Nemesis

Chapter III

The copper looked at him for a moment and then shook his head. He pushed his hat back on his head and fumbled for a cigarette.

“If this is a gag, it ain’t a funny one,” he said.

“It’s no gag,” Larry said.

The copper lit a cigarette and stared straight ahead with a gloomy expression on his face.

“So you picked up a tomato last night and stuck a knife in her. Is that it?”

“I didn’t kill her,” Larry said. He stopped and wet his lips. He didn’t know whether he had killed her or not. “I got a drink that had been doctored some way. It knocked me out. I don’t remember going to bed with her. When I woke up she was lying there dead. She had a knife driven into her chest.”

The copper frowned. “Now let’s go through this once again. I’d take you in, but I don’t want to get laughed out of the station. I got an idea you got the shakes. I think your imagination is running as wild as a woman’s poker game. You tell me a story that may be true. And it may not. There’s no percentage in it for you to lie to me. That’s why I’m listening.”

Larry shrugged wearily. “I wish to God I was lying. But I’m telling you the truth, as far as I know it. I had a fight with my wife last night. A little thing, but it seemed big, so I barged out of the house to get a drink. I went down town and stopped in a bar on Madison street. I—”

“What bar?”

Larry thought a minute. It was hard to sift through the tumbled thoughts in his head. “The Kicking Horse was the name of the place,” he said finally. “There’s a neon sign out in front with blinking lights that look like a horse kicking.”

“I know the place. Go on.”

“I met a girl in there. A blonde. We had a couple of drinks. I didn’t have more than four or five all night, but I started to get tight. But it wasn’t a drunken feeling. It was a sick, knocked-out feeling.”

He stopped and licked his lips. The copper looked at him steadily.

“I took her home. Or she took me home. That’s about all I remember. When I woke up she was lying beside me. She was dead. I wasn’t thinking very well. I walked out of the place and just kept walking. I stopped for some coffee and that’s where you found me.”

“Where did she live?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, where did she take you?”

“It was somewhere on Nelson Boulevard. I didn’t notice any street numbers.”

The copper turned the ignition key and stepped on the starter. He was still frowning.

“We can check that story easy enough,” he said.

“Can I call my wife?” Larry asked.

“Maybe from the station,” the copper said.

He put the car in gear and moved away from the curb. He was still frowning.