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"Friends are notoriously unreliable witnesses," Howard said "Besides, it ht have been that one affair you kept all to yourself, the secret little fling Face it, Miss Thomas, you painted yourself into a corner The facts are these You say Frye was in this house tonight But the sheriff says he was up there, in his own house, as of thirty o Now, St Helena is over four hundred miles by air, over five hundred by car He siotten home that fast And he could not have been in two places at once because, in case you haven’t heard, that’s a serious violation of the laws of physics"

Lieutenant Clemenza said, "Frank, maybe you should let me finish up with Miss Thomas"

"What’s to finish? It’s over, done, kaput" Howard pointed an accusing finger at her "You’re damned lucky, Miss Thootten into court, you’d have coht have wound up in jail You’re also lucky that there’s no sure way for us to punish so our time like this"

"I don’t know that we’ve wasted our time," Clelared at her "I’ll tell you one thing: If Bruno Frye wants to pursue a libel suit, I sure to God will testify for him" Then he turned and walked away from her, toward the study door

Lieutenant Clemenza didn’tthe other one walk out before some important questions were answered

"Wait a minute," she said

Howard stopped and looked back at her "Yeah?"

"What now? What are you going to do about my complaint?" she said

"Are you serious?"

"Yes"

"I’ to the car, cancel that APB on Bruno Frye, then call it a day I’ home and drink a couple cold bottles of Coors"

"You aren’t going to leave me here alone? What if he comes back?"

"Oh, Christ" Howard said "Will you please drop the act?"

She took a few steps toward him "No matter what you think, noon an act Will you at least leave one of those uniforet a locksmith to replace the locks on my doors?"

Howard shook his head "No I’ll be damned if I’ll waste more police time and taxpayers’ money to provide you with protection you don’t need Give up It’s all over You lost Face it, Miss Thomas" He walked out of the room

Hilary went to the brown armchair and sat down She was exhausted, confused, and scared

Clemenza said, "I’ll make sure Officers Whitlock and Fared"

She looked up at hied He was noticeably uncomfortable "I’m sorry there’s not ," she said

"I believe you"

"Frye really was here tonight," she said

"I don’t doubt that someone was here, but--"

"Not just someone Frye"

"If you’d reconsider your identification, we could keep working on the case and--"

"It was Frye," she said, not angrily now, just wearily "It was hiarded her with interest, and his clear brown eyes were syood looks that entle quality in his Italian features, a special concern and understanding so visible in his face that she felt he truly cared what happened to her

He said, "You’ve had a very rough experience It’s shaken you That’s perfectly understandable

And soh a shock like this, it distorts your perceptions Maybe when you’ve had a chance to cals a little differently I’ll stop by so new to tell me"