“You had no idea that a murder had been committed?”
“No, of course not.”
“What made you notice him then?”
“Well, it was something about the way he was walking. He was a big man, and he was walking awfully fast, almost running. And he may have looked back over his shoulder. Anyway, there was something that made me think he was afraid, or something and he looked at me in the most peculiar way. It gave me the creeps.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about this before?”
Her eyes, big, wide, and innocent, looked into mine. “Why, I’ve already told you, Mr. Ellis, because it was such a shock finding the body.”
“You might add something,” I said, “about the strain of being questioned.”
Her eyes smiled at me. “No.” she said. “He knows it’s not a strain.”
“Are you vamping him?”
She considered the coral tips of her fingers. “Well,” she said slowly, “he’s throwing a mantle of masculine protection about my shoulders, and I’m depending on him. He likes me, and I think he’s nice.”
I said, “All right. Your cab should be downstairs now. Wake me up as soon as you get back, and, no matter what happens, come straight back here. Make that interview just as short as you can.”
“I will,” she promised.
I closed my eyes and relaxed. I heard her moving around quietly so as not to disturb me. After a while I heard the door open and close.
I woke up a couple of times just enough to shift my position, and then dozed off again. After a while the chair cramped my limbs, but I was too numbed with sleep to care.
I didn’t hear the key click in the door when she came back. The first I knew was when she was on the arm of my chair saying, “You poor darling! I’ll bet you’re tired out.”
I opened my eyes, closed them again to shut out the light, and took my feet down off the chair. I felt her finger tips, soft and cool, on my forehead, caressing back my hair, stroking my eyelids. Gradually I came back to reality. I opened my eyes and said, somewhat thickly, “Did you do it?”
“Yes.”
I found her hand and took it in mine. “How about it?” I asked. “Did it go across?”
“What do you mean?”
“Did they believe it?”
“Why, of course they believed it. I told them just what you told me to. You didn’t think I could put it across, but I did. I was very convincing.”
“What happened?” I asked. Did you get any more on the Santa Carlotta angle?”
“Yes,” she said. “Mr. Ellis telephoned Santa Carlotta right away. He said that they’d been waiting to see my written statement. When this new angle turned up, he knew they’d want to be advised.”
“You don’t know what was said at the Santa Carlotta end of the wire?”
“Apparently nothing,” she said. “Mr. Ellis was just reporting. He told me Santa Carlotta thought the case might have a local angle.”
“He didn’t say what the local angle was, did he?”
“No.”
“Do you think he knew?”
“Yes, I think so. It was something he’d evidently discussed with the police there.”
I said, “That’s fine. Now, what’s Mr. Ellis doing to protect you?”
“To protect me?”
“Yes.”
“Why, what do you mean?”
“Don’t you see?” I said. “Someone murdered Evaline Harris. It was cruel, ruthless, premeditated murder. The police are virtually without clues, except those you’ve been able to give. When the murderer feels the net tightening about him, the logical thing for him to do is to—” I broke off as I saw the expression on her face. I said, “I was wondering what Mr. Ellis is doing about that.”
“Why,” she said, with a dismayed look, “I don’t think it’s even occurred to him.”
I looked at my watch, and said, “Well, it’s going to occur to him now. I’m going to get in touch with him. You stay right here.”
“I could telephone him,” she said.
“No,” I said. “That’s exactly what I don’t want you to do. You sit right here and don’t say anything. I’m going up to see Mr. Ellis and have a talk with him. I don’t care how nice he is, but he has a crust not arranging for your protection — after all the help you’ve given him, too.”
She said, “I just can’t believe that I’m in any danger, but I see your point.”
I said, “You sit tight. Don’t do a thing. Promise me you won’t leave this apartment until I get back.”
“I promise,” she said.
I went over to the mirror, straightened my hair with a pocket comb, picked up my hat, and said, “Remember, don’t go out until I get back.”
I went down as far as the corner, went into a drugstore, telephoned police headquarters, and asked for Homicide. After a while, a voice said, in a bored monotone, “Yeah, this is Homicide.”
I said, in a rapid voice, “This is a tip-off. I’d be in a jam if anyone knew I was giving it. Don’t ask my name, and don’t try to trace the call.”
The voice at the other end of the line said, “Just a minute, I’ll get a pencil and paper.”
I said, “Nix on that stuff. I told you not to try to trace the call. Get a load of this right now if you want it. If you don’t, hang up. When your dicks were making that investigation down at the Blue Cave, they learned everything except about the big beefy guy with the close-set, grey eyes and the mole on his right cheek. Orders have been passed around to lay off of him. No one talked about him. If you want to solve that case, you’d better give the girls at the Blue Cave a real shakedown. Ask some specific questions and find out why they were instructed not to say anything about this egg to your investigators.”
I slammed up the telephone and walked out. I waited another half-hour, hanging around where I could watch the entrance of the apartment house, smoking cigarettes and thinking. It began to get dark and the street lights were turned on.
I went back to Marian Dunton’s apartment and knocked excitedly on the door.
She opened it and said, “Gee, I’m glad you’re back! I felt — sort of frightened sitting here alone.”
“You should,” I said. “The D.A.’s office pulled a boner.”
“What do you mean?”
“Letting it out about that man whom you described. He’s suddenly become the important figure in the case. They’ve traced him back to the Blue Cave and found that he was friendly with the girl that was killed.”
She said, “But I didn’t really see him. You made that up.”
“Perhaps you did see him,” I said, “but just didn’t think of it at the time.”
“No. I didn’t see him. Anyway, I don’t remember having seen him.”
“Well, he was there all right, and he’s the important figure in the case. If you ask me, I don’t think that other man you saw had anything to do with it. He didn’t look like a murderer, did he?”
“No. He most certainly didn’t. I told Mr. Ellis about that. He looked very grave and dignified and respectable, but the more I think of it, the more I think he acted frightened.”
“You probably acted frightened yourself,” I said. “Suppose someone had seen you coming out of that apartment?”
“I know,” she said. “I’ve thought of that a lot.”
“All right,” I said. “I’ve seen Mr. Ellis. I put the cards on the table. I told him exactly who I was and what I was doing and what my interest in the case was, and I told him that I was interested in you. He gave me the job of putting you in a safe place.”
“In a safe place?”
“Yes. They don’t think this place is safe. Too many people know of it. They don’t want to put a guard here because that will attract attention. They d prefer to have you go someplace under another name. I told him I’d take care of it.”