'I can do it,' she said. 'I can do it because you say I can.'
She got along fine till late in the morning, when she blew up for an hour or two. But it wasn't so bad, and I got her straightened out again. When Mary brought up her luncheon I left them together and went downstairs for my own.
Mickey and MacMan were already at the dining room table. Neither of them spoke a word--to one another or to me--during the meal. Since they kept quiet, I did.
When I went back upstairs, Gabnielle, in a green bathrobe, was sitting in the leather rocker that had been my bed for two nights. She had brushed her hair and powdered her face. Her eyes were mostly green, with a lift to the lower lids as if she was hiding a joke. She said with mock solemnity:
'Sit down. I want to talk seriously to you.'
I sat down.
'Why did you go through all this with--for me?' She was really serious now. 'You didn't have to, and it couldn't have been pleasant. I was--I don't know how bad I was.' She turned red from forehead to chest. 'I know I was revolting, disgusting. I know how I must seem to you now. Why--why did you?'
I said:
'I'm twice your age, sister; an old man. I'm damned if I'll make a chump of myself by telling you why I did it, why it was neither revolting nor disgusting, why I'd do it again and be glad of the chance.'
She jumped out of her chair, her eyes round and dark, her mouth trembling.
'You mean--?'
'I don't mean anything that I'll admit,' I said; 'and if you're going to parade around with that robe hanging open you're going to get yourself some bronchitis. You ex-hopheads have to be careful about catching cold.'
She sat down again, put her hands over her face, and began crying. I let her cry. Presently she giggled through her fingers and asked:
'Will you go out and let me be alone all afternoon?'
'Yeah, if you'll keep warm.'
I drove over to the county seat, went to the county hospital, and argued with people until they let me into Fitzstephan's room.
He was ninety per cent bandages, with only an eye, an ear, and one side of his mouth peeping out. The eye and the half-mouth smiled through linen at me, and a voice came through:
'No more of your hotel rooms for me.' It wasn't a clear voice because it had to come out sidewise, and he couldn't move his jaw; but there was plenty of vitality in it. It was the voice of a man who meant to keep on living.
I smiled at him and said:
'No hotel rooms this time, unless you think San Quentin's a hotel. Strong enough to stand up under a third-degree, or shall we wait a day or two?'
'I ought to be at my best now,' he said. 'Facial expressions won't betray me.'
'Good. Now here's the first point: Fink handed you that bomb when he shook hands with you. That's the only way it could have got in without my seeing it. His back was to me then. You didn't know what he was handing you, but you had to take it, just as you have to deny it now, or tip us off that you were tied up with the Holy Grail mob, and that Fink had reasons for killing you.'
Fitzstephan said: 'You say the most remarkable things. I'm glad he had reasons, though.'
'You engineered Riese's murder. The others were your accomplices. When Joseph died the blame was put all on him, the supposed madman. That's enough to let the others out, or ought to be. But here you are killing Collinson and planning God knows what else. Fink knows that if you keep it up you're going to let the truth out about the Temple murder, and he'll swing with you. So, scared panicky, he tries to stop you.'
Fitzstephan said: 'Better and better. So I killed Collinson?'
'You had him killed--hired Whidden and then didn't pay him. He kidnapped the girl then, holding her for his money, knowing she was what you wanted. It was you his bullet came closest to when we cornered him.'
Fitzstephan said: 'I'm running out of exclamatory phrases. So I was after her? I wondered about my motive.'
'You must have been pretty rotten with her. She'd had a bad time with Andrews, and even with Eric, but she didn't mind talking about them. But when I tried to learn the details of your wooing she shuddered and shut up. I suppose she slammed you down so hard you bounced, and you're the sort of egoist to be driven to anything by that.'
Fitzstephan said: 'I suppose. You know, I've had more than half an idea at times that you were secretly nursing some exceptionally idiotic theory.'
'Well, why shouldn't I? You were standing beside Mrs. Leggett when she suddenly got that gun. Where'd she get it? Chasing her out of the laboratory and down the stairs wasn't in character--not for you. Your hand was on her gun when that bullet hit her neck. Was I supposed to be deaf, dumb, and blind? There was, as you agreed, one mind behind all Gabrielle's troubles. You're the one person who has that sort of a mind, whose connection with each episode can be traced, and who has the necessary motive. The motive held me up: I couldn't be sure of it till I'd had my first fair chance to pump Gabrielle--after the explosion. And another thing that held me up was my not being able to tie you to the Temple crowd till Fink and Aaronia Haldorn did it for me.'
Fitzstephan said: 'Ah, Aaronia helped tie me? What has she been up to?' He said it absent-mindedly, and his one visible gray eye was small, as if he was busy with other thoughts behind it.
'She's done her best to cover you up by gumming the works, creating confusion, setting us after Andrews, even trying to shoot me. I mentioned Collinson just after she'd learned that the Andrews false-trail was no good.
