junior attorney in a flannel suit was telling the middle-aged woman at thefront desk how he wanted a brief set up on her typewriter.

He went away. Her steel-gray glance metmine, and we happened to smile at each other. She said:

"I was typing briefs when he was justa gleam in his daddy's eye. Can I help you?"

"I'm very eager to see Mr. GilStevens. My name is Archer."

She looked in her appointment book, andthen at her watch. "Mr. Stevens is due for lunch in ten minutes. He won'tbe coming back to the office today. I'm sorry."

"It has to do with a murder case."

"I see. I may be able to slip you in for fiveminutes if that will do any good."

"It might."

She talked to Stevens on the phone andwaved me past the cubicles to an office at the end of the hall. It was largeand sumptuous. Stevens sat on leather behind mahogany, flanked by a glass-facedcabinet of yachting trophies. He was lionfaced, with a big soft masterfulmouth, a high brow overhung by broken wings of yellowish white hair, pale blueeyes that had seen everything at least once and were watching the second timearound. He wore tweeds and a florid bow tie.

"Close the door behind you, Mr.Archer, and sit down."

I parked myself on a leather settee andstarted to tell him what I was doing there. His heavy voice interrupted me:

"I have only a very few minutes. Iknow who you are, sir, and I believe I know what you have in mind. You want todiscuss the McGee case with me."

I threw him a curve: "And the Deloneycase."

His eyebrows went up, forcing the fleshabove them into multiple corrugations. Sometimes you have to give awayinformation on the chance of gaining other information. I told him what hadhappened to Luke Deloney.

He leaned forward in his chair. "Yousay this is connected in some way with the Haggerty murder?"

"It has to be. Helen Haggerty livedin Deloney's apartment building. She said she knew a witness to Deloney's murder."

"Strange she didn't mention it."He wasn't talking to me. He was talking to himself about Mrs. Deloney. Then heremembered that I was there. "Why do you come to me with this?"

"I thought you'd be interested, since Mrs.Deloney is your client."

"Is she?"

"I assumed she was."

"You're welcome to your assumptions. I supposeyou followed her here."

"I happened to see her come in. But I've wantedto get in touch with you for a couple of days."

"Why?"

"You defended Tom McGee. His wife'sdeath was the second in a series of three related murders which started withDeloney and ended with Helen Haggerty. Now they're trying to pin the Haggertydeath on McGee or his daughter, or both of them. I believe McGee is innocent,and has been all along."

"Twelve of his peers thought otherwise."

"Why did they, Mr. Stevens?"

"I get no pleasure from discussing pastmistakes."

"This could be very relevant to thepresent. McGee's daughter admits she lied on the witness stand. She says shelied her father into prison."

"Does she now? The admission comes alittle belatedly. I should have borne down on her in cross, but McGee didn'twant me to. I made the mistake of respecting his wishes."

"What was the motive behindthem?"

"Who can say? Paternal love, perhaps,or his feeling that the child had been made to suffer enough. Ten years inprison is a big price to pay for such delicacies of feeling."

"You're convinced that McGee wasinnocent?"

"Oh, yes. The daughter's admissionthat she was lying removes any possible doubt." Stevens took a blotchedgreen cigar out of a glass tube, clipped it and lit it. "I take it that ishighly confidential advice."

"On the contrary, I'd like to see it publicized.It might help to bring McGee in. He's on the run, as you probably know."

Stevens neither affirmed nor denied this. He sat likea mountain behind a blue haze of smoke.

"I'd like to ask him some questions," Isaid.

"What about?"

"The other man, for one thing—the manConstance McGee was in love with. I understand he played some part in yourcase."

"He was my hypotheticalalternative." Stevens's face crumpled in a rueful smile. "But thejudge wouldn't let him in, except in my summing-up, unless I put McGee on thestand. Which didn't seem advisable. That other man was a twoedged weapon. Hewas a motive for McGee, as well as an alternative suspect. I made the mistakeof going for an outright acquittal."

"I don't quite follow."

"It doesn't matter. It's onlyhistory." He waved his hand, and the smoke shifted around him like strata

© Alexander Sviyash, 2009