The Line Is Dead | Page 9

but they'd start figuring on us."
"You still have a key to your husband's house? All right, and you're

entitled to go in. So am I, if you tell me to."
"But why? I never want to see--"
"You won't mind, when it's cleaned up. He had an enemy. Finding who
it was is the best way to spring Wayland. Alma tells me your husband
kept notes on everything."
"Did he! He even kept cash register receipts from every bar," Cornelia
affirmed. "A mania with him. A record of everything. No, not
stingy--just a methodical streak."
"OK," Carver said. "No matter what the police find and take along as
exhibits, there will be things that won't mean anything to them. That's
where you and I will get busy, and Alma, too. Looking for what points
away from Wayland. All right, get dressed, we're going places."
"Oh, good God--not there and not tonight! Anyway, it is probably still
being watched."
"I didn't mean there; you move in with Alma."
"Why?"
"So when the police come looking for you, you won't be here. Wanting
to talk to you, and not finding you, will be a roadblock for them,
which'll give me a chance to work."
"But Denny's innocent!"
Catching her by the arm, he whisked her to her feet. "Get dressed,
before I turn a hand to dressing you myself!"
"Go ahead," Alma seconded. "We won't be too crowded at my place."
THE CHANCE that a police car would roll up to take Cornelia in for
questioning kept Carver on edge until he had her well on the way
downtown. And at Alma's door, he paused to say, "In the morning, I'll
get Denny a lawyer; he'll need one, and with all the trimmings."

"We're both flat broke," Cornelia told him. "The first thing they want is
a retainer."
"How about your husband's bank account? Even if you can't draw on it,
it's enough yours now for a lawyer to see his way through."
"Bank account!" she echoed. "There was an ex-wife--one before
me--he was paying off. And income tax installments due. And now
there'll be an inheritance tax lien on the house. Lord alone knows how
much he had borrowed on it. I never could keep track of things.
Everything is in such a muddle that I don't see how any lawyer would
gamble on collecting his fee till he looked into the prospects."
Her wide-eyed dismay and her quiet resignation to the inevitable had
exactly the effect that Carver had anticipated; he knew he was playing
true to form, the form of all of Cornelia's public, when he said, "The
chap who handled his tax problems would have the answers. Interest
paid is a deduction, and the person to whom it's paid is listed.
Sometimes alimony is deductible, sometimes not, depending on
whether it's dished out by the month, or paid in a lump sum settlement.
And so on--to say nothing of getting some leads as to who Herb was
having trouble with in a business way. Guys he hated, he'd gripe about.
Apparently to anyone who'd listen, Alma, you know the man I mean?"
"Wait, I'll get his card; Herb gave it to me. Said it was frightfully
inefficient working out one's own tax. That an expert saved you more
than the fee he charged."
Carver, as he pocketed the card of Bradford Barstow, Salter Building,
Camp Street, was thinking, But you still figure your own tax, so you
can chew out the expert, in case his answers and yours don't jibe. That's
the Herb Lowry Method. Nothing bucks a fellow up better than making
a monkey of an expert. And once he had the immediate demands of the
situation under control, he would go with Cornelia to Lowry's house
and give it a thorough going over. But for her arrival with Denny
Wayland, he might have got a good deal further with his study of
Lowry's paper work.

The other angle was that Wayland could be guilty; that Cornelia had
still held back the essence of the story. That is, she and Wayland might
have been in a huddle the result of which had been that Wayland had
resolved to go alone for a showdown, instead of fooling away time later
hunting that spiteful letter. It was barely possible, yet, it was possible,
that he could have killed Lowry without himself having been
bespattered with blood.
Then, back to Cornelia, only a little down and off St. Charles Avenue,
to tell her that Lowry had not been in. That would have made her insist
upon going with him to make the search. And he could not well have
refused.
Since Cornelia believed Wayland innocent, she would solemnly swear
he had not left her, to see Lowry alone. And she must surely