Rex Stout: Gambit

But if there's any reason to think Blount didn't murder Paul Jerin I want to know it. We got the evidence that put him in, and if there's anything wrong with it I have a right to know it. Do you have any kind of an idea that I would like to see an innocent man take a murder rap?' That you would like to, no.' 'Well, I wouldn't.' Cramer pointed the cigar at Wolfe and waggled it. 'I'll be frank. Do you know that Blount went down to the kitchen for the chocolate and took it up to Jerin?' 'Yes.' 'Do you know that when Jerin drank most of it and got sick Blount went and got the pot and cup and took them down to the kitchen and rinsed them out, and got fresh chocolate and took it up?' 'Yes.' 'Then is he the biggest goddam fool on earth?' 'I haven't met him. Is he?' 'No. He's a very intelligent man. He's anything but a fool. And he's levelheaded. Some men fixed like him, men of wealth and handing, have the idea that they can do anything they please, and get away with it, "ecause they're above suspicion, but not him. ^e s not like that, not at all. So I took it E 81 easy�or rather, I didn't. It was hard to bc^ve that such a man had put poison in the chocolate and took it to Jerin and then went and got the cup and pot and rinsed them out. I don't have to spell that out.' 'No.' 'So we covered it good, every angle. We eliminated the possibility that the arsenic had been in something else, not in the chocolate, and I mean eliminated. We established that no one besides Blount and those four men, the messengers, had entered that room, the library, after the chess games started, and the games had been going for about seven minutes when Blount went to see about the chocolate�and I mean established. So that left it absolutely that the arsenic had been put in the chocolate by one of seven men: the four messengers, the cook, the steward, and Blount. Okay. Which one of them, or which ones, had some kind of connection with Jerin? I put eleven of my men on that angle, and the District Attorney put eight from the Homicide Bureau. For that kind of job there are no better men anywhere. You know that.' 'They're competent,' Wolfe conceded. 'They're better than competent. We got Blount's connection right away, from Blount himself. Of course you know about that. The daughter.' 'Yes.' 'But we kept the nineteen men on the oiher 82 six. In four days and nights they didn't get a smell- Even after the District Attorney decided it had to be Blount and charged him, I kept nine of my men on the others. A full week. Okay. You know how it is with negatives, you can't nail it down, but I'll bet a years's pay to one of the flowers in that vase that none of those six men had ever met Paul Jerin or had any connection with him or his.' 'I won't risk the flower,' Wolfe said. 'You won't?' 'No.' 'Then do you think one of them happened to have arsenic with him and put it in the chocolate just because he didn't like the way Jerin played chess?' 'No.' 'Then what kind of game are you playing? What can you possibly have that makes you think you can spring Blount?' 'I haven't said I have anything.' 'Nuts. Damn it, I know you!' Wolfe cleared his throat. 'Mr Cramer. I admit that I know something you don't know about one aspect of this matter. I know who hired me and why. You have concluded that no one had hired me, that, having somehow learned of a circumstance not known to you, I ^ arranging to use it for my private gain. You're wrong; you are incomparably better ^quainted than I am with all the ^rcumstances�all of them�surrounding the 83 death of Paul Jerin. But you don't believe rp' 'I do not.' 'Then there's nothing more to say. I'm sorry I have nothing for you because you put me in your debt. You have just furnished me with a fact which suggests an entirely different approach to the problem. It will save me--' 'What fact?' Wolfe shook his head. 'No, sir. You wouldn't believe me. You wouldn't accept my interpretation of it. But I'm obliged to you, and I don't forget an obligation. If and when I learn something significant I'll stretch a point to share it with you as soon as may be. At present I have nothing to share.' 'Like hell you haven't.' Cramer got to his feet. He threw the cigar at my wastebasket, twelve feet away, and missed as usual. 'One little point, Wolfe. Anyone has a right to hire you to investigate something, even a homicide. But if you haven't been hired, and I know damn well you haven't, if you're horning in on your own, that's different. And if you are in possession of information the law is entitled to--I don't have to tell you.' He turned and marched out. I got up and went to the hall, decided he wouldn't properly appreciate help with his coat, and stood and watched until he was out and the door was closed. Turning back to the office, I started, 'So he gave you...,' and stopped. Wolfe was leaning back with his eyes 84 shut and his lips pushed out. He drew his lips in then out again, in and out, in and out. I stood and regarded him. That is supposed to be a sign that he's hard at work, but I hadn't the dimmest idea what he was working on. If it was the fact Cramer had just furnished, which one? Running over them in my mind, I stood and waited. The lip exercise is not to be interrupted. I had decided it was going to take a while and was starting for my desk when he opened his eyes, straightened up, and issued a command: 'Bring Miss Blount.' I obeyed. As I said, I don't use the elevator; I took the stairs, two flights. Finding the door of the south room closed, I knocked. I heard no footsteps, but in a moment the door opened. There had been no footsteps because she had no shoes on. 'Mr Wolfe wants you,' I said. 'With or without shoes, as you prefer.' 'Has anything happened?' Not knowing if he wanted her to know we had had a caller, I said, 'He just did lip exercises, but of course you don't know how important that is. Don't bother with your lips and hair, he wouldn't know the difference.' Of course that was ignored. She went to the dresser to use comb and lipstick, then to the chair near a window to put on her shoes, and ^en came. You get a new angle on a figure when it precedes you down stairs; she had nice shoulders, and her neck curved into them with a good line. As we entered the office Wolfe was 85 frowning at a corner of his desk, rubbing his nose with a finger tip, and we got no attention from him. Sally went to the red leather chair and, after sitting in silence for a full minute said, 'Good morning.' He moved the frown to her, blinked, and demanded, 'Why did you take a volume of Voltaire?5 Her eyes widened. 'Archie said I could take any book except the one you're reading.' 'But why Voltaire?' 'No special reason. Just that I've never read him...' 'Unh,' Wolfe said. 'We'll discuss it at lunch. There has been a development. Did Archie tell�' He stopped short. He had thoughtlessly allowed himself to speak familiarly to a woman. He corrected it. 'Did Mr Goodwin tell you that a policeman has been here? Inspector Cramer?' 'No.' 'He has. Uninvited and unexpected. He just left. Mr Goodwin can tell you later why he came and what was said. What I must tell you, he gave me some information that changes the situation substantially. The police have established, for Mr Cramer beyond question, three facts. One, that the arsenic was in the chocolate. Two, that no one had an opportunity to put it in the chocolate besides the cook, the steward, the four messengers, and your father. Three, that only your father could 86 have had a motive. None of the other six�I quote Mr Cramer�"had ever met Paul Jerin or had any connection with him or his." Though all�' 'I told you that. Didn't I?' 'Yes, but based only on your knowledge, which was deficient. Mr Cramer's conclusions are based on a thorough and prolonged inquiry by an army of trained men. Though all three of those facts are important, the significant one is the third, that none of those six could have had a motive to kill Jerin. But Jerin was killed� with premeditation, since the arsenic was in hand. Do you play chess?' 'Not really. I know the moves. Do you mean you�' 'If you please. Do you know what a gambit is?' 'Why... vaguely...' 'It's an opening in which a player gives up a pawn or a piece to gain an advantage. The murder of Paul Jerin was a gambit. Jerin was the pawn or piece. The advantage the murderer gained was that your father was placed in mortal peril�a charge of murder and probable conviction. He had no animus for Jerin. Jerin wasn't the target, he was merely a pawn. The target was your father. You see how that alters "ie situation, how it affects the job you hired me for.' ^ don't... I'm not sure...' You deserve candor. Miss Blount. Till half 6 87 an hour ago the difficulties seemed all but insurmountable. To take the job and your money I had to assume your father's innocence, but to demonstrate it I had to find evidence that one of those six men had had sufficient motive to kill Jerin and had acted on it. And the three most telling points against your father�that he had taken the chocolate to Jerin, that he had taken the pot and cup and rinsed them, and that he knew Jerin and could possibly have had a motive�those were merely accidental and had to be ignored. In candor, it seemed hopeless, and, conceiving nothing better for a start, I merely made a gesture; I had Mr Goodwin arrange for a public notice that I had been hired.' 'You didn't tell me you were going to.' 'I seldom tell a client what I'm going to do. I tell you now because I need your help. That gesture brought Mr Cramer and he brought the fact that it would be fatuous to proceed on the assumption that one of the others had premeditated the murder of Paul Jerin. But, holding to my assumption that your father hadn't, one of the others must have. Why? Jerin was nothing to him, but he went there, with the poison, prepared to kill him, and he did; and what happened? A chain of circumstances pointed so clearly to your father as the culprit that he is in custody without bail, in grave jeopardy. By the operation of cause, calculated cause, and effect. The three mo^t 88 telling points against your father were not accidental; they were essential factors in the calculation. Is that clear?' 'I think ... yes.' She looked at me, and back at Wolfe. 'You mean someone killed Paul because he knew they would think my father did it.' 'I do. And if it was Mr Kalmus he also knew he would be in a position, as your father's counsel, to protect his gain from his gambit.' 'Yes.' Her hands were clenched. 'Of course.' 'So I propose to proceed on that theory, that Jerin was merely a pawn in a gambit and the true target was your father. If I continue to assume your father's innocence, no other theory is tenable. That gives me a totally new situation, for I now have indications, if the theory is to hold�some facts and some surmises. We'll test them. To avoid verbal complexities I'll call the murderer Kalmus, though I may be slandering him.' He stuck a finger up. 'The first fact. Kalmus knew that Jerin would drink or eat something during the game into which arsenic could be put. Preferably, he knew that Jerin would drink chocolate. Did he?' Sally was frowning. 'I don't know. He may have. He may have heard me mention it, or father may have told him. Paul always drank chocolate when he played chess with father.' 'That will serve.' Another finger. 'The ^cond fact. Kalmus knew what the 89 arrangements were. He knew that Jerin would be alone in the library, and that he would be a messenger and so would have an opportunity to use the arsenic. Did he?' 'I don't know, but he must have. Father must have told all of them, the messengers.' Another finger. The third fact. Kalmus knew that investigation would disclose an acceptable motive for your father. He knew of your association with Jerin and of your father's attitude toward it. Did he?' 