I thought of “Willie The Weeper” and of Doctor Krueg and wondered.
“Just newspaper talk,” I told her.
“I hope,” she said, “that if the police have heard an underworld whisper, the whisper was that The Phantom Crook had done only simple justice, where the police couldn’t, or wouldn’t, act.”
“Don’t worry,” I told her, “the police don’t hear whispers of justice; only whispers of guilt, and you can forget The Phantom Crook stuff. It’s just newspaper talk.”
“All right, Ed,” she said, “I’ll forget it.”
But her eyes were starry with gratitude, and the emphasis on my name had been just a little too pronounced to be casual.
