I thought bleakly of the Italian restaurant. What a fool I had been to have taken her there!
“I have been friendly with Mrs Delaney,” I said. “Her husband knew it, of course. I took her to a restaurant one evening, but that was the only occasion we have been out together.”
“Did you meet anyone you knew?”
“No. It was an out-of-the-way place. I’m sure no one saw us who knew us.”
He thought for a long moment, then shrugged his shoulders.
“We’ll have to take the risk. If he asks you if you have been friendly with Mrs Delaney, you had better tell him that.you once met her out and you had dinner with her. It would be quite fatal for her if he found out you two had been to this restaurant and you had already told him you hadn’t ever taken her out. You see, Mr Regan, Mrs Delaney’s position is very uncertain. I am relying on the fact that there’s not the slightest suspicion of scandal in her life. I intend to present her to the jury as a loyal, faithful wife who, in spite of the treatment she received from her husband, stuck to him for four years, and even when she was assaulted and had left him, she hadn’t the heart to make a final break, and she returned to him. That is a picture that will make an impression on the jury. On the other hand, if the District Attorney can prove that she was unfaithful to Delaney during his lifetime, then I very much doubt if anything can save her.”
“Do you think you’ll get her off?” I asked anxiously.
“I don’t know. If she had some money, I would get Lowson Hunt to defend her. I think this case needs a man like Hunt.”
“What would it cost?”
Macklin shrugged his shoulders.
“I’d say around five thousand.”
“You think he could get her off?”
“If he can’t, then no one can.”
I didn’t hesitate.
“Okay: go ahead and hire him.”
Macklin laid down the letter opener and stared at me.
“What do you mean?”
“I said go ahead and hire him. I’ll foot the bill.”
“Am I to understand you are offering to pay for Mrs Delaney’s defence?” The words had a cold, clipped ring.
“That’s right,” I said. “I can go up to five thousand, but no more.”
I would have to sell pretty well everything to meet the bill, but I didn’t care. I had got Gilda into this mess, and I was determined to get her out of it.
“You realize of course that it would be fatal to Mrs Delaney’s interests if it was known you were financing her defence?”
“I’m not so stupid as to talk about it. You get Hunt; and I’ll pay.”
“I’ll see him. How can I get into touch with you?”
I gave him my telephone number.
After he had written it down, he said, “Now if you’ll go over to police headquarters...”
“Sure.”
I was aware he was looking oddly at me, but I didn’t care. I left him and drove over to police headquarters.
I was feeling pretty nervous when I asked for Lieutenant Boos, and I was still more nervous when I was taken to his office.
Boos was smoking his pipe and standing by the window, staring down at the traffic. He turned when I came in.
“Hello, Regan. What can I do for you?”
“It’s about Delaney’s death,” I said. “There’s something I forgot to tell you. When I found him, there was an empty glass lying by his side. I washed it out and put it in the kitchen cupboard.”
Boos stood stock-still, staring at me; his small eyes flinty.
“What the hell did you do that for?”
“I don’t know. I was badly shocked. I did it while I was waiting for Jefferson. I kicked against the glass and picked it up. It gave me something to do: took my mind off finding Delaney. I’d forgotten about it, then this morning I remembered.”
Boos’ face went a deep purple.
“Are you kidding me?” he snarled.
“No. I’m telling you: there was an empty drinking glass lying by his side. I wouldn’t kid about a thing like that.”
“You mean to tell me you’ve just remembered it?”
“That’s right.”
He blew out his cheeks.
“Pretty damned convenient for Mrs Delaney, isn’t it?”
“Is it? I remembered it, and I came down here right away to tell you.”
“Yeah?” He moved around his desk. “Listen, Regan, if you’re lying, you could go down on an accessory rap! And I’m telling you, I think you are lying!”
I kept control of myself with an effort.
“Why should I lie?” I said. “I found the glass by his side! If you don’t believe me, then it’s your look out!”
He stood for a moment glaring at me, then he said, “Okay.” He went to the door, opened it and bawled for Hopkins, his sergeant. “We’ll go out there right away, and you’ll show me where you found the glass and where you put it.”
Hopkins, a thin, tall man with a stoop, came in.
“We’re going out to Delaney’s place,” Boos said to him. “This joker here has suddenly remembered finding an empty drinking glass beside Delaney’s body which he picked up, washed out and put away. Can you imagine?”
“Is that a fact?” Hopkins said, gaping at me.
“Let’s go and find out,” Boos said grimly.
We drove in silence all the way up to Glyn Camp and to Delaney’s place. I sat at the back of the police car: Boos and Hopkins in the front.
It was a nervy, uncomfortable drive for me. I could feel the hostility of the two men in their rigid silence.
When we got to the cabin, I showed them where I had found the glass, then I showed them the glass in the kitchen cupboard.
Boos wouldn’t let me touch it. He carefully put a handkerchief around it, lifted it and sniffed at it.
“I washed it out,” I said.
“Yeah: I heard you the first time.”
He gave the glass to Hopkins who put it in a cellophane bag and then into his pocket.
“Okay, Regan,” Boos said, suddenly the very tough cop, “what’s this woman to you?”
I was expecting this and I was ready braced for it.
“She was nothing to me,” I said before I could stop myself or think of Macklin’s warning. “She was just the wife of a client.”
“Yeah?” Boos sneered. “With a body like that? Listen: you came up here to sell a TV set and you fell for her, didn’t you? I would have done the same. That woman’s got everything, and you knew she wasn’t getting any loving. So you picked on her. That’s it, isn’t it?”
I wanted to plant my fist in his sneering face, but I controlled myself. I knew he was needling me to make me blurt out a damaging admission.
“You’re wrong. She was nothing to me.”
“I say yes.” His small eyes glittered. “Will you swear you never took her out? Never lusted after her? Never had her alone to yourself?”
Then I remembered Macklin’s warning. He had said it would be fatal to Gilda if I lied about taking her to the Italian restaurant and Boos found out. But I couldn’t tell him now. I knew, if I did, he would get the truth out of me. I knew too he would jump it on Gilda and she might deny it.
I had to take the risk of him finding out.
“I swear to that,” I said. “She was nothing to me!”
He stared at me for a long moment, then turned away.
“For your sake, Regan, I hope you’re not lying. I’m going to check. If I find out you are lying, you’re going down for an accessory rap, and if I don’t get you fifteen years, I’ll turn my badge in.”
I felt I was over the danger now — anyway for the time being.
“To hell with you, Lieutenant,” I said. “You can do what you damn well like.”
He suddenly grinned.