Yamamura said in the phone: "Tim? This is Trig. Never mind formalities. Get a car to the apartment of Margery Towne. She may still be alive.... No, I don't remember the damned address! What's the directory for?" "You're in no shape to steer a car," said Guido. "Where are your keys? Come on and guide me." Kintyre sat shaking all the way over. Guido drove with a Cossack will to arrive at which a part of Kintyre, drowning among the reefs of Taputenea, knew dim surprise. They did not beat the police, though. Officer Moffat met them on the front steps. Blankness lay in his gaze. "We came too late," he said. "Her throat's cut." "I expected that," said Kintyre. The horror rose up and took him. 17 Jimmy O'Hearn was still snuffling when the police unbound him and led him off to be booked. Inspector Harries went back into the yard with Yamamura and Guido. "All right, Trig," he said, "now tell me just what did happen." "Dr. Kintyre, Mr. Lombardi's sister, and I went to see Mr. Lombardi at the night club where he works," answered Yamamura. "He was pretty worried. O'Hearn and another chap named Larkin had hired him to do a certain out-of-town job over the very weekend his brother was killed. He wondered if it was a coincidence." "O'Hearn babbled something about a package of dope," said Inspector Harries grimly. Guido became busy lighting a cigarette. "Sure," said Yamamura. "Why not try to drag down the witnesses against him? Where is this package?" "Suppose you tell me yourself what the job was, Mr. Lombardi," said Harries without warmth. "Well, they did want me to go to Tijuana and get some pod," said Guido. Yamamura had briefed him in a moment's stolen privacy. "I admit I went down--is uncompleted intent a crime? I changed my mind and didn't actually get the stuff." Impudence danced over his lips. "It'd have been illegal. And also, thinking it over, I saw that the errand didn't make sense. There are enough places right here that carry the same line." "Hm. Any witnesses?" Guido shrugged. "No. How could there be? I suppose you can prove I was in Tijuana and ate a few meals there." "I would think you'd have more important things to do than asking out the details of something which is contradicted only by the unsupported word of a gangster," said Yamamura. Harries considered him angrily. "You were my friend, Trig," he said. "Don't add insult to injury." "I had no choice," said Yamamura, very low. "The night before last," said Guido, "Larkin showed up and got violent with Professor Kintyre, who was talking to me. Quite a brawl. Larkin got away, and Kintyre left too when I begged him. I admit I lied to the officers afterward, claiming I didn't know either one of them, but by then I was scared." "Go on," grunted Harries.