I said that was a swell reason. “Who is the somebody else?”
“I don’t know yet. Now don’t make fun of me: I’ve thought about it a lot. It wouldn’t be Macaulay, because he’s using him to help shield whoever it is and–”
“And it wouldn’t be me,” I suggested, “because he wants to use me.”
“That’s right,” she said, “and you’re going to feel very silly if you make fun of me and then I guess who it is before you do. And it wouldn’t be either Mimi or Jorgensen, because he tried to throw suspicion on them. And it wouldn’t be Nunheim, because he was most likely killed by the same person and, furthermore, wouldn’t have to be shielded now. And it wouldn’t be Morelli, because Wynant was jealous of him and they’d had a row.” She frowned at me. “I wish you’d found out more about that big fat man they called Sparrow and that big red-haired woman.”
“But how about Dorothy and Gilbert?”
“I wanted to ask you about them. Do you think he’s got any very strong paternal feeling for them?”
“No.”
“You’re probably just trying to discourage me,” she said. “Well, knowing them, it’s hard to think either of them might’ve been guilty, but I tried to throw out my personal feelings and stick to logic. Before I went to sleep last night I made a list of all the–”
“There’s nothing like a little logic-sticking to ward off insomnia. It’s like–”
“Don’t be so damned patronizing. Your performance so far has been a little less than dazzling.”
“I didn’t mean no harm,” I said and kissed her. “That a new dress?”
“Ah! Changing the subject, you coward.”
27
I went to see Guild early in the afternoon and went to work on him as soon as we had shaken hands. “I didn’t bring my lawyer along. I thought it looked better if I came by myself.”
He wrinkled his forehead and shook his head as if I had hurt him. “Now it was nothing like that,” he said patiently.
“It was too much like that.”
He sighed. “I wouldn’t’ve thought you’d make the mistake that a lot of people make thinking just because we– You know we got to look at every angle, Mr. Charles.”
“That sounds familiar. Well, what do you want to know?”
“All I want to know is who killed her–and him.”
“Try asking Gilbert,” I suggested.
Guild pursed his lips. “Why him exactly?”
“He told his sister he knew who did it, told her he got it from Wynant.”
“You mean he’s been seeing the old man?”
“So she says he said. I haven’t had a chance to ask him about it.”
He squinted his watery eyes at me. “Just what is that lay-out over there, Mr. Charles?”
“The Jorgensen family? You probably know as much about it as I do.”
“I don’t,” he said, “and that’s a fact. I just can’t size them up at all. This Mrs. Jorgensen, now, what is she?”
“A blonde.”
He nodded gloomily. “Uh-huh, and that’s all I know. But look,. you’ve known them a long time and from what she says you and her–”
“And me and her daughter,” I said, “and me and Julia Wolf and me and Mrs. Astor. I’m hell with the women.”
He held up a hand. “I’m not saying I believe everything she says, and there’s nothing to get sore about. You’re taking the wrong attitude, if you don’t mind me saying it. You’re acting like you thought we were out to get you, and that’s all wrong, absolutely all wrong.”
“Maybe, but you’ve been talking double to me ever since last–” He looked at me with steady pale eyes and said calmly: “I’m a copper and I got my work to do.”
“That’s reasonable enough. You told me to come in today. What do you want?”
“I didn’t tell you to come in, I asked you.”
“All right. What do you want?”
“I don’t want this,” he said. “I don’t want anything like this. We’ve ‘been talking man to man up to this time and I’d kind of like to go on thataway.”
“You made the change.”