A Game for the Living Read Online Free PDF Page B

face with a wet towel.
    â€œDoes he take drugs for these headaches?” Sauzas asked Theodore.
    â€œNo. He’s had no drugs. He’s just stunned.” As soon as he had said it, Theodore realized that if Ramón were stunned it would indicate that he had not done the crime.
    â€œThere was a noise on the roof tonight,” Sauzas said to Ramón. “Señora de Silva said she heard something like running footsteps on the roof. Were you here when that happened?”
    â€œFootsteps on the roof?” Ramón repeated.
    â€œRamón, wake up! We haven’t all night to get a little information out of you!” Theodore burst out.
    â€œOh, yes, we have all night,” Sauzas said with a chuckle and lit a fresh cigarette. He smoked Gitanes, and the strong bittersweet smell of their ‘caporal’ tobacco was beginning to fill the room. “Well, did you hear the footsteps on the roof?” Sauzas asked.
    â€œI don’t remember. I don’t think so.”
    A detective stood up abruptly from the table. “His fingerprints are on the bottle,” he said, pointing to the Bacardi on the table. “There is also one of his on the bedstead and on the table by her bed.”
    â€œWhat about the window-sill and the knives in the kitchen?” Sauzas asked.
    â€œThere is only one knife with fingerprints, and the fingerprints are those of the woman,” the detective replied.
    â€œUm-m,” Sauzas said non-committally. “Were you in love with Lelia, Ramón?”
    â€œYes,” Ramón said.
    â€œDid you want to marry her?”
    Ramón’s lips pressed together, then he jumped up from his chair and strode to the door. A detective and the two policemen ran after him and yanked him back. As they turned Ramón round, Theodore saw for a moment a frantic, tired, bewildered expression on his face, then they bounced him into a chair again. He sprang up. “I didn’t do it!” Ramón shouted. “I didn’t! I didn’t!”
    â€œNo one has said you did.”
    Ramón was standing and would not be put back into the chair. A policeman on either side of him held his arms akimbo. “Did you do it, Teo?”
    â€œNo, Ramón, but I found her. I came here and found her,” Theodore said.
    â€œI don’t believe you! Are those your flowers? Do you deny bringing them?” Ramón’s voice rose hysterically.
    â€œThat remains to be found out, Ramón,” Sauzas said. “Señor Schiebelhut says he came here and crawled through the transom because he had no key—”
    â€œBut he has a key!” Ramón interrupted, jerking at the policeman’s hold.
    â€œI left it at home. I have no key with me. I saw a light, Ramón, and I called to her.”
    â€œSearch him for a key,” Sauzas said to one of the detectives.
    Theodore patiently emptied his pockets on to the table—wallet, key chain with two keys to his car and two to his house plus a mail-box key, cigarettes, lighter, change, a button that had fallen from his raincoat—but the detective felt in every pocket for himself. The keys on the chain were tested to see if they fitted the door.
    Sauzas turned to Ramón. “You have her key with you?”
    Ramón nodded, reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out a key-ring with three or four keys on it.
    â€œWhich is hers?” Sauzas asked, and when Ramón singled it out and handed the key-ring to him, he opened the door and tried it. The key worked. “Did you lock the door when you left here, Ramón?”
    â€œOf course I did not. She was here.”
    â€œDid you hear her lock the door after you?”
    â€œNo. I don’t remember.”
    â€œWas she in the habit of keeping the door locked?”
    Ramón hesitated, and Theodore knew there wasn’t any answer to that. Lelia did not have habits like that. She just might or might not lock the door after