corinna had an apartment on a quiet street not far from golden gate park. kintyre had been told by bruce that she worked on the staff of a small art museum, belonged to a little theater group, owned a light target rifle, and made most of her own clothes. he had seen for himself that she spoke italian. that was all. he felt ridiculously like a schoolboy on his first date.

she opened her door and smiled him in. high heels put her almost on a level with him. she wore black, which set off her pale hair, but the sleeves flared and the skirt swirled: it was not mourning.

"i'm nearly ready, dr. kintyre. won't you sit down? watch out for the cat, she bites."

kintyre enjoyed cats; he would have kept one himself if he had wanted to assume obligations. this was that loveliest of the tribe, a blue-point siamese, white as new snow and markings like twilight. she flowed up toward his extended fist as he settled in a chair. "what's the name?" he asked.

"taffimai metallumai," said corinna, returning to her bedroom. "if you remember your kipling, that means small-person-without-any-manners-who-ought-to-be-spanked. but she lives under the name of tipsy. gold letters over her door, and so on."

he looked around. this room was individualistically decorated, she must have done it herself, in reds and blues and a couple of delicate chinese paintings. her books ran toward poetry, drama, and art; but one shelf held the popular works of gamow, russell, ley, and company. there was a medium-fi and a lot of good records.

taffimai metallumai levitated up onto his lap, gave him a sleepy turquoise look, and ordered him to scratch her beneath the chin. she was pure hard muscle under the virginal fur; she must weigh twice as much as any peasant cat her size.

kintyre took his attention from the corner where a small worktable held an unfinished papier-maché mask. corinna was coming back in. "that was quick," he said, rising.

"oh, don't! you're catted! oh, dear!"

he looked at his gashed thumb. tipsy told him in a few well chosen words that he had no business upsetting her without warning.

corinna's eyes were green distress. "people never do believe my warning," she said, "and then snow leopard j.g. makes a lunch off them and—can i tell you how sorry i am?"

"occupational hazard if you like cats," kintyre answered. "and i do. we might put on some stickum, just for appearances."

she regarded him closely. "i believe you mean that," she said. "thank you." she led him to the bathroom. the route gave him a glimpse of her kitchen and a crammed shelf of herbs and spices.

"instead of going out," he said as he repaired the damage, "i could probably get a better dinner here."

"why, i hadn't prepared anything, but—"

"nonsense. maybe you'll give me a rain check. let's go."

tipsy assured him that she bore no hard feelings, and he stroked her with real pleasure. it occurred to him that there was something pathetic about margery's little caged parakeet, set beside this beautiful killing engine.

"you're quite a scientist," he remarked, nodding at the books.

"only as a spectator," said corinna. "i would have liked to get a degree in math, but we hadn't the money and i was needed to help in the restaurant." her explanation was unresentful.

he helped her into her coat and they went down to his car. "where are we going?" she asked.

"i know a dutch place near russian hill," he told her. "ever been there? no? good. dutch cuisine is badly underrated. it's fully comparable to the french, in its own way."

she fell silent. he stole a look at the egyptian profile; it was grave again.

"forgive me if i'm tactless," he said.

"you aren't. you're very kind to come and—what good would we do bruce, sitting around with our faces dragging on the floor?"

"i thought as much myself," he ventured. "but then, i was only a friend."

"bruce never had a better one. i rather imagine you knew him more intimately than any of his kin. he grew away from us, toward something of his own. as was right, of course."

kintyre had no reply.

"and then," she said in a matter-of-fact tone, "he was good. not holy, but good. i don't think he will be too long in purgatory."

kintyre, for whom the soul was a metaphor, had to think over every aspect of her remark until he could understand that, quite simply, she believed it. that was not a consolation he wished to take from her.

"but damn," she whispered, "i'll miss him!"

they drove on in silence. at last she said, more awkwardly than the average modern woman: "i have to ask you about one thing. i saw a newspaper today. this girl he—he knew—"

"yes," said kintyre, focusing intently on the traffic. "i know her. they were living together. she's an altogether fine person who would have made him a wonderful wife. bruce was very much in love with her and wanted to get married. she hesitated only because she—was afraid she might hurt him—she would have changed her mind soon. they were happy."

corinna sighed. he could almost feel how she relaxed. "thank you," she said. "i have a lot to thank you for, haven't i? we needn't say any more about this except—if the girl would like to see me, or have me visit her, i'd be more than glad to."

