Rex Stout - Where There's a Will

Wolfe sighed.

Prescott said, “The will was drawn by me after instructions from Mr. Hawthorne. It is dated March 7, 1938, and replaced one which had been drawn three years previously. It was kept in a vault in the office of my firm. I mention this on account of intimations made last evening by Mrs. Dunn and Miss May Hawthorne that I should have notified them of its contents at the time it was drawn. As you know, Mr. Wolfe, that would have been—”

“Nonsense,” May said cuttingly. “You know very well we were upset. We were gasping.”

“We still are.” June’s eyes pierced Wolfe. “You will please understand that my sisters and I are perfectly satisfied with our fruit. It isn’t that. But think of it, the sensation and scandal of it! I can hardly believe it! None of us can. It’s incredible. My brother leaving his entire fortune, the bulk of it, to that — that—”

“Woman,” April suggested.

“Very well. Woman.”

“It was his fortune,” Wolfe observed. “And apparently that’s what he did with it.”

“Meaning?” May inquired.

“Meaning that if it’s the sensation and scandal you object to, the less you say and do about it the sooner it will be forgotten.”

“Thank you,” said June sarcastically. “We need something better than that. The publication of the will alone would be bad enough. Considering that millions are involved, and the position of my husband, and of my sisters — My Lord! Don’t you realize that we’re the famous Hawthorne girls, whether we like it or not?”

“Of course we like it,” April asserted. “We love it.”

“Speak for yourself, Ape.” June kept her eyes on Wolfe. “You can imagine what the papers will do. Even so, I think your advice is good. I think the best plan would be to do and say nothing, let it run its course and ignore it. But it isn’t going to be allowed to run its course. Something utterly horrible is going to happen. Daisy is going to contest the will.”

Wolfe’s frown deepened. “Daisy?”

“Oh, excuse me. As my sister said, our nerves are in shreds. Our brother’s death was a staggering shock. Then its aftermath — yesterday the funeral — and then this. Daisy is my brother’s wife. His widow. She is well established as a tragic figure.”

Wolfe nodded. “The lady who wears a veil.”

“So you know the legend.”

“Not a legend,” May declared. “Much more than a legend. A fact.”

“I merely share the public knowledge,” said Wolfe. “Of the story that — some six years ago, I believe — Noel Hawthorne was doing archery and an arrow, which he let fly inadvertently, tore a path through his wife’s face, from her brow to her chin. She had been beautiful. Since then she has never been seen without a veil.”

April said, with a little shudder, “It was dreadful. I saw her in the hospital, and I still dream about it. She was the most beautiful woman I ever saw except a girl selling cigarettes in a café in Warsaw.”

“She was emotionally barren,” May asserted. “Like me, but without alternatives. She should never have married our brother or anyone else.”

June shook her head. “You’re both wrong. Daisy was too cold to be truly beautiful. The seeds of emotion were in her, waiting to germinate. The Lord knows they’re bearing fruit now. We all heard the vindictiveness in her voice last night, and that’s an emotion, isn’t it?” June’s eyes were at Wolfe again. “She implacable. She’s going to make it as ugly as she can. The income from half a million dollars would be ample for her, but she’s going to fight. You know what that will be like. Utterly horrible. So your advice to let the scandal run its course is inadequate. She hates the Hawthornes. My husband would be called as a witness. All of us would.”

May put in, with all the sweetness gone both from her tone and her eyes, “We are going to prevent it.”

“We want,” said April, letting fire with her ripple, “we want you to prevent it, Mr. Wolfe.”

“My husband spoke very highly of you,” June stated, as if that settled everything, including the weather.

“Thank you.” Wolfe sent a glance around at them, from one to the other, including the two men. “What am I supposed to do, obliterate Mrs. Hawthorne?”

“No.” June spoke with finality. “You can’t do anything with her. You’ll have to attack it from the other end. The woman, Naomi Karn. Get her to give up most of it — at least half of it. If you do that, we’ll do the rest. For some unknown reason Daisy really wants the money, though the Lord knows what she thinks she’s going to do with it. You may find it difficult, but surely not impossible. You can tell Miss Karn that if she doesn’t relinquish at least half of it she’ll have a fight on her hands, and she may lose considerably more than half.”

“Anyone can tell her that, madam.” Wolfe turned to the lawyer. “How does it stand legally? Would Mrs. Hawthorne have a case?”

“Well.” Prescott screwed up his lips. “She would have a case, of course. To begin with, under the common law—”

“No, please. Don’t brief it. In a word, could Mrs. Hawthorne break the will?”

“I don’t know. I think she might. In view of the way the will is worded, the law leaves it open to the facts.” Prescott was looking uncomfortable again. “You might appreciate that I am in an anomalous position. Dangerously close to an unethical position. I myself drew the will for Mr. Hawthorne, having been instructed by him to make it as contest-proof as possible. I cannot be expected to suggest ways and means of attack on my own document; rather it is my duty to defend it. On the other hand, as a friend of all the members of the Hawthorne family — not as an attorney — and I may say, also of Mr. Dunn, who holds a position of national eminence — I realize the incalculable harm that would result from a public trial of the issue. It is extremely desirable to avoid it if possible, and in view of the attitude Mrs. Hawthorne had unfortunately adopted—”

Prescott stopped, and screwed up his lips again. He went on, “I’ll tell you. Frankly and confidentially — and it is highly unethical for me to say this — I regard that will as an outrage. I told Noel Hawthorne so at the time it was drawn, but when he insisted, all I could do was obey his instructions. Entirely aside from its unfairness to Mrs. Hawthorne, I was aware that he had told his sister he would leave a million dollars to the Varney College Science Fund, and that he was making it only ten per cent of that amount. That was worse than unfair, it came close to improbity, and I told him so. Without effect. My opinion was, and still is, that under the influence of Miss Karn he had lost his balance.”

“I still don’t believe it.” It was May again, and she was continuing to do without sweetness. “I still believe that if Noel had decided not to do what he had said he would do, he would have told me so.”

“My dear Miss Hawthorne.” Prescott turned to her with his lips compressed in exasperation. “Last evening I was willing to overlook your remarks because I knew you were under the stress of a great and unexpected disappointment.” There was a tremble of indignation in his voice. “But that you should dare to insinuate, here in the presence of others, that the terms of Noel’s will are not in accordance with his precise instructions — my God, the man could read, couldn’t he—”

“Nonsense,” May interrupted cuttingly. “I was merely expressing incredulity. I would as soon attack the laws of thermodynamics as your integrity. Maybe you were both hypnotized.” Suddenly and flashingly she smiled at him, and swore plaintively. “Damn it. All of this is intolerably painful. I would be for letting it go, without a word, if it weren’t that Daisy’s ghoulish stubbornness makes it imperative to do something. As it is, I insist that in the settlement with Miss Karn there shall be an arrangement to increase the legacy to the science fund to the figure my brother intended at the time he discussed it with me.”