'It's Bill Smith. You get any sleep lately?'
'You kidding?'
'Well, I'm glad to know country cops work as hard as city cops. Can I have my gun back?'
'Yeah. Come get it.'
'What killed Wally Gould?'
'He was shot.'
'Oh, come on, Mac. Is it a secret?'
'What interest you got in this investigation, Smith?'
'I'm a friend of Tony's and Jimmy's. As long as Jimmy's a suspect, I'm interested.'
'That's it?'
'Why, he's not?'
'Yeah, he is. You know where to find him?'
'No.'
'Would you tell me if you did?'
I thought about it. 'I'd tell you I knew. I'm not sure I'd tell you where he was.'
'Wait, let me get this straight. You want information from me on an ongoing police investigation, but you're not sure you'd turn over my chief suspect if you had him?'
'I'm not sure I wouldn't. What killed Wally Gould?'
He paused. 'Three close-range shots from a nine- millimeter.'
'When?'
'About four A.M.'
'You found it?'
'The gun? Not yet.'
'Well, I have two you can look at.'
'Two what?'
'Nine-millimeters.'
MacGregor exploded. 'Goddammit, Smith! If you've been holding out on me again I'll lock you up!'
'I didn't hold out on you about the keys and I'm not now. I took a pair of Ruger nine-millimeters off two of Grice's monkeys yesterday.' I told MacGregor the rest of the story, my conversation with Grice, the green
house, Otis and Ted. He didn't ask what I'd been doing on the potholed road by Breakabeen and I didn't tell him.
I also didn't tell him that Otis and Ted had picked me up at the Park View while I was talking to Ellie Warren. I wasn't paid to give him ideas.
'So Grice doesn't know where Jimmy is,' he said thoughtfully when I was through. 'And he's willing to pay a lot to find out.'
'Maybe not,' I said. 'I imagine it's one of those fees I'd have a hard time collecting.'
'You could be right. You want us to pick them up?'
'Who, Otis and Ted? Don't bother. Everybody'd deny it and I'm sure everybody's got a nifty alibi.'
'Yeah, probably. We had Grice down here this morning on the Gould killing.'
'Let me guess. At the time Gould was shot, Grice was drinking tea with his congressman and the Bishop of Buffalo.'
MacGregor answered that with a grunt. 'What do you think he wants Jimmy for?'
'Grice? I think the same as you, Mac. Grice knows something about Gould's death and he's looking for a fall guy'
'Is that what I think? What else do I think?'
I left that alone. 'I'll be by this afternoon to pick up my gun.'
'If you have evidence to turn over, you'd damn well better make it this morning. Now.'
'An hour.'
'Half an hour. If not, in thirty-one minutes I'll have every unit in the county looking for you.'
'I'll be there.'
Now it was time to call Mark Sanderson.
'I'm sorry.' Mark Sanderson's secretary's voice was so carefully modulated and inflected that I regretted not being a radio producer calling to offer her her big break. 'Mr. Sanderson is unavailable. Perhaps I can help you?'
