“Because I too thought her life might be in danger.”
“Why?”
“Because Marco Cutler had got the New Orleans process server thoroughly sold on the idea that he’d actually served the summons on Edna Cutler. Under those circumstances, all he needed to do was-to get Roberta Fenn out of the way and it would be the process server’s word against Edna’s. The court would be pretty apt to take the process server’s statement.”
Rondler said, “Well, it’s a nice theory. The trouble is that we haven’t got a damn thing on anybody. Marco Cutler says that you are the one who shot at him, that he just went up to see his wife, that he never touched the fuse box. He found the door open. You shot at him as he came into the room, then grabbed him in the dark and threw him over your head.”
“He shot,” I said.
“Well,” Rondler demanded irritably, “where’s the gun?”
“The window was open. It must have gone out of the window in the struggle.”
Rondler said, “One of the tenants says you opened the window.”
“I went over to the window and looked out. That probably brought on the confusion. You know how excited people get.”
Rondler said to Hale, “And I don’t suppose you’ll admit seeing Nostrander the night he was murdered?”