“Yep,” Murry said and the end of his nose got sharper.
“With Whisper?”
“I wasn’t with him all the time.”
“Were you with him at the time of the shooting?”
“Nope.”
The chief’s greenish eyes got smaller and brighter. He asked softly:
“You know where he was?”
“Nope.”
The chief sighed in a thoroughly satisfied way and leaned back in his chair.
“Damn it, Peak,” he said, “you told us before that you were with him at the bar.”
“Yep, I did,” the lanky man admitted. “But that don’t mean nothing except that he asked me to and I didn’t mind helping out a friend.”
“Meaning you don’t mind standing a perjury rap?”
“Don’t kid me.” Murry spit vigorously at the cuspidor. “I didn’t say nothing in no court rooms.”
“How about Jerry and George Kelly and O’Brien?” the chief asked. “Did they say they were with him just because he asked them to?”