We climbed out of the chief's car in front of Mrs. Willsson's residence. The chief stopped for a second with one foot on the bottom step to look at the black crepe hanging over the bell. Then he said, 'Well, what's got to be done has got to be done,' and we went up the steps.
Mrs. Willsson wasn't anxious to see us, but people usually see the chief of police if he insists. This one did. We were taken upstairs to where Donald Willsson's widow sat in the library. She was in black. Her blue eyes had frost in them
Noonan and I took turns mumbling condolences and then he began:
'We just wanted to ask you a couple of questions. For instance, like where'd you go last night?'
She looked disagreeably at me, then back to the chief, frowned, and spoke haughtily:
'May I ask why I am being questioned in this manner?'
I wondered how many times I had heard that question, word for word and tone for tone, while the chief, disregarding it, went on amiably:
'And then there was something about one of your shoes being stained. The right one, or maybe the left. Anvways it was one or the other.'
A muscle began twitching in her upper lip.
'Was that all?' the chief asked me. Before I could answer he made a clucking noise with his tongue and turned his genial face to the woman again. 'I almost forgot. There was a matter of how you knew your husband wouldn't be home.'
She got up, unsteadily, holding the back of her chair with one white hand.
'I'm sure you'll excuse--'
''S all right.' The chief made a big-hearted gesture with one beefy paw. 'We don't want to bother you. Just where you went, and about the shoe, and how you knew he wasn't coming back. And, come to think of it, there's another-- What Thaler wanted here this morning.'
Mrs. Willsson sat down again, very rigidly. The chief looked at her. A smile that tried to be tender made funny lines and humps in his fat face. After a little while her shoulders began to relax, her chin went lower, a curve came in her back.
I put a chair facing her and sat on it.
'You'll have to tell us, Mrs. Willsson,' I said, making it as sympathetic as I could. 'These things have got to be explained.'
'Do you think I have anything to hide?' she asked defiantly, sitting up straight and stiff again, turning each word out very precisely, except that the s's were a bit slurred. 'I did go out. The stain was blood. I knew my husband was dead. Thaler came to see me about my husband's death. Are your questions answered now?'
'We knew all that,' I said. 'We're asking you to explain them.'
She stood up again, said angrily:
'I dislike your manner. I refuse to submit to--'
Noonan said:
'That's perfectly all right, Mrs. Willsson, only we'll have to ask you to go down to the Hall with us.'
She turned her back to him, took a deep breath and threw words at me:
'While we were waiting here for Donald I had a telephone call. It was a man who wouldn't give his name. He said Donald had gone to the home of a woman named Dinah Brand with a check for five thousand dollars. He gave me her address. Then I drove out there and waited down the street in the car until Donald came out.
'While I was waiting there I saw Max Thaler, whom I knew by sight. He went to the woman's house, but didn't go in. He went away. Then Donald came out and walked down the street. He didn't see me. I didn't want him to. I intended to drive home--get here before he came. I had just started the engine when I heard the shots, and I saw Donald fall. I got out of the car and ran over to him. He was dead. I was frantic. Then Thaler came. He said if I were found there they would say I had killed him. He made me run back to the car and drive home.'
Tears were in her eyes. Through the water her eyes studied my face, apparently trying to learn how I took the story. I didn't say anything. She asked:
'Is that what you wanted?'
'Practically,' Noonan said. He had walked around to one side. 'What did Thaler say this afternoon?'
'He urged me to keep quiet.' Her voice had become small and flat. 'He said either or both of us would be suspected if anyone learned we were there, because Donald had been killed coming from the woman's house after giving her money.'
'Where did the shots come from?' the chief asked.
'I don't know. I didn't see anything--except--when I looked up-- Donald falling.'
'Did Thaler fire them?'
'No,' she said quickly. Then her mouth and eyes spread. She put a hand to her breast. 'I don't know. I didn't think so, and he said he didn't. I don't know where he was. I don't know why I never thought he might have.'
'What do you think now?' Noonan asked.
'He--he may have.'
The chief winked at me, an athletic wink in which all his facial muscles took part, and cast a little farther back:
'And you don't know who called you up?'
