And we know you got an alibi. We talked to your friend Helen Speers. You were with her at the town house during the time in question. In my line of work, you tend to remember things pretty exactly. Well, I said. My husband and I disagree on some things, said Ellen graciously. But we find common ground where we can. The night she died you were up early. You said you had a Zoom interview with a magazine in the Netherlands. Oh, oh! Drake exclaimed. Thats right. With a thirty-eight revolver, right in the chest from a distance of about eighteen or twenty inches. Any business can be discussed with my lawyer, Perry Mason. What jokes? I dont have any jokes, just witticisms. I guess youre going to blame me for releasing the list to the press. I knew by experience about how far it would be possible to fling an ordinary weapon of ordinary weight under those circumstances, so I went out to the place where I thought such a weapon might have landed. Sure enough, I found a track in the moist soil, indicating that something had struck, bounced, then slid under some loose, moist soil. I probed in this soil and found the revolver. No, Ive been up to the office. He isnt there. A trade-off. There were two things I could do. I could set up a howl or I could pay. But I wasnt in Birmingham to set up a howl. I was there to pick up eight votes. So I paid, silent and perhaps shame-faced, and when I did she grinned spitefully, the way some people do when theyve taken money away from a coward, and said, Maybe thatll teach you to take blue-gummed niggers to lunch. Its unlike you to be late for eating, Dino, Stone said. Where? I didnt see him. This might be a good night for the debut. Youll look less like an invalid. She moved closer and aimed the gun at his head for the kill shot. They were too predictable, in fact. A fair share of the audience was starting to leave. I saw it as a pretty easy slog for both Jess and Dorsey. He managed to turn aside our bombshell question with an armada of anti-media and patriotic rants that won hearty applause from his side and some actual boos from ours. The son of a bitch never managed to answer a question straight on; in boxing that was called slipping a punch. In politics that was called making your case. The white Stetson almost ruined the hard-ass effect he wanted. If you live in Texas, Wyoming or South Dakota, the Stetson is fine, legit. If you live in a crooked river city in Illinois, youre just playing cowpoke. That he wore it while he was inside was even more of a joke. But even with the Stetson, I knew he would be dangerous..