The light held them up at Fifth Avenue. Theater traffic was heavy in spite of the weather.
Shane said: “The only thing I’m not quite sure about is whether you went to Charley’s to warn him — or whether you’d heard about Del and Thelma — thought that the day Del was yelping about shooting Charley, in front of witnesses, was a swell time for you to shoot Charley yourself.”
She did not answer.
As the cab curved into Sixth Avenue, she said: “Where did you go after you left 71 — before you went back to the hotel?”
Shane laughed. “That lousy alibi held up with the captain,” he said. “He didn’t question it.” He unbuttoned the top button of his topcoat, took something wrapped in tissue paper out of his inside pocket. “You know what a sucker I am for auction sales?”
She nodded.
He unfolded the tissue paper and took out a platinum-mounted diamond ring. The stone was large, pure white, very beautiful.
He said: “Pip?”
She nodded again.
He put the ring back in the tissue paper, folded it, put it back in his pocket.