Rex Stout - Triple Jeopardy

"It's hotter than yesterday," I stated.

"I asked you a question!"

"This is infantile," Wolfe told him. "You must know the legal procedure with suspected felons. We do."

"Just give it to him," Wengert repeated.

Cramer was glaring at Wolfe. "What you know about legal procedures. Okay. Yesterday you sent Goodwin to see Delia Devlin. In your name he offered her ten thousand dollars to testify falsely that she saw Fifi Goheen take the pillbox from the table, remove a capsule and replace it with another, and put the box back on the table. He said the money would be supplied by Mr. and Mrs. Rackell and would be handed her in currency after she had so testified. I shouldn't have said subornation of perjury, I should have said attempt. Now do I ask Goodwin some questions?"

"I'd like to ask him one myself." Wolfe's eyes moved. "Archie. Is what Mr. Cramer just said true?" l\o, sir.

"Then don't answer questions. A policeman has no right to make an inaccurate statement to a citizen about his actions and then order him to answer questions about it." He went to Cramer. "We could drag this out interminably. Why not resolve it sensibly and conclusively?" He came to me. "Archie, get Miss Devlin on the phone and ask her to come down here at once."

I turned and started to dial.

"Cut it, Goodwin," Wengert snapped. I went on dialing. Cramer, who can move when he wants to, left his chair and was by me, pushing down the button. I cocked my head to look up at him. He scowled down at me. I put it back in the cradle. He returned to his chair.

"Then we'll have to change the subject," Wolfe said dryly. "Surely your position is untenable. You want to bullyrag us

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for what Mr. Goodwin, as my agent, said to Miss Devlin; the first thing to establish is what was actually said; and the only satisfactory way to establish it is to have them both here. Yet you not only didn't bring her with you, you are even determined that we shall not communicate with her. Obviously you don't want her to know what's going on. It's quite preposterous, but I draw no conclusion. It's hard to believe that the New York police and the FBI would conspire to bamboozle a citizen, even me."

Cramer was reddening up again.

Wengert cleared his throat. "Look, Wolfe," he said, not belligerently, "we're here to talk sense."

"Good. Why not start?"

"I am. The interest of the people and government of the United States is involved in this case. My job is to protect that interest. I know you and Goodwin can keep your mouths shut when you want to. I am now talking off the record. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir."

"Goodwin?"

"Good here."

"See that you keep it good. Arthur Rackell told his aunt that he was working with the FBI. That was a lie. He was either a member of the Communist party or a fellow traveler, we're not sure which. We don't know who he told, besides his aunt, that he was with the FBI, but we're working on it and so are the police. He may have been killed by a Communist who heard it somehow and believed it. There were other motives, personal ones, but the Communist angle comes first until and unless it's ruled out. So you can see why we're in on it. The public interest is involved, not only of this city and state but the whole country. You see that?"

"I saw it," Wolfe muttered, "when I sent Mr. Goodwin to see you day before yesterday."

"We'll skip that." Wengert didn't want to offend. "The point is, what about you? I concede that all you're after is to catch the murderer and collect a fee. But we know you sent Goodwin to Miss Devlin yesterday to offer to pay her to say

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|she saw Miss Goheen in the act. We also know that you likely to pull such a stunt just for the hell of it. You i exactly what you were doing and why you were doing say you have regard for the public interest. All right, |inspector here represents it, and so do I, and we want you up for us. We confidently expect you to. What and : are you after, and where does that stunt get you?" A)lfe was regarding him sympathetically through half eyes. "You're not a nincompoop, Mr. Wengert." The ; moved. "Nor you, Mr. Cramer." il'TThat's something," Cramer growled. , "It is indeed, considering the average. But your coming to put this to me, either peremptorily or politely, was I considered. Shall I explain?" ; "If it's not too much bother."

"I'll be as brief as possible. Let us make a complex supposii--that I got Mr. and Mrs. Rackell's permission for an raordinary disbursement for a stated purpose; that I sent |r. Goodwin to see Miss Devlin; that he told her I had conluded that Miss Goheen had murdered Arthur Rackell and she had seen the act; that I suggested that she should inform i fine police of that fact; and that, as compensation for her I' -embarrassment and distress, I engaged to pay her a large sum of money which would be provided by Mr. and Mrs. Rackell." Wolfe upturned a palm. "Supposing I did that, it was not an attempt to suborn perjury, since it cannot be shown that I intended her to swear falsely, but certainly I was exposing myself to a claim for damages from Miss Goheen. That was a calculated risk I had to take, and whether the calculation was sound depended on the event. There was also a risk of being charged with obstruction of justice, and that too depended on the event. Should it prove to serve justice instead of obstructing it, and should Miss Goheen suffer no unmerited damage, I would be fully justified. I hope to be. I expect to be."

"Then you can--"

"If you please. But suppose, having done all that, I now admit it to you and tell you my calculations and intentions.

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Then you'll either have to try to head me off or be in it with me. It would be jackassery for you to head me off--take my word for it; it would be unthinkable. But it would also be unthinkable for you to be in it, either actively or passively. Whatever the outcome may be, you cannot afford to be associated with an offer to pay a large sum of money to a person involved in a murder case for disclosing a fact, even an authentic one. Your positions forbid it. I'm a private citizen and can stand it; you can't. What the devil did you come here for? If I'm headed for defeat, opprobrium, and punishment, then I am. Why dash up here only to get yourselves confronted with unthinkable alternatives?"

Wolfe fluttered a hand. "Luckily, this is just talk. I was merely discussing a complex supposition. To return to reality, I will be glad to give you gentlemen any information that you may properly require--and Mr. Goodwin too, of course. So?"

They looked at each other. Cramer let out a snort. Wengert pulled at his ear and gazed at me, and I returned the gaze, open-faced and perfectly innocent. He found that not helpful and transferred to Wolfe.

"You called the turn," he said, "when you told Goodwin to phone Miss Devlin. I should have foreseen that. That was dumb." i

The phone rang, and I swiveled and got it. "Nero Wolfe's office, Archie Goodwin speaking."

"This is Rattner."

"Oh, hello. Keep it down, my ears are sensitive."

"Durkin sent me to phone so he could stay on the subject. The subject came out of the house at seven nineteen East Fifty-first Street at eleven forty-one. He was alone. He walked to Lexington and around the corner to a drugstore and is in there now in a phone booth. I'm across the street in a restaurant. Any instructions?"

"Not a thing, thank you. Give my love to the family."

"Right."

It clicked off, and I hung up and swiveled back to rejoin the party, but apparently it was over. They were on their 42

feet, and Wengert was turning to go. Cramer was saying, ". . . but it's not all off the record. I just want that understood."

He turned and followed Wengert out. I saw no point in dashing past them out to the door, since two grown men should be up to turning a knob and pulling, but I stepped to the hall to observe. When they were outside and the door closed I went back in and remarked to Wolfe, "Very neat. But what if they had let me phone her?"