Rex Stout - In the Best Families

You haven't been brought in here to face him for the purpose of disconcerting or discrediting him, but merely so he can be informed first-hand. Archer turned to me. “Miss Darrow came to us last evening of her own accord. No pressure of any kind has been used with her. Is that correct, Miss Darrow? I wish you would confirm that to Mr Goodwin.

“Yes. She lifted her eyes to me, and though they had obviously had a hard night, I still insist they were fine. She went on, “I came voluntarily. I came because-the way Barry Rackham treated me. He refused to marry me. He treated me very badly. Finally-yesterday it was too much.

Archer and Dykes were both gazing at her fixedly. Archer prodded her. “Go on, please, Miss Darrow. Tell him the main facts.

She was trying the clamp on her jaw to make sure it was working right.

Satisfied, she released it. “Barry and I had been friendly, a little, before Mrs

Rackham's death. Nothing but just a little friendly. That's all it meant to me, or I thought it was, and I thought it was the same with him. That's how it was when we went to the country for the Easter week-end. She had told me we wouldn't do any work there, answer any mail or anything, but Saturday at noon she sent for me to come to her room. She was crying and was so distressed she could hardly talk.

Lina paused. She was keeping her eyes straight at mine. “I can rattle this off now, Mr Goodwin. I've already told it now.

“That always makes it easier, I agreed. “Go right ahead.

She did. “Mrs Rackham said she had to talk about it with someone, and she wanted to with her daughter-in-law, Mrs Frey, but she just couldn't, so there was only me. She said she had gone to see Nero Wolfe the day before, to ask him to find out where her husband was getting money from, and he had agreed to do it. Mr

Wolfe had phoned her that evening, Friday evening, and told her that he had already partly succeeded. He had learned that her husband was connected with something that was criminal. He was helping somebody with things that were against the law, and he was getting well paid for it. Mr Wolfe advised her to keep it to herself until he had more details. He said his assistant, Mr Goodwin, would come up Saturday afternoon, and might have more to report then.

“And that Goodwin knew all about it? Archer asked.

“Well, naturally she took that for granted. She didn't say that Mr Wolfe told her in so many words that Mr Goodwin knew all about it, but if he was his assistant and helping with it, naturally she would think so. Anyway that didn't seem to be important then, because she had told it all to her husband. They used the same bedroom at Birchvale, and she said that after they had gone to bed she simply couldn't help it. She didn't tell me their conversation, what they said to each other, but they had had a violent quarrel. She had told him they would have to separate, she was through with him, and she would have Mr Wolfe go on with his investigation and get proof of what he had done. Mrs Rackham had a very strong character, and she hated to be deceived. But the next day she wasn't sure she really meant it, that she really wanted to part from him. That was why she wanted to talk about it with someone. I think the reason she didn't want to talk with Mrs Frey-

“If you don't mind, Miss Darrow, Archer suggested gently, “just the facts now.

“Yes, of course. She sent him a glance and returned to me. “I told her I thought she was completely wrong. I said that if her husband had been untrue to her, or anything like that, that would be different, but after all he hadn't done wrong to her, only to other people and himself, and that she should try to help him instead of destroying him. At the very least, I said, she should wait until she knew all the details of what he had done. I think that was what she wanted to hear, but she didn't say so. She was very stubborn. Then, that afternoon, I said something that I will regret all my life. I went to Barry and told him she had told me about it, and said I was sure it would come out all right if he would meet her half-way-tell her the whole thing, tell her he was sorry, as he certainly should be-and no more foolishness in the future. And

Barry said he loved me.

She weakened a little there for the first time. She dropped her eyes. I had been boring at her with as steady and sharp a gaze as I had in me, but up to that point she had met it full and fair.

“So then? I asked.

Her eyes lifted and she marched on. “He said he didn't want it to come out all right because he loved me. Shall I try to tell you what I-how I felt?

“Not now. Just what happened.

“Nothing happened then. That was in the middle of the afternoon. I didn't tell

Barry I loved him-I didn't even know I loved him then. I got away from him.

Later we gathered in the living-room for cocktails, and you and Mr Leeds came, and we played that game-you remember.

“Yep, I do.

“And dinner, and television afterward, and-

“Excuse me. That is common knowledge. Skip to later, when the cops had come. Did you tell them all this?

“No.

“Why not?

“Because I didn't think it would be fair to Barry. I didn't think he had killed her, and I didn't know what criminal things he had helped with, and I thought it wouldn't be fair to tell that about him when all I knew was what Mrs Rackham had told me. The fine eyes flashed for the first time. “Oh, I know the next part.

Then why am I telling it now? Because I know more about him now-a great deal more! I don't know that he killed Mrs Rackham, but I know he could have; he is cruel and selfish and unscrupulous-there is nothing he wouldn't do. I suppose you think I'm vindictive, and maybe I am, but it doesn't matter what you think about me as long as I'm telling the truth. What the criminal things were that he did, and whether he killed his wife-I don't know anything about it; that's your part.

“Not mine, sister. I'm not a cop.

She turned to the others. “Yours, then!

This would have been a good moment for me to take time out to read my signed statement, since I could have used a few minutes for some good healthy thinking.

Here was a situation that was new to me. About all that Barry Rackham's ticket to the electric chair needed was my endorsement, and I thought he had it coming to him. All I had to do was tell the truth. I could say that I had no knowledge whatever of the phone call Nero Wolfe was purported to have made to Mrs Rackham, but that it was conceivable that he had made such a call without mentioning it to me, since he had often withheld information from me regarding his actions and intentions. You couldn't beat that for truth. On various occasions I had used all my wits to help pin it on a murderer, and here it would take no wit at all, merely tossing in a couple of facts.

But if I let it go at that, it was a cinch that before the sun went down Rackham would be locked up, and that would ruin everything. The programme sunk, the months all wasted, the one chance gone, Zeck sailing on with the authority of his superior intellect, and Wolfe and me high and dry. My wits had a new job, and quick. I liked to think that they had done their share once or twice in getting a murderer corralled; now it was up to them to do more than their share in keeping a murderer running loose and free to keep appointments. Truth was not enough.