Jay got up and followed Benny out of the station house, ignoring Johnson’s yell for him to come back.
Benny walked down the street in a daze. He didn’t know what to make of it. Surely Sadie wouldn’t pull a stunt like this if it didn’t mean anything? She had said that she was being taken down to the station house as a witness and would Benny come at once.
Jay overtook him at the comer. “Hey, Perminger,” he said, “what’s all this about your wife?”
Benny blinked at him. “Where the hell did you spring from?” he said, shaking hands.
“Come over an’ have a drink,” Jay said, taking him by his arm and steering him into a near−by bar. “I overheard what you were tellin’ Johnson. What’s happened to Mrs. P.?”
Seated at a small table away from the bar and assisted by a large iced beer, Benny unburdened. He told Jay how he had quarrelled with Sadie and how he’d left her during the night. “Well, I felt a bit of a heel this morning,” he went on, “so I thought I’d get back and make it up. When I got in I found all the lights burning and a note on my pillow saying she’d been taken down to headquarters as a witness and would I please come.”
He paused to pull at his beer.
Jay puzzled. On the face of it, he thought, Sadie might be just teaching this guy a lesson, but his instinct for news was not satisfied. Why should she use such an odd way of scaring him? Why a witness? A witness of what? No, it didn’t quite add up.
“I thought the police were supposed to help you,” Benny grumbled. “The way that guy went on, you’d think I was crazy.”
“You don’t have to worry about him. He’s gettin’ all kinds of stories and complaints every hour, and he just doesn’t take any interest. Where are you livin’ now?”