“I don’t know. Nothing except her name. But if his alibi had to include her, and for any reason he thought she ought to be protected, he’d never tell.”
“Florrine,” said Pres. “That isn’t a common name, or hard to remember. When I get to see him, I’ll know what to ask about.”
In the detective room at police headquarters, while Taylor remained discreetly silent, Pres Campbell met a character new in his experience—the plain-clothes man promoted from pounding a beat, who had never been outside a big city, never wanted to be, and oozed contempt for every one and everything that was not metropolitan.
“You bozos with big hats,” he remarked heavily, “think you can get away with murder. Nothing to it, mister; nothing to it. This Bratton guy did it and we’ve got him. You and your gang of cowboys can’t come into this town and pull your rough stuff.”
Campbell, whose competency in crime detection could be attested by thousands of Texans, was here unfamiliar with the laws, unacquainted with police procedure and at sea as to his rights. One more familiar with Southwestern characteristics than was Detective Moore would have noted a glint in his eye and set of his jaw at the sneer. After the slightest hesitation, to be certain that he had his temper quite under command, the ex-ranger said:
“If you would be willing to tell me a little, perhaps, about how you know Bratton done it—that is, if it ain’t defeatin’ the ends of justice any way to tell—— You see, suh, I’m in a sort of way the head of this outfit of ours, being the contest judge and so forth. If there isn’t any reason why you should be afraid to tell me——”
“Say, what would make you think I might be afraid of anybody in your gang?” the detective demanded truculently. “Not any, cowboy, not any! I don’t know how your constables out West go clean up a murder, but me—first thing when a guy gets bumped off like this man of yours, I look for the frail.”
“Frail?” queried Pres.
“The skirt; the jane; the woman. And this time it was easy. This Bratton quarrels with Marling only this afternoon over her—and you know that cussed well, because you stopped ’em.”