“Miss Carpenter?”
The draperies parted and she appeared. Today she wore a dark blue shirtwaist and a striped serge skirt; her dark hair was piled high on her head and fastened with a lacquered comb — a style that gave her a vaguely Oriental appearance and made almost nonexistent her resemblance to Katherine Bennett. She did not smile as she came toward him, nor did she offer her hand. The look in her eyes was unreadable.
“Thank you for coming,” she said in a flat voice.
“Not at all. My pleasure.”
“Is it? I thought you might be unwilling to face me.”
“Why should I be unwilling?”
“Because of the lies you have been telling about me.”
He feigned surprise. “Lies? I don’t know what you mean.”
“Another lie, Mr. Lyons. If that is your name.”
“Do you think it might not be?”
“I have my suspicions. About your profession, too.”
“And why is that?”
“Patent medicine drummers don’t usually spread falsehoods about people they scarcely know,” she said. “Nor do they ask the sort of questions you have been asking around town.”
“How could you know what sort of questions I’ve been asking?”
“I have ears,” she said. “I’ve heard them repeated.”
“Indeed? You seem to have considerable interest in me. I don’t suppose it’s personal?”
“Not in the sense you mean.”
“Then why should a simple milliner find me so intriguing?”
“Do you think I’m not a simple milliner?”
“I, too, have my suspicions.”
They looked at each other in silence for several seconds. Quincannon felt a stirring that was undeniably sexual — the first such carnal desire he had had since that day in Nevada last summer. It repelled him, because of her resemblance to Katherine Bennett, and yet the more he fought it in his mind, the stronger it became.
Sabina Carpenter seemed somehow to sense the direction of his thoughts. A faint flush colored her cheeks; abruptly she turned away, went to the Argand lamp on one wall. Twilight was approaching and shadows had begun to lengthen in the room. She lit the lamp, turned up the wick to crowd the shadows back into the corners.
When she turned to face him again she remained standing where she was. She said, “Why did you lie to Helen Traux last night? Why did you say I’d told you about finding her shares of Paymaster stock?”
He shrugged. “I merely stretched the truth a little. Mrs. Truax seemed eager for the stock certificate to be returned to her.”
She made no response.
Quincannon said, “Ah,” and smiled faintly.
“That stock certificate is none of your concern.”
“Perhaps not. Unless it pertains to the death of my old friend Whistling Dixon.”
She was not prepared for that. The statement seemed to puzzle and confuse her for a moment. Finally she said, “I fail to understand how the murder of a cowboy could be connected to Helen Truax and the Paymaster Mining Company.”
“You found the certificate in Jason Elder’s shack, with her shares signed over to him. And Elder was acquainted with Whistling Dixon — well enough acquainted so that Dixon was carrying Elder’s watch when he was shot.”
Confusion showed in her face again. She seemed about to speak, then held her tongue.
“Mrs. Truax denies having signed the stock over to anyone,” he said. “Now why do you suppose she lied?”
“I’m sure I have no idea.”
“Nor any idea why she should give what amounts to twelve thousand dollars to a tramp printer addicted to opium?”
“No.”
“What happened to Jason Elder, Miss Carpenter?”
“Happened to him? What makes you think something happened to him?”
“It’s rather obvious, isn’t it?”
“Not to me.”
“Oh yes, that’s right,” Quincannon said. “You scarcely knew the man; you were only making a new hat for him… a fancy new hat for a man who lived in a shack and preferred to spend his money on opium.”
The corners of her mouth tightened into white ridges; she was angry now. It was plain that she did not like to be put on the defensive. “I find your insinuations objectionable and irritating,” she said. “Particularly so since you are a liar and no doubt worse — for all I know, a common criminal, even a murderer.”
Murderer, he thought, and Katherine Bennett began thrashing in his mind again, the blood pumping out between her clasped hands, the accusing eyes boring into his. He heard her screams again and he watched her die again.
Sabina Carpenter said, “Why are you so interested in Whistling Dixon’s death and Jason Elder’s disappearance?”
“I told you why. Dixon was like a second father to me when I was a boy.”
“I don’t believe that. And I don’t believe you’re interested in the Truaxes and the Paymaster Mining Company because of Dixon’s death, either. Just who are you, Mr. Lyons?”
“A salesman for a brand of salts,” Quincannon said. “Just as you are a maker of hats for ladies and gentlemen and tramp printers.”
She hesitated, then moved to within two paces of him. Flushed with her anger, her face had a radiant quality in the lampglow and the fading daylight; he stared hard at it, to keep from staring at the face inside his mind. Her eyes were a dark brown, he saw, almost black in this light. Her mouth was full, the lips soft-looking. There was a sprinkling of tiny freckles across the bridge of her nose.
She said, “Answer me this, then. What do you intend to do next?”
“When I leave here, you mean?”
“You know what I mean. About Helen Truax, for one. Do you intend to see her again?”
“Perhaps.”
“To discuss her relationship with Jason Elder?”
“Perhaps.”
“Do you intend to tell her husband about Elder? About the stock certificate?”
“Would you rather I didn’t?”
“It wouldn’t be prudent or scrupulous.”
“Neither was your keeping the certificate after you found it. Or did you turn it over to Marshal McClew after all?”
She was silent.
Quincannon said, “Oliver Truax does have a right to know about his wife’s indiscretions, whatever they may be. With Elder, and with Jack Bogardus too.”
“Bogardus? What do you know about Mrs. Truax’s relationship with him?”
“I might ask you the same thing. What do you know about their relationship?”
No answer.
“Well then,” he said, “what do you know about the Rattling Jack mine?”
She frowned, showing puzzlement again. “The Rattling Jack has nothing to do with Mrs. Truax.”
“Perhaps not. But she is involved with Bogardus, isn’t she?”
“I have no intention of trading gossip with you, Mr. Lyons. Helen Truax’s personal life is her own concern; her privacy ought to be respected. Passing on rumors and idle speculation to her husband can do no one any good.”
“Including you?”
“And what does that imply?”
“You’re familiar with the word blackmail, aren’t you, Miss Carpenter?”
She glared at him. “How dare you,” she said.
It was his turn not to respond. A silence settled between them, heavy and tense; they stood with their gazes locked. Her eyes had little flecks of light in them, like mica particles reflecting the sun. The tip of her tongue made a wet line between her pursed lips. He could hear the faint rasp of her breathing. He could smell the delicate scent of her lilac perfume.
He kissed her.
It was the most impetuous thing he had ever done in his life. It surprised him even more than it surprised her, because he had had no thought of doing it; it was just something he found himself doing, and afterward could not explain even to himself.
She didn’t fight him, but neither did she respond. She endured the moment, and when he released her and stepped back, she slapped him. A ringing slap, with enough strength behind it to rock him and leave his cheek burning under its mat of beard.