think we could get along?'
'I was getting along with men when you were in the cradle, Mr. Archer. Are you implying I can't get along with people?'
'I seem to be the one who can't. Alex Kincaid just fired me, with a strong assist from his father. They want no part of Dolly and her problems, now that the chips are down.'
Her black eyes flashed. 'I saw through that boy immediately. He's a moilycoddle.'
'I don't have the resources to go on by myself. It isn't good practice, anyway. I need somebody to back me, preferably somebody with local standing and--I'll be frank--a substantial bank balance.'
'How much would it cost me?'
'It depends on how long the case goes on and how many ramifications develop. I get a hundred a day and expenses. Also I have a team of detectives in Reno working on a lead that may be a hot one.'
'A lead in Reno?'
'It originated here, last night.'
I told her about the man in the convertible which belonged to Mrs. Sally Burke, a woman with many boy friends. She leaned forward in her chair in mounting interest:
'Why aren't the police working on that lead?'
'They may be. If they are, I don't know about it. They seem to have settled for the idea that Dolly's guilty and everything else is irrelevant. It's simpler that way.'
'You don't accept that idea?'
'No.'
'In spite of the gun they found in her bed?'
'You know about that, then.'
'Sheriff Crane showed it to me this morning. He wanted to know if I recognized it. Of course I didn't. I abhor the very sight of guns myself. I've never permitted Roy to own a gun.'
'And you have no idea who owned that one?'
'No, but the Sheriff appeared to take it for granted that it was Dolly's, and that it tied her to the murder.'
'We have no reason to think it was hers. If it was, the last place she'd put it would be under her own mattress. Her husband denies she did, and he was with her continuously once she got back to the gatehouse. There's the further point that there's no definite proof it's the murder weapon.'
'Really?'
'Really. It will take ballistics tests, and they're not scheduled until Monday. If my luck holds, I think I can throw more light on the situation by then.'
'Do you have a definite theory of your own, Mr. Archer?'
'I have an idea that the ramifications of this thing go far back beyond Dolly. It wasn't Dolly who threatened Miss Haggerty's life. She would have recognized her voice, they were close friends. I think Dolly walked up to her house simply to ask her advice about whether to go back to her husband. She stumbled over the body and panicked. She's still in panic.'
'Why?'
'I'm not prepared to explain it. I want to go into her background further. I also want to go into Miss Haggerty's background.'
'That might be interesting,' she said, as if she was considering attending a double-feature movie. 'How much is all this going to cost me?'
'I'll keep it as low as I can. But it could mount up in the thousands, two or three or even four.'
'That's rather an expensive penance.'
'Penance?'
'For all my selfishness, past and present and future. I'll think about it, Mr. Archer.'
'How long do you need to think about it?'
'Call me tonight. Roy will be telephoning me around dinnertime--he telephones me every night when he's away--and I couldn't possibly give you an answer before I discuss it with him. We live on a tighter budget than you might think,' she said earnestly, fingering the diamonds at her throat.
chapter 15
I drove up under the dripping trees to Helen Haggerty's place. Two deputies messing around outside the front door wouldn't let me in or answer any questions. It was turning out to be a bad day.
I drifted over to the campus and into the Administration Building. I had some idea of talking to Laura Sutherland, the Dean of Women, but her office was locked. All the offices were locked. The building was deserted except for a white-headed man in blue jeans who was sweeping the corridor with a longhandled push-broom. He looked like Father Time, and I had a nightmare moment of thinking that he was sweeping Helen's last vestiges away.
In a kind of defensive reflex I got out my notebook and looked up the name of the chairman of the modem languages department. Dr. Geisman. The old man with the push-broom knew where his office was:
'It's in the new Humanity Building, down the line.' He pointed. 'But he won't be there on a Saturday afternoon.'
The old man was mistaken. I found Geisman in the department office on the first floor of the Humanities Building, sitting with a telephone receiver in one hand and a pencil in the other. I had seen him coming out of Bradshaw's conference the day before, a heavy middle-aged man with thick spectacles imperfectly masking anxious little eyes.
'One moment,' he said to me; and into the telephone: 'I'm sorry you can't help us, Mrs. Bass. I realize you have your family responsibilities and of course the remuneration is not great for a special lecturer.'
He sounded foreign, though he had no accent. His voice was denatured, as if English was just another language he had learned.
'I am Dr. Geisman,' he said as he hung up and stroked out a name on the list in front of him. 'Are you Dr. de Falla?'
'No. My name is Archer.'
'What are your qualifications? Do you have an advanced degree?'
'In the university of hard knocks.'
He didn't respond to my smile. 'A member of our faculty is defunct, as you must know, and I've had to give up my Saturday to an attempt to find a replacement for her. If you expect me to take your application seriously--'
'I'm not applying for anything, doctor, except possibly a little information. I'm a private detective investigating Professor Haggerty's death, and I'm interested in how she happened to land here.'
'I have no time to go into all that again. There are classes which must be met on Monday. If this Dr. de Falla doesn't arrive, or proves impossible, I don't know what to do.' He peered at his wristwatch. 'I'm due at the Los Angeles airport at six-thirty.'
'You can spare five minutes, anybody can.'
'Very well. Five minutes.' He tapped the crystal of his watch. 'You wish to know how Miss Haggerty came here? I can't say, except that she appeared in my office one day and asked for a position. She had heard about Professor Farrand's heart attack. This is our second emergency in a month.'
'Who told her about the heart attack?'
'I don't know. Perhaps Dean Sutherland. She gave Dean Sutherland as a local reference. But it was common knowledge, it was in the paper.'
'Was she living here before she applied for a job with you?'
'I believe so. Yes, she was. She told me she already had a house. She liked the place, and wished to remain. She was very eager for the post. Frankly, I had some doubts about her. She had a master's degree from Chicago but she wasn't fully qualified. The school where she had been teaching, Maple Park, is not credentialed on our leveL But Dean Sutherland told me she needed the position and I let her have it, unfortunately.'
