“Quit hurting me!” she spat. Then she was quiet. “All right, keep on hurting me. Go on. Harder.”
“Spill it, my love.”
“I am spilling it. I went there to see Ann. When I rang the bell the latch didn’t click, so I rang another bell and got in. The door of her apartment was standing a little open, so I knocked once and then went in. I thought she must be there because I had phoned her office and she said she would get home before five-thirty, and it was a quarter to six. She was there all right. She was there on the floor propped up against a chair with a scarf tied around her throat and her tongue hanging out and her eyes popping. She was dead. I saw she was dead and I—”
Roy Douglas went. He did it so quick, pulled the door open and scooted, that I didn’t even get a chance to make a grab for him.
“Goddamn it,” I said. I turned Lily loose and glanced at my wrist — 6:02. If I beat it with her it would be just my luck for Wolfe to be approaching and see me. Lily was sputtering:
“I tell you, Archie, it was the most awful—”
“Shut up.” I opened the door to the front room, steered her inside, and closed the door. “You do what I tell you, girlie, or I swear to God I’ll scalp you. Sit down and don’t breathe. Nero Wolfe will be coming in and I don’t want him to know you’re here. No, sit there, away from the window. I want to know one thing. Did you kill her?”
“No.”
“Look at me. You didn’t?”
“No.”