Might as Well Be Dead

“If you mean could it have been an accident, it’s barely possible. It wasn’t on the Drive proper, it was on one of those narrow side approaches to apartment houses. A man and woman were in a parked car a hundred feet away, waiting for someone. The car was going slow when it passed them, going up the lane. They saw Keems step into the lane from between two parked cars, and they think the driver of the car blinked his lights, but they’re not sure. As the car approached Keems it slowed nearly to a stop, and then it took a sudden spurt and swerved straight at Keems, and that was it. It kept going and had turned a corner before the man and woman were out of their car. You know we found the car this morning parked on upper Broadway, and it was stolen?”

“Yes.”

“So it doesn’t look like fortuity. I must remember to use that in a report. You said it could be that one of them was lying, or more than one. What do you think?”

Wolfe puckered his lips. “It’s hard to say. It can’t very well be just one of them, since their alibis are all in pairs-the two men in the bar the evening of January third, and for last night man and wife at home together in both cases. Of course you know their addresses, since you collected the evidence against Peter Hays.”

“They’re in the file.” Cramer’s eyes came to me. “In the neighborhood, Goodwin?”

“Near enough,” I told him. “The Arkoffs in the Eighties on Central Park West, and the Irwins in the Nineties on West End Avenue.”

“Not that that’s important. You understand, Wolfe, as far as I’m concerned the Hays case is closed. He’s guilty as hell. You admit you have no evidence. It’s Keems I’m interested in. If it was homicide, homicide is my business. That’s what I’m after.”

Wolfe’s brows went up. “Do you want a suggestion?”

“I can always use a suggestion.”

“Drop it. Charge Johnny Keems’s death to accident and close the file. I suppose a routine search for the hit-and-run driver must be made, but confine it to that. Otherwise you’ll find that the Hays case is open again, and that would be embarrassing. For all I know you may have already been faced with that difficulty and that’s why you’re here-for instance, through something found in Johnny Keems’s pockets. Was there something?”

“No.”

Wolfe’s eyes were narrowed at him. “I am being completely candid with you, Mr. Cramer.”