“How did the horse look that morning — same as usual? Happy and healthy?” Seeing the look on his face, I added hastily, “I’ve sworn off kidding until tomorrow. I actually want to know, was it his horse?”
“Certainly it was! Maybe you don’t know horses. I do.”
“Okay. I used to too, when I was a boy on a farm in Ohio, but we haven’t corresponded lately. What about Keyes that morning, did he look sick or well or mad or glad or what?”
“He looked as usual, nothing special.”
“Did you speak to each other?”
“No.”
“Had he shaved that morning?”
“Sure he had.” Officer Hefferan was controlling himself. “He had used two razors, one on the right side and another one on the left, and he wanted to know which one did the best job, so he asked me to rub his cheeks and tell him what I thought.”
“You said you didn’t speak.”
“Nuts.”