'He knew I knew Paul, of course. But my father's attitude�if you mean he might have wanted to kill him, that's just silly. He thought he was�well, what you called him yourself, a freak.' 'He disapproved of your associating with him?' 'He disapproved of my associating with various people. But he certainly didn't have any�' 'If you please.' Wolfe snapped it. 'This isn't a court, and I'm not a prosecutor trying to convict your father. I'm merely asking if Kalmus knew that inquiry would reveal circumstances that could be regarded as a possible motive for your father. I take it that he did. Yes?' 'Well... yes.' 'That will do. So much for the facts. I call them facts because if one or more of them can be successfully challenged my theory is 90 untenable. Now the surmises, two of them. They can't be tested, merely stated. They are desirable but not essential. First, Kalmus knew that your father would himself take the chocolate to Jerin. Ideally, he suggested it, but I'll take less than the ideal. Second, when Mr Yerkes brought word that Jerin was indisposed, Kalmus suggested to your father that it might be well to dispose of the pot and cup. Since Kalmus was a messenger, he had had opportunity to observe that Jerin had drunk most of the chocolate. And he ran no risk of arousing suspicion of his good faith. Since Jerin had been taken ill suddenly, it was a natural precaution to suggest. You said yesterday that your father told you and your mother exactly what had happened. Did he say that anyone had suggested that he see to the pot and cup?' 'No.' Sally's fists were so tight I could see the white on her knuckles. T don't believe it, Mr Wolfe. I can't believe it. Of course Archie was right, I thought Clan Kalmus might want... I thought he wouldn't do everything he could, everything he ought to do ... but now you're saying he killed Paul, he planned it, so my father would be arrested and convicted. I can't believe it!' 'You need not. As I said, I specified Kalmus only to avoid verbal complexities. It could have been one of the others--Hausman, Yerkes, Farrow--or even the cook or steward, 91 though they are less probable. He must fit my three facts, and he should be eligible for my two surmises. Above all, he must meet the most obvious requirement, that he had a compelling reason to wish to ruin your father, to take his liberty if not his life. Do any of the others qualify? Hausman, Yerkes, Farrow, the cook, or steward?' She shook her head. Her mouth opened and shut, but no words came. 'One of them might, of course, without your knowledge. But that was another reason for specifying Kalmus; you had yourself supplied a possible inducement for him. And now, with this theory, I must of course see him in any case. If he is guiltless and is proceeding on the assumption that the death ofJerin was the sole and final objective of the murderer, unless I intervene your father is doomed. It may be that the fact known only to Kalmus and your father, mentioned in the note to your mother which Mr Goodwin read, is relevant, but speculation on that would be futile. I must see Mr Kalmus, peccant or not, and for that I need your help.' He swiveled. 'Your notebook, Archie.' I got it, and my pen. 'Shoot.' 'Just a draft for Miss Blount. Any paper, no carbon. She will supply the salutation. I suppose my mother has told you that I am at Nero Wolfe's house, comma, and I am going to stay here until I am sure I have done all I can 92 for my father. Period. Mr Wolfe has a theory you should know about, comma, and you must come and talk with him tomorrow, comma, Wednesday. Period. He will be here all day and evening, comma, but is not available from nine to eleven in the morning and from four to six in the afternoon. Period. If you haven't come by noon Thursday I shall see a newspaper reporter and tell him why I came here and why I don't trust you to represent my father effectively.' He turned to her. 'From you to Mr Kalmus, handwritten. On my letterhead or plain paper, as you prefer. Mr Goodwin will take it to his office after lunch.' 'I won't,' she said positively. 'I couldn't tell a reporter that. I couldn't, I won't.' 'Certainly you won't. You won't have to. He'll come.' 'But if he doesn't?' 'He will. If he doesn't we'll try something else. Notify him that you have engaged an attorney to take legal steps to have him superseded as your father's counsel. I'm not a lawyer, but I know a good one, and the law has room for many stratagems.' He flattened his palm on the desk. 'Miss Blount. I shall see Mr Kalmus, or quit. As you please.' 'Not quit.' She looked at me. 'How does it ... will you read it, Archie?' I did so, including commas and periods. She shook her head. 'It's not like me. He'll 93 know I didn't write it.' She looked at Wolfe. 'He'll know you did.' 'Certainly he will. That is intended.' 'Well.' She took a breath. 'But I won't tell any reporter, no matter what happens.' 'That is not intended.' Wolfe twisted his head to look up at the wall clock. 'Before you write it, please make a phone call or two. Mr Yerkes, Mr Farrow, Dr Avery. It's just as well I didn't see them before Mr Cramer brought me that fact; it would have been wasted time and effort. Can you get them to come? At six o'clock or, preferably, after dinner, say at ninethirty. Either separately or together.' 'I can try. What phone do I use? There isn't one in my room.' Wolfe's lips tightened. A woman saying casually 'my room,' meaning a room in his house, was hard to take. I told her she could use my phone and went to get another chair to sit on while I typed the letter to Kalmus for her to copy. CHAPTER SEVEN Usually I know exactly what Wolfe is doing while he's doing it, and why. I always know afterwards exactly what he did, and nearly always I know why. But I'm still not dead sure, months later, that I know why he had Sally 94 phone those guys and get them to come that day. At the time I not only wasn't sure, I couldn't even guess. He hates to work. When I return from an errand on a case and sit down to report, and he knows he must listen and listen hard, from the look he gives me you might think I had put ketchup in his beer. When a caller enters the office, even if he expects to pry out of him some essential fact on a tough one, from the welcome he gets you might think he had come to examine the income tax reports for the past ten years. So why ask Sally to get people to work on both before and after dinner, before he had had a go at the most likely candidate? I didn't get it. I now believe that though he wasn't aware of it, he was grabbing at straws. He was pretending, not only to Sally and me but also to himself, that the new situation, resulting from the fact Cramer had brought, was just dandy because it gave him a new approach. But actually what it amounted to was that it was now extremely close to certain that none of the other candidates had had a shadow of a reason to kill Paul Jerin, and therefore it took either a mule or a sap to stick to the basic assumption that Blount hadn't. You can't sit and enjoy a book, even a fascinating one about what happened in Africa a hundred thousand years ago, while you're fighting off a suspicion that you're acting like a mule or a sap, so you tell your client to get people to come to take your mind 95 off your misery. As I say, I'm not dead sure, but I suspect that was it. Of course it's barely possible that even at that stage he had some vague notion in some corner of his skull of what had really happened that night at the Gambit Club, but I don't think so. In that case he would have�but I'd better save that. However, there wasn't much work to the first interview, before dinner, with Morton Farrow. Yerkes, the banker, had told Sally he would come around nine-thirty, but the best she could get out ofAvery, the doctor, was that he would try to make it some time during the evening. It had been decided after lunch, after I returned from taking the letter to Kalmus' office�in a steel-and-glass fifty-story hive in the financial district where his firm had a whole floor�that Sally would not appear, and before six o'clock came she went up to her room. Farrow had said he would arrive at six but was twenty minutes late. I left it to Fritz to admit him, thinking he would consider it improper for a famous detective to answer a doorbell. When Fritz ushered him to the office he came across to me with his hand out. I took it and let it go, and he turned to Wolfe, but Wolfe, who is always prepared for it, had turned to the Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition, leather-bound, on the stand at his elbow, and was busy turning pages. Farrow stood and watched him for five 96 seconds and then turned back to me and boomed, 'Where's Sally?' I told him she was upstairs and might be down later, and indicated the red leather chair, and, when he was seated and it was safe, Wolfe closed the dictionary and swiveled. 'Good evening,' he said. 'I'm Nero Wolfe. You told Miss Blount you couldn't stay long.' Farrow nodded. 'I've got a dinner date.' Twice as loud as necessary. He glanced at his wrist. 'I'll have to trot along in half an hour, but that should be enough. I couldn't make it by six, couldn't get away. With the big boss gone I've got my hands full. I was glad Sally called me. She said you wanted to see me, and I wanted to see you. I know her, and of course you don't. She's a good kid, and I'm all for her, but like everybody else she has kinks. Apparently she has sold you a bill of goods. I'm a salesman myself, a sales manager for a hundred-million-dollar corporation, but it depends on what you're selling. Sally just doesn't understand her mother, my aunt, and never will. Of course that's strictly a family matter, but she's brought it into this mess herself, she's sold you on it, and I've got to set you straight. She's got you believing that there's something between my aunt and Clan Kalmus. That's plain moonshine. Anybody who knows my Auntyanna--have you ever seen her?' 'No.' Wolfe was regarding him without 97 enthusiasm. 'If she wanted to she could have something not only with Kalmus but with about any man she wanted to pick. I'm her nephew, so you might think I'm prejudiced, but ask anyone. But it's wasted on her because she's strictly a one-man woman, and she's married to the man. Sally knows that, she can't help but know it, but you know how it is with daughters. Or do you?' 'No.' 'It's always one way or the other, either the mother is jealous of the daughter or the daughter is jealous of the mother. It never fails. Give me ten minutes with any mother and daughter and I'll tell you how it stands, and with my Auntyanna and Sally I've had years. This idea of Sally's, the idea that Kalmus will cross up Uncle Matt so he can make a play for her mother, that's pure crap. She may even think her mother knows it or suspects it but pretends not to. Does she?' 'No.' 'I'll bet she does. A daughter jealous of a mother can think anything. So to protect her father she comes and hires you, and what good does that do? The fact remains that he arranged it, Jerin being there at the club, and he took the chocolate to him, and he got the cup and pot and washed them out. You may be a great detective, but you can't change the facts.' 98 Wolfe grunted. Then you think Mr Blount is guilty.' 'Of course I don't. I'm his nephew. I only say you can't change the evidence.' 'I can try to interpret it. Are you a chess player, Mr Farrow?' 'I play at it. I'm all right the first three or four moves, any opening from the Ruy Lopez to the Caro-Kann, but I soon get lost. My uncle got me started at it because he thinks it develops the brain. I'm not so sure. Look at Bobby Fischer, the American champion. Has he got a brain? If I've developed enough to handle a hundred-million-dollar corporation, and that's what I've been doing for two weeks now, I don't think playing chess has helped me any. I'm cut out to be a top executive, not to sit and concentrate for half an hour and then push a pawn.' 