“I don’t know. I only know that’s what they’d say. It looks as though I must have had some connection with Mrs. Perlin, as though she’d communicated with me sometime today, and I hadn’t told the police.”
“She did communicate with you, didn’t she?”
“Well, in a way, yes.”
“And you didn’t tell the police?”
“She told me not to.”
Mason looked at his watch, hesitated a moment, then said, “If I do this for you, what’ll you do for me?”
She met his eyes without flinching. “What do you want?” she asked.
Mason said, “I don’t want you to run out on me if the going gets tough.”
“All right.”
“You’ll stick?”