Too Many Clients

"Until ten minutes to eleven. Then you changed. Then?" She was smiling. "I don't know why I said that about clawing your eyes out. I mean I do know. Holding me so tight my ribs hurt, and then just a cold fish. Just a--a stone." "Not a fish and a stone. In fact, neither. Just a detective on an errand. I still am. Where did you go when you left the theater?" "I came down and went to bed. Here." She patted the bed. The way she used her hands had been highly praised by Brooks Atkinson in the Times. "I usually go somewhere and eat something, but last night I was too tired." "Had you ever seen Maria Perez? Ever run into her in that basement hall?" "No." "I beg your pardon; I doubled up the questions. Had you ever seen her or spoken with her?" "No." I nodded. "You would say that, naturally, if you thought you could make it stick. But you may have to eat it. This is how it stands. The police haven't Too Many Clients 161 got onto that room yet. They still haven't connected Yeager with that house. Mr. Wolfe hopes they won't, for reasons that don't matter to you. He believes that whoever killed Yeager killed Maria Perez, and so do I. He wants to find the murderer and clear it up in such a way that that house doesn't come into it. If he can do that you'll never have to go on the witness stand and identify your cigarette case. But he can do that only if he gets the facts, and gets them quick." I left the chair and went and sat on the bed where she had patted it. "For example, you. I don't mean facts like where were you Sunday night. We haven't the time or the men to start checking alibis. I asked you about last night just to start the conversation. Your alibi for last night is no good, but it wouldn't have been even if you had said you went to Sardi's with friends and ate a steak. Friends can lie, and so can waiters." "I was at a benefit performance at the Majestic Theater Sunday night." "It would take a lot of proving to satisfy me that you were there without a break if I had a healthy reason to think you killed Yeager--but I'm not saying you didn't. An alibi, good or bad, isn't the kind of fact I want from you. You say you never saw or spoke with Maria Perez. Last night her mother phoned me to come, and I went, and searched her room, and hidden under a false bottom in a drawer I found a collection of items. Among them were three photographs of you. Also there was some money, five-dollar bills, that she hadn't wanted her parents to know about. I'm being frank with you, Miss Duncan; I've told you that Mr. Wolfe would prefer to close it up without the police ever learning about