Рекс Стаут - Gambit

“Yes. After he had heard the recording he offered me one hundred thousand dollars in cash, in the hearing of these four men, for the tape and the statement signed by Mr. Goodwin... Give it to him, Archie.”

I got the slip of paper from my pocket and went and handed it over. Cramer read it and looked up. “This is in his handwriting?”

“I don’t know. Presumably.”

He read it again, folded it, and stuck it in his pocket. “I have known you to pull some awful fancy ones. How fancy is this?”

“If by ‘fancy’ you mean specious, not at all. Knowing that Dr. Avery was twice a murderer, I determined to establish it. Since it was impossible—”

“When did you know it? Did you know it when—” Cramer chopped it and got up and made for me, and, knowing what he wanted, I left my chair and he sat. While he took the phone and dialed I helped myself to some champagne, and by the time I had the bottle back in the ice he had Sergeant Stebbins.

“Purley? I’m at Wolfe’s. Get Dr. Victor Avery and bring him in and keep him until I get there. Go yourself. Don’t stop for a warrant. Take him as a material witness in the Kalmus murder, and I mean take him. I want him there when I come — half an hour, maybe more.”

He stood, gave me as sour a look as he had ever favored me with, returned to the red leather chair, gave Wolfe the same look if not worse, and said, “And when I go you and Goodwin are going with me. Who do you two baboons think you are? Goodwin told a barefaced lie and it’s in his signed statement, and yesterday morning you told me I was better acquainted with all the circumstances surrounding the death of Kalmus than you were. How you expect to get away with — damn you, don’t sit there with that curl on your lip! I’ll wipe that off!”

“I’ll save you the trouble,” Wolfe said, no hard feeling. “Mr. Goodwin lied to Dr. Avery, not to you. He didn’t have that house under surveillance Wednesday. As he told you, he arrived there shortly after ten o’clock, accompanied by Miss Blount, so he couldn’t have seen the murderer enter or leave. We gulled Dr. Avery. Since it was impossible—”

That interruption wasn’t by Cramer. Saul had entered with another bottle of champagne. Stopping three steps in and seeing that Wolfe was giving him the floor, he came and got the extra glass and filled it and handed it to Cramer, refilled Orrie’s and mine and his own, put the bottle in the bucket, and sat. Cramer, who had accepted the glass without knowing it, spilled a little on his pants, glared at the glass in his hand as if demanding how it got there, moved it to his mouth, drained it in three gulps, and put it down on the stand.

He sent the glare at Wolfe. “I don’t believe it,” he said. “To make me swallow it, try telling me how you knew Avery had entered that house if Goodwin hadn’t seen him. And knew he had killed Jerin. Let’s hear you.”

Wolfe nodded. “That’s the point, of course. It’s complicated.”

“I’ll bet it is. I’ll try to understand it. Well?”

Wolfe leaned back. “It was an inference, not a conclusion from demonstrable evidence, for I had none. The inference had three legs. First, Blount had not killed Jerin. As you know, I had previously made that assumption, and the murder of Kalmus established it. Second, Jerin had not been killed by one of the messengers — Hausman, Yerkes, Farrow. I have already apologized to myself for my preposterous pretense that that was possible; I now apologize to you. With Jerin sitting there, the tray at his elbow, and with other messengers entering momentarily?”

He jerked a hand to brush it off. “Pfui. Third, only Avery was left. He had had an opportunity, as good as Blount’s if not better; he had made a concoction, ostensibly mustard water, and administered it to Jerin. It was credible that he had had a motive; as recorded on that tape, Mr. Goodwin told him that he had had no malice for Jerin, his purpose was to destroy Blount. That can’t be—”

“Why did he want to destroy Blount?”

“Because he wanted Blount’s wife. That can’t be established, since the only evidence for it is inside him, but neither can it be impeached. I presume you have spoken with Mrs. Blount?”

“Yes. Several times.”

“Is it credible that she might provoke an appetite unwittingly?”

“Hell yes.”

“Then motive is at least plausible. But granted opportunity and motive, two questions remain: why was Jerin taken ill so conveniently before Avery was called in to attend him, and why, again so conveniently, did Avery have arsenic on his person? Indeed, it was not until the answers to those two questions were supplied by Mr. Goodwin, after his conversation with Mr. Blount at the prison yesterday, that my attention was on Dr. Avery at all. There’s a third question, did Dr. Avery know in advance that Jerin would be taken ill, but that’s merely a part of the second one, and the answer is that he could have and almost certainly did. Kalmus had told him. That was what—”

“Come on,” Cramer cut in. “Goodwin got that from Blount. He’s in jail for murder. He’s your client. He’s not mine.”

“I’ll come to that. I’m telling you why I hit on Avery. That was what made Kalmus suspect him, and he made the mistake of undertaking to deal with him tête-à-tête — a mistake that cost him his life.” Wolfe turned a palm up. “So there it was. When Mr. Goodwin reported on his talk with Mr. Blount, I was satisfied that Avery was the man, but I had no scrap of evidence and no hope of getting any. I say I was satisfied, but satisfaction isn’t certainty, and only certainty would do. I decided to test it and made elaborate arrangements. I asked Mrs. Blount to get all of them here last evening — all of those involved, including Dr. Avery — and, when they were assembled, I announced that I had discharged Mr. Goodwin, who was not present, and that I was withdrawing from the case. I returned to Miss Blount the fee she had paid me. She was privy to the plan. I told them that I had discharged Mr. Goodwin for dereliction of duty; that he had had Kalmus’s house under surveillance Wednesday evening and had deserted his post for an hour or more, and so had failed to see the murderer enter and leave.”

“They don’t know Goodwin,” Cramer muttered, and I raised a brow at him.

“They do now,” Wolfe said, “or I should say Avery does. From a hotel room he telephoned Avery, told him he had been discharged and why, told him he had not deserted his post, gave him to understand that he had seen him enter and leave Kalmus’s house Wednesday evening, and told him to bring one hundred thousand dollars to a rendezvous at Piotti’s restaurant. Of course Avery’s reaction settled it. If, innocent or guilty, he had disdained the challenge, I would have been through. May I digress?”

Cramer grunted. “You always do.”

“It’s relevant but not material. I believe he would have disdained it if he had had nothing to fear but the law. He knew there was no conclusive evidence against him and that the prospect of getting any was remote; his having been seen entering and leaving the house wouldn’t convict him of murder, even if Mr. Goodwin’s word were credited. There could have been no motive for him to kill Kalmus unless he had killed Jerin, and the possibility of getting proof that he had killed Jerin was more than remote, it was nonexistent. His compelling dread was not of the law, it was of Mrs. Blount. Would she believe Mr. Goodwin? Or, more to the point, would she disbelieve him? If she merely doubted, his purpose was defeated. It was not to be borne. He made the appointment with Mr. Goodwin and kept it. You have heard the result.”

Wolfe folded his arms. “That’s all, Mr. Cramer. You could legally get that tape by a court order, but I won’t stand on formality. Take it, with the understanding that I may arrange for Mr. and Mrs. Blount to hear it should that be necessary. Will Mr. Blount be released today or must he wait until tomorrow?”