“Then Chris hasn’t been making passes at you?”
She bit her lip. “Yes, but not–not that bad.” She put bath hands on my arm, and her face almost touched mine. “You’ve got to believe me. I couldn’t tell you all that, couldn’t make myself out such a cheap little lying fool, if it wasn’t the truth.”
“It makes more sense if I don’t believe you,” I said. “Twelve bucks isn’t enough money. We’ll let that rest for a minute, though. Did you know Mimi was going to see Julia Wolf that afternoon?” –
“No. I didn’t even know she was thing to find my father then. They didn’t say where they were going that afternoon.”
“They?”
“Yes, Chris left the apartment with her.”
“What time was that?”
She wrinkled her forehead. “It must’ve been pretty close to three o’clock–after two thirty, anyway–because I remember I was late for a date to go shopping with Elsie Hamilton and was hurrying into my clothes.”
“They come back together?”
“I don’t know. They were both home before I came.”
“What time was that?”
“Some time after six. Nick, you don’t think they– Oh, I remember something she said while she was dressing. I don’t know what Chris said, but she said: ‘V/hen I ask her she’ll tell me,’ in that Queen-of-France way she talks sometimes. You know. I didn’t hear anything else. Does that mean anything?”
“What’d she tell you about the murder when you came home?”
“Oh, just about finding her and how upset she was and about the police and everything.”
“She seem very shocked?”
Dorothy shook her head. “No, just excited. You know Mamma.” She stared at me for a moment, asked slowly: “You don’t think she had anything to do with it?”
“What do you think?”
“I hadn’t thought. I just thought about my father.” A little later she said gravely: “If he did it, it’s because he’s crazy, but she’d kill somebody if she wanted to.”
“It doesn’t have to be either of them,” I reminded her. “The police seem to have picked Morelli. What’d she want to find your father for?”
“For money. We’re broke: Chris spent it all.” She pulled down the corners of her mouth. “I suppose we all helped, but he spent most of it. Mamma’s afraid he’ll leave her if she hasn’t any money.”
“How do you know that?”
“I’ve heard them talk.”
“Do you think he will?”
She nodded with certainty. “Unless she has money.”
I looked at my watch and said: “The rest of it’ll have to wait till we get back. You can stay here tonight, anyhow. Make yourself comfortable and have the restaurant send up your dinner. It’s probably better if you don’t go out.”
She stared miserably at me and said nothing.
Nora patted her shoulder. “I don’t know what he’s doing, Dorothy, but if he says we ought to go there for dinner he probably knows what he’s talking about. He wouldn’t–”
Dorothy smiled and jumped up from the floor. “I believe you. I won’t be silly any more.”
I called the desk on the telephone and asked them to send up our mail. There were a couple of letters for Nora, one for me, some belated Christmas cards (including one from Larry Crowley, which was a copy of Haldeman-Julius Little Blue Book Number i with “and a Merry Christmas,” followed by Larry’s name enclosed in a holly wreath, all printed in red under the book’s title, How to Test Your Urine at Home), a number of telephone-call memoranda slips, and a telegram from Philadelphia:
NICK CHARLES
THE NORMANDIE NEW YORK N Y
WILL YOU COMMUNICATE WITH HERBERT MACAULAY TO DISCUSS
TAKING CHARGE OF INVESTIGATION OF WOLF MURDER STOP AM
GIVING HIM FULL INSTRUCTIONS STOP BEST REGARDS
CLYDE MILLER WYNANT
I put the telegram in an envelope with a note saying it had just reached me and sent it by messenger to the Police Department Homicide Bureau.
10
In the taxicab Nora asked: “You’re sure you feel all right?” “Sure.”
“And this isn’t going to be too much for you?”
“I’m all right. What’d you think of the girl’s story?”
She hesitated. “You don’t believe her, do you?”