“I’m all for that,” I said. “If there’s anything I need at the moment, it’s love.”
“Shall I lock the door?” she said.
“Well, no,” I said. “It’s Platonic love I need.”
I went on sitting there, looking pale or something, and she went on sitting there beside me, hooked on the arm, with her arm around me. I was grateful for the arm, grateful for her bright red head and for all the rest of her, and even grateful for Plato, who gave it a name and kept it decent.
“Who do you suppose did it?” she said.
“I don’t know. Local legend gives me a reason, but I’m innocent.”
“It may have been a nut. That’s always possible and frequently convenient.”
“So it is. What else did you hear in the coffee shop?”
“Only that Beth came to town yesterday. Only that everyone is wondering why, and no one seems to know.”
“Also that everyone, by this time, knows that she and I had two Gimlets together in the Kiowa Room yesterday afternoon.”
“It’s good to know the facts. I’ve heard everything from Martinis to Daquiris and from one to six.”
“That’s interesting. Did you hear anyone say that I killed her?”
“Not exactly. All I heard was one man say that you should, have killed her if you didn’t. He was a friend.”
“Some friend,” I said bitterly.
At that moment, someone came into the outer office, and Millie went out to see who it was. I waited for her to come back and tell me, but she didn’t. Sid came instead. She came around my desk and kissed me with sufficient warmth to make me feel wanted again, and I held her for a minute, smelling her hair.
“I’ve been feeling perfectly miserable,” she said.
“So have I, and for a good reason. What’s yours?”
“I wasn’t asleep at all this morning when you left. I was only pretending. It was deceptive and cowardly, and you were no sooner gone than I wished I hadn’t done it.”
“I don’t blame you for wanting to avoid me. I would have avoided myself if it had been possible.”
“You mustn’t be too self-critical, sugar. It makes a bad impression. What you must do is concentrate on your good qualities. You have a number that I can name if you wish.”
“Thanks very much, but I think it will be more therapeutic if I can discover them for myself.”
“Meanwhile, will you give me an honest answer to a candid question?”
“As honestly as my character permits.”
“Good. If Beth had been alive when you went to meet her last night, what would you have done?”
“We’d have talked, and maybe held hands and kissed and got sloppy about the past. Then we’d have said good-by, and she’d have gone away, and I’d have been glad that she was gone.”
“Sugar, you have said exactly the right thing. I even feel rather tender toward you for being such a chump. What we have to concentrate on now, since this has been settled satisfactorily, is how to keep you out of trouble if possible, or how to get you out of trouble if it becomes necessary.”
“I’ve been thinking myself that this problem should have priority.”
“We’re agreed on that, then, and we’re again, I hope, on the best of terms.”
“Well, I’m madly in love with you, non-Platonic style. You may call that being on the best of terms if you choose.”
“I do, sugar. There are absolutely no terms better. I’m feeling fine now, and rather hungry. What time is it? Couldn’t you leave for lunch?”
“It’s eleven, and I could.”
“Let’s go, then. We’ll have a drink before lunch, that’s what we’ll do.”
We went into the outer office, and I told Millie I was going to lunch, and if I wasn’t back by noon to lock the door and go to lunch herself. She said all right, and Sid and I went on downstairs to the street, which was hot and full of sunshine.
“Where do you want to go?” I said.
“There’s a bullet in the Kiowa Room.”
So we went on over to the hotel and into the Kiowa Room. We served ourselves and found a table in a corner, and a girl who came to pour coffee was induced to bring a couple of Sidecars, which were what Sid decided we should have, and we emptied our glasses slowly and started on our plates. We hadn’t said anything since entering the room, not a word to each other, hut our silence was warm and comfortable, and everything was fine for the present, even though later it might not be.
“Do you know what I would like to do this afternoon?” Sid said.
“No,” I said. “What?”
“I’d like to go swimming and lie in the sun.”
“I wish I could go, but I can’t.”
“Couldn’t you possibly arrange it?”
“I can’t possibly. There’s some work I have to finish on a case I’m sure to lose, and at three o’clock I have an appointment with a man who wants to sue another man.”
“I’m sorry. It’s such a disappointment.”
“You go on, anyhow.”
“No, I don’t want to go without you.”
“I wish you would.”
“No, no. I’ll go home and sit on the back terrace and go over my notes on the meeting with Rose Pogue. They’re rather confusing right now, and need to he straightened out in my mind. Rose is very intellectual, as you know, and is inclined toward making things confusing that usually wouldn’t be.”
“Rose is a school teacher, and it’s expected of her to be intellectual.”
“She only teaches second grade. Is it expected of teachers who teach second grade?”
“Possibly not. I admit that Rose is an exceptional second-grade teacher.”
“It’s a pity that everyone can’t be exceptional at something. I try and try to be, but I can’t.”
“In my opinion, you are exceptional in many ways without trying at all.”
“Sugar, what an absolutely charming thing to say. Are you sure you can’t take the afternoon off?”
“Not completely off. But maybe I can get through early.”
“That’s something, at least. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll pick you up in the car, and we’ll drive straight home. Will you be finished by four with the man who wants to sue another man?”
“Finished and waiting.”
Oh, well. That’s the way it went. We never mentioned what was in the back of our minds, sometimes in front, but I knew that she had come downtown to have lunch with me in a public place because she knew that what had happened would dredge up old matters, unpleasant at best and disastrous at worst, and, in her own way, she was making a public declaration of faith.
What she was doing was wonderful, and what she was little and lovely and tough as a boot.
As it turned out, the three o’clock appointment was canceled, which was a relief, and I decided about that time that I’d call Sid and have her come on down and pick me up. I had my telephone out of its cradle and my index finger pointed at the dial when Millie cracked the door to the outer office and poked her red head through the crack.
“There’s a man here to see you,” she said.
“I don’t want to see a man. I want to go home.”
“His name is Cotton McBride, and he’s a policeman. Not just an ordinary policeman, either. He’s a detective.”
“Damn it, I know who and what Cotton McBride is. Did he say what he wants to see me about?”
“No, he didn’t. You obviously haven’t done anything illegal today, so it must be something left over from last night, and I’m wondering how someone could get involved with the police on a night when nothing at all happened to him.”
“Never mind. Send Mr. McBride in.”
“It’s Lieutenant McBride. That’s what he said.”
“Thanks very much. Send him in.”