Midnight, page 109 by Octavus Roy Cohen
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o we know that?"
"Because you know he was killed by a woman!"
"Aa-a-ah! That's what you think, eh?"
"I know a woman killed him."
"You were present?"
"Bah! Trying to trap me--are you? Well, I ain't going to be trapped. I don't know nothin' about it. Like I said from the first."
"But you do know something about it," insisted Carroll icily. "And I'd advise you to come clean with us."
"There ain't nothin' to come clean about."
"You say we know that a woman killed Warren. You seem pretty confident of that yourself. Well, we happen to know that you know who this woman was. Who was she?"
For the first time Barker's eyes shifted. "You know as well as me who she was?"
"Who was she?" Carroll's voice fairly snapped.
"It was--Miss Hazel Gresham!"
Carroll stared at the man. "Listen to me, Barker--you're lying and we know you're lying. You know as well as we do that Miss Gresham was at her own home when Warren was killed. I don't want any more lies! Not one! Now tell us the truth!"
Barker stared first at Carroll--then at Leverage. An expression of doubt crossed his face. It was patent that these men knew more than he had credited them. Finally he shrugged his shoulders--
"Well--Mr. Carroll, that bein' the case--I ain't goin' to stick my head in a noose for nobody!"
"You've decided to tell us the truth!"
"I have."
"You know who killed Roland Warren?"
"Yes--I know who killed Roland Warren!"
"Who was it?"
Barker's face went white. Leverage and Carroll leaned forward eagerly--nervously. It seemed an eternity before Barker's answer came--but when it did, his words rang with conviction--he uttered a name--
CHAPTER XVIII
"AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH--"
Barker's words reverberated through the room--to be succeeded by an almost unnatural stillness; a silence punctured by the