If Death Ever Slept

“I don’t know. I didn’t know they were there and I opened the door and went in. I thought he might have said something that would show if he’s trying to get it back.”

“Maybe he did.”

“Will you ask her?”

“Yes. I’ll ask her.”

“I’ll appreciate it a lot.”

“I’ll ask her.” He turned, and turned back. “It’s lunch time. You’re joining us?”

I said I was.

There were only five of us at the table-Trella, Susan, Wyman, Roger, and Alan. Lois didn’t show, and Nora lunched from a tray in the library. When, afterward, Roger invited me up to his room, I thought the two hours before Jarrell arrived might as well be spent with him as with anyone. He won $2.43, and I deducted 92 cents and paid him $1.51. Wanting to save him the trouble of bringing up the Peach Fuzz project, I brought it up myself and told him the sixty bucks would be available that evening after dinner.

I was in the library with Nora when Jarrell returned, shortly after four o’clock. He breezed in, tossed his bag under a table, told Nora, “Get Clay,” and went to his desk. Apparently I wasn’t there. I sat and listened to his end of three phone conversations which I would have paid closer attention to if my name had been Alan Green. I did attend, with both ears, when I heard Nora, reporting on events during his absence, tell him that Jim Eber had called that morning.

His head jerked to her. “Called? Phoned?”

“No, he came. He got some papers he had left in his desk. He said that was what he came for. That was all. I looked at the papers; they were personal. Then he was with Susan in the studio; I don’t know whether it was by appointment or not. Mr. Green was there with them when he left.”

Evidently everybody knew everything around there. The fact that Eber had been there had been mentioned at the lunch table, but Nora hadn’t been present. Of course any of the others might have told her, including Steck.

Jarrell snapped at me, “You were with them?”

I nodded. “Only briefly. I was going to turn on the radio for the news, and opened the door and went in. Your daughter-in-law introduced me to him and that was about all. He said he was just going, and he went.”

He opened his mouth and closed it again. Questions he might have asked Archie Goodwin could not properly be asked Alan Green with the stenographer there. He turned to her. “What else did he want? Besides the papers?”

“Nothing. That was all, except that he thought you would be here and wanted to see you. That’s what he said.”