Before Midnight

"It's not up to me. If I did the suggesting around here, that would be my desk and this would be yours."

"Nevertheless, I put it to you. Please sit down so I can look at you without stretching my neck. Thank you. There is nothing you can do about any of these people that the police have not already done, and are doing, with incomparably greater resources and numbers. Keeping them under surveillance, investigating their past, learning if any of them had a gun, checking their alibis, harassing them by prolonged and repetitive inquisition--do you want to compete with the police on any of those?"

"You know damn well I don't. I want you to go to work and come up with instructions for me. Unless Saul is handling it?"

"Saul has been given a little task I didn't want to spare you for. You will accept my decision that at the moment there is nothing to be done by either you or me. That condition may continue for a week, until after the deadline has come and gone. Messrs. Hansen and Buff and O'Garro and Assa--and Mr. Heery too--are quite wrong in thinking that the culprit must be exposed before the deadline; on the contrary, it will be much more feasible after the deadline, unless--"

"That won't do us any good. You can't stall them that long. They'll bounce you."

"I doubt it. I'd have something to say about it. And anyway, I was saying that it will be more feasible after the deadline unless something happens, and I rather think that something will. The tension is extremely severe, not only for the culprit, but also for the others, in one way or another. That's why you can't go to the ball game; you must be at hand. Also for the phone calls. They'll get increasingly exigent and must be handled discreetly but firmly. I could help some with them, but it would be best for me to be so deeply engaged with the problem that I am unavailable. Of course they are not to be told that I think the solution may have to wait until after the deadline."

"Say by the Fourth of July," I suggested bitterly.

"Sooner than that or not at all." He was tolerant. "Commonly I take your badgering as a necessary evil; it has on occasion served a purpose; but this may go on for a while and I wish to be spared. I assure you, Archie--"