“Of course not. If there’s any possibility that it wasn’t McKay, I’d be glad if I could help you prove it.”

“You were called down to a patient that morning and you drove down and left your car outside the house.”

“Yes, a charity case I encountered in the clinic, a child who gets some pretty violent asthmatic attacks.”

“When you came out of the patient’s house, the man you think was McKay was in the back of your car and held you up at the point of a gun.”

“That’s right. He took my wallet, removed the bills and flung the rest back at me, then he made me turn over the car keys to him and forced me out.”

“Wasn’t it quite dark?”

“Yes but there was a street lamp a little way off.”

“And that shed enough light so that you could see this man?”

“As well as I said I saw him. Now, don’t misunderstand. I insisted and I still insist that I cannot be sure it was McKay. I can only say that it looked like him. I don’t think the man who held me up was speaking in a natural tone of voice so that’s nothing to go by. I don’t intend at any time to say that I know it was McKay, now or at the trial, but if MacKay looks like the man and they find corroborating evidence to prove his guilt, I can’t help feeling that I’ve done the right thing. Or, if I did think McKay looked like the man, would you have me say flatly that I was certain he looked nothing like him?”

Lowry got up. “No, Dr. Clayton. I suppose you did what you thought was best. It’s just made it awfully tough for McKay. Now, would there have been any likelihood that the people in the home of your patient had seen somebody prowling around the place?”

“I don’t know. They never mentioned it.”

“Would you mind giving me the address. I’d like to talk to them and make certain.”

“Not at all.”

Clayton pressed a button on the desk and the nurse came in.

“Give Mr. Lowry the Lawrence girl’s address,” he told her. “If there’s anything else I can do,” he said to Lowry, “I’ll be glad to. If you’re right about your friend’s innocence I hope you can prove it.”

“I suppose the police currycombed the car,” Lowry said.

“I imagine so. At least there was nothing in it after it was returned to me.”

“Well, thank you, Dr. Clayton.”

“Not at all,” Clayton said. He walked with Lowry to the door. Outside, the nurse produced a little card from a file she kept on the corner of her desk, and she read off the name and address to Lowry, who scribbled it down in his notebook.