“It might be better,” Tina said, not with hope, “just a little better, if you would let us go ourselves? No?”
She got no answer. Wolfe was glaring at me. It wasn’t that he needed my description of the situation to realize what a pickle he was in; I have never tried to deny that the interior decorator did a snappier job inside his skull than in mine. What had him boiling was my little stunt of getting it down that neither Carl nor Tina could drive a car. But for that it would still have been possible to let them meet the law and take what they got, and more or less shrug it off; now that was out of the question. Also, naturally, he resented my putting the burden on him. If I had taken a stand as a champion of humanity he could have blamed me for any trouble he was put to — and didn’t I know he would.
“There is,” he said, glaring, “another alternative to consider.”
“Yes, sir. What?”
“Let us just go ourselves,” Tina said.
“Pfui.” He moved the glare to her. “You would try to skedaddle and be caught within an hour.” Back to me. “You have told Mr. Stebbins they are here. We can simply keep them here and await developments. Since Mr. Cramer and Mr. Stebbins are still there at work, they may at any moment disclose the murderer.”
“Sure they may,” I agreed, “but I doubt it. They’re just being thorough; they’ve really settled for Carl and Tina, and what they’re looking for is evidence, especially what it was that led Wallen to the barber shop — though I suppose they haven’t much hope of that, since Carl and Tina could have taken it along. Anyway, you know how it is when they’ve got their minds aimed in one direction.”
Wolfe’s eyes went to Carl. “Did you and your wife leave the shop together?”
Carl shook his head. “That might have been noticed, so she went first. There is no place for ladies to go in the shop, so Tina and the other girl, Janet, go to a place down the hall when they need to, and she could leave with no attention. When she was gone I waited until they were all busy and Mr. Fickler was walking behind the partition, then I went quick out the door and ran upstairs to meet her there.”
“When was that?” I asked. “Who was in Tina’s booth with Wallen?”