"What difference would that have made," I interrupted, "if Paul were an accomplice?"
"Right," he acquiesced, "that's so. Paul's as deep in the mud as I am. Ain't that so, Paul?" He looked
sharply at the chauffeur, who nodded. "All right, we'll leave that with a question mark after it. Take the
third point-if I'd killed the boss that way, an' Paul was in it with me, would we have took him to the one
man who'd be expected to know how he was killed? An' then when you'd found out as expected, hand
you an alibi like this? Christ, Doc, I ain't loco enough for that!"
His face twitched.
"Why would I want to kill him? I'd a-gone through hell an' back for him an' he knew it. So would've
Paul."
I felt the force of all this. Deep within me I was conscious of a stubborn conviction that McCann was