hills. I didn’t have nothing to do with it. I just went along when she blew open.”
“Whisper was pinched this evening,” I told him.
“Hell! Then that’s it. Noonan had ought to know he’d never keep that guy screwed up—not in this burg.”
We were standing still in the alley where MacSwain had stopped running.
“You know what he was pinched for?” I asked.
“Uh-huh, for killing Tim.”
“You know who killed Tim?”
“Huh? Sure, he did.”
“You did.”
“Huh? What’s the matter? You simple?”
“There’s a gun in my left hand,” I warned him.
“But look here—didn’t he tell the broad that Whisper done it? What’s the matter with you?”
“He didn’t say ‘Whisper.’ I’ve heard women call Thaler ‘Max,’ but I’ve never heard a man here call him anything but ‘Whisper.’ Tim didn’t say ‘Max.’ He said ‘MacS’—the first part of ‘MacSwain’—and died before he could finish it. Don’t forget about the gun.”
“What would I have killed him for? He was after Whisper’s—”
“I haven’t got around to that yet,” I admitted, “but let’s see: You and your wife had busted up. Tim was a ladies’ man, wasn’t he? Maybe