“I think my partner said that there were twenty of them. You’d have a hell of a time proving you didn’t know.”

Roberts sat back. He wiped his mouth with his hand. If he was not surprised, he knew what to do to fake it. Leland pressed. “As I say, you’d have a time proving you didn’t know.”

It was a hint of weakness and Roberts seemed to go after it. “Does your wife—Mrs. Leland—know what you’re doing? When she covered me for so long, did she know that you were upstairs stealing my keys?”

Leland nodded. Now he had to wait.

“But she doesn’t know why you wanted them,” Roberts said.

“She will. I promised to tell her.”

Roberts looked to the ceiling. “Maybe the sanest of us is mad. How could you think this through? Is theft, burglary, and threatening my life sane? You’re headed toward disaster, and you’re dragging her with you.”

“You don’t know her.”

“We had a very intimate conversation—”

“I know. You don’t know her. On the way to your place she told me that she would tie you up by talking about Jerrry Palmer. She wanted me to understand that it would be in trying to get the job done. I saw the expression on your face. She frightened you and she did it intentionally.”

Roberts nodded. It was as if he had not realized that he had gained an advantage a moment ago. “There were times when she seemed to struggle. I didn’t understand that. You can’t expect me to admire it—or you, either. You’re gloating, you know you are.”

“There’s only one way you understand a thing, Wendell. You have to have it held up to your face. My wife is stronger than you think—she may be the strongest person I know. Even assuming that you aren’t involved in Rainbow, I couldn’t go to you with what my evidence showed and expect you to be reasonable. You would have never conceded that I had a say in this. Or that Norma did, too. I had to break in here, get what I could, and stick it in your eye—”

Roberts looked away.

“Norma showed me,” Leland said. “You figured that she was going to break down and revert to her behavior as a teen-ager. You gave her credit for nothing—”

“Figured? She told me herself that she was afraid of it. No figuring at all. She’s been coming to me almost every day—that is, until the day before she went to Manitou with that insurance fellow, what’s-his-name. She was afraid then that you wouldn’t give her a hearing. She was afraid that you would cheat her. You don’t know her, Joe. Did she tell you the things she’s been thinking?”