She came up the steps from the restaurant, looked to the left and right, saw him, and walked over quickly.

“What is it?”

“I overheard a conversation at another table,” she said. “Did you see where I was sitting? It was the table to my left, two men in gray suits.”

“I’ll take a look when I go back,” he said.

“One man told the other that he heard that you were working on the Shoftel case. Are you?”

He was too startled to laugh. “No, I’m not. What else were they talking about? I’d like to have an idea of where they got the story.”

“I heard something about land clearance. I didn’t begin to pay attention until I heard your name.”

“Maybe one or the other was in the Mayor’s office this morning.” He explained that. She was wearing a tailored tan suit he had seen many times. For some reason she had on no jewelry. He liked her in earrings, the small ones, and a single strand of pearls. Her freckles were showing, and he liked that. “The trouble is, I’ll probably be going down to Port Smith late tomorrow or Wednesday on this thing that came in today. I’ll go in to see Pop and he’s up to his ears in the Shoftel case. I’ve already talked to Warren Johnson about what I’m doing, but the Mayor, if he wants to, will think that I’m double-crossing them.”

“Is there anything I can do?” Once in a while she saw the Mayor at a dedication or a school board function and he made it a point to call her by her first name. She had never tried it, but she probably could get him on the telephone.

Leland said, “If there is, you’ll hear from me. This may be a good one. Mrs. MacIver’s husband went off the roof of Flatlands Racetrack three months ago. It could be murder, suicide—anything.”

“The poor kid,” she said.

“Poor is not what you’d call her. He left a quarter of a million. He was thirty-two and he earned it himself.”

“Does this mean that we should forget about Montreal?”

“No—I don’t know. It’s too soon to tell. If it comes to that, would you settle for Port Smith?”

“Let me think about it,” she said honestly. She looked over her shoulder. “We’re taking more time than we should.”

“You’re not upset, are you? I’m not sure yet myself.”

She smiled. “No, I’m not upset.”

He took her arm. “Listen, what was that note about last night?”

She moved closer. “Do I have to tell you now?”

“It gave me a rough morning,” he said.

“All right, I started to invite you to Manitou State Teachers College to hear my talk, but I changed my mind because I didn’t think you would want to come.”