Graham moved closer.
"Perhaps you'll tell us now what you were doing in the private staircase."
Paredes blew a wreath of smoke. His eyes still smiled, but his voice was harder:
"Bygones are bygones. Isn't that so, Bobby?"
"Since you wish it," Bobby said.
But more important than the knowledge Graham desired, loomed the old question. What was the man's game? What held him here?
Robinson entered. The flesh around his eyes was puffier than it had been yesterday. Worry had increased the incongruous discontent of his round face. Clearly he had slept little.
"I saw you arrive," he said. "Rawlins warned me. But I must say I didn't think you'd use your freedom to come to us."
Paredes laughed.
"Since the law won't hold me at your convenience in Smithtown I keep myself at your service here—if Bobby permits it. Could you ask more?"