them any openings to even try to hang anything on me. If I’ve got to I can prove where I was last night, but you can save me a lot of trouble if you will.”
Reno looked at me with dull eyes and asked:
“Why pick on me?”
“You phoned me there last night. You’re the only person who knows I was there the first part of the night. I’d have to fix it with you even if I got the alibi somewhere else, wouldn’t I?”
He asked:
“You didn’t croak her, did you?”
I said, “No,” casually.
He stared out the window a little while before he spoke. He asked:
“What made you think I’d give you the lift? Do I owe you anything for what you done to me at Willsson’s last night?”
I said:
“I didn’t hurt you any. The news was half-out anyhow. Whisper knew enough to guess the rest. I only gave you a showdown. What do you care? You can take care of yourself.”
“I aim to try,” he agreed. “All right. You was at the Tanner House in Tanner. That’s a little burg twenty-thirty miles up the hill. You went up there after you left Willsson’s and stayed till morning. A guy named Ricker that hangs around Murry’s with a hire heap drove you up and back. You ought to know what you was doing up there. Give me your sig and I’ll have it put on the register.”
“Thanks,” I said as I unscrewed my fountain pen.