Don't Lie to Me by Donald E. Westlake Read Free Book Online Page B

small token of grudging respect.
    I said, “How do you do?”
    â€œI asked you,” he said, “is the downstairs workroom part of your rounds?”
    â€œNo, it isn’t.”
    â€œWhat were you doing down there?”
    â€œI’d never seen it before, I was curious to take a look at it.”
    â€œBecause of the killing?”
    â€œI suppose that’s what gave me the idea,” I said.
    â€œGonna be a private dick like in the movies? Snoop around, find something we missed, catch the killer all by yourself?”
    â€œHardly,” I said. “That’s not my job.”
    â€œYou’re goddamn right,” Hargerson said.
    â€œA funny kind of curiosity,” Grinella said casually. “To send you downstairs like that.”
    â€œNot so funny,” I said. “A man was found dead in here last night. By me. It gave the building a different feeling to it tonight.”
    Grinella said, “You found him upstairs. Tonight you went looking downstairs.”
    I said, “Is there any point to all this? I was curious about the basement, so I went down and looked. I’m not trying to take your jobs away from you, I’ve got a job of my own and I’m happy with it.”
    Hargerson frowned at me. “You just come on too strong,” he said.
    I looked at him. I thought, I come on too strong? But I didn’t say that; I didn’t say anything.
    Grinella took the opportunity of the silence to change the subject. He said, “We came here for a reason. We had a report a woman was seen leaving here last night, around eleven.”
    What would an innocent man say? How would he behave? I frowned slightly and said, “Leaving here?”
    â€œThat would be just before or just after you reported the body,” Grinella said.
    I said, “You think she was the one left the body here?” This was just the kind of false scent I’d been trying not to give them. I said, “She’d have to be pretty strong, wouldn’t she? To carry a dead body up a flight of stairs like that. If she was on her own, I mean.”
    â€œThat’s the question,” Hargerson said. He leaned on the phrase.
    Grinella said, “You didn’t see her, did you?”
    â€œIf I’d seen anybody,” I said, “I would have told you last night.”
    â€œThat’s right, sure.” He nodded. “I just like to double-check.”
    â€œI didn’t see her,” I said.
    Grinella glanced at Hargerson, then looked back at me. His expression was pleasant, casual. He said, “Of course, it could go the other way, too. I mean, we’d understand if that’s the way it was.”
    I said, “What other way?”
    â€œWell, take it like this. It’s a long night, you’re alone, you might get lonely. You might have a friend stop in to keep you company. Maybe it’s a friend you don’t want your wife to know about.”
    I was shaking my head.
    He grinned and said, “Wait, now, hear me out. Let’s say you do have this friend. You’re with her, and that’s why you don’t hear or see somebody come along and deposit the body. You find the body, you tell your friend to take off, you don’t want her name connected in this because it’ll get back to your wife. Or maybe your wife doesn’t care, but the company you work for, they’d get a little bugged. So you send her away, and you say you were all alone here.”
    â€œIt could certainly work that way,” I said. “But it didn’t.”
    â€œA woman left here,” Hargerson said.
    I looked at him. “Is that a definite report? Or just a maybe?”
    Grinella answered me. “Let’s just say,” he said, “that for now we think we ought to take the report and believe what it says. Which means we’re either going to take off after a woman who turns out to be the killer, or we’re going to waste our time