“I know.”
Wendy and I stared at her.
“I couldn’t very well forget your face, could I?”
“You don’t seem very excited about it.”
“Should I be?”
“I was supposed to have killed your husband.”
“Did you?” Cripes! She was more like my mother waiting to hear why I got a low grade at school.
I said, “No.”
“Then why should I be excited?”
The pitch was too fast for me. I shook my head. “I don’t get it.”
“I never thought you shot my husband either,” she said.
Wendy’s fingernails made a sharp click in the silence. She was staring at the woman, shot me a glance out of the corner of her eyes and went back to picking at her nails.
I came out of it. “Let’s do it over again, Mrs. Minnow. I’m still in the fog. If you thought I didn’t do it then why not go to the police?”
“Mr. McBride, by the time I came to that conclusion the police had already made their decision. In all fairness to Captain Lindsey, let me say that I did tell him what I thought but he didn’t consider it reasonable. Since I spoke to him I’ve gone over the matter carefully enough to be sure I’m right. I’ve been waiting.”
“For what?”
“You. A man never stays away from murder. Not if he didn’t do it.”
“Thanks. Or do I remind you about the fingerprints on the gun?”
Her smile was a tight knowing thing. “That’s something for you to figure out, young man.”
“Great. With a detail like that in the picture how’d you figure me innocent?”
She leaned back in her chair with something like a sigh. “Bob and I were married a long time. Did you know he was a police officer in New York before he took up law? Well, he was. A good one too. A better one after he was made District Attorney. Bob never put too much store in details. He was more interested in motive.” Her eyes passed over mine. “The motive behind his death wasn’t revenge.”
“What was it then?”
“I’m not quite sure.”
“The night he died... why’d he go to his office?”
“I’ll have to go back a way to explain that. He told me that one day a girl came to his office. She was frightened and left a letter with him that wasn’t to be opened unless she died. That may seem unusual, but it isn’t. He had several requests like that every year. However, he forgot to put it in his office safe and brought it home with him. That night he put it in his safe upstairs and forgot about it.
“Several months later he came home quite worried and asked me about the letter. I reminded him where he had put it and he seemed satisfied. That evening when I brought his tea to his room upstairs he was sitting in front of the safe quite preoccupied and I saw him take the letter out of one of the compartments, stare at it a moment, then put it back.
“Two nights later he had a call from New York. It seemed to excite him and I heard him mention the word ‘verification’ several times. He went upstairs and I heard him open that safe. When he came back down he put on his hat and coat, left the house for a good two hours, came back, went to his safe again and stayed in his room working on some papers. A few minutes later he had a call from his office, told me he had to leave and went out. I never saw him again. He was killed that night.”
“Who called him?”
“An officer named Tucker.”
My hands knotted into fists. “Why?”
“A special delivery letter came for Bob. He wanted to know if he should hold it or deliver it to him at the house here. Bob told him he’d come down and get it.”
Damn, damn, damn. I was all ready to catch the big bite and it had to turn out simple. Tucker, the bastard! I said, “Lindsey checked on all this?”
“Oh, yes indeed.”
She was waiting for me to ask the next question. It was right there ready to be asked so I did. “What happened to the letter?”
“I don’t know. When I went over his effects the safe was open and I noticed that it wasn’t where I had seen it before. Captain Lindsey showed me all that were in Bob’s office, but since it was nothing but a plain white envelope I couldn’t help out.”
“You think he died because of that letter?”
“Among other things. It was fortunate for a lot of people that he died.”
“Servo?”
She nodded.
“Me?”
She smiled and nodded again.
“A whole crooked setup in a whole crooked town?”
The smile also got a little crooked, but she nodded.
I said, “The motive could have been a lot of things then?”
“Anything except sudden revenge. That was too easy.”
“I thought so too,” I told her. She raised her eyebrows a trifle and her mouth made a funny arc. Something made her face look a little bit happy when it wasn’t the time and place to be happy. She looked at me like a mother who knew her kid was telling a lie but waiting for him to say so first.
It made me uncomfortable as hell so I stood up and nudged Wendy. “Thanks, Mrs. Minnow. It’s been a help.”
“I’m glad. If there’s anything else, you let me know. I’m in the phone book.”
She took us to the door and said good-by. I could feel her watch us all the way down the walk to Wendy’s car and even after we headed back to town. For a few minutes I didn’t say anything. I just let it go through my head and find a place to settle down. When it was put where I’d never forget it I said, “What do you think?”
“Strange woman.” She kept her eyes on the road. “I wonder how I’d feel if I were she.”
“She isn’t stupid.”
“No, she seems quite convinced.”
“What about you?”
“Does it matter?”
“Not particularly.”
She stopped for a red light, tapped her fingers against the wheel until it changed and eased back in gear again. “I’m not so sure,” she said.
I let it go at that. It didn’t make a damn bit of difference to me what anybody thought about what as long as they didn’t try to stop me. I sat back and folded my arms, still thinking about the letter. The street we were on intersected the main drag and down a half a mile or so Lyncastle was making the night look like an oversize pinball machine.
The car swung into the curb and stopped. Wendy said, “I’ll let you out here. I have to pick up my clothes and get out to Louie’s.”
“Can’t you take me downtown?”
“I’m in an awful hurry, Johnny.”
I grinned at her. “Okay, working girl. Thanks for the lift.” I opened the door and shoved my legs out.
Her hand hooked under my arm and she stopped me. When I looked at her she had that same expression the Minnow woman had. “Johnny... in your own way you’re a nice guy. I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“I do.”
“And, Johnny... I’m... pretty sure.” She wrinkled her nose like a little kid and a laugh parted her lips.
I leaned over. I let her have plenty of time to see what she was getting. Only this time I didn’t have to pull her across the seat. She met me halfway and her mouth had a tingling warmth to it as it tasted mine.
She pouted when I stopped and threw me a kiss when I waved so long. I watched her drive out of sight, hopped a cab for town and got off in the middle of what the cab driver said was the hottest spot in the good old U. S. A.
Chapter Six
I spent the rest of the evening making the rounds of the joints in town. For a couple of hours I put the beer away while I tried to get a line of Vera West and at ten o’clock all I had was two people who remembered having seen her with Servo.
At five minutes after ten I left the Blue Mirror and decided to let the guy who had been tailing me catch up with me. He had picked me up at the second joint I was in and had stuck like a leech ever since.