I had turned the color set on. A golf match had appeared. The players had green faces. Billy Cable went over and fixed the color, turned the sound down.

"Put the little round ball in the little round hole and they give you forty thousand dollars. Jee-zuss! Got me into the wrong line of work, I guess."

He sat on the bed and leaned back, propping himself on his elbows. A very competent, tough, unreadable, watchful face. He had sunlenses clipped onto his steel-rimmed spectacles, and he reached and tilted them up.

"To what do I owe the honor and all the routine, Billy?"

"Mister Norm got edgy about you when he found out this morning you didn't sleep here. He wondered if maybe he made some kind of bad mistake about you, McGee."

"You better ease his mind."

"I already did, on my way over here. I wasn't as nervous as he was, though."

"That's nice."

"I did some backtrailing, and I found out from King you were looking for somebody named Betsy that had been close to Lew, and he told you probably Betsy Kapp. So Frank the bartender, told me you ate at the Lodge and you and Betsy took off in your cars at the same time. Well then I went to her place but there was n.o.body there at all. But I went around and looked in the kitchen window and there were two of everything drying on the sideboard. Cups, saucers, and so on. Very cozy. I hear those t.i.ts are genuine. Hardly seems possible."

"You do good police work Billy, but we can skip the editorial comment. Okay?"

"All right, you had to come up with that name someplace in order to ask King. And Mister Norm has had me looking all over for that d.a.m.n fool Lew Arnstead. When I went out there his momma said he hadn't been home for three days and nights, and when I asked her if anybody had been looking for him she said that it was none of my d.a.m.ned business. So I asked if a big fellow named McGee had been looking for him, and she told me that if I knew already, why was I wasting my breath asking. You know, I like that old lady."

"So do I."

"Aside from Betsy, how many other names did you come up with? There'd be a pretty long list."

"I could tell you it's none of your d.a.m.ned business. But let's be friends. Clara Willoughbee. That's all. Maybe his mother didn't keep a running score."

"Clara is a nice girl. About to get herself married. To a rich kid from Fort Myers."

"I didn't look her up. Betsy came after Clara."

"But that was over quite awhile back toward the end of last year, I think."

"I thought she might steer me to somebody more kip to date."

"Why would you want that?"

"He's not an officer of the law at the moment. I thought I might locate him and see how much workout I could give him."

"King thinks maybe you could take him."

"I thought it might be worth a try. Incidentally, Thanks for pulling him off Meyer."

"I should have moved faster. That last one came up from the floor. That's the one that did the big damage. One more like that and he could have killed the man."

"What was his point?"

Billy Cable sat up and took a half cigar out of the s.h.i.+rt pocket of his uniform and lit it, spat out a wet crumb of tobacco. "At that time it looked to us like you and Meyer gave it to Frank Baither. Frank was a rotten fellow, but n.o.body should have to die that hard. Both me and Lew saw the body. Lew knew Meyer hadn't given Mister Norm a thing to go on. Sometimes, in this business, you get to where you want to hit somebody."

"Do you obey the urge, Billy?"

"Me? h.e.l.l, no. But Lew is something else. Especially lately. Like his gears were slipping."

"Okay, why did you give me the guided tour before you took me to Hyzer?"

"Why not? The damage had been done. I didn't approve of it, and I knew Hyzer'd be scalded. But you use whatever's handy. Anything that might make you think twice, and sit up straight and say yes, sir to the sher'f couldn't hurt anything. But it didn't work that way."

"Because we didn't have anything to do with Baither."

"It's begun to look that way."

"When can I leave this garden spot?"

"That'd be up to Mister Norm. One thing I want to know. Did you find Lew?"

"Not yet."

"I suppose that if Betsy phoned around and finally found him last night and asked him to come over, he might have come over to her place. That would give you a crack at him."

"Good idea. I didn't think to ask her. What made you think of it?"

"A crank call came in about eleven-thirty this morning. I just now put two and two together. No name given. Said he lives on Haydon Street. That's the street behind Seminole, where Betsy lives. Said that about three in the morning there was a big fuss, men yelling and cursing and a woman screaming, and if we couldn't keep order in a nice neighborhood, maybe the people ought to elect a sheriff who could."

