Duffy was watching him cross the room. “You ain’t gone into it,” he said. “It’s a cinch.”
Gilroy nodded and went out, pulling the door behind him.
Duffy got up and took off his coat. A knock came on the door and the thin man put his head round. “There’s a jane asking for you,” he said.
Duffy said, “Sure, and I suppose you told her I was right inside?”
The thin man said, “I told her I’d never heard of you, but it won’t shift her. She says, ‘Tell him it’s Alice’, like that. So I come back, and here I am.”
“Well, for God’s sake!” Duffy put on his coat. “Shoot her in quick.”
The thin man shrugged and went away. He came back with Alice at his heels. Duffy went over to her and took her hands. He said, “Why, honey…” then he stopped.
“Sam told me,” she said breathlessly. “I had to see you. What is all this, Bill? The papers say you killed that woman. It’s all in headlines.”
Duffy patted her arm. “Swell of you to come,” he said, leading her over to the bed. “Sit down, baby Take the weight off your feet.”
“What are you going to do?” she said. “Sam won’t tell me anything.”