"She was still sobbing… she said, 'Get out of here. You're not a falcon…' And then the phone slammed down."

"She slammed the phone down?"

"I don't know which one of them did it."

"Miss Lange, does the word 'falcon' mean anything to you?"

"Yes." Leila's face filled Elizabeth 's mind: the tenderness in Leila's eyes when she looked at Ted, the way she would go up and kiss him. "God, Falcon, I love you."

"Why?"

"It was Ted's nickname… my sister's pet name for him. She did that, you see. The people close to her-she gave them special names."

"Did she ever call anyone else by that name-the name Falcon?"

"No… never." Abruptly, Elizabeth got up and walked to the window. It was grimy with dust. The faint breeze was hot and muggy. She thought longingly of getting away from here.

"Only a few minutes more, I promise. Miss Lange, do you know what time the phone was slammed down?"

"Precisely nine thirty."

"Are you absolutely sure?"

"Yes. There must have been a power failure when I was away. I reset my clock that afternoon. I'm sure it was right."

"What did you do then?"

"I was terribly upset. I had to see Leila. I ran out.

It took me at least fifteen minutes to get a cab. It was after ten when I got to Leila's apartment."

"And there was no one there."

"No. I tried to phone Ted. There was no answer at his place. I just waited." Waited all night, not knowing what to think, half-worried, half-relieved; hoping that Leila and Ted had made up and were out somewhere, not knowing that Leila's broken body was lying in the courtyard.

"The next morning, when the body was discovered, you thought she must have fallen from the terrace? It was a rainy March night. Why would she have gone out there?"

"She loved to go out and stand and just look at the city. In any weather. I used to tell her to be careful… that railing wasn't very high. I thought she must have leaned over; she had been drinking; she fell…"