When she came in, he said, “Don’t sit down. First, no person-to-person calls from Port Smith. No more from the Star. I’m up in my private plane.” Mrs. MacIver giggled. “Second, write me a little note and stick it under my phone, to the effect that the guy on the switchboard in my father’s precinct is shooting off his mouth to reporters. Third, tell Sheila that any reporter-looking guys are to be told that I’m gone for the day, she doesn’t know where. If they want to hang around, she’s to buzz Mike. Then tell Mike that they think I’m working on the Shoftel case because my father called me about the article in the Herald-Press. For the time being, anyway, we don’t want to be disturbed.”

“You’d like me to come back?” Florence asked.

“Yes, and bring your notebook. Please.”

He waited for her to go out. There had been a pattern to the questions that the reporter had interrupted. Leland was certain now that Miller did not know anything about Colin MacIver that Mrs. MacIver did not know far better. Of Mrs. MacIver he asked, “Did you know that your husband went to the track?”

“Yes, he went fairly regularly. Most of the time I went with him.”

“Are you sure that it was most of the time, and that he didn’t go other times that you didn’t know about at all?”

“No.”

“No what?”

“No, I’m not sure.”

“All right.” He thought he could work with her. He turned to Miller. “What about you, Fred? Did you know that he played the horses?”

“He mentioned once that he had been to the track, but that was all.” He was trying to match her precision: perfect.

“Did he say whether he won or lost?”

“No, he just said that he was having a good time. I asked him. It was before he remarried.” He glanced at Mrs. MacIver. “He was living alone and I said that it was a lonely life.”

“After he remarried, did he continue to run around? Did he keep up with his girl friends?”

“Not that I know of,” Miller said.

“Mrs. MacIver?” Leland asked.

She shook her head, shrugged, and finally, before he turned away, looked toward the bookcase. It made Leland pause. Perhaps it had been Miller’s use of the word “remarriage” that had unstrung her, but she was suddenly and literally quite unable to handle herself. Leland said, “Just a couple of more questions for you, Fred. Did you ever see MacIver drunk?”

“No.”

“Hung over?”

“No.”

“Did you attend parties with him, see him in bars or nightclubs or at a golf course or tennis court?”

“No.”