'I understand you didn't play one of the boards that evening, against Mr Jerin.' 'Hell no. He would have mated me in ten moves. I was one of the messengers. I was there in the library with Jerin, reporting a move from Table Ten, when Uncle Matt came up with the chocolate for him.' 'On a tray. The pot, a cup and saucer, and a napkin.' 'Yes.' 'Did your uncle linger or did he leave at once, to return to the other room and his chessboard?' 99 'He didn't linger. He put the tray on the table and left. I've been over this several times with the police.' 'Then you may oblige me in my attempt to interpret the evidence. It seems unlikely that Mr Blount put arsenic in the chocolate while in the kitchen, since the steward and cook were there. He might have done it while mounting the stairs, which are steep and narrow, but it would have been awkward. He didn't do it after entering the library, for you were there and would have seen him, and after that he remained at his chessboard until word came that Jerin was ill. So his one opportunity was on the stairs, whereas each of the messengers had an opportunity each time he entered the library to report a move. Correct?' 'Not if I understand you.' Farrow reversed his crossed legs. 'Do you mean one of the messengers could have put the arsenic in the chocolate?' 'I do.' 'With Jerin sitting right there? Right under his nose?' 'He might have closed his eyes to concentrate. I often do. Or he might have got up to pace the floor and turned his back.' 'He might have, but he didn't. I went in there to report a move about thirty times, and he never moved from the couch, and his eyes were open. Anyway�of course you know who the messengers were, besides me?' 100 Wolfe nodded. 'Mr Yerkes, Mr Kalmus, Mr Hausman.' 'Then how silly can you get? One of them poisoned the chocolate?' 'I'm examining the evidence. They had opportunity. You don't think it conceivable?' 'I certainly don't!' 'Indeed.' Wolfe scratched his chin. 'That leaves only the steward, Mr Nash, and the cook, Mr Laghi. Which one do you consider most likely?' 'Neither one.' Farrow flipped a hand. 'You realize I've been over all this, with the police and at the District Attorney's office. If there's any possible reason why Nash or Tony would have done it I don't know what it is, and the police would have dug it up.' 'Then you exclude them?' 'If the cops do, I do.' 'Then you're up a stump, Mr Farrow. You've excluded everybody. No one put arsenic in the chocolate. Can you explain how it got into Mr Jerin?' 'I don't have to. That's not up to me, it's up to the police.' He uncrossed his legs. He looked at his watch. 'All right, I came here to say something and I've said it. Before I leave I want to see my cousin. Where is she?' Wolfe looked at me, putting it up to the opposed expert on women. It seemed to me ihat the situation called more for an expert on ^P executives, but I was for anything that 101 ^t �: might possibly give a gleam of light or hope, so I said I would ask her and got up and headed for the hall and the stairs. Mounting the two nights, I found that I wouldn't have to knock; she was there at the landing with her shoes on' Halting on the third step from the top, I asked her, 'Could you hear?' 'I wasn't trying to,' she said. 'I was wanting to go down, but Mr Wolfe said not to. Of course I could hear his voice. What does he say?' 'He's a psychologist. He says you have kinks. He says it's always one way or the other, either the mother is jealous of the daughter or the daughter is jealous of the mother, and a daughter jealous of a mother can think anything. He wants to see you before he goes, probably to straighten out a kink or two, and if you would like--' 'What does he say about Clan Kalmus?' 'That's one of your kinks. Your idea about Kalmus is pure crap. You may even--' She moved. I had to either sidestep or get bumped, so I made room for her to get by, and had another look at the nice shoulders and the neck curve as I followed her down. As we entered the office Farrow twisted around in his chair and then arose, and apparently he intended to give her a cousinly kiss, but the look on her face stopped him. It certainly would have stopped me. He was starting, 'Now look here, Sal, you--', but she stopped 102 that also. 'You too,' she said, with more scorch than I would have thought she had in her. 'You would like it too, wouldn't you? You think she would have it all, she would own everything, and she would let you run it. You would think that, but you're wrong. You're always wrong. She would let him run it; that's what he's after, besides her. You're just a fool, a complete fool, you always have been.' She turned and went, to the door and on out. Farrow stood and gawked at her back, then wheeled to Wolfe, extended his hands, palms up, and waggled his head. 'By God,' he said, 'there you are. Calling me a fool. What did I tell you? Calling me a fool!' CHAPTER EIGHT At the dinner table, and with coffee in the office afterwards, Wolfe resumed on the subject he had started at lunch�Voltaire. The big question was, could a man be called great on account of the way he used words, even though he was a toady, a trimmer, a forger, and an intellectual fop. That had been dealt with at lunch, and Voltaire had come out fairly well except on the toady count. How could you call a man great who sought the company and the lavors of dukes and duchesses, of Richelieu, of 103 Frederick of Prussia? But it was at dinner and in the office that Voltaire really got it. What finally ruled him out was something that hadn't been mentioned at lunch at all: he had no palate and not much appetite. He was indifferent to food; he might even eat only once a day; and he drank next to nothing. All his life he was extremely skinny, and in his later years he was merely a skeleton. To call him a great man was absurd; strictly speaking, he wasn't a man at all, since he had no palate and a dried-up stomach. He was a remarkable wordassembly plant, but he wasn't a man, let alone a great one. I suppose I shouldn't do this. I should either report Wolfe's table talk verbatim, and you could either enjoy it or skip it, or I shouldn't mention it. Usually I leave it out, but that evening I had a suspicion that I want to put in. Reporting to him on my visit to the Blount apartment, I had of course included a description ofKalmus: mostly bones and skin. I suspected that that was why Wolfe picked on Voltaire for both lunch and dinner, leading up to the climax. It wasn't much of a connection, but it was a connection, and it showed that he couldn't forget the fix he was in even at meals. That was my suspicion, and, if I was right, I didn't like it. It had never happened before. It had to mean that he was afraid that sooner or later he was going to have to eat something highly unpleasant for both his palate and his 104 stomach�the assumption that Matthew Blount was innocent. The coffee things were still there and he was still on Voltaire when Charles W. Yerkes came a little before nine-thirty. Another indication ofWolfe's state of mind was when the doorbell rang and Sally asked him if she should leave, and he raised his shoulders an eighth of an inch and said, 'As you please.' That wasn't him at all, and, as I went to the front to admit the caller, I had to arrange my face not to give him the impression that what we needed was sympathy and plenty of it. Sally had stood when I went to answer the bell, and she met Yerkes at the office door. He took her offered hand in both of his, murmuring something, gave her hand a pat and let it go, and shot a glance to right and left as he entered. When Wolfe didn't extend a hand of course he didn't; he was a top executive. They exchanged nods as I pronounced names, and he waited until Sally was seated, in one of the yellow chairs I had moved up, to take the red leather one. As he sat he spoke, to her. 'I came because I said I would, Sally, but I'm a little confused. After you phoned I called your mother, and apparently there's a ... a misunderstanding. She seems to think you're making a mistake.' Sally nodded. 'Did she tell you what I�why I'm here?' 'Only vaguely. Perhaps you'll tell me, so I'll 105 Frederick of Prussia? But it was at dinner and in the office that Voltaire really got it. What finally ruled him out was something that hadn't been mentioned at lunch at all: he had no palate and not much appetite. He was indifferent to food; he might even eat only once a day; and he drank next to nothing. All his life he was extremely skinny, and in his later years he was merely a skeleton. To call him a great man was absurd; strictly speaking, he wasn't a man at all, since he had no palate and a dried-up stomach. He was a remarkable wordassembly plant, but he wasn't a man, let alone a great one. I suppose I shouldn't do this. I should either report Wolfe's table talk verbatim, and you could either enjoy it or skip it, or I shouldn't mention it. Usually I leave it out, but that evening I had a suspicion that I want to put in. Reporting to him on my visit to the Blount apartment, I had of course included a description ofKalmus: mostly bones and skin. I suspected that that was why Wolfe picked on Voltaire for both lunch and dinner, leading up to the climax. It wasn't much of a connection, but it was a connection, and it showed that he couldn't forget the fix he was in even at meals. That was my suspicion, and, if I was right, I didn't like it. It had never happened before. It had to mean that he was afraid that sooner or later he was going to have to eat something highly unpleasant for both his palate and his 104 stomach�the assumption that Matthew Blount was innocent. The coffee things were still there and he was still on Voltaire when Charles W. Yerkes came a little before nine-thirty. Another indication ofWolfe's state of mind was when the doorbell rang and Sally asked him if she should leave, and he raised his shoulders an eighth of an inch and said, 'As you please.' That wasn't him at all, and, as I went to the front to admit the caller, I had to arrange my face not to give him the impression that what we needed was sympathy and plenty of it. Sally had stood when I went to answer the bell, and she met Yerkes at the office door. He took her offered hand in both of his, murmuring something, gave her hand a pat and let it go, and shot a glance to right and left as he entered. When Wolfe didn't extend a hand of course he didn't; he was a top executive. They exchanged nods as I pronounced names, and he waited until Sally was seated, in one of the yellow chairs I had moved up, to take the red leather one. As he sat he spoke, to her. 'I came because I said I would, Sally, but I'm a little confused. After you phoned I called your mother, and apparently there's a ... a misunderstanding. She seems to think you're making a mistake.' Sally nodded. 'Did she tell you what I�why I'm here?' 'Only vaguely. Perhaps you'll tell me, so I'll 105 know why I'm here.' He was smiling at her, friendly but wanting to know. Cagey, but why not? A senior vice-president of a billion-dollar bank who is involved in a front-page murder case, even accidentally, isn't going to get involved any deeper if he can help it. Also he was good at chess. 'I don't think I'm making a mistake,' Sally said. 'The reason I'm here is ... because I...' She let it hang, turned her head to look at me, and then looked at Wolfe. 'Will you tell him, Mr Wolfe?' Wolfe was leaning back, his eyes at Yerkes. 'I presume, sir, you're a man of discretion.' 'I like to think I am.' At Wolfe, the banker wasn't smiling. 'I try to be.' 