Rex Stout - Homicide Trinity (Crime Line)

Otis opened his mouth and closed it again.

Wolfe nodded. "I thought not. Then I advise you to help me. If you do, I'll have two objectives, to get the murderer and to see that your firm suffers as little as possible; if you don't, I'll have only one. As for the police, I doubt if they'll expect you to cooperate, since they are not nincompoops. They will realize that you have a deeper interest than the satisfaction of justice. Well, sir?"

Otis's palms were cupping his knees and his head was tilted forward so he could study the back of his left hand. His eyes shifted to his right hand, and when that too had been properly studied he lifted his head and spoke. "You used the word 'hypothesis,' and that's all it is, that a member of my firm killed Miss Aaron. How did he know she was here? She said that nobody knew."

"He could have followed her. Evidently she left your office soon after she talked with him. Archie?"

"She probably walked," I said. "Between fifteen and twenty-five minutes, depending on her rate. At that time of day empty taxis are scarce, and crosstown they crawl. It would have been a cinch to tail her on foot."

"How did he get in?" Otis demanded. "Did he sneak in unseen when you admitted her?"

"No. You have read my statement. He saw her enter and knew this is Nero Wolfe's address. He went to a phone booth and rang this number and she answered. Here." I tapped my phone. "With me not here that would be automatic for a trained secretary. I had not pushed the button so it didn't ring in the plant rooms. It would ring in the kitchen, but Fritz wasn't there. She answered it, and he said he wanted to see her at once and would give her a satisfactory explanation, and she told him to come here. When he came she was at the front door and let him in. All he was expecting to do was stall for time, but when he learned that she was alone on this floor and she hadn't seen Mr. Wolfe he had another idea and acted on it. Two minutes would have been plenty for the whole operation, even less."

"All that is mere conjecture."

"Yeah, I wasn't present. But it fits. If you have one that fits better I do shorthand."

"The police have covered everything here for finger- prints."

"Sure. But it was below freezing outdoors and I suppose the members of your firm wear gloves."

"You say that he learned she hadn't seen Wolfe, but she had talked with you."

"She didn't tell him that she had told me. It wouldn't take many words for him to learn that she was alone and hadn't seen Mr. Wolfe. Either that, or she did tell him but he went ahead anyhow. The former is more probable and I like it better."

He studied me a while, then he closed his eyes and his head tilted again. When his eyes opened he put them at Wolfe. "Mr. Wolfe. I reserve comment on your sugges- tion that I would be moved by personal considerations to balk justice. You ask me to help you. How?"

"By giving me information. By answering questions. Your mind is trained in inquiry; you know what I will ask."

"I'll know better when I hear you. Go ahead and we'll see."

Wolfe looked at the wall clock. "It's nearly an hour past midnight, and this will be prolonged. It will be a tiresome wait for Miss Paige."

"Of course," Otis agreed. He looked at me. "Will you ask her to step in?"

I got up and crossed to the door to the front room. As I entered, words were at the tip of my tongue, but that was as far as they got. She wasn't there. Through a wide-open window cold air was streaming in. As I went to it and stuck my head out I was prepared to see her lying there with one of my neckties around her throat, though I hadn't left one in the room. It was a relief to see that the areaway, eight feet down, was unoccupied.

Chapter 3

A roar came from the office. "Archie! What the devil are you up to?"

I shut the window, glanced around to see if there were any signs of violence or if she had left a note, saw neither, and rejoined the conference.

"She's gone," I said. "Leaving no message. When I-"

"Why did you open a window?"

"I didn't. I closed it. When I took her in there I locked the door to the hall so she couldn't wander around and hear things she wasn't supposed to, so when she got tired waiting the window was the only way out."

"She climbed out a window?" Otis demanded.

"Yes, sir. It's a mere conjecture, but it fits. The window was wide open, and she's not in the room, and she's not outside. I looked."

"I can't believe it. Miss Paige is a level-headed and reliable-" He bit it off. "No. No! I no longer know who is reliable." He rested his elbow on the chair arm and propped his head with his hand. "May I have a glass of water?"

Wolfe suggested brandy, but he said he wanted wa- ter, and I went to the kitchen and brought some. He got a little metal box from a pocket, took out two pills, and washed them down.

"Will they help?" Wolfe asked. "The pills?"

"Yes. The pills are reliable." He handed me the glass. "Then we may proceed?"

"Yes."

"Have you any notion why Miss Paige was impelled to leave by a window?"

"No. It's extraordinary. Damn it, Wolfe, I have no notions of anything! Can't you see I'm lost?"

"I can. Shall we put it off?"

"No!"

"Very well. My assumption that Miss Aaron was killed by a member of your firm, call him X, rests on a prior assumption, that when she spoke with Mr. Good- win she was candid and her facts were accurate. Would you challenge that assumption?"

Otis looked at me. "Tell me something. I know what she said from your statement, and it sounded like her, but how was she-her voice and manner? Did she seem in any way… well, out of control? Unbalanced?"

"No, sir," I told him. "She sat with her back straight and her feet together, and she met my eyes all the time."

He nodded. "She would. She always did." To Wolfe:

"At this time, here privately with you, I don't challenge your assumption."

"Do you challenge the other one, that X killed her?"

"I neither challenge it nor accept it."

"Pfui. You're not an ostrich, Mr. Otis. Next: if Miss Aaron's facts were accurate, it must be supposed that X was in a position to give Mrs. Sorell information that would help her substantially in her action against her husband, your client. That is true?"

"Of course." Otis was going to add something, de- cided not to, and then changed his mind again. "Again here privately with you, it's not merely her action at law. It's blackmail. Perhaps not technically, but that's what it amounts to. Her demands are exorbitant and preposterous. It's extortion."

"And a member of your firm could give her weapons. Which one or ones?"

Otis shook his head. "I won't answer that." Wolfe's brows went up. "Sir? If you pretend to help at all that's the very least you can do. If you're rejecting my proposal say so and I'll get on without you. By noon tomorrow-today-the police will have that elemen- tary question answered. It may take me longer."

"It certainly may," Otis said. "You haven't men- tioned a third assumption you're making. You are as- suming that Goodwin was candid and accurate in reporting what Miss Aaron said."