We All Killed Grandma Read Online Free PDF

still somewhat in a state of shock, and that he’d take care of you and probably the fewer other people you saw the better.”
    I said, “You’d already done plenty, Mr. Henderson. I knew that your story was one of the things that cleared me, but I hadn’t known the exact details. Thanks a lot.”
    He chuckled a little. “Thanks for what? Telling what I happened to see and hear? Don’t be silly, Rod. I only wish I could have done more for you. By the way, what were the other things that cleared you?”
    “For one thing,” I told him, “the medical examiner’s report was that she died at half past eleven. That is, he examined her at twelve-thirty and said she’d been dead about an hour. That fitted the time you heard the shot or shots and helped to let me out. Of course I could have killed her then, gone away and come back to discover the crime, but luckily I was seen downtown, three miles away, a few minutes before half past eleven. And by, of all people, a policeman who knew me.”
    “A break for you, Rod. Not that anyone would have had any serious suspicion of you, in any case. Who was it? I know quite a few policemen.”
    I said, “By crazy coincidence, one of the homicide men who came out here on the call I made. Walter Smith, Lieutenant Walter Smith. He’s on the graveyard shift at the department, starts work cold on the stroke of midnight. And my call was made just after he reported in and went on duty. He’d been in a movie downtown, came out about eleven twenty-five, he says, so he’d have time for a sandwich and coffee before he reported in; he saw me and spoke to me on the sidewalk right in front of the movie; that’s how he’s sure of the time.” I grinned wryly. “And he says I was more than a little drunk. Says he advised me to go home and sleep it off, in a friendly way.”
    “You couldn’t have had a better witness.”
    “Guess not. What I can’t figure, though, is why I didn’t take his advice. I must have had something in mind in coming out here—I mean to Grandma’s—and I wish I knew what it was. I’d feel a lot easier in my mind if I did.”
    “Did you know Arch was out of town, or could you have been coming to see him for any reason?”
    “Arch says I might not have known. That is, he says we’d last seen one another several days before and that he thinks he mentioned that he was going to Chicago for afew days, leaving here Sunday, but he isn’t too sure of it. So I could have come here to see either Arch or Grandma. I suppose I knew her work habits well enough to know she’d be up at that time.”
    “I’m sure you did. Well—you’ll remember, eventually. And it’ll probably be something trivial. Meanwhile, Rod, if there’s anything I can do—anything at all— By the way, I suppose it will take a while to probate that will and if you need any money meanwhile, I’ll be more than glad to lend you some.”
    “Thanks,” I said. “Don’t think I’ll need any. I’ve got a couple of hundred in the bank, and I should be back at work within a week or so.”
    “You’re going back to the advertising agency?”
    “I guess so,” I said.
    “Probably the best thing you can do. I mean, to fit yourself as nearly as possible into the pattern of your former life. Your memory should come back to you sooner, I’d guess, under familiar circumstances than under strange ones. And ask all the questions you can, of everybody, to help orient yourself.”
    “Just what I’m doing,” I said. “Mind if I ask you a few about yourself?”
    “Of course not, Rod. Let’s do it this way. Tell me how much you know about me from Arch, or other sources, and I’ll go on from there.”
    “Well, you’re Vincent R. Henderson; I believe Arch said you are fifty-eight, six years younger than Grandma was. You’re a lawyer, you did some work for her, you were probably her best friend. In fact, I think he said just about her only close friend. Right so far?”
    “On the head. Anything