The staked Goat

too. I gave him the benefit of the doubt on shirt and underwear. He saw me coming and frowned.
    ”I wasn’t quite straight with you last night, Mr. Bell,” I said, using the first name Cross had mentioned. ”I’m a detective. I was here this morning with Lieutenant Murphy and Detective Cross.” Never tell a direct he when a misleading truth carries you as far. ”I assume she spoke with you today at home?”
    ”Yeah,” he said. ”My landlord didn’t appreciate cops coming looking for me.”
    ”I’m sorry, but we are talking murder here.”
    ”I know that.”
    ”Listen,” I said, ”Cross is on kind of a probationary period. I’m supposed to find out if she asked you certain questions. It’s like a check-up on her detecting ability. I didn’t want to disturb you at home, so I thought I’d drop by here when I figured you wouldn’t be too busy.”
    ”Well,” he said, buying it, ”she asked me a hell of a lot of questions. I sure wouldn’t remember all of them.”
    ”Did she ask you how long you were working last f night?”
    ”Yeah.”
    ”And what was your answer?”
    ”Same as I always work. It’s a school-year job. I work four P.M. to twelve, Monday through Thursday.”
    ”Did she ask you if anyone else asked for Mr. Sachs or his room number?”
    ”Yeah.”
    ”And what was your answer?”
    ”I told her no.” He cocked his head at me. ”How come you need my answers, anyways?”
    Sharp kid, Bell. ”Well, unless I know what answer you gave to Question A, I won’t know whether her Question B was a good one.”
    ”You sound like one of my professors.” He smiled. ”Except you make more sense.”
    I laughed at his joke. ”Thanks.”
    We continued through everything else I could think of, including whether any maintenance work had been done recently on Room 304 (no) and whether anything else odd had happened that night (no, again).
    ”Lastly,” I said, ”did she ask who followed you at midnight?”
    ”No, she already knew that.”
    I called back the other name Cross had mentioned yesterday.
    ”Teevens? Douglas Teevens?”
    ”Yeah. He’ll be in tonight.”
    ”Good,” I said. I nodded to the bar. ”Let me know when he comes in.”
    He nodded and said, ”Well?”
    I looked at him. ”Well, what?”
    ”Well, did she pass?”
    ”Pass? Oh, Cross, yeah, she did just fine.”
    ”I’m glad,” said the kid. ”She was angry about something when she talked to me, but I got the impression it wasn’t me she was angry at.”
    ”Yeah,” I said, and hoped Cross never found out about her probationary check-up.
     
    Bell looked in the cocktail lounge and gestured that Teevens was here. My watch said 12:05 A.M. ,and I had nursed three screwdrivers for the past three hours. The place had been quiet, the salesmen from Wichita apparently taking their revue on the road.
    Teevens was a carbon copy of Bell, though Teevens’ jacket fit a little better. Bell was already gone, so I used the same ploy to warm up his successor. It worked again, Teevens allowing me to take him through Cross’ interrogation of him.
    ”Now, did she ask you if anything unusual happened during your shift?”
    Teevens frowned a minute. ”No, I don’t think so. I think she just asked me if anybody asked for Mr. Sachs or Room 304.”
    I paused. Maybe Cross should still be on probation. ”Well,” I said, ”did anything unusual happen?”
    ”No... unless...”
    ”Yes?”
    ”Well... it wasn’t really unusual.”
    ”Why don’t you explain it to me.”
    ”O.K. You see, the lounge closes at two, and so around two-thirty, Milt, he’s the bartender, usually calls me in to check his dollar count against his cash register tape. It’s kind of unnecessary, you know, since the tape is always checked against his cash pouch anyways. But it’s a hotel rule, so we do it. It was maybe two-fifteen when a guy comes into the lobby. He smiles at me and goes into the lounge, then comes out again and says the bartender wants to see me. I figured the guy had wanted a drink and saw the lounge was closed. Also, it was an awfully slow night, so I figured that maybe Milt had his count done and wanted to leave early. So I thanked the guy and walked into the bar. I didn’t see Milt right away because he was squatting down counting liquor bottles or something. He said he hadn’t asked any guy to get me. In fact, he hadn’t even seen anybody. I walked back out and the guy was gone. That’s it.”
    I had a sinking feeling but