"i think so," said kintyre. "in a few more days."

at once he damned himself for an idiot. he had spoken truth; but it gave margery the chance to relate a few truths of her own, if she chose, and what might come of that?

they spoke little for the remainder of the drive. it was, somehow, a restful quietness.

it was broken when they stepped from the car. another news rack faced them, with arrest father, son for lombardi murder staggering across the page.

corinna drew a gasp. she snatched kintyre's hand with fingers that were suddenly cold. "santa maria," she mumbled.

he steadied her. "easy, there," he said.

"i knew it." her voice came saw-toothed. "i knew it was them. what does it say?"

he bent over the page. "not much more than that. picked up this afternoon on suspicion, father and son. no details."

"it'll be out tomorrow. everything. and then the trial."

"i thought you were all for this," he said. "you were convinced of their guilt and—"

"i wasn't thinking. i was only hurt, and tired. no, i don't want it to be this way." slowly, she stiffened herself. "but so be it, then. can i have a drink?"

"you can have more than that." he steered her along the sidewalk. she still moved a little unsurely. "you can have the news i mainly came to give you."

"what?"

"the michaelises are not guilty."

a bar stood by their path. he led her inside, to a booth. the drab routine of checking corinna's age seemed to help calm her. she asked for straight irish whisky, he took beer.

only then did she challenge him: "how do you know?"

"it's a long story," he said, "and frankly, i'm not certain how much of it you should hear. so suppose you begin by telling me why you think they did it."

"the police—"

"uh-huh. they paid a little more attention to your ideas than you thought. they checked and found gene had dropped out of sight over the weekend. he and his father refused to cooperate, doubtless being very surly about it, so now they're in the calaboose. but what could their motive have been in the first place?"

her fingers twisted together. "oh, all that business years ago, when their boat rammed dad's."

"what more? it's something to do with you, isn't it?"

"yes. nothing disgraceful, i suppose. but ugly. a million people sniggering over this new revelation about our family—isn't there going to be end to it, ever?"

the drinks came. she tossed hers off recklessly and asked for another. while she waited, and he worked on his beer, she looked squarely across the table at him and said:

"gene came back from the navy last summer. he looked up bruce in berkeley. bruce took him home to our parents for dinner; i happened to be there too. gene gave me quite a play. he could be very charming. we had a number of dates." the color crept into her face, but she went on: "yes, he did his best to seduce me. when that didn't work, he asked me to marry him. every time we went out, it would end up with a proposal—and a wrestling match. i liked him, though. and he'd moved back to san francisco from the eastbay, taken a different job, just to be near me. who wouldn't be flattered, and touched? but i finally had to lay down the law. it was a fight, physically, to make him behave. i caught a taxi home."

the waitress came back. corinna picked up her second glass and sipped slowly. "he apologized the next day," she said, "but i told him i couldn't go out with him any more. he seemed to take it pretty well, said he would go back to chicago—he'd spent a lot of time there once—but he asked for some kind of send-off. i—i spoke to bruce. gene had always been an admirer of bruce. odd, that big, husky, world-tramping fellow, admiring bruce. we couldn't just drop him like that. we arranged a double date for a weekend early in december, a trip down to carmel. i knew bruce was in love, he couldn't hide that, but i asked him to take a friend of mine from the theater. it would make the atmosphere different. safer, i thought."

corinna stared into her drink. "we got a couple of hotel rooms down there," she said flatly. "we did a little drinking. gene did more than a little. he made several open passes at me. i was afraid of a fight, but this girl and i got to bed at last. back in their room, gene's and bruce's, gene kept on drinking. he urged bruce to come with him, into our room. well, what would you expect? bruce lost his temper and threw a punch at him. it couldn't have hurt—outside—but i wonder what it did to gene, really. he started screaming about how we were all against him. i could hear him through the wall. we'd come down in his car. he said we could all find our own way home, he staggered out to his car and drove back along the highway—drunk."

corinna brought her voice under control again. "that's all. we heard of the accident after we got home next day on the bus. we went to see him in the hospital as soon as we could. how he cursed us! bruce was crying too, when we left."