"A little Sat.u.r.day night festivity. Sorry, but I wasn't at that particular party."

"Any idea where Betsy is?"

"I'm expecting her to drop by pretty soon. I think she went shopping."

He got up slowly, stretched, flicked ashes on the motel rug. "So now I got to chase my a.s.s all over the countryside today locating crazy Lew. Glad you didn't cut out, McGee."

I went to the doorway with him and let him get about three strides toward his sedan and said, "Billy, I don't know if it would clue you on where to look for him, but his mother told me she didn't think he'd have gotten in trouble if he hadn't started hanging around with trashy people named Perris."

He had turned and he looked at me for too long a time. Too many thoughts tumbling around in his head. His expression revealed nothing. Then, too casually, he said, "Might as well check that one out, too. Thanks."

Betsy Kapp arrived ten minutes later, with a big brown paper bag hugged against her. She was pallid and edgy, and eager to get inside and get the door closed.

"I saw the police car, darling, and I went right on by. I went by twice. Who was it? What did they want?"

I gave her the full story, including my final line, and told her how silent Billy Cable became. "Does the name mean anything to you, Betsy? Perris?"

"Somebody told me he was running around with Lilo Perris. She lives down in the south county. She's young, and she's pretty, I guess, in a cheap obvious way. But she's been in trouble with the law over and over. She's loud and mean and hard as nails."

"Sounds like a rare jewel. Sounds like somebody who would know something about how Lew got killed."

"I don't think so, really. She hasn't been in that kind of trouble. Mostly fighting and disturbing the peace and public obscenity. She's just wild and tough, and she doesn't give a d.a.m.n what she does or who she does it with."

"Not the kind an officer of the law should run with."

"Heavens, no! But she wouldn't be exactly exclusive property. He'd be more like a dog in a pack trotting after a b.i.t.c.h. Men say she's so s.e.xy. I just can't see it. Maybe he's been down in the south county, back there in one of those shacky places along Sh.e.l.l Ridge Road, down there with the poachers and moons.h.i.+ners. Travis, what did that phone call mean?"

"If you and I were in the county jail at the time, trying to tell them we didn't know where Lew's body came from, how would it sound?"

"Terrible!"

"And what if an autopsy established the time of death at about three in the morning?"

"We've been lucky, haven't we?"

"So far."

"Are you starving too, dear? Look! Good rye bread and lettuce and Black Diamond cheese and sardines and baloney and cold beer. Do you want me to make your sandwich, or do you want to?"

I told her to go ahead. She used the white formica countertop next to the almost inaudible golf match. I had taken the first bite of my sandwich, not waiting for her to make her own, when Billy Cable knocked at the door.

I let him in. She gave him a bright smile of welcome. "Hi, Billy. Make you a sandwich?"

"Just now ate, Betsy. Thanks. Guess I might go for one of these kosher dills though." He bit it, nodded approval, and while chomping away at it, "Saw a car that looked like yours, and McGee said you were going to come by so I stopped to make sure."

"Make sure of what?"

He sat on the bed. "My life is a lot easier if I can do what I know Mister Norm is going to ask me if I did already. So he is going to ask me if I asked you if maybe you give McGee here a line on how to find Lew."

"I wouldn't have the faintest idea how to find Lew Arnstead, and I can't imagine ever wanting to."

"But Mister McGee here seemed anxious to find him?"

"Well... sort of. And I can understand that, can't you? After all, that man Lew hurt was a very good friend of Travis's. Wouldn't you look for somebody who beat up a friend of yours? Of course, maybe you don't have any friend in particular, Billy."

I saw the momentary narrowing of his eyes. And then he smiled blandly. "Then McGee was only half anxious to locate Lew?"

"That's about it."

"Speaking of my having a friend, Betsy, you've got a real talent for friends.h.i.+p, believe you me."

She turned and leaned her hips on the countertop and bit into her sardine sandwich. "Why, thank you, Billy!"

"I think old Homer ought to write you up in that new brochure he's doing for the Chamber of Commerce."

"How do you mean?"

