"I thought they were keeping you a prisoner."
It didn't seem to startle her.
It even slightly amused her.
"What made you think that?"
"I know who you are."
Her very blue eyes flashed so sharply that I could almost see the sweep of their glance, like the sweep of a sword.
Her mouth tightened. But her voice didn't change.
"Then I'm afraid you're in a bad spot.
And I hate killing."
"And you Eddie Mars' wife?
Shame on you."
She didn't like that.
She glared at me.
I grinned. "Unless you can unlock these bracelets, which I'd advise you not to do, you might spare me a little of that drink you're neglecting."
She brought the glass over.
Bubbles rose in it like false hopes.
She bent over me. Her breath was as delicate as the eyes of a fawn.
I gulped from the glass. She took it away from my mouth and watched some of the liquid run down my neck.
She bent over me again.
Blood began to move around in me, like a prospective tenant looking over a house.
"Your face looks like a collision mat," she said.
"Make the most of it. It won't last long even this good."
She swung her head sharply and listened.
For an instant her face was pale.
The sounds were only the rain drifting against the walls.
She went back across the room and stood with her side to me, bent forward a little, looking down at the floor.
"Why did you come here and stick your neck out?" she asked quietly.
"Eddie wasn't doing you any harm.
You know perfectly well that if I hadn't hid out here, the police would have been certain Eddie murdered Rusty Regan."
"He did," I said.
She didn't move, didn't change position an inch. Her breath made a harsh quick sound.
I looked around the room.
Two doors, both in the same wall, one half open.
A carpet of red and tan squares, blue curtains at the windows, a wallpaper with bright green pine trees on it.
The furniture looked as if it had come from one of those places that advertise on bus benches. Gay, but full of resistance.
She said softly: "Eddie didn't do anything to him. I haven't seen Rusty in months.
Eddie's not that sort of man."
"You left his bed and board. You were living alone.
People at the place where you lived identified Regan's photo."
"That's a lie," she said coldly.
I tried to remember whether Captain Gregory had said that or not. My head was too fuzzy.
I couldn't be sure.
"And it's none of your business," she added.
"The whole thing is my business.
I'm hired to find out."
"Eddie's not that sort of man."
"Oh, you like racketeers."
"As long as people will gamble there will be places for them to gamble."
"That's just protective thinking. Once outside the law you're all the way outside.
You think he's just a gambler.