Sadie When She Died полностью

“And you saw the knife sticking out of the opposite side, the left side.”

“Yes.”

“Exactly where you’d stabbed her.”

“I suppose so, yes.”

“Was the knife still in that position when you broke the window and left the apartment?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t look at the knife again. Nor at her neither. I just wanted to get out of there fast. There was somebody coming, you understand?”

“One last question, Ralph. Was she dead when you went through that window?”

“I don’t know. She was bleeding and . . . she was very quiet. I . . . guess she was dead. I don’t know. I guess so.”

“Hello, Miss Simonov?”

“Yes.”

“Detective Kling, 87th Squad. I’ve . . .”

“Who?”

“Kling. Detective Kling. You remember we talked in the hallway . . .”

“Oh, yes, how are you?”

“Fine, thanks. I’ve been trying to get you all afternoon. It finally occurred to me, big detective that I am, that you probably work, and wouldn’t be home until after five.”

“I do work,” Nora said, “but I work right here in the apartment. I’m a freelance artist. I really should get an answering service, I suppose. I was uptown visiting my mother. I’m sorry you had trouble getting me.”

“Well,” Kling said, “I’ve got you now.”

“Just barely. I still haven’t taken off my coat.”

“I’ll wait.”

“Would you? This apartment’s stifling hot. If you close all the windows, they send up steam you could grow orchids with. And if you leave them open the tiniest crack, you come home and it’s like an arctic tundra. I’ll just be a minute. God, it’s suffocating in here.”

Kling waited. While he waited, he looked at his copper bracelet. If the bracelet actually began working, he would send one to his aunt in San Diego, who had been suffering from rheumatism for close to fifteen years. If it didn’t work, he would sue Meyer.

“Hello, I’m back.”

“Hello,” Kling said.

“Boy, that’s much better,” Nora said. “I can’t stand extremes, can you? It’s bitter cold in the street, and the temperature in here has to be at least a hundred and four. Wow. What were you calling about, Mr. Kling?”

“Well, as you probably know, we apprehended the man who committed the Fletcher murder . . .”

“Yes, I read about it.”

“And the district attorney’s office is now preparing the case against him. They called us this morning to ask whether you’d be available to make a positive identification of Corwin as the man you saw in the basement of the building.”

“Why is that necessary?”

“I don’t follow you, Miss Simonov.”

“The newspapers said you had a full confession. Why do you need . . .”

“Yes, of course, but the prosecuting attorney still has to present evidence.”

“Why?”

“Well . . . suppose, for example, that I confessed to the same murder, and it turned out my fingerprints were not on the knife, I was not the man you saw in the basement, I was in fact in Schenectady on the night of the murder, do you see what I mean? Confession or not, the D.A. has to make a case.”

“I see.”

“So what I’m calling about is to find out if you’d be willing to identify the man.”

“Yes, of course I would.”

“How about tomorrow morning?”

“What time tomorrow morning? I usually sleep late.”

“Name it.”

“First tell me where it’ll be.”

“Downtown. On Arbor Street. Around the corner from the Criminal Courts Building.”

“Where’s that?”

“The Criminal Courts Building? On High Street.”

“Oh. That’s all the way downtown.”

“Yes.”

“Would eleven o’clock be too late?”

“No, I’m sure that’ll be fine.”

“All right then.”

“I’ll meet you downstairs in the lobby. That’s 33 Arbor Street. At five to eleven, okay?”

“Yes, okay.”

“Unless I call you back. I want to check with the . . .”

“When would you be calling back? If you called.”

“In the next two or three minutes. I just want to contact the D.A.’s office to make sure . . .”

“Oh, okay then. Because I want to take a bath.”

“If you don’t hear from me within the next—let’s say, five minutes, okay?—I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Good.”

“Thank you, Miss Simonov.”

“’Bye,” she said, and hung up.

Corwin’s attorney, cockroach or otherwise, realized that, if he did not grant the D.A.’s office permission to run a lineup on his client, they would simply get a Supreme Court judge to order such a lineup, so he agreed to it at once. He stipulated only that it be a fair lineup and that he be permitted to attend it. Rollie Chabrier, who was handling the case for the people, readily granted both of his demands.