The old woman looked at him. “I heard about your speech. It kicked up quite a little ruckus. I suppose you know that.”

“Well, I’m not exactly sure what the word ‘ruckus’ means?”

Mrs. Pearl Lambert laughed. “I guess I ain’t, either. Anyway, lots of people heard it. Mr. Polling told me—he’s the owner of the car place—and he said he was very impressed. Mr. Polling’s a smart man. Of course he’s sort of mad at us lately. On account of what Sam did.”

“What was that?”

“Oh, you know Sam. He’s a fast talker, and he got Mr. Polling to agree to come down almost five hundred dollars on a new car. Just like that!”

He laughed, but as he laughed, he remembered something—something he’d been asked to do. “Is Sam here now?”

“Huh? No, he’s over at Farragut. He’ll be back tomorrow though, I guess. Sam comes and goes, all the time. He’s so nice, him and his wife. Don’t you think so?”

He started for the stairs. “Yes,” he said, “I liked them a lot.”

“She’s sort of funny, in a way—stand-offish, you might say. Just the opposite of Sam. I mean, you wouldn’t think they’d exactly fit together, if you know what I mean. But he just worships her.”

“Yes, you can see that.”

“I like Vy, too, don’t misunderstand me. But she’s a Northerner, you know, and—well, different. Like she belonged in a big city and didn’t know what to do with herself in a little-bitty place like Caxton. She never comes down to talk with any of us, or look at TV, or anything. It’s odd.”

“How do you mean, odd?”

“Well now, it’s none of my business. But knowing Sam the way I think I do, you get what I mean, and how he never talks about where they met or anything, I kind of get the feeling there’s a lot to that story.”

He smiled. “Maybe she’s a murderess,” he said.

Mrs. Pearl Lambert clapped her hands. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful!”

“Good night,” he said. “Let me know how the mystery turns out.”

“I will. Good night!”

He walked up the dark stairway, onto the buckling linoleum floor. Yellow light poured out from the transom of room 22. He walked by the doorway briskly, and entered his own room.

He lay down on the bed.