glared angry white.
Miss Redman and Miss Challis had claimed the arms of an enchanted young firefighter. Roxy and Moonbeam wore gleaming satin slips no different from their party attire, and, like Frank Tite, were barefoot, but seemed to be having a much better time. Policemen and firefighters moved through the fire engines and squad cars. A clutch of onlookers, many of them in bathrobes, occupied the middle of the street.
A sheet of flame burst upward and tinted the smoke blood-red. The roof fell in with a barely audible crash. I had never before seen a serious fire, never heard how a fire celebrates destruction in a rushing, inhuman voice. Helen Janette screamed, 'That's him! He burned down my house!'
Frank Tite plodded toward me, wincing. Roxy and Moonbeam fluttered forward. Two men in bathrobes appeared on either side of me. One of them twisted my arm behind my back.
“If you don't let go of my arm, I'll take your head off your shoulders.'
Helen Janette screeched, “It was him!'
The man holding my arm was about forty pounds overweight. Prominent keloids dotted his face, and sweat cascaded from his every pore.
“I apologize to you,' I said. “I got mad, so I said something stupid. How well do you get on with Helen Janette?'
He let go of my arm. 'Mrs. Janette would sooner lick spit off the sidewalk than give me the time of day.'
Mr. Tite minced up. 'Get hold of him again.'
'You hold him. I got no reason to believe your girlfriend or you either, Frank.'
Followed by a bearlike man withcaptain stenciled in yellow across the front of his rubber coat, Helen Janette bustled beside Mr. Tite. 'That's him. I want him put in jail.'
The men around me retreated.
'Sir, what do you have to say?'
“I was walking back to my place from Merchants Hotel,' I said. 'When I noticed the flames I ran up, hoping it wasn't Mrs. Janette's house.'
'He's lying,' said Helen Janette.
'Do you really think I'd burn down your house because you kicked me out?'
'No!' she yelled. 'You know why you did it.'
'Helen,' I asked, 'did Otto get out in time?'
She closed her mouth.
The fire captain asked my name and said, 'We were unable to rescue the tenant who did not exit with the others.' He looked into my eyes. 'Was the victim a friend of yours?'
'Otto was a nice man,' I said. 'Sometimes he fell asleep when he was smoking.'
'Why are you just
A police car came flashing around the corner of Ferryman's Road. 'Here's what's going to happen,' the captain said. “I will ask Mr. Dunstan to sit in the police car and sort things out with the officer. Mrs. Janette will be allowed to speak her piece, and she will do so in an orderly fashion. You, sir, will go back over there on the sidewalk, where you belong.'
Helen Janette nodded at Tite. He stalked away, and she tightened her bathrobe around herself, ready for battle.
Treuhaft and Captain Mullan got out of the car. Helen Janette said, “I want you to arrest this man on charges of arson and murder.'
Mullan followed the direction of her extended finger. 'Not you.'
'Believe it or not,' I said.
'Mr. Dunstan, you spread joy wherever you go.'
“I was at Merchants Hotel until about one-thirty this morning. The desk clerk saw me leave, but you could confirm my story by talking to Assistant District Attorney Ashton.'
“I love these familiar old songs.' Mullan went back to Helen Janette. 'You are accusing this man of setting the fire?'
She wrenched her robe tight as a sausage casing. 'Maybe you remember the trouble I got into when my name was Hazel Jansky. I was punished for trying to do good for a few helpless babies.'
Mullan was completely unhurried. “I remember that name.'
'Mr. Dunstan heard a filthy lie from Toby Kraft. I call it a filthy lie because that's what it was, and Toby Kraft knows it.' She shivered.
'The way people carried on, you'd think I was a criminal, instead of someone who helped little babies find good homes.'
Mullan gave me a weary look. 'Can you help me out here?'
'My mother thought Hazel Jansky abducted one of her children. Even if I thought she was right, I wouldn't have done this.'
Mullan closed his eyes, opened the rear door, and waved me in. He and Treuhaft got in the front seat. 'Merchants Hotel,' Mullan said. 'Dunstan, why don't you save yourself travel time and move into the place?'
“I like the Brazen Head.'
'You should know a few things about the night clerk,' Mullan said. Treuhaft gave an evil chuckle.
When we pulled up in front of the hotel, Mullan told Treuhaft to ask the desk clerk if he had seen a man of my description leaving the hotel at any time past1:00a.m.,and if so, to give an approximate time. “I'm sick of waking up Assistant District Attorney Ashton with inquiries about Mr. Dunstan's whereabouts. If the clerk didn't see him leave, we'll take it from there.'
Mullan rested the back of his head on the seat. “I don't suppose you started that fire after all?'
“It was going before I left Ashleigh's room,' I said. 'The man who lived across the hall from me used to fall asleep smoking in his chair. Last night, he almost burned the place down.'
'This fire was no accident,' Mullan said. 'Our first call said there was a broken basement window in back of the house. Someone crawled in and poured an inflammatory over everything in sight. Then he crawled back out and torched the place. We have to wait for the investigators' report, but that's what it's going to say.'
'Joe Staggers?'
“I'll check on him, but Staggers wants to deal with you in person. Have you seen any other characters hanging around the building?'
'Well,' I said, 'after the break-in at the Cobden Building, Frenchy La Chapelle looked like he was following me back to the house.'
Treuhaft let himself into the driver's seat, and the car sagged under his weight. 'The desk man says Mr. Dunstan left the hotel around one forty-five.'
Mullan nodded. 'How does a recent visitor to our city become acquainted with Frenchy La Chapelle?'
Treuhaft swung his head toward Captain Mullan.
'My Uncle Clark pointed him out when he and Cassie Little visited Clyde Prentiss atSt. Ann's. All I'm saying is that he watched me go up Chester Street to the rooming house.'
'Frenchy followed you home from Merchants Park?'
“It looked like it,' I said.
'Can you think of any reason why one of our favorite dirtbags should take an interest in you, Mr. Dunstan?'
'None at all.'
Mullan's face stretched into a yawn. 'Officer Treuhaft, Mr. Dunstan and I are going to step out for a private word.'
Mullan strolled past the hotel's entrance and wagged his head toward the polished stone, and I leaned back against the facade. A thick smell of smoke drifted toward us. Mullan sighed and buttoned his suit jacket. He thrust his hands into his pockets and looked down at his shoes. He sighed again.
'You have something on your mind,' I said.
Mullan turned halfway around and looked across Commercial Avenue. A solid column of smoke darkened the air above Chester Street. “I have been very good to you, Mr. Dunstan. You keep popping up at crime scenes, you are accused of one thing after another, but I have not let the system run over you.'