'Good. The circumstances require it. It's merely a difference of opinion, but it would be unfortunate if it were made public at the moment. You may have seen an item in a newspaper yesterday that I have been engaged to inquire into the murder of Paul Jerin.' 'It was called to my attention.' 'It was Miss Blount who engaged me, against the advice of her father and his attorney, and her mother agrees with them. She offered me a sizable fee and I took it. Knowing that her father is in serious jeopardy, she fears that his counsel is not up to the emergency, and she has a high regard for my talents, possibly exaggerated. In making an inquiry I need to inquire, and you are one of 106 those concerned in the matter. Mrs Blount thinks her daughter has made a mistake in hiring me, but her daughter doesn't and I don't. My self-esteem rejects any supposition that I'll be a hindrance. I may conceivably hit upon a point that Mr Kalmus would miss--not that I challenge his competence, though he decries mine. Have I made it clear--why Miss Blount asked you to come?' 'Not entirely. Of course I have been questioned by law officers, and by Mr Kalmus, but I could contribute nothing useful.' Yerkes's eyes went to Sally, shifting around ninety degrees while his head hardly moved at all. It's a good trick for a shoplifter or pickpocket because it helps on security, and it's probably also good at directors' meetings because it saves energy. He asked her, 'Why do you think Clan isn't up to it, Sally? Any particular reason?' Either Mrs Blount hadn't mentioned the problem of jealous daughters or he was being discreet. Sally did all right. 'No,' she said, 'not particular. I'm just... afraid.' 'Well.' His quick keen eyes went back to Wolfe. 'Frankly, Wolfe, I'm inclined to agree with them. My bank doesn't happen to use Kalmus's firm, and neither do I personally, but he certainly is a reputable lawyer, and as far as I know an able one. What can you do that he can't do?' 'I won't know until I've done it.' Wolfe 107 straightened up. 'Mr Yerkes. Do you think Mr Blount killed that man?' 'Of course not. Certainly not.' But before he said it his eyes darted a glance at Sally, a dead giveaway. If he had really felt and meant that 'of course not' why glance at her? Either he simply didn't mean it or he was an extremely smooth customer who knew more tricks than one and also knew more about the death of Paul Jerin than he was supposed to. He didn't add one of the old stand-bys, such as that he had known Blount for many years and he wouldn't kill a fly. 'Neither do I,' Wolfe said, as if he did mean it. 'But the factual evidence pointing to him is weighty and can't be impeached. You know that?' 'Yes.' 'So I ignore it. There are other facts�for instance, that four other men, the four messengers, had opportunities to poison the chocolate, when they entered the library to report moves. I understand that on those occasions, some if not all, Jerin closed his eyes to concentrate. Is that true?' 'Yes. Usually he did, after the first three or four moves. He bent his head down and sometimes covered his eyes with his hands.' Yerkes turned to the client. 'You understand, Sally, my answering these questions doesn't mean that I'm siding with you against your father and mother. I'm not. But you have a 108 right to your opinion, and I'm willing to oblige you within reason.' Back to Wolfe. 'And I agree that you're not likely to be a hindrance. I know something of your record. But Kalmus is quite aware that the four messengers had plenty of opportunities, including me. That's obvious. The question is, why would I? Why would any of them?' Wolfe nodded. That's the point. Take you. You had no animus for Mr Jerin. But it's conceivable that you had, and still have, ill will toward Mr Blount. And Jerin's death was only one of two dismal consequences of his drinking that chocolate; the other is that Blount is in deadly peril. Is that somehow pleasing to you, Mr Yerkes? I have been hired to make an inquiry and I'm inquiring. Did you perhaps suggest to Blount that he should himself take the chocolate to Jerin? Or, when you informed him that Jerin was unwell, did you suggest that he should attend to the pot and cup?' The banker's eyes were narrowed, and his lips were tight. 'I see,' he said, low, so low that I barely got it, and I have good ears. 'That's how you... I see.' He nodded. 'Very clever. Possibly more than clever. Kalmus may have it in mind too�I don't know. You asked me two questions�no, three. The answer is no to all of them. But you have certainly hit on a point. This makes it... hmmm... Hausman, Farrow, and Kalmus ... hmmm. Of course I have no comment.' He turned to Sally. 'But I'm not so 109 sure you made a mistake.' Back to Wolfe. 'I do understand you? You're saying that Jerin was merely a pawn to be sacrificed in a deliberate plot to destroy Blount?' 'I'm suggesting it. It's my working hypothesis. Naturally you said no to my three questions; so would the other three. You would also say no if I asked you whether you have any knowledge of their relations with Blount that would be suggestive; and so would they. But a man's feeling toward another so intense that he is bent implacably on his ruin� such a feeling doesn't exist in a vacuum. It has discoverable roots, and I intend to find them. Or the feeling, intense feeling, might not be directed at Blount; it might be fastened on some desired object which only Blount's removal would render accessible. With Farrow, it might be control of an industrial empire, through his aunt; with Hausman, who is by nature fanatic, it might be some grotesque aspiration; with you or Kalmus, it might be Mrs Blount. I intend�' 'Mrs Blount's daughter is present, Wolfe.' 'So she is. I'm only speculating at random. I didn't inject Mrs Blount's name wantonly; Mr Goodwin, who has seen her and who is qualified to judge, says that she might well unwittingly lead a man to defy the second prescription of the Tenth Commandment, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife. But 1 am only speculating. I intend to find the roots. 110 I haven't the legions of the law, but I have three good men available besides Mr Goodwin, and there is no pressing urgency. Mr Blount won't be brought to trial this week or month.' He was talking to hear himself, rambling on about vacuums and roots and quoting the Bible. He hadn't the faintest notion that Charles W. Yerkes had murdered Paul Jerin in order to erase Matthew Blount, nor did he expect to get any drop of useful information from that bimbo. Merely he would rather talk than try some other way of occupying his mind to keep it off oi' the fix he was in. At that, he had a good listener. Yerkes wasn't missing a word. When Wolfe paused for breath he asked, 'Have you suggested this working hypothesis to the District Attorney's office?' Fine. A satisfactory answer to that, with a full explanation, would take a good three minutes. But Wolfe only said, 'No, sir. They're satisfied with Mr Blount. I am not.' Yerkes looked at Sally and then at me, but he wasn't seeing us; he was merely giving his eyes a change from Wolfe while he decided something. It took him some seconds, then he returned to Wolfe. 'You realize,' he said, 'that tor a senior officer of an important financial institution the publicity connected with an affair like this is ... regrettable. Even a little... embarrassing. Of course it was proper and necessary for the police to see some of my 111 II friends and associates, to learn if I had had any kind of connection with that man Jerin, but it has been disagreeable. And now you, your men, private detectives, inquiring into my relations with Blount--that could be even more disagreeable, but I know I can't stop you. I admit your hypothesis is at least plausible. But I can save you some time and trouble, and perhaps make it less disagreeable for me.' He paused to swallow; it wasn't coming easy. 'It is common knowledge in the banking world that before long a choice will be made for a new president of my bank, and that I will probably be named, but some of the directors, a minority, at present favor another man. Matthew Blount is one of that minority, but naturally since he is now ... in the circumstances, he will not be able to attend the Board meeting next week. It wouldn't have taken much inquiry for you to learn this, hundreds of people know it, but I want to add that it has had no effect on my personal relations with Blount. It isn't that he's against me, it's only that he has greater obligations to the other man, and I understand it and so does he. I will not add that I didn't kill that man Jerin with the purpose of getting Blount charged with murder; I won't dignify anything so fantastic by denying it.' He rose. 'I wish you luck with your hypothesis. The other three, Hausman and Farrow and Kalmus, are merely men I know; 112 but Matthew Blount is my old and valued friend, and so is his wife.' He moved, to Sally. 'So are you, Sally. I think you should go home, that's where you belong at a time like this. I'm sure your father would want�' The doorbell rang, I could have left it to Fritz, since he was still in the kitchen and it wasn't ten o'clock yet, but I had to go to the hall anyway to see Yerkes out, so I went. There had been no picture in the papers of Victor Avery, M.D., but if you're expecting an upperbracket doctor to drop in and you see on the stoop a middle-aged well-fed specimen in a conventional gray overcoat, with scarf, and a dark gray homburg, when you open the door you greet him politely, 'Dr Avery?' As he removed the coat, with an assist from me, Yerkes came, followed by Sally, and I observed that apparently Avery was just another man Yerkes knew, not an old and valued friend; or it may have been only that Yerkes's mind was too occupied for more than a word and a nod, and Avery's attention was all for Sally. He took her hand and patted her arm and said, 'My dear child,' and let the hand go only when they reached the office door. When I joined them in the office after closing the door behind Yerkes, Avery was in the red leather chair and speaking, telling Sally that he had turned a matter over to an assistant so he could come. I noticed as I passed, looking down at him, that he had just the right amount 113 of gray in his hair to look the part. He turned to Wolfe. 'There aren't many things I wouldn't do for Miss Blount. In fact I feel responsible, since I brought her into the world. So I'm here, at your disposal, though I don't know exactly what for. She told me on the phone that she has employed you in her father's interest�professionally. If that's correct�to call a detective a professional man?' Wolfe nodded. 'The dictionary would permit it.' 'Good enough. Miss Blount also told me that you're acting independently other father's attorney. That seems to me a little difficult, a little awkward, but I'm not qualified to judge. The only profession I know anything about is medicine. She said you wanted to see me, and here I am. I would go much farther, to see the devil himself, if it might be of assistance to Miss Blount's father.' Wolfe grunted. 'Do you think he killed Paul Jerin?' 'No. I do not.' He didn't glance at Sally as Yerkes had. 'How long have you been a member of the Gambit Club?' 'Fifteen years.' 'How well do you know Mr Hausman?' 'Not well at all. I rarely see him except at the club. I see him once every year on Matthew Blount's birthday. Mrs Blount gives a party.5 114 'How well do you know Mr Yerkes?' 'Not much better than I know Hausman. Except at the club, only casually.' 'Mr Farrow?' 'I know him, certainly. You know he is Mrs Blount's nephew.' 'Yes. Mr Kalmus?' 'I have known him for years. Aside from our friendship, I attend him professionally.' Avery shifted in the chair, settling back. 'Those four men were the messengers, as of course you know.' 'Of course. More of them later. First the event itself. I understand it was Mr Kalmus who summoned you to go to Mr Jerin.' 