'How is Dad?'
'I stumble on things,' said Johnny. 'Forgive me. But you and Dick used to date?'
'Once or twice,' she said. Her eyes were not focused on anything.
'I never stumbled on that,' said Bart Bartee mildly.
Nan sat still and looked at the dishes. The disapproval had gone from Dorothy's eyes. They were alert.
'That's right, we did date once or twice,' said Dick.
'A million years ago?' said Johnny genially. 'As Miss Callahan would say. Fact is, this roommate of yours, Dick, told me you dated practically everybody.'
'Roommate? Oh, yes. Old George. That's a trifle, all right.' Dick laughed.
'He got out nights from that school,' said Johmiy. 'Fact, he was out that night. As you said you knew.'
Blanche leaned back and hit the chairback with a thump. Bart said, 'Mr. Sims, you want to make out that Mc-^ Cauley is innocent?'
'I beHeve that McCauley is innocent,' said Johnny. Dick spoke. 'Too bad that so many people are dead and gone and can't be talked to. You think McCauley is innocent?' But you didn't answer my question. Am I guilty?'
Bart said, 'Dick's alibi won't hold? What about that, Dick?'
'Ah, well,' sighed Dick, 'George didn't want to admit being out. No more did I.'
Nan looked as if she didn't know what anyone was talking about.
Bart said sharply, 'Where were you, then?' Dick said, 'We were young. It mattered, we thought. Nobody wanted to be expelled from school or get into trouble with our elders.' He looked at Blanche who had no color supporting her make-up. 'Fact is, I had a better ahbi.'
'I asked you not to rake this up,' said Blanche to her husband in a flat voice. 'But you wouldn't stop. Dick was with me that night, while Christy was being killed.' 'Where?' Bart said icily. 'At my house.'
'Midnight?' Husband and wife spoke down the table's length.
'Yes. He threw sand at my window and I went downstairs. We talked on the side porch. He wanted me to sneak out and go dancing. It was too late, I told him. It was midnight.'
Dick sighed. 'A crazy kid. Old George got out and I . . . Well, seemed to be a point of pride there. Bartee wasn't going to stay in like a good httle boy, if the Ukes of George Rush had gone out.'
This rang perfectly true to Johnny's ear. 'But I'd made no plans, no date.' Dick shrugged. 'WeU, I tried to talk Blanche into a date. And no luck.' He smiled at her.
'Why didn't all this come out at the time?' Bart spoke
to his wife alone. 'A murder easel Your own father was counsel for the defense.'
'Dad had forbidden me to see Dick any more,' Blanche said. 'I'd promised. Dad was in bed and the house dark— and I took care not to wake him.' She ktoked angry. 'The school gave Dick an alibi. Why should I?'
'Not to tell the whole truth,' said Bart coldly, 'is the same as lying.'
Blanche winced. The old lady was eyeing her. Johnny turned suddenly upon the old lady. 'TDid you pick the pin off the floor of the study and give it to Nathaniel?' he said boldly.
Bart's eyes flashed anger.
But the old lady answered quickly, pulhng in her chin, 'Of course not. That woman had it.'
'What woman? Kate Callahan?' Bart stared at his mother. ''You knew that, Mother? But you swore , . .'
'Nathaniel didn't realize it was an heirloom,' said the old lady. 'I understood, I wasn't angry. I simply told him he had better get it back before his father found out. His father never understood Nathaniel. Nathaniel is gone,' she added. ^
'Got it backl' Bart's voice was edgy. 'How and when did Nathaniel get the pin back?'
Blanche said, 'Oh, we got it back for him. Dick and I.' Her face was bitter. 'We broke the law. I've been afraid of that old fooHshness for too long. I may as Well stop 'lying' altogether.'
The old lady giggled.
'You broke into Kate's?' said Johnny alertly.
'I have always known,' said Blanche drearily, ''that Dick could never have done that thing, because he was with me. And I have always known that McCauley did do it. Because he was lying about the pin. I could have proved it. I asked you not to rake this up.'
'Will you prove it, now, please?' asked Johnny.
'Why, the pin wasn't in McCauley's pocket. It was in Kate Callahan's dresser drawer.'
'My father,' said Dick, 'wasn't made of the stuff for
i^l intrigue. He was in a panic. Grandfather would have been
rough on him. He begged me. Well, at the time, it was
nS quite a challenge. Nothing loathe, Blanche and I did a
spot of burglary. In a good cause.' He was smiling. 'Crazy kids.'
