“What harmful could she have possibly said? You tend, as a policeman, to be excessively suspicious, Cotton.”
“That’s a smart-aleck redhead, in case you don’t know it, and it comes natural to her to say harmful things.”
“As a matter of fact,” I said, “our conversation was innocent at both ends. The only thing about it that you might find objectionable was her calling you a pair of sons of bitches and bastards.”
“There you are,” Cotton said. “That’s a smart-aleck redhead if I ever saw one. She has no respect for anyone.”
“Why did she want to call us names like that?” Hec said. “That’s no way to talk about public officials.”
“She was a little upset because you arrested me,” I said. “She’s slightly prejudiced in my favor.”
“I can appreciate her being upset and prejudiced,” Hec said, “but I still don’t like being called a son of a bitch and a bastard. Either one is bad enough, and both at once are just too damn much.”
I had dialed, and the phone was ringing. It rang and rang and no one answered. I was just about to hang up, having decided that Sid had gone out somewhere, when all of a sudden she was on the line breathlessly.
“Hello, hello,” she said. “Who’s there?”
“I’m here,” I said.
“Gid?”
“Gid the mate of Sid. Sid and Gid Jones, that is.”
“Sugar, I was out on the back terrace taking a sun bath, and after a while I barely heard the phone ringing after I don’t know how long, and I ran in as fast as I could to answer. I’m so glad I got here before you hung up.”
“Are you wearing your white bathing suit?”
“Yes, I am. I always wear the white one when I’m sun bathing, because it leaves the most of me out in the sun.”
“I’ve observed that before, and I wish I was there to observe it now.”
“So do I, sugar. I’d much rather be observed by you than that Jack Handy next door. He’s been out in his backyard all morning, and half the time he’s been peering at me through the hedge. He’s a regular God-damn Peeping Tom.”
“At least he’s a discriminating Peeping Tom. You ought to feel flattered. If one must be addicted to voyeurism, it’s in his favor to be selective.”
“Voyeurism? What’s that?”
“That’s peeping.”
“Oh. Is that what it is? Sugar, is everything all right? Why did you call?”
“I called to tell you that I won’t be home for dinner tonight.”
“How exasperating! Why won’t you? Where will you be for dinner?”
“For dinner I’ll be in the county jail as the guest of Cotton McBride and Hector Caldwell.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. No one has dinner in the county jail.”
“Oh, yes, someone does. A number do, as a matter of fact. The prisoners, I mean.”
“What’s that? Prisoners? Are you sure you’re sober? I hope for your sake, as well as mine, that this isn’t the beginning of another gimlet affair.”
“No. Not at all. Whatever they serve in the county jail, I’m sure they don’t serve gimlets.”
“Sugar, you sound rather confused. I can’t quite make any sense of what you’re saying. Are you trying to tell me something that you don’t quite have the courage to tell me directly?”
“I guess that’s it.”
“Tell me what it is at once. Do you hear me?”
“I hear you. What I’m trying to tell you is that I’m being arrested on suspicion of the murder of Beth Thatcher, and as a consequence I’m being taken into custody, which is a way of saying that I’m being put into jail.”
“Nonsense. How can you be arrested for killing someone you didn’t kill? Who’s arresting you? Is it that Goddamn Cotton McBride?”
“Cotton and Hec. It’s a cooperative job.”
“Where is that McBride? Is he there?”
“Right here. Old rabbit ears himself.”
“Put him on the phone. I want to talk to him immediately.”
“I don’t think I want to. He’s already sufficiently annoyed with me.”
“What I’d like to know is how the hell they can arrest you without any reason whatever.”
“They think they have one. Someone wrote a note and told them that I went to Dreamer’s Park the night Beth was killed.”
“Here, now, by God!” Cotton said. “You can’t talk to her about that.”
“Cotton’s right, Gid,” Hec said. “You can’t talk about the evidence.”
“Go to hell,” I said.
“What did you say?” Sid said. “Did you tell me to go to hell?”
“Not you. Cotton and Hec.”
“Oh. That’s all right, then. That’s nothing to what I’ll tell them the first chance I get. Who wrote the note?”
“I don’t know. It wasn’t signed.”
“Well, an unsigned note doesn’t prove anything. Any nut could write an unsigned note. Surely, after what I told you, you denied being there.”
“I didn’t, unfortunately. I admitted it.”
“Admitted it? Actually? Sugar, were you temporarily insane or something? I told you explicitly to say that you were at home all night.”
“I know you did, and I tried, but somehow or other I just couldn’t do it.”
“Why not? What was to prevent you?”
“Hell, I can’t explain it. It may have been a supernatural influence.”
“Sugar, you musn’t begin to imagine things. It’s the worst land of sign. The damage has been done now, and we’ll simply have to make the best of it. It’s perfectly clear to me that I must take a hand in this directly if anything sensible is ever to be done.”
“What do you plan to do?”
“I don’t know at this moment, but I’ll think of something.” She was silent for a few seconds, as if she had already begun to think, and when she spoke again her voice had receded and saddened. “I’ll have to think of something all the time to avoid thinking of you in jail. Sugar, I can’t bear to think of you in jail.”
“I can hardly bear it myself.”
“I’ll come down to see you as soon as possible and bring you a few things that you may need.”
“Sid, I’m sorry.”
“For what, sugar?”
“For everything.”
“Oh, no. Not for everything. There are a few things that have happened recently that you
