“Black. Black slacks, black sport coat open at the neck, pale gray shirt…no tie. Jesus, he might’ve had the gun right there under his coat. He could’ve shot me.”
“Or he could’ve been some neighborhood bum who had nothing to do with it. I take it you’ve never seen him around here.”
“Never seen him anywhere. He didn’t look like a bum to me.”
“Did you watch him at all after he went on by?”
“No. I came… right back up front.”
I let out a long breath. “Okay, let me get a feel for the time frame. You say you went out on a buy and got back here when… about quarter to five?”
“It wasn’t much later than that. I didn’t look at the clock, but I’m sure I was here by five.”
“It was right at closing time, Dr. J,” Ruby said. “I remember I was thinking I’d be closing up in a minute, then Em came back.”
“Then it was closer to five than quarter to,” I said.
“I don’t know,” Neff said. “I thought it was earlier than that, but you may be right.”
“It was a few minutes before five,” Ruby said.
“What’d you drive?” I asked.
“My car, same’s I always drive. Same one’s out back.”
“And you came up Colfax, right past all the stores?”
“Yeah.”
“When you passed my place, did you happen to look in?”
“I gave it a glance, I always do. I like to see if there’s any business on the block. I look in all the stores when I come by.”
“Was the store open or closed?”
“I don’t remember, I didn’t look at the sign. There was nobody in the front, though, I do know that.”
“Did you look in at Harkness and Fix?”
“Yeah, sure. Fix was sitting in that chair by his window like he always does. Harkness was gone somewhere —he had that clock on the door that said, you know, be back at such-and-such a time. I didn’t notice what time it said. I need some water. This shit’s got me shook.”
I waited for him to come back. Then I started in again. “So you drove past the stores and pulled up here and unloaded the books. How long did that take?”
“No more’n a minute,” Ruby said. “There wasn’t all that much, quantity-wise. Just three boxes. Didn’t take but a second to bring it all in.”
I kept looking at Neff. “Then what did you do?”
“Like I told you, headed straight for the can. I thought I’d bust before I got back there.”
“How long were you on the pot?”
“No more than a minute. You know how it is when you’ve got the runs, it’s all water.”
“Then you opened the back door and saw the guy.”
He took a shivery breath, nodded, and let it out.
“So you were back there what… two minutes? And this would all have taken place by a few minutes after five? And you didn’t see the guy get in any car and drive away, either of you?”
“I didn’t see anything,” Ruby said.
Neff looked ill. We were all silent for a moment.
“I don’t mind telling you, Mr. Janeway, this thing’s made a mess of my nerves. I’m not gonna sleep till they catch this bastard.”
I gave him an encouraging little nod. “Tell me anything else that comes to you. Hair… scars…”
“I didn’t notice any scars. He had thick black hair with deep recesses. It went way back, made the front of his head look like a big letter M, but the hair was still real thick where it did grow. He had a face like a…turtle… just a flat line for a mouth. I can’t tell you about his eyes: he turned away before I got a look, and I probably wouldn’t remember anyway.”
“And he didn’t say anything?”
“Hell no. The whole thing didn’t take more than a few seconds. But that was enough.”
“All right,” I said. “Stay away from here today. Get downtown and tell Hennessey what you’ve told me. Get the artist involved. Do the best you can.”
“Sure… you bet.”