"I don't rightly know. Maybe like sort of a natural resource of Cypress County. It isn't every little city back here in the swamp country that's got a nice dining room with good food and a hostess with the biggest set of knockers south of Waycross."

Her lips tightened and she held her sandwich out of the way and looked down at herself. "Now Billy. They's not so much of a much." Her accent was turning swampy. "Must be forty fifty women around these parts wear a D-cup, too. Looks like a lot to you on account of the rest of me is on the skimpy side."

"Well, I guess there's enough men around here and there who'd testify they're real enough, Betsy." This was a strong s.e.xual antagonism coming out into the open.

She colored, then smiled. "Oh, Billy Cable, I know you're only funnin' me, but when you try to kid around, honey, it comes out like dirty talk. You just don't have the touch. I know you don't mean anything wrong."

"It's nice the way you throw everything into your work Miz Kapp. Obligin'."

She made a plausible attempt at merry laughter, and looked over at me and said, "Darlin', ol' Billy here could testify how real they are. Must have been a year and a half ago-"

"Watch it!" Billy said sharply.

"Now you started this, Billy, and Mr. McGee might be amused. I thought some s.e.x maniac had got me. Like to scared me to death. I was walking from the Lodge over to my car on a dark night and got grabbed from behind. A girl friend told me one time the thing to do is go all limp and fall down, never try to fight. Well, I sat down on the parking tot and he let go, and I got a look at him, and what do you know, there was ol' Billy weaving and smiling down at me, just couldn't stop hisself from reaching around me and grabbing away like he was trying to honk those old-timey automobile horns. A girl could get a cancer that way. Well, sir, I was so scared and mad I hopped up and sw.a.n.g my pocketbook and knocked poor Billy's gla.s.ses right off and they busted. And that made him so mad, he took a swing like to slap my head loose, but I ducked back and Billy fell down. Then what was it you were going to do to me, Billy?"

"Knock it off, Betsy."

"Something about I should take him home with me or I was going to get arrested for every kind of thing he could think of. What did I say Billy?"

"Shut up, Betsy. I forget."

"I said I'd rather spend five years in a prison laundry than five minutes in bed with you. Billy?" He looked at her and did not answer. She took two steps toward him, thrust her jaw toward him and said in a low voice, "And it's still exactly the same way Deputy. There's nothing you could ever do or say that'd make me change my mind."

He stared at her and then at me. Expressionless masklike face, but the eyes behind the lenses held a cold reptilian venom. He spun and left, slamming the room door, slamming the cruiser door, shrieking rubber halfway to the front exit onto the highway.

She ran to me and I held her in my arms. She was trembling and panting. Aftermath of another of the games Betsy played. But this game was obligatory. And, in its own way, valiant. Nothing but a cap pistol and a cheap whip between her and the tiger.

"I... I'm sorry it had to be in front of you, Travis."

"I understand."

"Do you? I can't ever let him get away with any part of it, anywhere, no matter what. If I ever do... then he'll take me, and I don't think I could stand it. It wouldn't be... nice."

That was the inevitable stipulation. Nice. "Go eat your sandwich, woman."

She walked over and took it from the countertop and said, "He's going to hate you now because you heard it all."

"So I'm about to faint with pure terror."

She hoisted herself up and sat on the countertop, thin legs swinging, holding the sandwich in both hands, munching.

"What a crazy day," she said. "What a weird kind of day!"

"Just wondering something. How did Billy Cable take it when you and Lew Arnstead got together?"

"Not so good. I told Lew about how Billy kept circling me. He thought it was funny. I told him he better not make any smart remarks to Billy about the whole thing. Billy is chief deputy, and there are ways he could make things bad for Lew. They had it out, finally. Lew whipped him, but he didn't tell me any details."

Thick sandwiches and cold beer. She yawned deeply, her face softening, and her eyes suddenly heavy, an abrupt change like that of a sleepy child. She slumped onto the bed and slipped her shoes off and yawned again. "Honest, I've got to have a nap."

"You have permission."

She pulled the pillow out from under the spread and lay back. "We can go home later. I wish I could think. What you said about my knowing something and not knowing what I know. There is something, but I can't find it in my head."

"Try again when you wake up."

"Dear?"