'That's right. But I knew before that that Jerin was indisposed, about half an hour before, when Yerkes told Blount. I was at Table Five, next to Blount, Table Six.' 'It was then that Blount went to the library to take the pot and cup and clean them.' 'That's right.' 'Did Yerkes suggest to Blount that he do that?' 'I don't think so. If he did I didn't hear him.' 'Did anyone else suggest it?' 'I don't think so, but I don't know. Yerkes was the messenger for our tables, and he had brought me Jerin's sixth move, and I was concentrating on my reply. I was trying the Albin Counter Gambit. Houghteling had used ^ against Dodge in 1905 and had mated him on 115 the sixteenth move. But perhaps you don't play chess.' 'I don't know that gambit.' From Wolfe's tone he didn't care to. 'When you went in to Jerin, having been summoned by Kalmus, did you suspect poison at once?' 'Oh no, not at once. There was faintness, depression, and some nausea, and those symptoms can come from a variety of causes. It was only when he complained of intense thirst, and his mouth was dry, that I considered the possibility of poison, specifically arsenic, but the clinical picture of arsenical poisoning is by no means always the same. As a precaution I sent to a nearby drugstore for mustard, tinctura ferri chloridi, and magnesium oxide, and when they came I administered mustard water, but not the tincture. That's the official arsenic antidote, and it should be used only after gastric lavage and a test of the washings. Of course there was no equipment at the club for that, and, when the symptoms became more acute, I sent for an ambulance and he was taken to a hospital. St Vincent's.' 'You continued in attendance at the hospital?' Avery nodded. 'With members of the staff. They took over, actually.' 'But you were present?' 'Yes. Until he died.' 'At what point did he know he had been poisoned?' 116 'That's hard to say.' Avery pursed his lips. 'When I went to him he thought there had been something wrong with the chocolate, naturally, since he had taken nothing else, and of course anything swallowed by a man that makes him ill is toxic, but it was only after he had been at the hospital for some time that he voiced a suspicion that he had been poisoned deliberately. You asked when he knew. He never did know, but he suspected it.' 'Did he name anyone? Accuse anyone?' 'I prefer not to say.' 'Pfui. Did he name someone only in your hearing?' 'No.' 'Did he name someone in the hearing of yourself and another?' 'Yes. Others.' 'Then the police know about it, and presumably Mr Kalmus. Why shouldn't I know?' Avery turned, slowly, to look at Sally. 'I haven't told you. Sally,' he said, 'nor your mother. But of course the police have been told�a doctor and two nurses were there and heard it. You asked me to come to see Wolfe, so I suppose you want him to know. Do you?' 'Yes,' Sally said, 'I want him to know everything.' Avery regarded her a moment, opened his mouth and closed it, turned to Wolfe, and said, 'He named Blount.' 117 'What did he say?' 'He said�these were his words: "Where's that bastard Blount? He did this, he did it. Where is he? I want to see him. Where is the bastard?" Of course he was raving. It meant absolutely nothing. But he said it, and the police know it.' Back to Sally: 'Don't tell your mother. It wouldn't do any good, and it's hard enough for her without that.' Sally, staring at him, was shaking her head. 'Why would he...' She looked at me, and I had to say something. 'Nuts,' I said. 'He was off the rails.' Having already swallowed a full-grown camel, though it was tough keeping it down, I wasn't going to strain at a gnat. Wolfe, focused on Avery, asked, 'Did he elaborate on that?' 'No. That was all.' 'Or repeat it?' 'No.' 'Was he questioned about it? By you or another?' 'No. He was not in a condition to be questioned.5 'Then as information it has no value. To go back to the club. You said that when you went to him he thought there had been something wrong with the chocolate, and naturally you shared that suspicion. Did you make any inquiry?' 'Yes, but it was fruitless because none of the chocolate that he had taken was left. The pot 118 and cup had been taken�but you know about that. I went down to the kitchen and questioned the cook and steward and looked around some. However, I didn't do the one thing I should have done, and I regret it; I regret it deeply. I should have asked Jerin if he had put anything in the chocolate that he had brought with him. At the time that possibility didn't occur to me, since he was saying there must have been something wrong with the chocolate as it was served. It only occurred to me later, two days later, when it developed that Blount was seriously suspected of deliberate murder. If I had been fully alert to the possibilities of the situation then and there, at the club, I would have questioned Jerin insistently. I would even have searched him, his pockets. I regret it deeply.' 'Are you suggesting that he committed suicide? And then, at the point of death, accused Blount?' 'Not necessarily suicide. That's conceivable, but more likely, he put something in the chocolate which he believed to be innocuous but wasn't. It could have been some stimulant, either powder or liquid, or it could even have been some special form of sugar he fancied. And either by mistake or through the malign purpose of some other person, arsenic in one of its many forms had been substituted for the harmless substance. Of course it would have had to be in some kind of container, and I went 119 to the club to search and inquire, but two days had passed and the police had already made a thorough inspection. The library had been put in order by the steward Tuesday night and the wastebasket emptied. I have been told by the police that there was no container on Jerin's person, but they don't really know, since he was undressed soon after his arrival at the hospital.' Wolfe grunted. 'So all you have is a conjecture that can't be supported.' 'I'm not so sure, and I'm sorry you say that.' Avery was leaning forward. 'Your attitude is the same as Kalmus's when I made the suggestion to him. Kalmus is an able lawyer, a brilliant lawyer, but naturally his approach to any problem is the legal approach. You're right, my idea is no good if it can't be supported, but that's just the point, perhaps it can be supported, and that's why I wanted to tell you about it, because it's a job for a detective, not a lawyer. I won't try to tell you the dozen different ways it might be supported because that's your profession, not mine. But I'll say this, if I were a detective trying to get evidence that would clear Blount of the murder he has been charged with, which he didn't commit, or at least raise a strong enough doubt, I certainly wouldn't ignore this as a conjecture that can't be supported. I don't want to be importunate, but you realize I'm deeply concerned.' 120 'Naturally.' Wolfe was patient. 'I concede that your suggestion is worth considering. It has the great merit that if it can be established it will clear not only Blount but also the others who had access to the chocolate�the four messengers. I said more of them later. A detective must consider them too. You have advanced a suggestion; now I offer one. One of those four men killed Jerin, not because of any malice toward him, but to destroy Blount. The malice was for Blount. That's why I asked how well you know them. If it can be shown�' 'Good lord.' Avery was gawking. 'That's tommyrot. You're not serious?' 'Why not? My suggestion is as worthy of consideration as yours and can be more easily investigated. Why is it tommyrot?' 'Why...' Avery turned his palms up. 'Perhaps I should have said... implausible. To kill a man like that, deliberately, a man who means nothing to you, in an attempt to injure another man... I may be naive for a man of my age and experience, but such depravity ... it's hard for me to believe. I can't deny that it's conceivable.' 'Then it's not tommyrot. But apparently it would be futile to ask if you have any knowledge or suspicion that would single out one of them.' 'It certainly would.' He was emphatic. 'Even if I had any I wouldn't�' He stopped abruptly, looked at Sally, and returned to Wolfe. 'No, 121 that isn't true. If I had any such knowledge or suspicion I'd tell you. Have you any?' Wolfe shook his head. 'If I have I'm reserving it. I have spoken with three of them� Hausman, Farrow, and Yerkes�and I expect to see Kalmus tomorrow. They all profess belief in Blount's innocence, which is gratifying but not helpful. I not only profess it, I am committed to it; and whether through your suggestion or mine, or by some device not yet conceived, I intend to demonstrate it.' Hooray. CHAPTER NINE Daniel Kalmus, counselor at law, arrived a little after noon Wednesday. It was a good thing he didn't put it off until after lunch, as some extra fine lamb kidneys, skewered to keep them open, doused in olive oil seasoned with salt, pepper, thyme, dry mustard, and mace, broiled five-and-three�five minutes on the skin side and three minutes on the cut side� and brushed twice with deviled butter, would have been practically wasted. I have said that Wolfe refuses to let anything whatever spoil a meal if the food is good, but that day, if there had been no reaction whatever, not even a phone call, to Sally's ultimatum to Kalmus, the kidneys would of course have been chewed and 122 swallowed, but they wouldn't have been appreciated. They might as well have been served to Voltaire. That was the first and only time Wolfe has given me instructions and then canceled them, without anything having happened to change his mind. While Sally and I were having breakfast, fresh-baked croissants and eggs poached in red wine and bouillon, he buzzed me on the house phone from his room and told me to call Saul Panzer, Fred Durkin, and Orrie Gather�the three good men he had mentioned to Yerkes�and ask them to come at six o'clock. That improved my appetite for breakfast. I hadn't the dimmest notion what he was going to have them do, but it couldn't be just to ask their opinion of Dr Avery's suggestion, since together they came to twentyfive bucks an hour. Then only ten minutes later he buzzed me again and told me to skip it. Absolutely unheard of. If there's one thing he never does it's toss and turn. A hell of a way to start a day. When he came down to the office at eleven o'clock and saw the client there, in a chair over by the filing cabinet, with the Times, he paused on the way to his desk to scowl at her for a couple of seconds, acknowledged her good morning with a curt nod, switched the scowl to me, went and put orchids in the vase, sat, removed the paperweight, a chunk of petrified wood, from the little pile of morning mail, and 123 picked up the first item, a letter from the president of a women's club in Montclair asking if and when about a hundred of the members could come and look at the orchids. I had considered withholding it and answering it myself, in view of his current acute feeling about club members, but had decided that if I could take it he could. He looked through the mail, put the paperweight back on it, and looked at me. 'Any phone calls?' He never asked that, knowing as he did that if there had been a call which he would want or need to know about I would report it without being asked. So I said, 'Yes, sir. Lon Cohen wants to send a man to interview Miss Blount.' 'Why did you tell him she's here?' 'I didn't. You know damn well I didn't. She went for a walk and some journalist probably saw her and tailed her. We can get Saul and Fred and Orrie and have them find out.' 'Archie. I am in no mood for raillery.' 'Neither am I.' His eyes went to his client. 'Miss Blount. When Mr Kalmus comes you will of course retire before he enters.' 