In the Best Families

“It's straight all right, but don't trust me. I warned you. Those are the facts, but you can have a guess without any additional charge if you want it.

“A guess about what?

“About them and you. This guess is why I'm here. This guess is why I went into that bar so you would see me, and followed you out like a half-wit to give you a chance to flag me.

“Oh. So you staged this.

“Certainly. I wanted to tell you about this guess, and if you were in a mood to buy something first, why not?

He looked aloof. “Let's have the guess.

“Well- I considered. “It really is a guess, but with a background. Do you want the background first?

“No, the guess.

“Right. That Zeck is getting set to frame you for the murder of your wife.

I think Rackham would have thrown another glass if he had happened to have it in his hand, possibly at me this time. His blood moved fast. The colour came up in his neck and face, and he sort of swelled all over; then his jaw clamped.

“Go on, he mumbled.

“That's all the guess amounts to. Do you want the background?

He didn't answer. I went on. “It won't cost you a cent. Take the way I was approached. If it's a plain tailing job with no frills, why all the folderol?

Why couldn't Christy just put it to me? And why pay me double the market of the highest-priced agencies? Item. If Zeck has his friends at White Plains, which is far from incredible, and if the current furore is upsetting their stomachs, there's nothing they would appreciate more than having their toughest unsolved murder case wrapped up for them. Item. Hiring me is purely defensive, and Zeck and his staff don't function that way, especially not when the enemy is a former colleague and they've got a grudge.

I shook my head. “I can't see it with that background. But listen to this.

Roeder came up to my office and stayed an hour, and do you know what he spent most of it doing? Asking me questions about the evening of April eighth! What has that got to do with my handling a tailing job? Nothing! Why should they be interested in April eighth at all? I think they brought me this job, at double pay, just to start a conversation with me and soften me up. It has already been hinted that Zeck might like to meet me. I think that to frame you for murder they've got to have first-hand dope from someone who was there, and I'm elected.