Alma rose, thought she was going to say something but decided not to, headed for the door, and was gone. When she was out Carol went and shut the door, came back and sat at the end of the couch, closer to me, and said, 'You could be right about her, but maybe not. She ought to know her father, but maybe she doesn't because he is her father. I can remember, I thought I knew mine when I was nineteen, but I didn't. I didn't find out until- To hell with it, that trail's grown over. What I wanted to tell you, I had an idea, but I'm not saying it's any good.'
'Even a bad idea would be welcome.'
'It's that couple at Bill Farnham's. Not the pair from Denver, that doctor and his wife from Seattle. Didn't I hear you say he's a doctor?'
I nodded. 'Robert C. Amory, M.D., and his wife Beatrice.'
'How old are they?'
'Oh, around forty.'
'What's she like?'
'Five feet six, hundred and twenty pounds. Fairly lookable. Hair dyed red, and I doubt if she brought a supply along. Tries to pretend she likes it here, but she came only because he needed to get away from the grind and he loves to ride and fish.'
'What's he like? If that Brodell laid her and he found out, what would he do?'
'Brodell would have had to move fast. He had only been here three days.'
'We've got a bull that doesn't even need one day.'
'Yeah, I've met that bull, as you know. Brodell wasn't that type, but I admit it's possible. I also admit that I had that idea Tuesday, four days ago, and I asked some questions that Bill Farnham resented. I got a couple of facts that didn't hurt, but they didn't prove anything. One, Dr Amory has no alibi for that Thursday afternoon because he was upriver alone, and two, he can't shoot worth a damn. I was hoping for a fact with juice in it, for instance that he had taken a gun along that day in case he met a bear, but Farnham said no.'
'Of course he said no. He wouldn't want one of his dudes corralled for murder.'
'Sure. I'm just telling you what he said. As for believing him, I believe damn little of what a lot of people have told me the last six days. Even you. You told me day before yesterday that you never saw Philip Brodell. Do I have to believe that?'
'It's true.'
'He was here six weeks last summer. Just four miles from this spot.'
'It might have been four hundred miles. I wish it was. Bill Farnham has a dude ranch and this is a working ranch, and Harvey and Bill have had some words, you know that. You were here the time a few cattle found a bad spot in the fence and made it to the woods and one of his dudes shot a steer. We don't visit. The only way I know Alma met that Brodell at a dance at the hall, that's what she told me. She never mentioned him once last year, but if you don't want to believe I never saw him it's your rope. Are you quitting on that doctor?'
'I'm not quitting on anybody. The only reason you're not on the list is that it wouldn't help any to tie it on you. Trading you for Harvey would be no improvement, even if you would shoot a man in the back.'
'If I did I wouldn't hit him in the shoulder.'
'Unless you wanted to.' Our eyes were meeting. 'I don't think I've asked you, have I?'
'Asked me what?'
'If you shot him.'
'Nope. Twice. You haven't asked me and I didn't shoot him. You must be awful hard up for a meld.'
'Certainly I am. You know I am. But I'm not just talking to hear myself. Let's see if we agree on a couple of points-three points. First, you're not Harvey, you're you, and you're a woman, and you might shoot a man in the back. Second, you're a good shot, and the bullet would go within half an inch of where you wanted it.'
'Not half an inch. It would go where I wanted it.'
'Okay. Now the third point. A lot of people, probably including Haight and Jessup, are saying that Harvey got him in the shoulder to turn him around, and then in the neck because everyone knows he can shoot and he wanted it to look as if the man who did it couldn't shoot. The trouble with that is that Harvey simply hasn't got that kind of a dodge in him. Granting that he would shoot him in the back at all, which I don't, it would never enter his mind to kink it like that. But your mind is different. It would enter your mind. Do you agree on the three points?'
A corner of her mouth was twisted up. 'Lily,' she said.
'What about Lily?'
'She thinks I shot him, huh?'
'If she does she hasn't said so. This is just you and me. Even if Lily thinks that and has told me so, I do my own thinking. Do we agree on the three points?'
The corner of her mouth stayed up. 'Suppose I say yes, then what? You said yourself that trading me for Harvey would be no improvement. Maybe you didn't mean it?'
'Certainly I meant it. It's obvious. But I asked Alma to do some supposing, and now I ask you to do some. Suppose you shot him, but I go on as if you didn't. In that case, where am I? I can't dig up evidence that would pin it on somebody else, because there isn't any. I'm hog-tied, and anything and everything I do will be crap. But if I knew you shot him maybe I could do something that wouldn't be crap. I've had some experience
