each other. They acted like strangers till I did that.”
“That is a puzzler.”
“And now she’s gone.”
Shaw started. “What? Who’s gone?”
“Ernestine. Her clothes are all gone from her closet. I think she’s left town.”
Shaw narrowed his eyes and rubbed his chin. “What else?”
“Look, you know about her father?”
Shaw shook his head, so Archer decided to fill him in on Carson Crabtree’s history and also about what he had found in the scrapbook.
“So what do you think about that?” asked Archer. “Her father was a policeman. Then he ups and kills three men and confesses without giving any reason?”
“And one of them was a Peeping Tom,” said Shaw thoughtfully. “You think?”
“Well, it’s possible he was peeping on Ernestine. And maybe the others were too.”
“But then why wouldn’t her old man say that in his defense? Hell, he might’ve gotten off scot-free if he had. I could see a jury siding with him over that, especially if he had a bunch of fathers on the jury.”
“I don’t know,” said Archer. “But her mother killed herself later.”
“Damn. That woman’s been through the wringer all right. Did she act surprised when she saw you at your first parole meeting even though she’d probably already seen you at the bar?”
“Not a jot, no.”
“Good poker face then.”
“And then some.”
Shaw looked thoughtfully at Archer. “Sheila Dixon?”
Archer’s face collapsed. “What about her?”
“She’s the mayor’s daughter you were charged and convicted with kidnapping, and false imprisoning and contributing to the delinquency of.”
“Well, hell, I know that!”
“You got a pretty short sentence comparatively.”
“I worked a deal so she wouldn’t have to testify. And then I got paroled early. And dammit, for the record she told me she was twenty. I had no idea she was four days short of being sixteen. She didn’t look it, I can tell you that. And I swear on a stack of Bibles, we didn’t do anything. No fooling around or nothing. I just gave her a ride because she couldn’t drive.”
“I know all that, Archer.”
Archer’s jaw dropped perceptibly. “What! How?”
“I spoke by phone with the lady and she told me the whole story. How she loved you, but you were a real gentleman. That she lied about her age and the car and pretty much everything else to get you on her side. And that her father browbeat her into lying about you, because he was worried it would sully his reputation having, as she told me he called her, ‘a slut’ for a daughter. And by the way, she’s still head over heels for you, though she’s married now and just had a baby.”
“Well, damn,” said an astonished Archer. “Why’d you call her in the first place?”
“Because I wanted to know what sort of man you were, Archer. See, what you do in the past can matter to what you do in the present and in the future. I believed you, in my gut. But it’s nice to have corroboration.”
“You like your corroboration.”
“In the detecting business, it’s damn important. Now the fact that she was still hankering for you shows that you got a real way with women, Archer, but the thing is, son, that’s not always good.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s a two-way street. Meaning women can have their way with you.”
Archer thought about this and nodded. “I believe you might be speaking the truth there, Detective.”
“I think I am, Archer. I truly think I am.”
“Did Jackie see her father’s body?”
“She did.”
“How’d that go?”
“Funny you should ask. I’ve watched many a family member view their kin’s mortal remains. But I’ve never seen one who didn’t shed a single tear while doing so until yesterday.”
“So what now?”
“How much money you got?”
“Nearly three hundred dollars.”
“Well, lucky you, your bail is going to be set at two hundred dollars. We’ll go see the judge, you can enter your not-guilty plea, pay that amount over to the court, and you’re free to go for now.”
“Why are you really doing this? I understand that you believe I’m innocent. And I’m damn glad of that. But you’re taking a chance here with me. You could torpedo your whole career over this. The easy thing would be to lock me up and throw away the key. Nobody would care.”
“I would care, Archer. When I took a plane up in the air, I had a whole crew counting on me to make the right decisions. And I tried my best to do that very thing. And I signed up for this job to see that bad folks got punished. Putting the innocent