"Yes, he's here and he's just confessed to two murders—the two recent sex killings—and.... Yes, I know he didn't do them. We're not charging him with them. But you remember what I explained to you about a year ago—that if Benny ever confessed to anything again we'd have to hold him until Dr. Kranz has a chance to talk to.... No, I wouldn't dare call the doctor tonight; the chief would have my ears if I did.... Sometime tomorrow, and we'll try to get him to make it early enough so Benny won't lose the whole day if Doc says to.... Oh, no, Mrs. Saddler, it wouldn't do any good at all for you to come down. We wouldn't be able to let you see him anyway, tonight. But we'll take good care of him, and we'll phone you again tomorrow as soon as there's anything to report. I won't be on duty then, but I'll leave a memo.... All right, I'll tell him. Goodnight, Mrs. Saddler."
He put the phone down and smiled at Benny. "She said to tell you good night for her, and for you not to worry. You've got a fine friend there, Benny."
Benny nodded. He did feel sorry about Mrs. Saddler and that she'd never see him again unless she visited him in jail. She was like a mother to him, or the nearest to a mother he'd ever known. Then he remembered something the lieutenant had said to her.
"But, Lieutenant, sir, you told her I didn't do it. I did, honestly, I remember, I choked them. You got to believe me."
"Just a minute, Benny," the lieutenant said. He picked up the phone again. "Give me the jail—Wait, don't. Just call them yourself and tell them to send down a couple of boys to pick up a customer, in my office. Thanks."
He looked back at Benny. "Now Benny listen. Maybe you're not yet in the mood to believe me, but I'm going to tell you this anyway. I like you and I hope you get by Doc Kranz again, and I think you'll have a better chance of doing that if I can get you started thinking straight tonight. Then maybe tomorrow you'll realize how wrong you were thinking.
"Listen, Benny, we know you didn't commit those murders, and I'll tell you how we know. After each one of them we checked a hell of a lot of suspects. Every man who had a record of sex offenses, any kind. Every known psychopath, everyone known to us to be seriously abnormal or subnormal mentally. You—uh—"
"I know I'm not very bright, Lieutenant. I don't mind your saying so as long as you don't laugh at me. I don't like people to laugh at me."
"I'm not laughing, Benny. Listen to me, listen hard. We checked you on both of them. On one you've got an absolutely solid alibi; you couldn't have done it. We know just when that one happened, ten o'clock in the evening. We could rule you out without even leaving the station, because Hoff remembered it was ten o'clock, within a few minutes, when he picked up a paper from you at your stand, three miles or so from where the woman was being killed. Your alibi on the other murder isn't quite so solid, because we don't know exactly what time it happened. But we know you were at your stand all evening till eleven and you got home about twenty after, just the time it takes you to walk that far. We can't prove you didn't sneak out later, of course—but you didn't, Benny. Whoever killed either one of those women killed both of them. That's for sure if anything is."
Benny looked and felt miserable. The lieutenant didn't believe him, and neither had Mr. Hoff. That much at least of the lieutenant's speech had registered.