"Is Alex Kincaid with his wife?"

"Yes. He called me at home and seemedvery eager to see her, though he hasn't been around all day. He also wanted totalk to me."

"Did he say anything about running out onher?"

"No."

"I hope he's changed his mind."I told Godwin about my meeting with Kincaid senior, and Alex's departure withhis father.

"You can't entirely blame him forfalling by the wayside momentarily. He's young, and under great strain."Godwin's changeable eyes lit up. "The important thing, for him as well asDolly, is that he decided to come back."

"How is she?"

"Calmer, I think. She didn't want to talktonight, at least not to me."

"Will you let me have a try at her?"

"No."

"I almost regret bringing you into this case,doctor."

"I've been told that before, and lesspolitely," he said with a stubborn smile. "But once I'm in I'm in,and I'll continue to do as I think best."

"I'm sure you will. Did you see the eveningpaper?"

"I saw it."

"Does Dolly know what's going on outside? Aboutthe gun, for instance?"

"No."

"Don't you think she should be told?"

He spread out his hands on the scarreddesk-top. "I'm trying to simplify her problems, not add to them. She hadso many pressures on her last night, from both the past and the present, thatshe was on the verge of a psychotic breakthrough. We don't want that tohappen."

"Will you be able to protect her frompolice questioning?"

"Not indefinitely. The best possibleprotection would be a solution to this case absolving her."

"I'm working on it. I talked to herAunt Alice this morning, and looked over the scene of the McGee killing. Ibecame pretty well convinced that even if McGee did kill his wife, which Idoubt, Dolly couldn't have identified him as he left the house. In other wordsher testimony at his trial was cooked."

"Alice Jenks convinced you ofthis?"

"The physical layout did. Miss Jenksdid her best to convince me of the opposite, that McGee was guilty. I wouldn'tbe surprised if she was the main motive power behind the case againsthim."

"He was guilty."

"So you've said. I wish you'd go into yourreasons for believing that."

"I'm afraid I can't. It has to do with theconfidences of a patient."

"Constance McGee?"

"Mrs. McGee wasn't formally a patient. But youcan't treat a child without treating the parents."

"And she confided in you?"

"Naturally, to some extent. For themost part we talked about her family problems." Godwin was feeling his waycarefully. His face was bland. Under the lamp his bald head gleamed like a metaldome in moonlight.

"Her sister Alice made an interestingslip. She said there was no other man in Constance's life. I didn't ask her.Alice volunteered the information."

"Interesting."

"I thought so. Was Constance in love with anotherman at the time she was shot?"

Godwin nodded almost imperceptibly.

"Who was he?"

"I have no intention of telling you.He's suffered enough." A shadow of the suffering passed across his ownface. "I've told you this much because I want you to understand that McGeehad a motive, and was certainly guilty."

"I think he was framed, just as Dolly is beingframed."

"We agree on the latter point. Why can't wesettle for that?"

"Because there have been threekillings, and they're connected. They're connected subjectively, as you wouldsay, in Dolly's mind. I believe they're objectively connected, too. They mayall have been done by the same person."

Godwin didn't ask me who. It was just aswell. I was talking over my head, and I had no suspect.

"What third killing are you referringto?"

"The death of Luke Deloney, a man Inever heard of until tonight. I met Helen Haggerty's mother at the L.A. airportand had a talk with her on the way down here. According to her, Deloney shothimself by accident while cleaning a gun. But Helen claimed he was murdered andsaid she knew a witness. The witness may have been herself. At any rate shequarreled with her father on the issue—he seems to have been the detective incharge of the case—and ran away from home. All this was over twenty years ago."

"You seriously think it's connected with thepresent case?"

© Alexander Sviyash, 2009