Rex Stout - Triple Jeopardy

"The air's the same if you stay on the path." He approached on the grass, looking not at us but past us, in the direction we had been gazing. Suddenly he grunted, quickened his step, and headed straight for Saul's bush. Apparently he had good eyes too. There was no time to consider. I muttered fast at Doyle's ear, "Grab his cap and run--jump, damn it!"

He did. I will always love him for it, especially for not hesitating a tenth of a second. Four leaps got him to the cop, a swoop of his hand got the cap, and away he scooted, swerving right to double back to the path. I stood in my tracks. The cop acted by reflex. Instead of ignoring the playful prank and proceeding to inspect the object under the bush, or making for me, he bounded after Doyle and his cap, calling a command to halt. Doyle, reaching the path and streaking along it, had a good lead, but the cop was no snail. They disappeared. All that commotion changed the situation entirely. I made it double quick to the left across the grass until I reached the other fork of the path, and kept going. Around a bend, there they were--Heath seated on a bench with a woman, a big collie lying at their feet. When I stopped in front of them the collie rose to its haunches and made a noise, asking a question. I had a hand in a coat pocket.

"Tell the dog it's okay," I suggested. "I hate to shoot a dog."

"Why should you--" Heath started, and stopped. He stood up.

"Yeah, it's me," I said. "Representing Nero Wolfe. It won't

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help if you scream, there's two of us. Come on out, Saul. Watch the dog, it may not wait for orders."

There was a sound from the direction of the bushes, and in a moment Saul appeared, circling around to join me on the right. The dog made a noise that was more of a whine than a growl, but it didn't move. The woman put a hand on its head. I asked Saul, "Could you hear what they said?"

"Most of it. I heard enough."

"Was it interesting?"

"Yes."

"This is illegal," Heath stated. He was half choked with indignation or something. "This is an invasion�"

"Nuts. Save it; you may need it. I have a cab parked at the Eighty-sixth-Street entrance. Four of us with the dog will just fill it comfortably. Mr. Wolfe is expecting us. Let's go."

"You're armed," Heath said. "This is assault with a deadly weapon."

"I'm going home," the woman said, speaking for the first time. "I'll telephone Mr. Wolfe, or my husband will, and we'll see about this. I brought my dog to the park, and this gentleman and I happened to get into conversation. This is outrageous. You won't dare to harm my dog."

She got up, and the collie was instantly erect by her, against her knee.

"Well," I conceded, "I admit I hate to shoot a dog. I also admit that Mr. Wolfe likes himself so well that he'll steal the throne on the Day of Judgment if they don't watch him. So you go on home with Towser, and Saul and I will call on the police and the FBI, and I'll tell them what I saw, and Saul will tell them what he saw and heard. But don't make the mistake of thinking you can talk them out of believing us. We have our reputations just as you have yours."

They looked at each other. They looked at me and back at each other.

"We'll see Mr. Wolfe," the woman said.

Heath looked right and then left, as if hoping there might be someone else around to see, and then nodded at her.

"That's sensible," I told them. "You lead the way, Saul. lEighty-sixth-Street entrance."

^e left the collie in Herb's taxi, parked at the curb in front of Wolfe's place. There has never been a dog in I that house, and I saw no point in breaking the precedent for one who was on such strained terms with me. Herb, on advice, closed the glass panels.

I went ahead up the stoop to open the door and let them in, put them in the front room with Saul, and went through to 5 the office.

"Okay," I told Wolfe, "it's your turn. They're here." Behind his desk, he closed the book he had been reading | and put it down. He asked, "Mrs. Rackell?"

"Yes. They were there on a bench, with dog, and Saul was behind a bush and could hear, but I don't know what. I gave them their choice of the law or you, and they preferred 1 you. She probably thinks she can buy out. You want Saul I 6rst?"

"No. Bring them in." "But Saul can tell you--" "I don't need it. Or if I do-we'll see." "You want him in too?" "Yes."

I went and opened the connecting door and invited them, | and they entered. As Mrs. Rackell crossed to the red leather chair and sat her lips were so tight there were none. Heath's jf face had no expression at all, but it must be hard to display feeling with that kind of round pudgy frontispiece even if you try. Saul took a chair against the far wall, but Wolfe told him to move up, and he transferred to one at the end of my desk.

Mrs. Rackell grabbed the ball. She said it was absolutely * contemptible, spying on her and threatening her with the

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police. It was infamous and treacherous. She wouldn't tolerate it.

Wolfe let her get it out and then said dryly, "You astonish me, madam." He shook his head. "You chatter about proprieties when you are under the menace of a mortal peril. Don't you realize what I've done? Don't you know where we stand?"

"You're chattering yourself," Heath said harshly. "We were brought here under a threat. By what right?"

"I'll tell you." Wolfe leaned back. "This is no pleasure for me, so I'll hurry it--my part of it. But you need to know exactly what the situation is, for you have a vital decision to make. First let me introduce Mr. Saul Panzer." His eyes moved. "Saul, you followed Mr. Heath to a clandestine meeting with Mrs. Rackell?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then I'll risk an assumption. I assume that his purpose was to protest against her supplying funds to inculpate Miss Goheen, and to demand that the attempt be abandoned. You heard much of what they said?"

"Yes, sir."

"Did it impeach my assumption?"

"No, sir."

"Did it support it?"

"Yes, sir. Plenty."

Wolfe went to Heath. "Mr. Panzer's quality is known, though not to you until now. I think a jury will believe him, and I'm sure the police and the FBI will. My advice, sir, is to cut the loss."

"Loss?" Heath was trying to sneer but with that face he couldn't make it. "I haven't lost anything." "You're about to. You can't help it." Wolfe wiggled a finger at him. "Must I spell it out for you? Wednesday evening, day before yesterday, when you and six others were here, I was nonplused. I had my choice of giving up or of attempting simultaneously a dozen elaborate lines of inquiry, any one of which would have strained my resources. Neither was tolerable. Since I was helpless with what had already happened,

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5I had to try to make something happen under my eye, and I ^devised a stratagem--a clumsy one, but the best I could do. (| made a proposal to Mr. and Mrs. Rackell. I phrased it with care, but in effect I asked for money to bribe a witness and �vsolve the case by chicanery."

Wolfe's eyes darted to Mrs. Rackell. "And you idiotically 'exposed yourself."

"I did?" She was contemptuous. "How?" "You grabbed at it. Your husband, in his innocence, was dubious, but not you. You thought that, having decided the job was beyond me, I was trying to earn a fee by knavery, and you eagerly acquiesced. Why? It was out of character and indeed preposterous. What you had said you wanted was the murderer of your nephew caught and punished, but apparently you were willing to spend a large sum of money, your own money, on a frame-up. Either that or you were excessively naive, and at least it justified speculation."

His gaze was straight at her, and she was meeting it. He went on, "So I speculated. What if you had yourself killed your nephew? As for getting the poison, that was as feasible for you as for the others. As for opportunity, you said you had not entered your nephew's room after Mrs. Kremp had been there and put the capsules in the pillbox, but could you prove it? There was nothing to my knowledge that excluded you. Your harassment of the FBI and the police could have been for assurance that you were safe. It was your husband who i insisted on coming to me, and naturally you would have wanted to be present. As for motive, that would have to be if explored, but for speculation there was material at hand, fur-, nished by you. You were positive, with no real evidence for it, I that your nephew had been killed by a Communist who had ^discovered that he was betraying the cause; you got that in , first thing when you called here Tuesday with your husband. �Might it not be true and you yourself the Communist?" "Rot!" She snorted.