If Death Ever Slept

What he wanted from me was the same as before, things I had seen and heard at Jarrell’s place, but this time concentrating on Corey Brigham instead of James L. Eber. I had to concede that that had now become relevant, and there was more ground to cover since Brigham had been there for dinner and bridge on Monday, and again on Wednesday, and also I might have heard comments about him at other times. Mandelbaum was patient, and thorough, and didn’t try to be tricky. He did double back a lot, but doubling back has been routine for so many centuries that you can’t call it a trick. I didn’t mention one of my contacts with Brigham, the conference at Wolfe’s office Friday afternoon, and to my surprise he didn’t either. I would have thought they would have dug that up by now, but apparently not.

After he told the stenographer to go and type the statement, and she went, I stood up. “It will take her quite a while,” I said. “I have to run a couple of errands, and I’ll drop in later and sign it. If you don’t mind.”

“Quite all right. Certainly. If you make it today. Say by five o’clock.”

“Oh, sure.” I turned to go, and turned back, and grinned at him. “By the way, you may have noticed that I didn’t live up to my reputation for wisecracks.”

“Yes, I noticed that. Maybe you’re running out.”

“I hope not. I’ll do better next time. I guess my mind was too busy with something I had just heard-about the bullets.”

“What bullets?”

“Why, the two bullets. Haven’t you got that yet? That the bullet that killed Eber and the one that killed Brigham were fired by the same gun?”

“I thought that was-” He stopped. “Where did you hear that?”

I gave him another grin. “I know, it’s being saved. Don’t worry, I won’t slip it out-I may not even tell Mr. Wolfe. But it won’t keep long, it’s too hot. The guy who told me, it was burning his tongue, and he knows me.”

“Who was it? Who told you?”

“I think it was Commissioner Kelly. There’s a wisecrack, I seem to be recovering. I suppose I shouldn’t have mentioned it. Sorry. I’ll be in to sign the statement before five.” I was going. He called after me, wanting to know who had told me, but I said I couldn’t remember, and went.