Champagne for One

"Mr Goodwin came up on his own," Celia said. "I warned him you were laying for him, but here he is. Mr Skinner, Mr Goodwin."

"We’ve met," the Commissioner said. His tone indicated that it was not one of his treasured memories. He had acquired more grey hairs above his ears and a couple of new wrinkles since I had last seen him, a year or so back.

"I wish to say," Mrs Robilotti told me, "that I would have preferred never to permit you in my house again."

Skinner shook his head at her. "Now, Louise." He sat down and aimed his eyes at me. "This is unofficial, Goodwin, and off the record. Albert Grantham was my close and valued friend. He would have hated to have a thing like this happen in his house, and I owe it to him-"

"Also," Celia cut in, "he would have hated to ask someone to come and see him and then not invite him to sit down."

"I agree," Robilotti said. "Be seated, Goodwin." I didn’t know he had the spunk.

"It may not be worth the trouble." I looked down at Mrs Robilotti. From that slant her angles were even sharper. "Your daughter said you wanted to see me. Just to tell me I’m not welcome?"

She couldn’t look down her nose, but she could look. "I have just spent," she said, "the worst three days of my life, and you are responsible. I had had a previous experience with you, you and the man you work for, and I should have known better than to have you here. I think you are quite capable of blackmail, and I think that’s what you have in mind. I want to tell you that I won’t submit to it, and if you try-"

"Hold it, Mom," Cecil called over. "That’s libellous."

"Also," Skinner said, "it’s useless. As I said, Goodwin, this is unofficial and off the record. None of my colleagues know I’m here, including the District Attorney. Let’s assume something, just an assumption. Let’s assume that here Tuesday evening, when something happened that you had said you would prevent, you were exasperated-naturally you would be-and in the heat of the moment you blurted out that you thought Faith Usher had been murdered, and then you found that you had committed yourself. It carried along from the precinct men to the squad men, to Inspector Cramer, to the District Attorney, and by that time you were committed."