“No kidding, Holcomb, you’re not a bad sort… you’re obstinate and pig-headed and a little dumb, but you have the courage of your convictions, loyalty to your work and absolute honesty. Why don’t you get aboard the bandwagon?”
“Doing what, for instance?” Holcomb asked. “Not that you’re selling me anything, Mason.”
“The lipstick on Tidings’ face, for instance,” Mason commented. “That was an interesting angle, Sergeant. There were several women in the case but only one of them would have kissed Tidings. Only one of them could have approached Tidings out there on that lonely road without having him reach for his gun.”
“What do you mean, lonely road?” Sergeant Holcomb asked.
“You know what I mean. Tidings wanted to get something on his wile. He was waiting out there near her house. A car drove up. Tidings knew the people in that car. They had been following him. They stopped the car and got out. Tidings kissed the woman.”
Sergeant Holcomb was thinking with knitted brow and furrowed forehead. “Who?” he asked.
“Byrl Gailord,” Mason said.
“How do you figure?”
“Byrl Gailord wanted money. Mrs. Tump wanted money. Tidings liked Byrl: he hated Mrs. Tump. He wouldn’t see Byrl while Mrs. Tump was with her so Mrs. Tump waited and followed Tidings when he left the office. They followed him to Adelle Hastings’ apartment but didn’t have a chance to talk with him. They followed him out to where he was waiting for his wife and did have a chance.
“Byrl kissed him, made a fuss over him, and then Mrs. Tump came pushing up and made her demands, and threatened to bring him into court. Tidings laughed at her. He told her the minute she made a move he’d show that Byrl was the illegitimate daughter of Mrs. Tump’s daughter, that the Russian nobility business was a fake. And that was when Mrs. Tump shot him.”