killing two innocent men. An' worse, you'll never find out who did kill the boss, because they'll never look
any further than us. Why should they?"
A cloud of suspicion gathered around my conviction of the pair's innocence. The proposal, naive as it
seemed, was subtle. If I assented, the gunman and the chauffeur would have a whole week to get away,
if that was the plan. If McCann did not come back, and I told the truth of the matter, I would be an
accessory after the fact-in effect, co-murderer. If I pretended that my suspicions had only just been
aroused, I stood, at the best, convicted of ignorance. If they were captured, and recited the agreement,
again I could be charged as an accessory. It occurred to me that McCann's surrender of the pistols was
extraordinarily clever. I could not say that my assent had been constrained by threats. Also, it might have
been only a cunningly conceived gesture to enlist my confidence, weaken my resistance to his appeal.