
“You’re blabbing now, aren’t you?”
“This is different. We were trying to think of a possible motive for a neighbor. I just cited it as a theoretical possibility—”
“David Howell, how can you play golf and drink beer with someone you suspect of murder?”
“Damn it, I don’t suspect Jack! Of course it’s ridiculous.”
“You may think it’s ridiculous, but I can assure you Lieutenant Masters wouldn’t. That man could suspect anyone, including you and me. Did Larry know about this thing between Jack and Lila?”
“I doubt it. I never noticed any change in his attitude toward Jack.”
“Did Vera?”
“Jack didn’t actually say, but I suspect she did. Vera’s pretty sharp. She’d be hard to two-time indefinitely, and I rather imagine this wasn’t the first time Jack grazed in another pasture.”
“Do you have to express it so disgustingly?” Nancy asked absently, but her mind was busy with the problem. “If Vera knew, she certainly didn’t let on. She always treated Lila quite well — well enough to fool me, if she knew about Lila and Jack. Treated Lila well and didn’t like her, all at the same time.”
“Well, Vera’s a remarkable gal. Even if she found out about Jack and Lila, she’d be quite capable of adjusting — once Jack had got out of the affair.”
“This isn’t getting us anywhere,” Nancy decided. “David. Do you know who sticks in my mind? I mean as a possible murderer?”