"I guess that's a dirty crack," I said.
"Not at all. I'm not hinting that Mr. Clay is dishonest. He's in office. Mrs. Wilmot is dead. You're one of the city's most prominent citizens. Why should he go out of his way to prove something which, in all probability, didn't happen?"
"Well," I said, "I'm glad to hear you say that."
"You don't owe me a nickel, Joe."
"I got to thinking while I was sick," I said. "It seems like I must have made a chump of myself the first time I talked to you. Maybe the next time, too, but that time particularly."
"You're referring to what I said about the fire being incendiary?"
"That's it. I don't know why-"
"I'll tell you why. I didn't intend for it to register on you. I thought it was better for it to come over you gradually. Frankly, if you had gone around offering rewards for the murderer and evidence of your own innocence I'd have been exceedingly suspicious of you.
"Now, what am I supposed to say to that?" I said.
"Anything you like, Joe. The bars are down tonight. That's why I had you come up here."
"Okay. What do you think about things?"
"As I've said before, that it was an accident in all likelihood. Of course, you and Mrs. Wilmot didn't get along, but-"
"Who says we didn't?"
"You do. Everything about you says so. Everything I've learned about her says the same thing. But the fact that you were opposites doesn't mean that you would kill her. In fact, I'm confident that you loved her very much."
"Well, thanks," I said.
"It's none of my business, but would you mind telling me something? How did two people like you ever happen to get. married?"
I laughed in spite of myself. It was such a hell of a crude thing to ask that instead of getting sore I felt sorry for him for doing it.
"I'll tell you why," I said, looking straight at him. "Every time she opened her mouth she put her foot in it. She was about to go on the rocks. I got sort of used to helping her out, and finally-well-"
"Mmm," he nodded. "That one, eh?"
"What do you mean?"
"Not a thing, Joe. Just thinking out loud. Mind if I ask another question?"
"Go right ahead."
"Well, this Farmer girl-Mrs. Wilmot strikes me as having been a well-educated, extremely fastidious person. How did she happen to take anyone like la Farmer into her home?"
It was something I'd always wondered about myself, and I didn't need to fake looking puzzled.
"There you got me," I said. "Elizabeth was pretty tight about money, and I thought at first that she might be trying to get a little cheap household help. But she wasn't tight that way, you know. She wouldn't have done something that went against her grain to save dough."
"I see."
"Anyway, we didn't need any help. There was just the two of us and I always ate out most of the time. On top of that, Elizabeth had her own way of doing things and nothing else would suit. It was more trouble showing Carol how to do things than it would have been to do 'em herself."
"Perhaps she just felt sorry for the gal."
"She didn't show it much. If I hadn't-well, if I hadn't prodded her now and then, Carol would have been pretty hard up for spending money and clothes and everything else."
"Oh? Weren't you a little out of practice at that sort of thing-charitable enterprise, I mean?"
"I don't think I like that," I said. "I'm in a tough business. I don't think I've been any tougher than I've had to be."
"Want to call it an evening, Joe?"
"Not unless you do. Go ahead. I can take it."
"Well, I was going to say, if this Farmer girl was a baby doll the thing would be a lot more complicated- or simple. A little thing like murder doesn't stop a woman from getting a man she really wants-particularly if she thinks she's going to get to help him spend a sum like twenty-five thousand. But Farmer has nothing minus in my catalogue. I just can't picture you making a play for her."
"Thanks," I said.
"So the girl is out, and you're out on that angle. Of course, you get your wife's property in addition to the twenty-five grand. But for all practical purposes you already had the property, and you didn't need the money. Not bad enough to kill for it. You have a good income, a good business. You loved your wife. You weren't chasing a dame. If it wasn't for certain events in your early life-"
"So you've found out about that," I said. "That's a hell of a thing to do! Drag up something a man did when he was a kid, and smear him-"
He shook his head. "Keep your shirt on. We're not smearing anyone, and we didn't drag it up. You did. The company doesn't issue policies of this size without some investigation."
"Hell," I said. "I was fourteen years old; I didn't know my tail from straight up. I'd never been away from the orphanage before. I didn't know what a seal on a freight car meant. I just wanted to get out of the snow. Tampering with interstate commerce! Hell, did they think I was going to walk off with a sack of cement? That's all there was in the car."
"It was a bum rap, all right."
"Bum rap?" I laughed. "You're telling me! Seven years of sappings and kickings and doing work that would break a man's back. Seven years, from fourteen until I was twenty-one-'until I learned a proper regard for the property of others'! It's things like that-that-"
I broke off, remembering.
"Go ahead and say it, Joe," said Appleton. "It's things like that that makes criminals."
"Okay," I said, "you're doing the talking."
"Do I look like a criminal?" He leaned back grinning, his hands clasped behind his head.
"What's that got to do with it?"
"I was in, too. Exactly the same number of years that you were."
"The hell!" I said.
"That's right. Borrowed a car for a joy ride, and the cops caught me. My old man wasn't very fond of me, anyhow, so I went right on over the road. No, things like that don't need to mean any more than we let 'em."
"But you said your company-"
"It's a fact they have to consider, certainly. It's tough, but that's the way it is. He sat brushing at his knee, looking down. "I'm sorry, Joe. I know pretty well how you feel. Can't you think of some logical explanation-some explanation that would be acceptable to the company-for the fire?"
"No, I can't."
"The motor was in good condition? There wasn't any possibility of a short?"
"Not a chance. If there had been any I'd have had it repaired."
"Sure. Naturally."
"It isn't the money so much," I said. "I'd just like to get things settled."
"Sure you would." He nodded sympathetically, studying me. "I'll tell you something, Joe, if you'll keep your mouth shut. I've been stringing you along a little. I've recommended payment on this case. I'm just waiting to mail my report."
"Waiting?"
"Orders." He smiled out of the corner of his mouth. "You're running in hard luck, Joe. You remember that missing dame I told you about?"
"Yes."
"Well, there's the rub. I've got to turn her up, and as long as I'm here and it isn't costing them anything extra the company's having me keep your case open. At least they think they are. As far as I'm concerned it's already closed. As soon as I find this woman I'll put a date on the report and shoot it in."
"Well," I said, "that's something." I wished I had been outside so that I could have taken a deep breath. Or let out a yell. Just of pure relief.
I didn't care if I never got the money. I was going to have plenty without it.
We talked until midnight about show business, and the war, and things in general. Finally I figured it was time for me to go.
We shook hands. "Got any leads on the woman yet?" I said.
"Oh, one or two, Joe. I'm expecting a break in the case any minute."
"Well, luck to you," I said.
"And to you, Joe. And, Joe-"
"Yeah?" I said. He'd opened the door and I was standing halfway out in the hall.