“I know it is. Later on it will—”
“I don’t need you later on. I need you right now.”
“Here I am, you’ve got me, but not under contract yet.” I released her hand, which I had kept as something to hold onto, and got emphatic. “If you tell reporters I’m your manager I’ll give you a lump that will make that one seem as flat as a pool table. If they ask why he hit you don’t say you don’t know, say it’s a mystery. People love a mystery. Now—”
“That’s it!” She was delighted. “That’s the kind of thing!”
“Sure. Tell ’em that. Now we’ve got to consider the cops. Stebbins is a cop, and they won’t want it hung on him. They’ve had one cop killed here today already. They’ll try to tie this up with that. I know how they work, I know them only too well. They’ll try to make it that somebody here killed Wallen, and he found out that you knew something about it so he tried to kill you. They may even think they have some kind of evidence — for instance, something you were heard to say. So we have to be prepared. We have to go back over it. Are you listening?”
“Certainly. What do I say when the reporters ask me if I’m going to go on working here? Couldn’t I say I don’t want to desert Mr. Fickler in a time of trouble?”
It took control to stay in that chair. I would have given a good deal to be able to get up and walk out, go to Purley and Cramer at their eavesdropping posts, tell them she was all theirs and they were welcome to her, and go on home. But at home there were the guests locked in the front room, and sometime, somehow, we had to get rid of them. I looked at her charming enchanting comely face, with its nice chin and straight little nose and the eyelashes, and realized that the matter would be approached from her angle or not at all.
“That’s the ticket,” I said warmly. “Say you’ve got to be loyal to Mr. Fickler. That’s the main thing to work on, how to handle the reporters. Have you ever been interviewed before?”
“No, this will be the first, and I want to start right.”
“Good for you. What they like best of all is to get the jump on the police. If you can tell them something the cops don’t know they’ll love you forever. For instance, the fact that Stebbins crowned you doesn’t prove that he’s the only one involved. He must have an accomplice here in the shop, or why did Wallen come here in the first place? We’ll call the accomplice X. Now listen. Sometime today, some time or other after Wallen’s body was found, you saw something or heard something, and X knew you did. He knew it, and he knew that if you told about it — if you told me, for example — it would put him and Stebbins on the spot. Naturally both of them would want to kill you. It could have been X that tried to, but since you say you saw Stebbins reflected in the glass we’ll let it go at that for now. Here’s the point: if you can remember what it was you saw or heard that scared X, and if you tell the reporters before the cops get wise to it, they’ll be your friends for life. Now for God’s sake don’t miss this chance. Concentrate. Remember everything you saw and heard here today, and everything you did and said too. Even if it takes us all night we’ve got to work it out.”