Parker stared at him in a disconcerting, searching way. Ken gave him the highball and then moved awkwardly to an armchair and sat down.
“What happened?” he asked after a long pause.
“They didn’t get anything out of me,” Parker said, his voice flat and cold. “I stuck to my story. I damn well had to. The sergeant said I was lying; he said I called Fay. I told him to prove it. He didn’t rattle me, but he had a damn good try. When he saw he was getting nowhere, he said he didn’t think I had killed her — that’s nice, isn’t it? He hoped I might know who her men friends were. I knew I didn’t dare admit I knew her. I swore I hadn’t called her. He said no other call had been made from the pay booth at the time I said I had called Maisie. I guessed by the way he talked no one but you had seen me use the booth, so I said I might have been mistaken about the time. I said it was possible I had called Maisie earlier than ten. So he said he would talk to Maisie.” Parker took a long drink, wiped his face and stared down at his feet. “That was a pretty horrible ten minutes. I don’t think I’ll ever forget waiting in the garden with the other detective while the sergeant talked to Maisie. She was terrific. She must have guessed I had got myself into a mess. She lied her head off. She told the sergeant I had called her just after nine, and not after ten as I had said. The sergeant must have been a first-class fool. He actually told her I had called her at ten. She was so emphatic that he believed her. He even apologized to me.”
Ken relaxed back in his chair.
“I can’t say how glad I am…”
Again Parker gave him the odd, searching stare.
“When they had gone, I told Maisie the truth,” he said slowly. “She’s taken it pretty hard.”
“You didn’t tell her about the girl? That you and she…?”
“I had to. She knew I had lied to the sergeant. I couldn’t look her in the face and lie to her. She asked -me bluntly if I had been fooling around with Fay. I had to admit it.”
Ken realized that if Ann had put the same question to him, he would have been unable to lie to her.