SLEEP NO MORE
245
story. Miss Caruso claimed that Tom stole a pound of butter from
her kitchen and she refused to let him have a key to her apartment."
"Doesn't the superintendent have to have a key to every tenant's
apartment?"
"Yes, so far as I know."
"Has Tom ever stolen things from other apartments?"
"Not that I ever heard of. I would trust him."
"Thank you," he said again.
This time he rose to leave. I could have asked him many more
questions, but I could no longer endure the ambiguous position I oc–
cupied between the accuser and the accused. From the point of view
of Intelligence, every gesture, every breath of Miss Caruso was part
of her essential guilt. But where did I stand?
If
my most innocent
observations could so easily be converted into proofs of Miss Caruso's
guilt, then I could no longer rest securely on my own innocence. I
was
guilty both of assuming the innocence of Intelligence and of fail–
ing
to realize the guilt of Miss Caruso.
One is always saved by the amenities, however, and we shook
hands while my towering inquisitor thanked me for the third time.
As
he hulked out the doorway of my apartment,
I
said to him ner–
vously, fingering my red bathrobe, "I guess I'll get dressed."
.No sooner had the door closed behind him than I rushed over
to the window, to keep my eye on him as long as I could. He emerged
from the house and walked down the street.
As
I watched
him
from
my
lookout, cleverly concealed behind a shade and ready to pull back
at the slightest turn of
his
head, he grew smaller and smaller in the
distance, finally losing
himself
in
a
blur of tiny shadows, as anonymous
and mysterious as when he first rang my doorbell.
I have a remarkable way of forgetting what is uppermost in my
mind and a few days passed without my once giving the entire inci–
dent a thought. One morning, however, I ran into Miss Johnson. She
looked at me strangely, as though she knew something I knew but
neither of us should talk about.
her."
"Did a man from Army Intelligence come to see you," I asked,
"No."
"About Miss Caruso. He wanted to find out something about
"No. I don't know anything about it."
