world to know that a man couldn’t have everything his own way, no matter who he was. Compromises were things everybody had to make sometimes. To get what he wanted, a man had to give other people what they wanted. He said he was sure that what we all most wanted now was to stop this insane killing. He said he was sure that everything could be frankly discussed and settled in an hour without turning Personville into a slaughterhouse.
It wasn’t a bad oration.
When it was over there was a moment of silence. Thaler looked past me, at Noonan, as if he expected something of him. The rest of us followed his example, looking at the chief of police.
Noonan’s face turned red and he spoke huskily:
“Whisper, I’ll forget you killed Tim.” He stood up and held out a beefy paw. “Here’s my hand on it.”
Thaler’s thin mouth curved into a vicious smile.
“Your bastard of a brother needed killing, but I didn’t kill him,” he whispered coldly.
Red became purple in the chief’s face.
I said loudly:
“Wait, Noonan. We’re going at this wrong. We won’t get anywhere unless everybody comes clean. Otherwise we’ll all be worse off than before. MacSwain killed Tim, and you know it.”
He started at me with dumbfounded eyes. He gaped. He couldn’t understand what I had done to him.
I looked at the others, tried to look virtuous as hell, asked: