“You make me a present of what I already know, Mr. Diller, alias Morse, alias Bellamy.”
“You guessed it the first day?”
“Yes.”
“And meant to keep quiet about it?”
“Yes, I meant to shelter you from the punishment you deserve.” She added with a touch of bitter self-scorn: “I was doing what I had to do.”
“You don’t have to do it any longer.” He looked straight at her with his head up. “And how do you know what I deserve? Who made you a judge about these facts? Grant for the sake of argument I killed him. Do you know I wasn’t justified?”
His fierce boldness put her on the defense. “A man sure of his cause does not run away. The paper said this Shep Boone was shot from ambush. 57 Nothing could justify such a thing. When you did that——”
“I didn’t. Don’t believe it, Miss Lee.”
“He was shot from behind, the paper said.”
“Do I look like a man who would kill from ambush?”