“All right,” Halpern said. “Sure. We went back there one evening—Ingraham and me—to look at some stuff I’d—to look at some stuff. He took me in what he called the back way.” The stub of the cigar moved in powerful teeth. “So what?” Halpern asked.
Bill Weigand stood up then. He said he didn’t know what. Except what was obvious. He supposed obvious to Mr. Halpern. Whoever killed Forbes Ingraham could have got to him through the other office. So—being in the reception room when his body was found didn’t mean anything.
“You want to pin this on me?”
“On whoever did it, Mr. Halpern.”
Halpern glared at him, and was advised to take it easy.
“You got it wrong,” Halpern said. “Maybe that’s the way you want to get it? Maybe these rats are pals of yours?”
“No,” Bill said. “Not of mine, Mr. Halpern. No killer is.”
“O.K.,” Halpern said. “That sounds swell, captain. Why’d I want to knock Ingraham off? We was working together to get these rats. So—how do you figure?”
“I don’t,” Bill said. “Not yet. But I don’t know what he found out, do I?”
Halpern waited. His face was very red, angry.
“It could be,” Bill Weigand said, “that he found out the wrong thing. Not what he was supposed to find out. Since he was your attorney, it would have been confidential, under the rules. But you didn’t know him very well, you say. Maybe—”
“Listen,” Halpern said, and spoke very loudly. “You going to take me in?”
Weigand shook his head.
“Then suppose you get the hell out of here,” Halpern said.
The office was Halpern’s. Weigand left him in it.
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