“I don’t like her.” Sammis grunted. “It would be a hell of a note, two women taking over Sammis & Brand. We’ll see. What do you think of it, Eva? Tell me later. I’m tired. You’re right, Eva, I’m tired.” Evelina returned the pat on the knee she had previously received.
Sammis sighed. “We’ll see. We’ll talk it over. I wanted to ask you, Dellie, did you tell Baker that you saw me in Amy’s car Tuesday night there at her house?”
It was Delia’s turn to be flustered, at the unexpectedness of it. She opened her eyes at him. “Why, no. I couldn’t very well tell him that, because I didn’t see you.”
“You didn’t?”
“No.”
“You didn’t see me and you didn’t tell him you did?”
“That’s right. He asked if I saw you in the car and I told him no, and I said you couldn’t have been there anyway because you were out at the ranch.”
“Well, you were wrong. I wasn’t at the ranch. I was there in Amy’s car.”
Delia stared. “But when I left — I supposed—”
“It don’t pay to suppose, Dellie. When you left the ranch I was starting to eat supper, that’s true. But it was ten o’clock when we drove in at Amy’s. I want to ask you girls a question. Let’s say Amy went to Dan’s office and shot him because he was a polecat and she couldn’t stand it any more. She didn’t, but let’s say she did. Where would you girls—”
“But she couldn’t! Where would she get the gun—”
“I said she didn’t do it, didn’t I? But say she did. Where would you girls stand? You know what Dan Jackson was. Would you want to see her arrested and tried and convicted?”
They gazed at him. Delia said, “I wouldn’t.”
“Neither would I,” Clara agreed.
“I don’t know about this, Lem—”
“Shut up, Eva. I’m not telling anything Baker don’t already know. All right, you girls say you wouldn’t, and I believe you. I believe you because I know you and you’re Charlie Brand’s daughters. Now here’s something Baker does know. Two people have told him that about 9:45 Tuesday evening they saw Amy coming out of the door from the stairs leading to Dan’s office, and they’re right. Dan had told her he was going to the office, and she suspected he wasn’t and had gone there to see, and had climbed the stairs and found the office dark and quiet, and came away again without going in. That’s the way it happened. Where I came into it don’t matter — anyway, she had phoned me and I met her.”
Sammis set his jaw sidewise, then, after a moment, relaxed it. “Ed Baker wants to question her. He wants to make trouble. He can never in God’s world explain how she got that gun and that handbag, but he might even arrest her and try her. He wants to make the Sammis name stink all over Wyoming. He wants to fasten a motive on Amy by dragging it all out about Dan and his dealings with women. That’s why I asked you girls that question — especially you, Clara. Dan was pretty careful and cagey, and he didn’t leave any trails to speak of — I know, because I was trying to find one and he knew I was. Twenty times I’ve wanted to ask you about telephone calls and messages and letters there in the office, but I couldn’t bring myself to it, turning Charlie Brand’s daughter into a spy on a woman chaser. But Ed Baker won’t be squeamish. He knows you’re the best source of information he can get and maybe the only one. He’s expecting you at his office at ten o’clock. That right?”
Clara nodded. “He is, but—”
“But you don’t know how I knew it. I guess I’ve got one or two friends left up at that courthouse. By the time this is over I’ll have more than Baker has or I won’t have any. Maybe you remember I made him stop questioning you yesterday morning. Even then, when he thought Dellie here had done it, he was starting to get his nose dirty. Now he’s had a talk with the governor and he’s already sunk a pick, and I can’t stop him that way. So I’m making a few motions. It’s important about you, Clara. You must have seen and heard a lot in that office without trying to. I want to ask you, don’t talk to Baker. Don’t even see him. I’m asking you for me and for Amy. Will you do it?”
Clara said, “All right.”
“Don’t go to see him. If he comes here don’t let him in, and if he gets in don’t talk to him. If he arrests you, phone Harvey Anson right away.”
“But good heavens — what can he arrest me for?”
“As a material witness. That don’t mean anything. The judge will fix a low bail and Anson will have you out in five minutes. Will you do it?”
“Yes.”
Sammis nodded. “I thought you would. You’re good girls. But you want to realize what you’re signing for. If this happens, if he arrests you and you’re released on bail, the county and the whole state are going to buzz. About you. That’s what people are like. But you already know that, even at your age, the way they’ve been buzzing about your dead mother and that preacher Toale. They ought to have their necks wrung, the whole damn caboodle! What won’t they say about Amy or you or anyone if they’ll say that Lucy Brand sneaked down to that cabin with a gun and murdered her husband? I don’t — what’s the matter?”
Delia was on her feet, staring, her mouth hanging open. Clara was gazing at him, also speechless.
He repeated, “What’s the matter?”
“What you said,” Clara gasped. “That they say—”
“That your mother killed your father? Sure they do. Now I’m sorry I mentioned it, I might have known no one would say it to you. But they say it, all right. That she killed him — you might as well have it all if you’ve got some — she killed him because she thought he was carrying on with Amy, which is a lie too, and she took the money off him, and her hiring the detectives was a bluff, and that preacher Toale found it out somehow, and he worked on her and remorse worked on her until she killed herself. They even say—”
“Shut up, Lem,” Evelina commanded him.
Delia, still staring, was in her chair again, gripping the arms of it. Clara said in a low incredulous tone, “But that — that’s horrible.”
Evelina stood up. “When you’re a fool you’re a good one,” she told her husband disgustedly. “What the hell good would it do to say that even if they had already heard it?” She waddled to Clara and patted her on the shoulder. “Forget it, girlie. There’s more coyotes in the hills than anything else. Come on, Lem. We’ve got to get back to Amy. It’s nearly ten o’clock.”
“I’m not going back to Amy. I’ve got to see—”
“Well, I am, and you’ve got to take me. Come on before you make a bigger fool of yourself.”
Lem halted in front of Clara to ask, “Can I count on you?”
“Yes. You can count on me.”
“Good. I’m sorry if I — holy smoke, I—”
“All right. That’s all right. I’ll let you out.”
Delia didn’t know if she responded to the good nights. She was aware of them in the hall, and of the door opening and closing, and then was aware that her sister was back in the room, standing in front of her.
She looked up. “Well?”
Clara didn’t say anything.
“When Rufus Toale came to see you — these last two weeks — did he say that?”
“No.” Clara turned abruptly and went back to the front hall. In a moment Delia followed. Clara was pulling on a wrap she had taken from the rack.
“Where are you going?”