“I know what you mean,” Howard said. He moved on the settee to make room for Miss Starrett.

“Don’t sit down, Miss Starrett,” Leland said briskly. Howard blinked at him. “If you have a coat, get it. It’s time you and I had a little talk.”

She stood still, frightened, her eyes drawn toward Howard.

“You didn’t say you wanted to talk to her,” he said. He hated Leland now. He knew that he had been taken, but he didn’t understand how it had been done.

“I didn’t say we didn’t,” Leland said, getting to his feet.

“She hardly knew Ted.”

That clinched it. Leland didn’t look at him. He said to the girl, “Get your coat. All I’m interested in is the man who killed Teddy.”

It was out now, and the others could only gape. Schoenstein, Leland could sense, was stunned. “Teddy” had done it to him. It was the first time Leland had used the name. Later he would want to know how Leland had felt so sure of what he had suggested. It had been more than a feeling. Susan Starrett had moved through the house with authority. Mrs. Howard, who had saved her foster son’s letters, would not have encouraged his former girl friend. Howard would not have promoted the girl out of goodness of soul. Not him. He had brought her along and bided his time. Perhaps it had taken years. His behavior settled it. It had taken Leland too long to recognize it for what it was. Howard had been playing bull of the herd. Some men did it with all women, but the way he had treated her had shown none of the sly self-consciousness that would go with pretense in him. For Leland it had been a question of believing what the others had not wanted to believe. It was a mistake to forget how many kinds of people there were in the world. Now what Leland wanted to see were the letters from Leikman to her, after he had learned of what had happened with Howard. Leland felt less sure of this ground, but it was still worth crossing.

She had her coat. He followed her to the porch. “Just over there,” she said, indicating another two-story frame diagonally across the blacktop. The house needed paint and repairs. “My mother’s down to church, so there’s nothing we can’t talk about. Good thing you came in a police car and it’s in all the papers. People here peep around the curtains all the time.”

“If it will help, I’ll pin on my badge.”