I stood up and walked blindly off into the darkness. You do silly things when the hinges come loose and your life slides down into a pile of rubble. I must have walked a hundred yards, my lips moving but making no sound. I turned and came back. She was gone...
Lieutenant Weber called me up yesterday and I hurried down to Headquarters.
I sat across from him and he tapped on the desk top with his yellow pencil for a few seconds. With a violence that startled me, he smacked his palm down on a heavy manila file folder on his desk. “I’m considering this case closed, Brayton.”
“How—?” I gasped.
“I admit that I took you at face value when you came in. I some of my best men on it. They reviewed the investigations of the deaths of Graff, McQuade and Lortz. There is no proof that this Judith Dikes even knew Graff and McQuade. You could have gotten that dope out of the papers, you know.”
“But the fact that Michael Burns and Miss Dikes moved out that same night I was shot—!”
Lieutenant Weber scratched gently over his right ear. More scurf fell on his dark coat. “I figure it this way, Brayton. You and Burns were both after the girl. Burns won. They were scared of you. You acted funny. They took off and you rigged up a story of shooting yourself in the arm and then tossed your gun in the drink. Your idea was revenge. You built your idea on the fact that one of her dates fell in front of a train. That’s all you’ve got for us.”
I stood up. “Look, Lieutenant. I didn’t dream this up, you know.”
He smiled tiredly. “You better relax, fella. Psycho, weren’t you?”
Suddenly I understood. I leaned on the desk. “No, I was not a psycho. I flew sixty-one missions and was shipped back to the states on account of combat fatigue. Then the war ended.”
“You better take it easy, Brayton.”
I turned and walked out...
But I know one thing. Burns hasn’t showed up at his since that night. And she had a gun when she left the bench. They lived a block and a half from the river. When the tide is right, a body will go on out to sea.
I feel as if I should do something to stop her. I don’t know where she is. I think she’s still in town. Once I thought I saw her, but I lost in the crowd. I spend a lot of my time where the crowds are thickest. That’s where she’ll be.
Keep your eyes open. She’s a lean-flanked lovely girl with vague gray eyes and thick black bair. Her face sometimes has a pinched, white look, but her lips are warm and heavy. She probably uses another name now. I think she knows I’m looking for her.