Who's sorry now?

big cup of water to take her medicine. Shove the cup into his hands before he can grasp the handle. Thank him profusely and hurry outside, holding the cup by the handle again. Pour out the water when you get back to the car and put it back in the paper bag. Bring it to me and I’ll take it to the fingerprint expert in Newburg. He already has all the fingerprints of the perp from a trash can. It won’t take long to verify them.”
    ”I’ll be delighted to help this way. And my wife will be proud of me for getting even with him for messing up that dress. She was really angry about that.”
    Henry set out to borrow Jack’s car. He was happy to oblige when he knew the reason why Mr. White needed it. Henry went home, told his wife what he was doing, and put on his old patched dungarees and an old plaid shirt with one elbow out. These were his gardening clothes.
    He drove to Cold Spring with the cup in its paper bag and parked around the corner a block away from the tailor’s shop. He went around the corner, holding the cup by its handle, and rushed into the shop. ”My wife’s horribly sick. She forgot to take her medicine this morning. Could you fill this cup with water for me?”
    He’d said this so hysterically and looked so badly dressed that the tailor grabbed the cup, filled it, and watched with relief as Henry called ”Thanks!” over his shoulder and fled back up the street. He’d tipped out the water as soon as he was out of sight from the shop for fear the water would slop out and wash away the fingerprints. He didn’t know much about such things. He drove hell for leather, grinning, back to the Voorburg jail and handed over the paper bag.
    ”That was sort of fun,” he admitted.
    Walker looked over the way he was dressed and laughed. ”You sure put on a trashy set of clothes.”
    ”I’d have spoken as if I were from West Virginia if I had the accent down right. I’ve got to get Jack’s car back to him and get home to tell Edith all about it.”
     

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
    Monday, May 29
     
    ”I DON’T WANTO TO WAIT in case this man happens to see a copy of the Voorburg Times. It’s unlikely. But I don’t want to let him do a bolt,” Howard Walker said to Deputy Parker. ”We need backup though. He’s likely to be violent. I’m going to call Chief Colling and see if he can give me two extra people. He has a much larger staff than I do. I’m glad I hand-delivered that cup and waited for the results.”
    The call was made, an explanation followed, and Colling agreed to send two of his biggest, strongest deputies. ”I can have them there by noon with their own cars. I’ve been following this case in your local newspaper.” The other two deputies from Chief Colling’s office arrived promptly at noon. Walker gave them a brief account of why he thought he needed them. ”He’s a violent and hateful person. Though he’s small, he’s mean and overcame a man substantially taller and stronger than himself and strangled him with a piece of wire that has tiny teeth that’s meant to saw rings off fingers. All because the victim saw him return a can of paint he’d stolen.”
    All he heard at first was a disgusted sigh from both of them.
    Walker said, ”Deputy Parker and I will lead and you follow us to Cold Spring. Finding places to park on the main road is going to be difficult for three cars. So we’ll wait up the street somewhere and all go in at the same time.”
    Everybody followed the directions, and they all walked into the tailor’s shop together. The tailor merely looked at them complacently. Walker was astonished at how much he looked like Deputy Parker’s drawing.
    It was a shabby, dark front room with a long counter with spaces at the sides, and a few dusty tools scattered around on it. A shelf behind held disorderly bundles of ugly fabrics. Everything was dusty and smelled of cheap hair oil.
    ”Sir, what is your name?” Howard asked.
    ”What’s it to you?” he said.
    ”We’re here to arrest you. We’d like to have a name to attach to the paperwork.”
    ”Homer Wilson.”
    It wasn’t the name used on any of the library checkouts and might or might not be true. Walker really didn’t care what the man’s name was. Just that they got him charged and jailed.
    Walker walked around the right side of the counter with handcuffs in his left hand. Suddenly the tailor lunged forward with open scissors in his hand and stabbed Walker in his upper arm. Walker quickly backed