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"What do you mean complaint?"

"If she killed the Greek, she tried to kill you too, didn't she? You can't let her get away with that. Somebody might think it was pretty funny if you did. Sure, you'd be a sucker to let her get away with it. She knocks off her husband for the insurance, and she tries to knock off you too. You've got to do something about that, haven't you?"

"I might, if she did it. But I don't know she did it."

"If I prove it to you, you'll have to sign the complaint, won't you?"

"Sure. _If_ you can prove it."

"All right, I'll prove it. When you stopped, you got out of the car, didn't you?"

"What? I thought you were so stinko you didn't remember anything. That's the second time you've remembered something now. I'm surprised at you."

"Not that I know of."

"But you did. Listen to this man's statement: 'I didn't notice much about the car, except that a woman was at the wheel and one man was inside laughing when we went by, and another man was out back, sick.' So you were out back a few minutes, sick. That was when she crowned Papadakis with the bottle. And when you got back you never noticed anything, because you were stinko, and Papadakis had passed out anyhow, and there was hardly anything to notice. You sat back and passed out, and that was when she slid up into second, kept her hand on the hand throttle, fed with that, and as soon as she had slid out on the running board, shot the car over."

"That don't prove it."

"Yes it does. The witness Wright says that the car was rolling over and over, down the gully, when he came around the bend, _but the woman was up on the road, waving to him for help!_"

"Maybe she jumped."

"If she jumped, it's funny she took her handbag with her, isn't it? Chambers, can a woman drive with a handbag in her hand? When she jumps, has she got time to pick it up? Chambers, it can't be done. It's impossible to jump from a sedan car that's turning over into a gully. She wasn't in the car when it went over! That proves it, doesn't it?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know? Are you going to sign that complaint or not?"

"No."

"Listen, Chambers, it was no accident that car went over a second too soon. It was you or her, and she didn't mean it would be you."

"Let me alone. I don't know what you're talking about."

"Boy, it's still you or her. If you didn't have anything to do with this, you better sign this thing. Because if you don't, then I'll know. And so will the jury. And so will the judge. And so will the guy that springs the trap."

He looked at me a minute, then went out, and came back with another guy. The guy sat down and made out a form with a fountain pen. Sackett brought it over to me. "Right here, Chambers."

I signed. There was so much sweat on my hand the guy had to blot it off the paper.

CHAPTER 10

After he went, the cop came back and mumbled something about a blackjack. We played a few rounds, but I couldn't get my mind on it. I made out it got on my nerves to deal with one hand, and quit.

"He kind of got to you, hey?"

"Little bit."

"He's tough, he is. He gets to them all. He looks like a preacher, all full of love for the human race, but he's got a heart like a stone."

"Stone is right."

"Only one guy in this town has got it on him."

"Yeah?"

"Guy named Katz. You've heard of him."

"Sure, I heard of him."

"Friend of mine."

"It's the kind of a friend to have."

"Say. You ain't supposed to have no lawyer yet. You ain't been arraigned, and you can't send for nobody. They can hold you forty-eight hours incommunicado, they call it. But if he shows up here, I got to let him see you, you get it? He might show up here, if I happened to be talking to him."

"You mean you get a cut."

"I mean he's a friend of mine. Well, if he didn't give me no cut, he wouldn't be no friend, would he? He's a great guy. He's the only one in this town can throw the headlock on Sackett."

"You're on, kid. And the sooner the better."

"I'll be back."

He went out for a little while, and when he came back