"i know," said kintyre. "i saw him a day or so later." and, briefly, he told her what margery had done.

she seemed to thaw before his eyes. "if there could be such a thing as a blessed sin—"

"now let's return to business," said kintyre. "i want to get the nightmare off your back. imprimis, how sorry are you for gene? actually?"

she hesitated. at last: "that's impossible to answer."

"he got what he asked for. it's pure luck the man in the other car wasn't killed."

"i suppose so." hardness grew along her jawline. "and if he murdered my brother—how does the saying go? god may forgive him, but i never can."

"good. however, secundus: he was not involved in bruce's death."

"what makes you so certain?" she demanded, almost belligerently.

"let me tell you what happened last night." was it only last night?

he related it in a few words. she looked at him so strangely that he was puzzled, until it came to him that not many college professors enter waterfront tenements and throw people around.

"i hope you don't think i asked for the brawl," he finished. "i'm ashamed of it. but it gave me the proof i needed."

her hand stole out, toward the plaster on his forehead. "is that how you got hurt?" she asked softly.

"no." he continued hastily: "a strong possibility is that bruce was killed by professionals. imported murderers are likeliest, since the police will be seining all local toughs."

"gene lived in chicago," she murmured through tightened lips.

"gene and his father are stonkering poor. even if gene has a murderer friend, such a job would not be done just as a favor."

"then they could have done it themselves, father and son."

"look, we had a minor scrap, the three of us. those walls are like paper. half the building heard it and came pounding on the door. bruce could not have been—hurt, as he was—in that place. it would have to be somewhere else. consider all the practical difficulties, finding an abandoned warehouse or whatever. getting an automobile, for heaven's sake! where would paupers like those two find the money to rent a car, even for a day?

"oh, well, if we stretch our reasoning all out of shape, we can say they might have done all that. but one thing they could never have managed, and that was to capture bruce in the first place. he would have tied them in bowknots."

"bruce?" she was openly bewildered.

"yes. stop thinking of him as a mere bookworm. bruce and i were going to pack into kings canyon, which is still pretty wild. and he was taking up judo, and doing quite well. a gun could have taken him prisoner, of course, but the michaelises don't have a gun; they'd have gone for it last night if one were on the premises. so bruce would have had to be slugged from behind. but there was no mark of a club on his body, no anesthetic—i have that from the police. weaponless, neither gene nor his father could have held bruce for ten seconds. they're both strong, but they fall over themselves. i threw them with baby techniques."

"that's right," she said, "you do go in for judo, don't you? but bruce said you were an expert."

"i only wear a brown belt so far. bruce, of course, was a white. he could not have coped with one or two men who knew how to handle themselves—not necessarily judo men, just experienced fighters." consider terry larkin. "however, he could certainly have thrown two unarmed michaelises. take my word for it. i know."

"oh."

she studied her hands for a while.

"they'll be released in a few days at the outside," said kintyre. "the most elementary procedures will show they're innocent. i can think of a dozen lines of proof myself. to be sure, you may be subjected to some publicity before that happens, but it will never get as far as a grand jury. believe me."

"thank you." when she smiled, he could see no other thing in all that dingy building. "i always seem to be thanking you."

"which i find pleasant enough," he bowed.

"why don't we go down to the station and explain it right now?" she asked hesitantly. "you're not afraid of being arrested for the fight, are you? that wasn't your fault."

"oh, no. but my testimony and my reasoning aren't legally conclusive," he evaded.

"it would help a lot. it might get them out, tip the scales. i feel so sorry for them now. that poor old man!"

kintyre looked straight into the green eyes. "will you trust me a little bit?" he said. "will you take my word that we can't do it immediately?"

because the police would inquire further. did i indeed hurt my arm and my head in that fracas? no, say the michaelises. where, then? i do not think their search would end short of guido, your brother.

she bit her lip. "i hate to think of them locked up for something they haven't done."

"at the present time," he said, "my story would compromise someone else whom i also know to be innocent."

like hell i do.

she sighed. "all right. that's good enough for me." and then, with the morning of her smile upon him again: "you've done enough for one day's knight errantry. let's go eat."