'I'd rather stay,' she said. 'I want to.' 'No. Mr Goodwin will tell you later what was said. You will please withdraw.' She shook her head. 'I'm going to stay.' Not arguing, just stating a fact. If he had been anything like normal lit; 124 would have exploded, and if she had stuck to it he would have instructed me to carry her upstairs and lock her in. Instead, he merely glared at her, and then at me, removed the paperweight from the mail, picked up the top letter, and growled, 'Your notebook, Archie.' In the next hour he dictated sixteen letters, only three of them in reply to items that had come that morning. I still have the notebook, and it's quite an assortment. Though they all got typed, nine of them were never signed and mailed. They were all quite polite. One, to a boy in Wichita, Kansas, apologized for not answering his letter, received two weeks back, asking two pages of questions about detective work, but he didn't go so far as to answer the questions. He was in the middle of one to an orchid hunter in Ecuador when the doorbell rang; I stepped to the hall for a look, and turned to inform him, 'Kalmus.' It was ten minutes past noon. Naturally I was curious to see how Sally would handle it, so when I ushered the caller to the office and he entered I was right behind. She stayed put, on the chair over by the cabinet, looking straight at him, but obviously not intending to move or speak. He was going to her but stopped halfway, muttered at her, 'You silly little goose,' and about-faced. His eyes met Wolfe's at eight paces, and I pronounced names and indicated the red leather chair. Kalmus spoke. 'So you got me 125 here with a threat from a hysterical girl.' That wasn't so easy to meet, since Wolfe thinks that any calm and quiet woman is merely taking time out from her chronic hysteria, building up for the next outbreak. So he ignored it. 'Since you are here,' he said, with no heat, 'you might as well be seated. Eyes at a level are equal. Of course that's why a judge's bench is elevated.' Kalmus went to the red leather chair, but he didn't settle in it; he just perched on the front half of the seat. 'I want to make one thing clear,' he declared. 'If you think you can force me to take you as a colleague in handling the defense of Matthew Blount, you're wrong. Anything I do or don't do, I'll decide it strictly on the only proper ground, is it in the interest of my client or isn't it. Also I want to say that I'm not surprised at the tactics you're using. It was partly because I know how you operate that I was against hiring you. I don't blame Miss Blount because she doesn't know any better. She doesn't know that coercion by threat partakes of the nature of blackmail, or that if she did what she threatened to do it would be libel. You can't deny that she wrote that letter at your direction.' Wolfe nodded. 'I dictated it to Mr Goodwin, he typed it, and she copied it.' From his expression as he regarded the lawyer you might have thought he was merely trying to decide whether I had exaggerated about skin and 126 bones. 'As for blackmail, the only thing extorted is half an hour or so of your time. As for intent to libel, her defense would be the truth of the libel, but I concede that she couldn't possibly prove it. For you and me to discuss it would be pointless. She mistrusts your good faith as her father's counsel because she thinks you are capable of betraying him for your personal advantage, and of course you deny it. The question is moot and can't be resolved, so why waste time and words on it? What I would�' 'It's ridiculous! Childish nonsense!' 'That may be. You're the only one who knows the real answer, since it is inside you, your head and heart. What I would like to discuss is the theory Miss Blount mentioned in her letter. It is based partly on a conclusion from established fact and partly on an assumption. The assumption is that Mr Blount is innocent. The conclusion is that�' 'I know all about the theory.' Wolfe's brows went up. 'Indeed?' 'Yes. If it's what you told Yerkes last evening. Is it?' 'It is.' 'He told me about it this morning. Not on the phone�he came to my office. He was impressed by it, and so am 1.1 was impressed when it first entered my mind, a week ago, and when I told Blount about it he too was impressed. I didn't do what you have done� 127 speak of it to those who may be vitally concerned�at least one of them may be. Have you also told Farrow and Hausman?' Wolfe's brows were still up. 'It had already occurred to you?' 'Certainly. It had to. If Blount didn't put arsenic in that chocolate, and he didn't, it had to be one of those three, and he had to have a reason. I don't have to tell you that when a crime is committed the first and last question is cui boncP. And the only result of the murder of Jerin that could possibly have benefited one of those three was the arrest of Blount on a capital charge. Of course you include me on the list, and I don't. Is that why you told Yerkes? Because you think this idiotic idea of Miss Blount's points to me and he's out of it?' 'No. At present you seem the most likely, but none of them is out of it. I told Yerkes to get talk started. Not just talk about you and Mrs Blount; even if Miss Blount's suspicion is valid you have probably been too discreet to give occasion for talk; talk about the other three and their relations with Blount. The success of any investigation depends mainly on talk, as of course you know.' Wolfe turned a hand. 'You may not need it. You have known all of them for years. You may already have known all of them for years. You may already have an inkling, more than an inkling, and, combining it with the fact known only to you and Blount, you may have your case secure. If so you don'^ 128 need me.' Kalmus put his hands on the chair arms to lever himself back on the seat, cocked his head, and closed his eyes to look at something inside. Facing the window beyond Wolfe's desk, he didn't look quite as bony as he had in the firelight in the Blount living room, but he looked older; he did have creases, slanting down from the corners of his mouth and nose. His eyes opened. 'I haven't got my case secure,' he said. 'Hmmmm,' Wolfe said. 'Not secure. That theory, it's obvious enough if Blount is innocent, but why are you so sure he is? I know why I am, but why are you?' Wolfe shook his head. 'You can't expect a candid answer to that, since we're not colleagues. But if I have no other ground there is this: if Blount is guilty I can't possibly earn the fee I have accepted from his daughter, and an unearned fee is like raw fish�it fills the stomach but is hard to digest. Therefore my client's father didn't kill that man.' 'You happen to be right. He didn't.' 'Good. It's gratifying to have concurrence from one who knows. It would be even more gratifying to be told how you know, but I can't expect you to tell me. Presumably it's the fact known only to you and Mr Blount.' 'That's partly it. Chiefly.' Kalmus took a deep breath. 'I'm going to ask you something. 129 I'm going to see my client this afternoon. If l suggest to him that we engage you to investigate something, and he approves, will you do it? Investigate one particular matter under my direction?' 'I can't say. I doubt it. I would have to know first precisely what is to be investigated, and how much I would be restricted by the direction. You disapprove of my tactics on principle.' 'But they get results. If you were satisfied on those two points would you accept?' 'If there were no conflict of interest, if Miss Blount approved, and if it were stated in writing that Mr Blount is my client, not you, yes. What would I investigate?' 'That will have to wait until I consult Blount. Will you be available this evening?' 'Yes. But I'll commit myself, if at all, only upon written request from Mr Blount. I owe some deference to Miss Blount's opinion of your probity, right or wrong. She is my client. And what of your abrupt somersault regarding me?' 'It wasn't abrupt.' Kalmus twisted in the chair to face Sally, started to say something, vetoed it, and returned to Wolfe. 'The fact you've mentioned twice, the fact known only to Blount and me, required investigation�not the fact itself, but what it suggested. I thought I could handle it myself with the help of a couple of men in my office, but day before yesterday, 130 Monday afternoon, I realized that it would take an expert investigator, and I decided to call on you. Then came that item in the paper, that you had been hired on behalf of Blount, and I thought you were trying to horn in, and my reaction to that was natural. But that evening Mrs Blount phoned me that her daughter had hired you, so you weren't just trying to horn in, and when I went up there I intended to smooth it out and hire you myself, but you know what I ran into. That ridiculous idea of Miss Blount's. I admit I acted like a damn fool. It wasn't Goodwin's fault, or yours; it was hers.' He waved it away. 'All right, that was stupid. Then yesterday that letter came, obviously drafted by you. I forced myself to look at it objectively, and I had to admit that from your viewpoint you were acting in the legitimate interest of the person who had hired you. And this morning when Yerkes came and told me what you said to him last evening, the theory that I already had myself, it was obvious that you weren't just making gestures to get a fee, you genuinely thought Blount was innocent. So I came here with the definite intention of engaging your services. It may not have sounded like it, the way I started off, but I still resented that letter and you can't blame me. I didn't do any abrupt somersault about you.' He got up and crossed over to Sally. 'Where you got that fool notion,' he said, 'God only 131 knows. If you have any sense at all you'll go home where you belong. Two different newspapers have phoned my office this morning to ask what you're doing at Nero Wolfe's house. For God's sake get some sense.' He put out a hand, pulled it back, and wheeled to face Wolfe. 'I'll see Blount this afternoon and you'll hear from me either this evening or tomorrow morning. He'll feel better if I tell him that you're sending his daughter home. Can I tell him that?' 'No, sir. I don't prescribe my clients' movements.' 'Very well.' He thought he was going to add something, decided he wasn't, and headed for the door. I followed him out, for the courtesies of the hall. Back at the office door, I didn't enter because Sally was there on the sill. 'Do you believe him?' she demanded. From her tone and expression it seemed likely that if I said yes I might get my face scratched, so I took her arm and turned her to escort her to the red leather chair, and darned if she didn't balk. She wasn't going to sit where it was still warm from Clan Kalmus. She jerked her arm away, stood at the corner of Wolfe's desk, and demanded, 'Do you believe him?' 'Confound it,' Wolfe snapped, 'sit down! My neck isn't rubber.' 'But if you're going--' 'Sit down!' 132 She turned, saw I had moved up a chair, sat, and said, 'You said I would have to approve. Well, I don't. Not under his direction.' Wolfe regarded her, not with enthusiasm. 'He made one excellent suggestion,' he declared. 'That I send you home. But if I put you out you probably wouldn't go home, there's no telling where you'd go, and I need you. I need you now, and I may need you again at any moment. I neither believe him nor disbelieve him.' He turned. 'Archie?' I was back at my desk. 'Pass,' I told him. 'If he's a liar he's good. If he's straight Sally's a goof, and I told her Monday evening that I'm with her all the way, so I'm prejudiced. I pass.' He grunted. To her, 'You heard me. I told him I would have to be satisfied about the direction. What do you want. Miss Blount? Did you hire me to discredit Mr Kalmus or to clear your father?' 