The Line Is Dead | Page 7

mess, in some way or other. What has the girl friend been up to?"
"Is that important?"
"Well, of course it is! Aside from wanting to know what I am poking my beak into, how could I do anything if I didn't know the facts?"
"I am all in a flutter!" Alma confessed, needlessly. "Cornelia is Herb's wife. They've not been living together for quite a few months. He won't sue her for desertion; she wants a divorce, and isn't in a position to sue him."
"I begin to get it now. Account of this Dennis--Denny--"
"Dennis Wayland. And Herb was holding out for pure spite."
CARVER CHUCKLED. "Saves alimony and upkeep. Begins to add up. Wayland goes to the mat with Lowry, and somebody gets killed. I'll see it in the morning paper, and then we can talk some more."
"But he couldn't have done it. She knows he couldn't have!"
"Oh, to hell with him! The more you tell me, the more I am willing to bet she has red ants crawling all over her on account of something that ties her into the killing. What is it?"
Alma eyed him for a long moment. "There is something." She caught his hand. "Jeff, darling, will you go with me to talk to her? Let her tell you."
He pulled a long face, frowned with a reluctance he did not by any means feel. "Oh, give her a jingle and see! The night's pretty well shot, and I'm getting curious, in a way."
A moment later, Alma was crossing the bridge, to do a fast job of dressing. She had barely stepped out of her bedroom when he demanded. "If Cornelia is such a special and dear friend of yours, how come you're running around with her husband?"
"Oh, he didn't know that Cornelia and I knew each other. We didn't meet--she and I didn't--until after he and she had separated. I might as well come right out with it, Jeff, and I do hope you'll understand.
"There wasn't any job involved. I did meet Herb, and he did seem to like me. Cornelia snapped at the chance that he would get serious and on my account, sue her. Once he was free, I'd develop a change of heart and in a hurry."
Carver's expression made it clear that he did not fancy her having the role of semi- professional co-respondent. Alma continued, "It does sound calculating and nasty. Any wonder I didn't feel like explaining? Even though you and I weren't engaged, or anywhere near it, it would leave a bad taste. But it wasn't quite the way it sounds; I never let him forget he was still married. If he drew conclusions and thought that that was all I thought wrong with him, it was his conclusion and his lookout. If he got a divorce by mistake, he'd be no worse off than before. And he was a dog in the manger!"
CHAPTER 3
CORNELIA LOWRY lived just beyond Audubon Park, no great distance from the house she and her late husband had occupied.
On the way uptown, Carver asked Alma, "Mind telling me a bit about Lowry? He had a hobby of making enemies and heckling people to make them realize how superior he was.
When he so barged into my place, it was really the expression of his face that invited a sock in the puss. Was he always that way?"
"No, he wasn't. Really, he was awfully agreeable, most of the time. What put him into such a mood tonight was that this afternoon, when he tried to call me from his home, the phone was out of order. He had reported it that morning. The company had promised to tend to it, and they hadn't. Then, when he came to pick me up, I was over here, instead of being at home to buzz back the minute he rang. He simply could not endure it when anything failed to go like clockwork."
"I begin to get it," Carver said, thoughtfully. "And it dumps a job on my hands, trying to figure who'd pulled a boner and got needled for it until he blew a head- gasket. Can't count too much on any of the standard motives. He must've been an unhappy sort of guy, to make him run around acting like Jehovah on a white horse."
"Jeff?"
"Yes?"
"Begin to believe now that those were duty dates, and that I wasn't ever getting my head turned by that Cadillac and things? A man who never makes or tolerates a mistake is a frightful strain!"
He pulled over into the shadows between street lights, and took his time about assuring that he had not been suspicious--merely worried at times. After all, a fellow could lose a dependent before he even had her.
Some minutes after Alma had carefully checked him for lipstick smudges, he was talking to Cornelia Lowry.