Mason’s smile was patronizing. “I understand how you feel,” he said. “You want to put up a good front with your girlfriend. But this sort of thing isn’t going to help you any. You’re in a spot, and she’s in a spot, and the only way you can get out is to come clean.”
Marjory Trenton said, “Go ahead, Custer, tell him the truth. I’ve had that trick played on me before. A man gets a bargain at a pawnshop, picks up a box from a first-class jeweler and...”
“I tell you I didn’t do any such thing!” Rooney exclaimed hotly. “I got that watch at Coontz Cutter, and paid thirteen hundred and fifty dollars for it!”
Mason yawned.
Marjory Trenton became impatient. “Listen,” she said, “are you going to keep stalling around, trying to save your face and get us all in hot water? I don’t want to have to go up before the D.A. and explain how I happened to come by that watch. I’ll have my pictures in the paper and it’ll look like hell.”
“Maybe you think I want my picture in the paper!” Rooney shouted.
“Well,” Mason said, “I’m going to put the whole thing up to the police. God knows, I’ve tried to give you a break. You insist on playing run-around-the-rosy. So I’m all finished.”
“Wait a minute,” Rooney said. “How the devil do we know that this is your watch? Did they identify it, Margie?”
“They described it, all right.”
“Give any numbers or anything of that sort?”