'Why ... my father, of course.' 'Then don't interfere. If there really is an important fact known only to Kalmus and your father I may soon learn what it is, before I commit myself to Kalmus, and then I'll decide what to do. He has by no means convinced me of his integrity, and I'm going to spend some of your money in an effort to verify or impeach your opinion of him. He is a widower?' 'Yes. His wife died ten years ago.' 'He has children?' She nodded. 'Four. Two sons and two . 133 daughters. They're all married.' 'Do any of them live with him? Or he with them?' 'No. He has an apartment on Thirty-eighth Street in a remodeled house that he owns. When the children got married and left he had it turned into apartments, one to a floor.' 'Does he live alone?' 'Yes. He doesn't�' 'Yes is enough. Does he have servants? A servant?' 'Not to sleep in. A daily cleaning woman is all. He only eats breakfast�' 'If you please. Have you a key to his apartment?' Her eyes widened. 'Of course not. Why would I have a key?' 'I couldn't say. I merely ask.' He turned. 'Archie. Get Saul and Fred and Orrie. After lunch. Two-thirty if possible.' I swiveled and got the phone and dialed. Getting them in the middle of the day was doubtful, but Saul had an answering service, Fred had a wife, and for Orrie I had three different numbers, two of which were strictly his affair; and for Wolfe any and all of them would leave a job he happened to be on unless it was really hot. I was at the phone off and on until lunchtime, and my meal was interrupted twice by call-backs from Fred and Orrie, but 1 wouldn't have minded if I had got no meal at 134 all if necessary in order to get a ball rolling, though it did seem that Wolfe was piling it on. If all he had in mind was a tour of Kalmus's apartment, as was indicated by the questions he had asked Sally, why the platoon? Why not just send me? I had a suspicion and I didn't care for it. He wanted me around on account of Sally. With me not there to keep an eye on her, she might try to tell Fritz how to cook, or put tacks in Wolfe's bed, or change the furniture around. If that was it, if having her as a house guest meant that I would be sent on no errand if and when there was one, I was inclined to agree with Yerkes and Kalmus, at a time like this the place for her was home. Bones were dwelt upon again at lunch, but not Voltaire's; these had been found in some gorge somewhere in Africa, and they proved that the chief difference between me and the galoots who put them there a million years ago was that I can use a typewriter; I think that was it. The kidneys were fully appreciated, and, as I was chewing my last one, Fritz stepped in after answering the doorbell to say that Mr Panzer was there. If Sally hadn't been present he would of course have said Saul. By the time we finished with the salad and coffee Fred and Orrie had also come. I had told them on the phone that Sally Blount would be present, and, when we entered the office and I introduced them to her, it was interesting, as it always is, to see how true they ' � 135 MM ran to form. Saul Panzer, five-feet-seven, 140 pounds, with a big nose and flat ears, not a good design for beauty, apparently looked casually in her direction only to be polite, but you could safely give a thousand to one that he had every little detail of her on file for good. Fred Durkin, five-feet-ten, 190 pounds, bald and burly, looked at her, then away, then back at her. He doesn't know he does that. Ever since the time, years ago, when he fell temporarily for a pretty little trick with ample apples, and his wife caught on, he doesn't trust himself with females under thirty. Orrie Gather, six-feet-flat, 180 pounds, good design from tip to toe, gave her a straight, honest, inquisitive, and acquisitive eye. He was born with the attitude toward all attractive women that a fisherman has toward all the trout in a stream, and has never seen any reason to change it. Their three chairs lined up before Wolfe's desk didn't leave much space, and the red leather chair had had time to cool off from Kalmus, so Sally took it. Wolfe, after performing as usual with that trio, shaking hands with all of them because he wanted to with Saul, sat, moved his eyes left to right and back again, and spoke. 'If it was troublesome for you to arrange to come I should thank you, and I do. I suppose you know what I'm concerned with�Matthew Blount, charged with the murder of Paul Jerin. You have just 136 met his daughter. I won't describe the situation because for the present I have a single specific assignment for you. You probably know the name ofBlount's lawyer: Daniel Kalmus.' Nods. There is reason to suspect that at some time prior to Tuesday evening, January thirtieth, he procured some arsenic somewhere; I have no slightest hint of where or how or when, but it was probably not more than a week or two before January thirtieth; it may well have been only a day or two. Note that I said "reason to suspect"; that's all it is. Usually when I ask you to find something I have concluded that it exists; this time it's not a conclusion, merely a surmise. But you will spare no pains, and if you find it your fees will be doubled. Saul will be in charge and will direct you, but report here to Archie as usual.' He focused on Saul. 'On such an operation you know how to proceed better than I do. I offer no suggestions. Evidence that he actually procured or possessed arsenic in some form would be most satisfactory, but even to establish that he had access to it would help substantially. Make no undue sacrifice to discretion; if he learns of your inquiries no harm will be done, for of course he has already taken all possible precautions. But you will exclude his doctor and his apartment. His doctor, Victor Avery, is his old and intimate ^lend; I have talked with him; and any 137 approach to him or his office should be discussed with me beforehand. As for his apartment, it will be visited and inspected this evening by Archie, accompanied by Miss Blount. Miss Blount is an excellent source of information regarding his habits, haunts, associates�all about him. Get all you can from her first.' He turned to her. There are comfortable seats in the front room. If you please?' She had fists again, her knuckles white. 'But I told you ... I just don't believe it...' 'You're not required to. I neither believe it nor reject it; I'm investigating. That's what you hired me for.' 'You said I would go to his apartment with Archie. I couldn't.' 'We'll consider that later. In talking with Mr Panzer, Mr Durkin, and Mr Gather, you need not disclose any matter which you wish to reserve. Mr Goodwin will be with you.' He turned. 'Have your notebook, Archie.' I got it, arose, and headed for the door to the front room, and the trio got up and came, but stood aside at the door to let Sally go first. Ops appreciate a chance to be polite, they get so few. As I pulled the door shut a glance at Wolfe showed him reaching for African Genesis. Now that he was hard at work he could read again. 138 CHAPTER TEN At ten minutes past ten that evening Sally and I got out of a taxi at the corner of Park Avenue and Thirty-eighth Street, walked a block and a half east with a gusty winter wind at our backs shoving us along, stood at the curb, and looked across the street at the windows of the fourth floor, the top, of a brick house painted gray with green trim. Seeing no sign of light, we crossed over, entered the vestibule, and inspected the row of names and buttons on the panel, and I pushed the button marked Kalmus, expecting no response, since I had dialed his phone number only a quarter of an hour ago and got no answer. After a thirtysecond wait I pushed the button at the bottom, marked superintendent, and as I did so Sally gripped my arm. It had taken some persuading to get her to come�in fact, more than persuading, since she had held out until Wolfe explained that if I came alone I would have to bring an assortment of keys and tools, and even if one of the keys worked I could be nailed for breaking and entering. Naturally that did it, since she was faced with the prospect of me in the coop and her there at Wolfe's mercy. The arrangement was that if and when Kalmus came to see Wolfe that evening Sally and I 139 would not be visible, and after Fritz had escorted him to the office and shut the door we would take off on our errand, and Wolfe would keep him until word came from me that we were through. Also, if he hadn't shown by ten o'clock and his phone didn't answer, we would go anyhow and risk getting interrupted. On that I had fudged a little and dialed his number at nine-fifty. So there we were in the vestibule. There was no receiver on a hook, just a pair of little circular grills in the wall at chin level, and after a brief wait there was a crackle and then a voice: 'Who is it?' Sally, still gripping my arm, spoke to the grill. 'It's Sarah Blount. We want to see Mr Kalmus. We rang his bell, but he didn't answer. Do you know where he is?' 'No, I don't.' 'Well ... we want to see him, but it's cold here in the vestibule. May we wait inside? Will you let us in?' 'I guess so. I'll be up in a minute.' I put my hand to the door and kept it there, but there was no click. A minute passed, and another, and still no click, and then the door opened. The man who opened it, a thin tall guy with a face as black as Jim Crow, made room for us to enter, and when we were in let it shut; I knew more about him, from Sally, than he did about me. His name was Dobbs, and he had been the butler when the Kalmus family had occupied the whole house. 140 He was frowning at Sally. 'It's you all right, Miss Sarah,' he said. 'It's been so long since I saw you.' She nodded. 'It certainly has. This is Mr Goodwin. Mr Dobbs, Archie.' I offered a hand, and he took it. Of course shaking hands with a butler is vulgar, but he wasn't a butler any more, he was a superintendent. 'You haven't changed any,' Sally said. 'Except your hair. All that gray.' She was hating it, and I admit I couldn't blame her. 'You have,' Dobbs said, 'but that's natural. You're on the up, and I'm on the down. Will you permit me to say, I'm sorry about your father's trouble. I know it's going to come out all right, sure it will, but it's a big trouble.' He looked at me, and he had a good keen eye. 'I know your name, you're a detective.' Back to Sally. 'I guess that's why you want to see Mr Kalmus, your father's trouble.' 'Yes, it is.' For a moment I thought Sally was going to flunk it, but she got it out: 'Could we wait for him in his apartment? Could you ... would you... let us in? If we have to wait long ... we have to see him tonight...' 'Of course.' After all, she had sat on his knee, with a Kalmus daughter on the other knee, while he told them stories, before the gray came to his hair�a detail I had got from Sally. He said, 'Mr Kalmus wouldn't want you waiting Jor him down here, that's sure,' and headed for 141 the open door of the do-it-yourself elevator. Entering after us, he pushed a button, the door closed, and we were lifted. On the fourth floor the foyer was just a cell, four feet square, merely to provide walls for a door. Dobbs had taken a ring of keys from a pocket, but before he used one he pushed the button on the jamb and waited a full half a minute�in case Kalmus was in but had preferred not to answer our ring from downstairs. Evidently not. He used the key, opened the door, entered and flipped a wall switch, and there was light�plenty of it, though indirect, from troughs at the ceiling along two of the walls. 'There you are, Miss Sarah,' he said. 'It's not the way it used to be, is it?' 'No, it isn't, Dobbsy.' She started a hand out but took it back. You don't shake the hand of a man you're tricking. But apparently it's all right to kiss him. Anyway, she did�a peck on the cheek�and said, 'Did you hear that? Dobbsy!' 