In the Best Families

Zeck-God knows you're not the first. But you're wrong if you think he can't ever miss and I'm all done. There's one thing you ought to realise: I can't throw in my hand on this one; I've got to play it out, and I'm going to. You've got me hooked, because I can't play it without you since you were there that night. All right, name it. How much?

I put the six grand on the little table. “My real worry, I said, “is not Zeck.

He is nothing to sneer at and he does make a strong impression, but I have been impressed before and got over it. What called my better judgment in was the New

York statutes relating to accessories to murder. Apparently Zeck has got evidence that will convict you. If you-

“He has not. That's a lie.

“He seems to think he has. If you want to take dough from a murderer for helping him beat the rap you must be admitted to the bar, and I haven't been. So with my sincere regret at my inability to assist you in your difficulty, there's your dough.

“I'm not a murderer, Goodwin.

“I didn't mean an actual murderer. I meant a man against whom evidence has been produced in court to convince a jury. He and his accessory get it just the same.

Rackham's bloodshot eyes were straight and steady at me. “I'm not asking you to help me beat a rap. I'm asking you not to help frame me-and to help me keep Zeck from framing me.

“I know, I said sympathetically. “That's the way you tell it, but not him. I don't intend to get caught in a backwash. I came here chiefly to return your money and to tell you that it's got beyond the point where I name a figure and you pay it and then we're all hunky-dory, but I do have a suggestion to make if you care to hear it-strictly on my own.

Rackham started doing calisthenics. His hands, resting on his thighs, tightened into fists and then opened again, and repeated it several times. It made me impatient watching him, because it seemed so inadequate to the situation. By now the picture was pretty clear, and I thought that a guy who had had enough initiative to venture into the woods at night to stalk his wife, armed only with a steak knife, when she had her Doberman pinscher with her, should now, finding himself backed into a corner, respond with something more forceful than sitting there doing and undoing his fists.