“Yes.”
“And you told him Rossy had left?”
“Yes.”
“And then what happened?”
Once more her eyes avoided the lawyer’s.
“Well,” she said, “we talked for a while, and I was holding the canary in my hand and clipping his claws, and then the first thing I knew Jimmy’s arms were around me, and he told me how he loved me, and I let go of the canary and clung to him. And then, while I was trying to catch this canary, all of a sudden there was this terrible crash out in front of the house, and, naturally, we ran to the living room window — we were in the solarium at the time — and found this big covered moving van and a coupe had had a smash-up, and of course the coupe had got the worst of it. The driver was hurt, and Jimmy ran out to help lift the driver out of the coupe. The driver of the van said he could rush the man to the hospital quicker than waiting for an ambulance, so he and Jimmy loaded him in the van.”
“Then Jimmy came back into the house?” Mason asked.
She nodded.
“And what happened after that?”
“Well, we talked things over, and I decided perhaps he’d better leave, because Walter was going to make trouble and I didn’t think it would be a good thing for people to know Jimmy had been there in the house. I thought he might be called as a witness to that automobile accident. You see, he’d parked his car on the side street and I thought perhaps the driver of the van would come back and try to involve Jimmy in some way. And Mrs. Snoops had been watching us when Jimmy took me in his arms, and—”