“ ’S all right.” The chief made a bighearted gesture with one beefy paw. “We don’t want to bother you. Just where you went, and about the shoe, and how you knew he wasn’t coming back. And, come to think of it, there’s another⁠—What Thaler wanted here this morning.”

Mrs. Willsson sat down again, very rigidly. The chief looked at her. A smile that tried to be tender made funny lines and humps in his fat face. After a little while her shoulders began to relax, her chin went lower, a curve came in her back.

I put a chair facing her and sat on it.

“You’ll have to tell us, Mrs. Willsson,” I said, making it as sympathetic as I could. “These things have got to be explained.”