His wife immediately broke into sobs.
"It's terrible, terrible," she wailed, looking at my father's covered body on the couch.
I looked at her.
Her daughter had resembled her but the resemblance stopped at the surface.
The kid had had a refreshing honesty about her; this woman was a born harpy.
"What are you crying about?" I asked. "You never even knew him before today. And only then to ask him for money."
She stared at me in shock.
Her voice grew shrill. "How can you say such a thing?
Your own father lying there on the couch and after what you did to my daughter."
I got to my feet.
The one thing I can't stand is a phony.
"After what I did to your daughter?" I shouted. "I didn't do anything to your daughter that she didn't want me to.
Maybe if you hadn't told her to stop at nothing to catch me, she'd be alive today.
But no, you told her to get Jonas Cord, Jr, at any cost.
She told me you were already planning the wedding!"
Her husband turned to her. His voice was trembling.
"You mean to tell me you knew she was pregnant?"
She looked at him, frightened.
"No, Henry, no.
I didn't know.
I only said to her it would be nice if she could marry him, that's all I said."
His lips tightened, and for a second I thought he was about to strike her.
But he didn't. Instead, he turned back to me.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Cord.
We won't trouble you any more."
He started proudly for the door. His wife hurried after him.
"But, Henry," she cried. "Henry."
"Shut up!" he snapped, opening the door and almost pushing her through it in front of him. "Haven't you said enough already?"
The door closed behind them and I turned to McAllister.
"I'm not in the clear yet, am I?"
He shook his head.
I thought for a moment.
"Better go down to see him tomorrow at his place of business. I think he'll give you a release now.
He seems like an honest man."
McAllister smiled slowly. "And that's how you figure an honest man will act?"
"That's one thing I learned from my father." Involuntarily I glanced at the couch. "He used to say every man has his price.
For some it's money, for some it's women, for others glory.
But the honest man you don't have to buy – he winds up costing you nothing."
"Your father was a practical man," McAllister said.
I stared at the lawyer.
"My father was a selfish, greedy son of a bitch who wanted to grab everything in the world," I said.
"I only hope I'm man enough to fill his shoes."
McAllister rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"You'll do all right."
I gestured toward the couch.
"I won't always have him there to help me."
McAllister didn't speak.
I glanced over at Nevada.
He had been leaning against the wall silently all the time.
His eyes flickered under the veiled lids.