Rex Stout - The Mother Hunt (Rex Stout Library)

Cramer spoke. It's been twenty-three days. He was hoarse. That was unusual. Usually it took ten minutes or so with Wolfe to get him hoarse. Also his big round face was a little redder than normal, but that could have been the July heat.

Twenty-five, Wolfe said. Ellen Tenzer died the night of June eighth.

Twenty-three since I was here. Cramer settled back. What's the matter? Are you blocked?

Yes, sir.

The hell you are. By what or whom?

A corner of Wolfe's mouth went up an eighth of an inch. I couldn't answer that without telling you what I'm after.

I know you couldn't. I'm listening.

Wolfe shook his head. Mr. Cramer. I am precisely where I was twenty-three days ago. I have no information for you.

That's hard to believe. I've never known you to mark time for over three weeks. Do you know who killed Ellen Tenzer?

I can answer that. No.

I think you do. Have you any other client at present than Mrs. Richard Valdon?

I can answer that too. No.

Then I think you know who killed Ellen Tenzer. Obviously there's a connection between her murder and whatever Mrs. Valdon hired you to do. I don't need to spell it all out the buttons, Anne Tenzer, the overalls, the baby Ellen Tenzer had boarded, the baby in Mrs. Valdon's house, Goodwin's going to Mahopac to see Ellen Tenzer, her sudden departure after he had seen her. Do you deny that there is a direct connection between Goodwin's seeing Ellen Tenzer and the murder?

No. Nor affirm it. I don't know. Neither do you.

Nuts. Cramer was getting hoarser. You can add as well as I can. If you mean neither of us can prove it, okay, but you intend to. I don't know what Mrs. Valdon hired you to do, but I know damn well you intend to tag that murderer, provided it wasn't her. I don't think it was, because I think you know who it was, and if it was her you would have got from under before now. I can tell you why I think you know.

Please do.

I'm damn sure you would like to know. Do you deny that?

I'll concede it as a hypothesis.

All right. You're spending Mrs. Valdon's money like water. Panzer and Durkin and Cather have been on the job for three weeks. They're here every day, and sometimes twice a day. I don't know what they're doing, but I know what they're not doing, and Goodwin too. They're absolutely ignoring Ellen Tenzer. None of them has been to Mahopac, or seen that Mrs. Nesbitt, or seen Anne Tenzer, or dug into Ellen Tenzer's record, or questioned her friends or neighbors, or contacted any of my men. They haven't shown the slightest interest in her, including Goodwin. But you would like to know who killed her. So you already know.

Wolfe grunted. That's admirably specious, but drop it. I give you my word that I haven't the faintest notion of who killed Ellen Tenzer.

Cramer eyed him. Your word?

Yes, sir.

That settled that. Cramer knew from experience that when Wolfe said my word it was straight and there was no catch in it. Then what the hell, he demanded, are Panzer and Durkin and Cather doing? And Goodwin?

Wolfe shook his head. No, sir. You have just said that you know what they're not doing. They're not trespassing in your province. They're not investigating a homicide. Nor Mr. Goodwin. Nor I.

Cramer looked at me. You're under bail.

I nodded. You ought to know.

You spent the night in Mrs. Valdon's house. Last night.

I raised a brow. There are two things wrong with that statement. First, it's not true. Second, even if it were true, what would it have to do with homicide?

What time did you leave?

I didn't. I'm still there.

He turned a hand over. Look, Goodwin. You know I've got to depend on reports. The eight-to-two man says you entered at nine-twenty-five and didn't come out. The two-to-eight man says you didn't come out. I want to know which one missed you. What time did you leave?

I was wondering what you came for, I said. I knew it couldn't be homicide, the way you were flopping around. So you're checking on the boys. Fine. By a quarter to two Mrs. Valdon and I were somewhat high, and we went out to dance on the sidewalk in the summer night. At a quarter past two she went back in and I left. So they both missed me. Also, of course You're a clown and a liar. He slowly raised a hand and pinched his nose. He looked at Wolfe. He got a cigar from his pocket, glared at it, rolled it between his palms, stuck it in his mouth, and clamped his teeth on it. I could get your licenses with a phone call to Albany, he said.

Wolfe nodded. No doubt.

But you're so goddam pigheaded. He removed the cigar. You know I can get your license. You know I can take you down and book you as a material witness. You know you'll be wide open on a felony charge if you get stuck in the mud. But you're so goddam bullnecked I'm not going to waste my breath trying to put the screw on you.

That's rational.

Yeah. But you've got a client. Mrs. Richard Valdon. You're not only withholding evidence yourself, you and Goodwin you have told her to.

Does she say so?

She doesn't have to. Don't possum. Of course you have. She's your client and she's clammed up. The DA has asked her down and she won't go. So we'll take her.

Isn't that a little brash? A citizen with her background and standing?

Not with what we know she knows. It was the buttons on the overalls that sent Goodwin to see Ellen Tenzer. The overalls were on the baby that Mrs. Valdon says was left in her vestibule and is now in her house. So You said Mrs. Valdon is mute.

She told at least two people the baby was left in her vestibule when she was alone in the house. She hasn't told us, but if she has any sense she will, if she's clean. She'll tell us everything she knows if she's clean, including what she hired you to do and what you've done. I don't think it was anything as raw as kidnaping because she had a lawyer make it legal on a temporary basis. But I'm damn sure the baby in her house is the one Ellen Tenzer had in her house until around May twentieth. There were two overalls in Ellen Tenzer's house exactly like the ones Goodwin showed to AnneTenzer, with the same kind of buttons. Those goddam buttons.

It seemed to me beside the point for him to be nursing an anti-button grudge, but maybe he had had an interview with Nicholas Losseff.

He was going on. So I want to know what Mrs. Valdon knows, and what you know, about that baby. The DA can't get anything out of her lawyer or her doctor, and of course they're privileged. The nurse, and the maid and the cook aren't privileged, but if they know anything they've been corked. The nurse claims that all she knows about it is that it's a boy, it's healthy, and it's between five and seven months old. So Mrs. Valdon is not its mother. She didn't have a baby in December or January.

I have given you my word, Wolfe add, that I have no notion of who killed Ellen Tenzer.

I heard you.

I now give you my word that I know no more about that baby its parentage, its background, who put it in Mrs. Valdon's vestibule than you do.

I don't believe it.