Norma finished her coffee and lit a cigarette. When Leland described the nights after MacIver had come home bleeding, her eyes reddened; but as he moved on to the clashes that had followed, they cleared. If she had a question or an opinion, she did not interrupt to voice them. He wanted to ask what she thought, but he was honestly afraid of what she could be hiding. Finally he told her what Betty Kaminsky had said about the settlement and MacIver’s insurance. “A fraud was committed, because he never did surrender or borrow on his insurance. We’ll have a better picture of all that tomorrow. In any case, it isn’t your concern—”

“I’m not going to worry about it,” she said tiredly. “She should have protected herself when she had the chance.”

“I really don’t think she has any interest in the subject,” he said.

“I’m thinking about him now, not her. What else did you do?”

He told her that he had talked with his partner and that he expected a special delivery letter in the morning on the matter of her husband’s finances. “Mike didn’t want to discuss it on the telephone. We’re going to get something.”

“And if you find evidence of a crime, you’ll have to turn it over to the police.”

“We’ll see.”

“I won’t mislead you. A lot of things are on my mind. If I have to make restitution, for example. I don’t want to be broke—poor—again. After I married Colin I used to have nightmares about it. I never thought of it during the day, but when I was asleep I’d dream of being back in one of my rotten little flats. With him or without him, the horror of being broke was the same. The dreams went away, but I had them again, after a fashion, when he died. I expect to have that kind of dream again tonight or tomorrow, after I know what he did.”

“Don’t try to anticipate those things,” he said.

“I’m growing up. Maybe I had my suspicions all along, since I learned how much money there really was.” The telephone rang. “You know who this is,” she said. “Excuse me.” She went out to the bottom of the stairs. “Hello.… Yes, of course he is.… You don’t have to tell me, you’ll only have to say it again to him.… I don’t know. I mean that.… I’ll call him. Joe? It’s Wendell.” When he reached her she had her hand over the mouthpiece. “He asked me if you were hurt by what happened. I said I didn’t know.”

“All right. Hello?”

“Joe? Wendell. I want to apologize for what happened tonight. I had no idea. Did Norma explain how Phyllis happened to be here?”

“She told me a little, yes. She was afraid that I was thinking that Miss Reynolds was your patient.” Now Norma turned away and went into the living room. “This isn’t at all necessary, Wendell. I know that you would have averted what happened if you had seen it.”