also fooled about as many people who had thought he was stupid as had thought he was fat. He was a hick, a town-clown, if you weren’t careful where you looked. He wore a farmer’s straw hat, suede shoes, and the pair of wide braces holding up the khaki trousers could have been props in a vaudeville skit. The eyes under the shaggy brows, however, were a piercing and frosty blue.
We sat down. He leaned back in the leather chair with his beer. “So you came back to look for him?” he asked “I heard him make the crack.”
I got out a cigarette and fumbled with the lighter. “He wasn’t the one I was looking for,” I replied. “But while we’re on the subject, I saw you give the two of ‘em the roust. How come?
“Why not?” he asked. “That’s what they pay me for.”
“But you think she’s guilty yourself.”
“If I do, I keep my mouth shut. And women don’t get jockeyed around on the streets of this town while I’m patrolling it.”
“They could use you in the Sheriff’s office,” I said.
“They’ve got a good man in the Sheriff’s office,” he replied. “He’s a friend of mine.”
I drank some of the beer and said nothing.
“What’d you go over to Warren Springs for?” he asked.
I looked at him in surprise. “How’d you know?”
“I find out things. And around here you’re about as hard to keep track of as a moose in a phone booth. What were you looking for?”
“I’d rather not say,” I told him.
“You should have made up something,” he said. “Don’t you figure maybe you’ve answered the question by refusing to?”
“I haven’t said a word,” I replied. “And, incidentally, who wants the information?”
The eyes went cold. “I wanted the information, son, and for my own reasons. If you think it’s a trick, for somebody else—”
“Sorry,” I said.
“It could be I’m just trying to keep you from getting yourself killed. There’s been enough people killed already.”
“Then this party we’re so carefully not naming is crooked?” I asked harshly. “I wouldn’t have thought so. At least, not at first.”
“He’s not. He’s as honest as they make ‘em. But down here they don’t consider a man’s crooked just because he defends his wife’s reputation with a gun.”
“And what would make him think it needs defending?” I asked.
“Easy, son. Look, I wouldn’t talk this way to everybody, believe me. But you used to be in this business yourself, and I like what I’ve heard about you—-”
“How’d you know I was a cop,” I asked.
“I was in the Sherriff’s office when the wire came in from San Francisco. He showed it to me. There’s nothing wrong with the way you left the force.”
“When was that?” I asked quickly. “I mean, when did it come?”
The other afternoon, Tuesday—”
“No,” I said. I mean, do you remember exactly what time?”
“Two o’clock. Quarter after.”
Then it couldn’t have been Redfield who’d tried to get me with the shotgun. It was almost exactly the same time.
Calhoun must have read my mind. He shook his head. “You didn’t really think that, did you? In the back of the head with a shotgun? Let me tell you, son; if you’re not careful, he may kill you, but when he does you’ll be looking at him.”
“That’s a big help,” I said wearily. “Now I’ve got two of ‘em after me.”
“You could knock off and leave it alone. I don’t think it’ll ever be settled, one way or the other.”
“Listen, I’m not guessing any more,” I said. “I know who killed Langston.”
He put down his beer. “Can you prove it?”
“Not yet.”
“And you won’t. I think you’re wrong—”
I leaned forward quickly. “You what?”
He realized the mistake, but it was too late. “I mean—you’re a mile off base. Of course you’re wrong.”
“Cut it out, Calhoun,” I snapped. “You know damn well what you said. You thought I was wrong. So maybe you’ve wondered just a little yourself. Why?”
He glared at me, but said nothing.
“Why?” I demanded.
“I’m not going to gossip about a man’s wife,” he growled. I told you I was a friend of his—”
I stood up and banged down the can of beer so hard it splashed on the magazines. “Yes, and goddammit, you’re a cop too! You want to go on seeing an innocent woman crucified?”
“Don’t get hard-nosed with me, Chatham. I was a cop when you were on the schoolboy patrol.”
”Forget it,” he said.
“It’s beginning to get you, huh?”
“I guess so,” I said.
“Well, it’s got a lot of people at one time or