“I’ve already answered that two or three times.”
“Answer again, then. You were with her?”
“Yes.”
Rosalind started to say something, but checked herself as Driscoll frowned at her.
“All right,” Mason said, “then you were in the bedroom with her while she was changing her clothes.”
Driscoll started to make some quick rejoinder, changed his mind, closed his lips on his unspoken words, glanced hastily at Rosalind and said, “Well, of course, she— How about it, Rosalind?”
Rosalind said, “Of course he wasn’t with me while I was changing my clothes! He wasn’t with me while I was packing my overnight bag. He’s just trying to make an alibi for me.”
“Just in case that’s right,” Mason said, “I wanted you to see what a price you’d have to pay for making that alibi. That question’s going to come up. Either Jimmy Driscoll has to swear he was in the bedroom with you while you were changing your dress, or he’s going to have to place you in that bedroom alone.”
“But wait a minute,” Rosalind said, “that was after Jimmy’d given me the gun. Mrs. Snoops will have to admit that.”
Mason nodded. “Yes, you changed your clothes afterwards. But how about Walter, was his body lying in his bedroom at that time, or wasn’t it?”