Рекс Стаут - Please Pass the Guilt

Wolfe eyed him. “Mr. Copes. Mrs. Odell’s advertisement asks for information to me, not from me. I’ll say this: if I had received information that gave me reason to speak with Miss Lugos or Mr. Meer, I would have arranged to see them, and I haven’t.”

Copes nodded. “Fair enough. Now I have to admit something. I have to admit that I should have told the police what I’m going to tell you. I admit I’m not exactly proud of the reason why I didn’t tell them. I admit it wasn’t because of any love I have for Kenneth Meer or Helen Lugos; it was because it would have put me right in the thick of a damn nasty murder mess. All right, I admit that. With you it’s different on two counts. One, you won’t handle it like they would. You’ll have more consideration for — well, for me . Two, if you get what I think you’ll get, I’ll get sixty-five thousand dollars and can I use it!”

The fingertips of his right hand were dancing a jig on the chair arm, and he turned the hand over and curled them. “Part of what I’m going to tell you probably won’t be news to you. You probably know why Odell went to Browning’s room and opened that drawer. Don’t you?”

Wolfe grunted. “Do you?”

“Yes. He was going to put LSD in the whisky bottle so Browning would bobble it at the directors’ meeting or not even be there. You probably know that, from Mrs. Odell. I’m going to tell you how I know it. How I knew it. I knew it the day before, that he was going to. I knew it on Monday, May nineteenth.”

“Indeed.”

“Yes. Of course you know there were two doors to Browning’s room — one from the anteroom, Helen Lugos’s room, and one from the hall. And here’s another thing I have to admit, another reason I haven’t told the police: that Monday afternoon I entered Browning’s room by the door from the hall when I knew he wasn’t there. It was right after lunch, and I—”

“Wasn’t that door locked?”

“Not always. When Browning left by that door to go down the hall to the rear, he usually pushed the button on the lock so he could go back in without using his key. I wanted to look at something I knew was on his desk, and I knew he wasn’t there, so I tried that door and it opened. I didn’t make any noise because I didn’t want to be interrupted by Helen Lugos, and the door to her room was half open, and I could hear voices — hers and Kenneth Meer’s. Mostly his. I suppose this is being recorded.”

“Yes.”

“Of course. What isn’t?” He took a notebook from his pocket and opened it. “So I’d better read it. The first thing I heard him say — he said, ‘No, I’m not going to tell you how I found out. That doesn’t matter anyway, I did find out. Odell is going to dope that bottle of whisky with LSD tomorrow afternoon, or he thinks he is, and I want to be damn sure you don’t open the drawer to take a look at the usual time. Don’t open it any time after lunch. Don’t open it at all, don’t go near it, because — well, don’t .’ And she said, ‘But Ken, you’ll have to tell me — Wait. I’d better make sure—’ And there was the sound of her pushing her chair back.”

The fingertips were at it again, this time on his knee. “So I got out quick. She was probably going to come to make sure there was no one in Browning’s room. I hadn’t got to the desk, I was only a couple of steps from the door — I had left it open a crack — and I got out fast. I didn’t go back to my room because there’s another man in it with me and I wanted to be alone, so I went to the men’s room and sat on the john to think it over. Of course what I wanted to do, I wanted to tell Browning. Maybe Meer was going to tell him but from what he said it didn’t sound like it. But I didn’t want to tell Browning I had entered his room by the hall door — of course I didn’t. And I didn’t know what Meer intended to do. I knew he intended to do something since he had told her not to go near the drawer, but what? What would you have thought he intended to do?”

Wolfe shook his head. “I don’t know him. You did.”

“Sure, I knew him, but not well enough for that. For instance, I thought he might wait until about four o’clock Tuesday and then take the bottle from the drawer and put another bottle in its place, and have the whisky analyzed and have the bottle checked for fingerprints. He knew Browning never took a drink until about half past four or a quarter to five, when the program scripts had all been okayed. I considered all the possibilities, what I could do, and the one thing I had to do was make sure that Browning didn’t drink any doped whisky. So I decided to be there in the room with him Tuesday when he okayed the last script — I usually was — and when he got the bottle out, I would say that there was nothing Odell wouldn’t do to get the president’s job, and it might be a good idea to open the other bottle. There was always another bottle there, unopened, often two.”

“You knew that,” Wolfe said.

“Sure, several of us did. Often a couple of us were there when he opened the drawer. One thing I considered: tell Browning that I had heard Meer say that to Helen, but not that I had been in his room. But that would have been very tricky because where was I and where were they? You may know that a lot of people think I want Meer’s job.”

“That has been said, yes.”

“Maybe I do and maybe I don’t. I want to get on, sure, who doesn’t, but it doesn’t have to be his job. Anyway, I had to consider that too. Of course if I had known what Meer was going to do, if I had even suspected it, I would have gone straight to Browning and told him just like it was. I didn’t and of course I regret it.”

“You’re assuming that Meer had decided to put a bomb in the drawer?”

“Certainly. My God, don’t I have to? Didn’t I have to?”

“You made that assumption that day — the next day? When you learned what had happened?”

“I certainly did.”

“Five weeks ago. Five weeks and two days. What have you done to verify it?”

Copes nodded. “It’s easy to ask that. What could I have done? Could I ask people if they had seen Meer with a bomb? Could I ask them if they had seen him go into Browning’s room? Could I ask Helen Lugos anything? Could I hire a detective? Naturally you’re thinking I may have cooked this up. Of course you are. You’d be a damn fool if you didn’t. But there’s one detail, one fact, that you have to consider. As I said, you probably knew that Odell went there to put LSD in the whisky because Mrs. Odell probably told you, but how did I know? One thing, Odell must have had the LSD with him, but there has been no mention of it. It could be that the police are reserving it, or it could be that he had it in his hand when he opened the drawer and no traces of it have been found, but I doubt that because they are very thorough and very expert on that kind of thing. Probably they’re keeping it back. Maybe you know?”

Wolfe skipped it. “That’s a detail, yes. Not conclusive, but indicative. You’re aware, Mr. Copes, that without support your information is worthless. If I challenge Mr. Meer or Miss Lugos by telling them what you have told me and they say you lie, what then? Have you a suggestion?”

“No. The ad didn’t say I have to tell you how to use the information. You’re Nero Wolfe, the great detective; I’m just a guy who happened to hear something. Of course I realize Browning will have to know I entered his room that way, that will have to come out, maybe even on the witness stand. You’ve got it now on tape. If it costs me my job I’ll need that sixty-five thousand. Should I tell Browning myself? Now?”