“Wells killed him.” He walked towards her, between the two men, and the gun wavered in her hands. She seemed to be debating in her mind. When he was almost upon her, she lowered the gun, sullenly, and let it hang heavy and ineffectual from her right hand.
“Come on,” he said. He walked around her and led the way down the hall to the doctor’s office. He could hear them whispering behind him, Lennie or Blue whispering urgently to May, and May making sounds of anger.
In the office, he set the overnight bag down on the floor beside the desk, and turned around. The three of them were standing the same as the other time, just inside the door — May in front, Blue behind and to her right, Lennie behind and to her left. They looked like bowling pins.
“All right,” May said. “I suppose you still got that funny-looking gun. But this time I’ve got one too, and don’t let my skinniness fool you. You make one funny move and I’ll shoot you before you can blink an eye.”
“I’m sure of it. I’m going to get a piece of paper out of my pocket.”
“Move slow,” May warned him.
Parker reached into his inside jacket pocket, and came out with the folded confession. He walked across the room and handed it to May.
She didn’t know what to do with the Peacemaker. She couldn’t unfold the paper while she was still holding it. Finally, reluctantly, she handed it over to Blue. “Keep your eye on him.”
“Don’t you worry about that,” Blue said.
May read the confession and Blue and Lennie read it over her shoulder, Blue forgetting all about watching Parker. Parker could have walked over and taken the Peacemaker away from Blue, but there was no point in it. He leaned against the desk and waited.
May finished first, because the other two were lip-readers. She looked over at Parker. “How do I know this isn’t a phony?”
“Is that his real name there, down on the bottom? C. Frederick Wallerbaugh?”
“So what?”
“All you told me was ‘Wallerbaugh’. Not the first and middle names, or how he signed himself.”
“That’s right, May,” Lennie said. It was a surprise to hear him talk. Parker looked at him and tried to decide if Lennie was still wearing the same undershirt he’d had on last Saturday. The corduroy pants were the same.
“All right,” said May. She wanted to be difficult, and there was always a way. “How come he wrote this?”
“I’d shot him, and he wanted me to get him a doctor.”
“You forced him. So maybe it’s a pack of lies.”
“What for?” Like the last time, Parker was having trouble keeping hold of his temper. But he didn’t want to get too impatient, because then he’d kill those three morons, and that would be their brand of stupidity.
“So we’d think it wasn’t you killed Dr Adler and Stubbs.”
“Why did I kill Dr Adler and Stubbs?”
“So they wouldn’t tell nobody about your new face.”
“Then why didn’t I kill you three the last time I was here?”
“That’s right, May,” Lennie said. Parker looked at him, surprised again. Maybe Lennie was the one with a mind in his head.
“All he’s trying to do is fast-talk us again,” May said.
“But why would he kill the doctor and Stubbs, and then not try to kill us? Why should he try to fast-talk us?” Lennie asked.
May shook her head, truculently. “I just don’t trust this man.”
“I don’t think I should trust you either,” Parker said. “I trusted the doctor because he had a brain, and because a friend of mine vouched for him. But you three are morons.”
“Hold on there.” The Peacemaker had been dangling from the end of Blue’s arm, but now he managed to bring the barrel up and aim it at Parker.
“Now, wait, Blue,” Lennie said. “If this man’s trying to be fair to us, we ought to try to be fair to him.” His face was screwed up with concentration, the way Stubbs had done sometimes when he was thinking hard. “You got to admit he makes sense. All he’s been doing is trying to prove to us he didn’t kill the doctor, when it would have been easier for him to kill the three of us. If he’d killed the doctor that’s just exactly what he would have done. And besides, May, you said he wouldn’t come back and that would prove he was the killer. But he did come back after all.”
May thought that one over, not liking it because it cleared Parker and she didn’t like Parker. Finally she shrugged, reluctantly. “I suppose that’s right.”
But Parker wanted to be sure. “Wells killed your doctor. You got that straight now?”
“I suppose so,” May said. She was frowning hard now, and she looked at Lennie as though for help.
“We got to be fair with this man, May. He went to a lot of trouble to prove himself.”
May shook her head. “You better give me that gun back, Blue.”
Parker studied them, frowning, and then grimaced in disgust. “You already blew the whistle!”
May had the gun again, holding it in her two-handed grip, aiming it shakily at him. “Now, you stay right there.”
