“Almost certain of it. She was driving along at slow speed, apparently just minding her own business, going out to keep a rendezvous with someone who had telephoned. And then all of a sudden she gets dumb and goes through this closed signal, makes a left-hand turn and drew a blank.”
“What,” Elsie asked, “are you going to do? Are you going to help Mr. Belder try and prove she’s innocent? Or is he going to stick by her?”
“Stick by her!” Bertha exclaimed. “He’s going to stick to her closer than a brother. Without her, he wouldn’t even have car-fare. He’s got to get her back and get the thing straightened out somehow.”
“Then you’re going to try and prove she’s innocent?”
“I,” Bertha Cool declared, “am going fishing.”
“I’m afraid I don’t get it.”
Bertha said, “The big trouble with this partnership when Donald Lam was here was that he never knew when to let go. Nothing seemed impossible to him. No matter how the cards were stacked against him, he’d keep on playing.”
“He always came out all right,” Elsie pointed out with a quick flare of feeling.
“I know,” Bertha conceded. “He always pulled out somehow by the skin of his eye teeth, but that’s too high-pressure stuff for me.”
“You mean you’re going to walk out on the case?”