Lee did not reply.

Adam spoke without opening his eyes. “My wife is away on a visit.”

“She wasn’t here when it happened?” Horace glanced at Julius and saw a curious expression on Julius’s lips. The corners of his mouth were turned slightly up in a sardonic smile. Horace thought quickly, He’s ahead of me. He’d make a good sheriff. “Say,” he said, “that’s kind of interesting. Your wife had a baby—two babies—two weeks ago, and now she’s gone on a visit. Did she take the babies with her? I thought I heard them a little while ago.” Horace leaned over the bed and touched the back of Adam’s clenched right hand. “I hate this, but I can’t stop now. Trask!” he said loudly, “I want you to tell me what happened. This isn’t nosiness. This is the law. Now, damn it, you open your eyes and tell me or, by Christ, I’ll take you in to the sheriff even if you are hurt.”

Adam opened his eyes, and they were blank like a sleepwalker’s eyes. And his voice came out without rise or fall, without emphasis, and without any emotion. It was as though he pronounced perfectly words in a language he did not understand.

“My wife went away,” he said.

“Where did she go?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know where she went.”

Julius broke in, speaking for the first time. “Why did she go?”

“I don’t know.”

Horace said angrily, “You watch it, Trask. You’re playing pretty close to the edge and I don’t like what I’m thinking. You must know why she went away.”

“I don’t know why she went.”

“Was she sick? Did she act strange?”

“No.”

Horace turned. “Ching Chong, do you know anything about this?”

“I go King City Satdy. Come back mebbe twelve night. Find Missy Tlask on floor.”

“So you weren’t here when it happened?”

“No, ma’am.”

“All right, Trask, I’ll have to get back to you. Open up that shade a little, Ching Chong, so I can see. There, that’s better. Now I’m going to do it your way first until I can’t any more. Your wife went away. Did she shoot you?”

“It was an accident.”

“All right, an accident, but was the gun in her hand?”

“It was an accident.”

“You don’t make it very easy. But let’s say she went away and we have to find her—see?—like a kid’s game. You’re making it that way. How long have you been married?”

“Nearly a year.”

“What was her name before you married her?”

There was a long pause, and then Adam said softly, “I won’t tell. I promised.”

“Now you watch it. Where did she come from?”

“I don’t know.”

“Mr. Trask, you’re talking yourself right into the county jail. Let’s have a description. How tall was she?”

Adam’s eyes gleamed. “Not tall—little and delicate.”

“That’s just fine. What color hair? Eyes?”

“She was beautiful.”

“Was?”

“Is.”

“Any scars?”

“Oh, God, no. Yes—a scar on her forehead.”