“Yes.”
“I don’t like it, lover,” she said. “A crooked cop can frame you with something you can’t get out of.”
I grinned and said, “I know it.”
“Well, what are you grinning about?”
“I’m grinning,” I said, “because that’s a game two can play. A clever man can frame a cop so the cop won’t have time to frame anyone else. Right now, in case you want to know it, Sergeant John Harbet is a very busy individual, and I wouldn’t doubt at all if he was making a lot of explanations.”
“Why?” she asked suspiciously. “What’s happened?”
“For one thing,” I said, “he had been hanging around the Blue Cave with Evaline Harris. When they wanted someone to go up to Oakview and get the lay of the land and pick up all the outstanding pictures of Mrs. Lintig, they sent Evaline. When Evaline got murdered and the police started asking questions about who her boy friends were, Harbet brought a lot of pull to hear on the management. I don’t know how much pull, but it was a hell of a lot, and the word was passed around to the girls not to talk about Harbet. Trying to cover it up that way makes it that much worse when the lid is blown off.”
“And is the lid blown off?” she asked.
I nodded.
Bertha Cool looked at me speculatively and said, “Donald, I’d hate to be one to push you in the nose. I have an idea you might find a way to make things awfully uncomfortable for me afterwards.”