“You keep pretty late hours.” The sergeant checked his watch, “It’s after three. How long ago did you say you got here?”
“Around two-thirty.”
Ryan pursed his lips. “Funny time to be making a business call, even in a funny business.”
“So we’ve got a lousy union. Besides, getting here at that time wasn’t my idea. She was a hatcheck girl, didn’t get home until two. I figured to give her enough time to get into something comfortable.”
The sergeant stared at him with no sign of enthusiasm. He shouldered past him, walked over to the couch and bent over the dead girl. He touched the tip of his finger to the darkening stain on her dressing gown, studied it. “She’s been dead more than an hour from the amount of coagulation. A lot more than an hour.” He brought a pencil from his pocket, drew the
