up quite a tally. So the fact is you could have used Pittleman’s own knife to slit his throat and presto, you don’t owe him a dime because he’s not around to demand it.”
“Lots of other men probably owed him money.”
“But lots of other men weren’t sleeping with his lady friend or staying in a room pretty much right down the hall or leaving their prints on a doorknob to the dead man’s room. You, and only you, on the other hand, hit the trifecta on that.”
Frustrated, Archer fell silent while Shaw’s gaze continued to bore into him.
“I’ve investigated a lot of crimes, Archer. And this isn’t my first murder, not by a long shot. Did it before the war and I’m doing it again. Now, it can take a while, but I’ve never failed to get my man in the end.”
“As a law-abiding citizen now, I’m right happy about that.”
“We’ll see how happy you are when I’m done. This is a hanging state, you know that?”
“Tell the truth, I hadn’t bothered to look into it.”
“That might change, as time goes on.”
“Are you arresting me?”
“Not right now, no.”
“So, I can go?”
“For now. But, Archer, don’t try to make a run for it, you hear me?”
“You keep telling me that.”
“Because I want the message to sink in loud and clear, son.”
“I got nowhere to run, and no interest in running. That’s for a guilty man to do, which I’m not.”
“You’re a funny one.”
“Nothing funny about being wrongly hanged.”
“I’ll grant you that. Now get on out of here.”
Chapter 21
ARCHER WENT TO HIS ROOM, shed his new clothes down to his skivvies, opened the window because he felt claustrophobic and bitter about what was happening, and lay down on the bed in the dark and stared at a ceiling he couldn’t really see.
The four walls of his room seemed to be closing in on him. The feeling of claustrophobia was, in fact, far stronger than he had felt at Carderock after the mayor’s daughter had turned all his sincere help into a tale of vicious kidnapping. He had been simple and naive and just plain stupid to let that happen to him. The fact was he had also been trusting, because he had relied on his comrades-in-arms with his life during the war. It had never occurred to Archer that once he was home again in peacetime, his fellow citizens would turn against him.
Still, he was fortunate they hadn’t given him life in prison, but Archer would never get back the several years they had taken. He would never feel he had gotten the better end of some vague deal.
And here it was happening again.
An hour passed, and Archer never once stopped looking up at nothing.
Then he rose and put his clothes back on.
It took him twenty minutes to walk it. Then he was outside of Number 27 Eldorado Street. Despite the lateness of the hour, there was one light on in what he knew was Jackie’s bedroom. He wanted to know what else she had told Shaw.
He walked up to her door and knocked.
“Who is that?”
The voice came from the right of him. He stepped back and looked at the lit, open window.
“It’s me, Archer.”
“Archer?”
Her voice sounded funny.
“What do you want? I’m in bed.” There was nothing inviting in her tone.
“I need to talk. Shaw came by to see me again at the Derby.”
“Well, he came by to see me again, too. Woke me out of a dead sleep. He only left a bit ago.”
“Can I come in? It’s important.”
A long moment passed before she said, “Give me a sec.”
A minute later she opened the door and in the light from inside, he saw she was dressed in a thick light blue robe that went down to her ankles. Her face held a scowl.
She stepped back, and he passed through.
They sat in the living room. She stared at him and he stared down at his hat.
“Shaw is setting up to arrest me for Pittleman’s murder,” he finally said.
She nodded. “I could tell that by the questions he asked me.”
“It would have been nice if you had given me some warning. And he took your fingerprints, too. That would have been good to know,” he added accusingly.
As soon as he said this, Archer realized he had made an unforgivable mistake. The scowl turned to something else, something that unnerved Archer maybe as much as fighting the Germans had.
She stood and looked down at him. When she spoke her voice was low and calm