'You bet I heard it. You just bet I did.' He bowed to her, and it could have been a butler bowing or an ambassador from somewhere in Africa. 'I hope you don't have long to wait,' he said, and went. When the door had closed behind him Sally flopped onto the nearest chair. 'My God,' she groaned. 'How awful. I didn't want to come. Will you hurry, Archie? Will you 142 please hurry?' I told her to relax, took my hat and coat off and dropped them on a chair, and glanced around. It was a big room, and by no means bare, and of course there would be a bedroom and bath, and a kitchenette. Even if I had been after some specific object like a bottle of arsenous oxide it would have been a three-hour job if done right, and since I expected nothing so obvious but merely hoped for something, no matter what, that would open a crack to let in a little light, the whole night wouldn't be too much. Say it was a single piece of paper, a letter or a record of something; one item alone, the books in the shelves that lined the wall on the right, to the ceiling, would take hours. And Kalmus might show any second. I decided to have a look at the bedroom first and started for a door at the left, but on the way I caught something from the corner of my eye and stopped and turned. Then I moved. It was Kalmus. He was on the floor in front of a couch, and the couch hid him from view until you passed the end of it. He was fully dressed, on his back with his legs straight out. After glancing at Sally and seeing that she was still on the chair, her head bent forward and her face covered by her hands, I squatted. His eyes were open, staring at the ceiling, the pupils dilated, his face was purple, his tongue was sticking out, and there was dried froth around his mouth and nose. With the froth dry there j 143 I � was no use trying for a pulse or a breath. I poked a finger into a deep crease around his neck, felt something besides skin, and leaned closer for a look, forcing the crease open. It was cord, the kind used for Venetian blinds, with a knot under his left ear, and the surplus ends had been tucked under his shoulder. I told myself then and there to remember to ask the murderer, when we had him, if he had tucked the cord in consciously because he liked things neat, or if his mind had been occupied and he had done it without thinking. It was one of the most remarkable details I have ever seen or heard of about a death by violence. I was resisting the temptation to pull it out to see how much there was of it when there was a sound behind me, and I twisted around and then sprang up. Sally was there, staring down, her mouth hanging open, and she was starting to sag as I reached her. Not wanting a faint to deal with, I picked her up, carried her to a chair at the other side of the room, put her in it, pushed her head forward, down to her knees, and kept my hand there, at the back other nice neck. She was limp and there was no resistance, but she wasn't out. I knelt beside her, in case she went. 'So you were wrong,' I said, 'dead wrong. It you hadn't been wrong you wouldn't have come to Nero Wolfe, but to hell with that now. Do you hear me?' No answer. 144 'Damn it, do you hear me?' 'Yes.' It wasn't loud, but it was audible. 'Is he dead?' 'Certainly he's dead. He�' 'How?' 'Strangled. There's a cord around his throat.' I took my hand away, and her head started up, slow, and I stood up. 'Do you think you can walk?' 'I don't... want to walk.' Her head was up. 'That's too bad. Will I have to carry you down and put you in a cab?' 'Archie.' Her head tilted back to look up at me. Her jaw started working, out of control, and she stopped to manage it. She made it, and asked, 'He killed himself?' 'No. I'll be glad to help you straighten your mind out later but now I have things to do. He was murdered. I don't want you here when the cops come. I'd rather explain why we came and got Dobbs to let us in without your help. Do you want to spend the night answering questions?' 'No.' 'Can you make it down and get a taxi? Mr Wolfe will be expecting you. I'll phone him.' 'I think ... I'll go home.' 'You will not. Absolutely not. Either you give me your word that you'll go straight back there or you stay here and take it. Well?' 'I don't want to stay.' 'Will you go to Nero Wolfe and do what 145 he says?' 'Yes.' 'Okay. Can you stand? Can you walk?5 She could. I didn't help her. I went to the door and opened it, and she came, none too steady but she made it. Propping the door open with my foot, I reached for the elevator button and pushed it, and when it came and the door opened she entered and pushed the button, and the door closed. I went back in, crossed to a table in a corner where I had seen a phone, lifted the receiver, and dialed the number I knew best. Wolfe's voice came: 'Yes?' He never has answered the phone properly and never will. The,' I said. 'In Kalmus's apartment. Everything worked fine as planned. Sally did all right, and Superintendent Dobbs brought us up and let us in and left. But Kalmus was here and still is. He's stretched out on the floor with a cord tight around his neck. He has started to cool off, but of course skinny ones cool faster. At a guess, he has been dead around three hours. He didn't tie the cord himself, and anyway the loose ends are neatly tucked under his shoulder.' Silence for five seconds, then: 'Pfui.' 'Yes, sir. I agree. I have bounced Sally, she just left, and, if she stays conscious and keeps her promise, she will be there in about ten minutes. I have a suggestion. Send her up to bed and have Doc Vollmer come. He may find 146 that she needs a sedative and shouldn't see any callers, official or otherwise, until sometime tomorrow. I'll notify the law right away, since they'll learn from Dobbs what time he let us in. Have you any instructions?' 'No. Confound it.' 'Yes, sir. Absolutely. I assume I don't tell the law what we had in mind when we came, since what was in our minds is none of their damned business. You wondered why Kalmus didn't show up this evening, and when I tried his number there was no answer, so we came to ask him. Will that do?' 'Yes. Must you stay?' 'Oh, no. I'm staying because I like it here. Tell Fritz I may be there for breakfast and I may not.' I hung up and took a couple of seconds to shake my head at the phone with my lips tight. Must I stay. Only a genius could ask such a damn fool question. Still shaking my head, I picked up the phone and dialed another number I knew: WA9-8241. I dialed that instead of Headquarters because I preferred to tell Inspector Cramer himself, or at least Sergeant Purley Stebbins, if either of them was on duty. 147 CHAPTER ELEVEN A couple of electricians had installed a juke box inside my skull, and they were still there, testing it to see how many selections it could play simultaneously. About a dozen, apparently, judging from the noise. Also they were jumping up and down to find out how much vibration it could stand. Or maybe it wasn't a juke box, it was a band, and they were all jumping up and down. If I wanted to see which it was I would have to turn my eyes around to look inside, and in the effort to do that my lids came open, and there facing me was the clock on my bedstand. I quit trying to reverse my eyes and concentrated on the clock. Seventeen minutes past eleven. The noise was neither a juke box nor a band; it was the house buzzer. Someone somewhere had a finger on the button and was keeping it there. Nuts. I could stop it by reaching for the cord and yanking it loose. But it takes a hero to do something as sensible as that, and I wasn't awake enough to be a hero, so when I reached I got the phone instead of the cord, brought it to the neighborhood of my mouth, and said, 'Now what?' Wolfe's voice came: 'I'm in the kitchen. What time did you get home?' 'Nine minutes to seven, and had three fingei & 148 of bourbon while I was fixing a bowl of milk toast. I intended to sleep through until dinner. Why are you in the kitchen?' 'Mr Cramer is in the office. Have you anything I should know?' 'Yes. Lieutenant Rowcliff's stutter is getting worse. Sergeant Stebbins has a bandage on the middle finger of his left hand, probably got bit by a pigeon he was trying to put salt on the tail of. An assistant DA named Schipple whom I never met before has amended the Constitution; a man is guilty until he proves he's innocent. That's all. In my answers to ten thousand questions and in the statement I signed there was nothing to affect your program if you have one. I didn't even admit in so many words that Sally is your client. As for Kalmus, he was hit on the back of the head, probably with a heavy metal ash tray that was there on a table, before the cord was tied around his throat. The cord was from one of the window blinds there in the room. The ME's on-the-spot guess was that he had been dead two to five hours. Where's Sally?' 'In the south room.' (Even after three nights, not 'in her room.') 'Dr Vollmer is attending. Before he dosed her last evening I told her why you went to that apartment�when she is asked. How soon can you be down?' 'Oh, six hours. What does Cramer want? He can't want me, he had me off and on all night. Does he want Sally?' 149 'I don't know. When he arrived I came to the kitchen and Fritz took him to the office. He may presume to quote something you said, even something in your statement, and you should be present. Can you be down in ten minutes?' 'Yes, but I won't. Twenty. Tell Fritz I would appreciate orange juice and coffee.' He said certainly and hung up, and I stretched out on my back and yawned good and wide before reaching to switch the electric blanket off. On my feet, before I closed the open window I stuck my head out for a whiff of winter air, which helped a little, enough to rouse me to the point where I could put my pants on right side front and my shoes on the right feet. More than that couldn't be expected. All night, in between sessions with dicks and the assistant DA, I had considered the situation with Kalmus out of it, and had decided that the best idea would be for the morning mail to bring a letter from Kalmus, telling why he had killed Jerin and saying that after his talk with Wolfe he knew it was all up, so he was bowing out. I might have gone to bed looking forward to the morning mail but for one thing. It wasn't positively inconceivable that he had tied the cord himself, but he simply could not have tucked the ends under his shoulder; he would have been too far gone. By the time I got downstairs, in twenty minutes flat, my personal fog had cleared a 150 little. In the kitchen, Wolfe, at the center table inspecting a string of dried mushrooms, put it down when I appeared, and moved. I said, 'Orange juice,' and he said Fritz would bring it, and I sidestepped to let him by, and followed him to the office. If Cramer, in the red leather chair, wished us a good morning he didn't say so. As we went to our desks he looked at his wrist watch, not just a glance but holding his cuff back with his other hand and staring, and as Wolfe sat he rasped, 'Half an hour, by God. If you were the Mayor, but you're not.' 'I offer no apology,' Wolfe said, no hard feeling. 'You had no appointment.' Cramer uttered a word that I omit, out of respect for his rank and his long and faithful public service. He was short on sleep too, and his eyes showed it. But he went on, 'Appointment my ass. In the kitchen lapping up beer?' His hand went to his inside breast pocket and came out with a piece of paper. 'This is to you, but it was found on the body of a man who died by violence, so it's evidence and I'm keeping it. Shall I read it to you?' Wolfe's shoulders went up an eighth of an inch. 'As you please. I would return it.' 'When?' 'As soon as Mr Goodwin makes a copy of it.' Cramer looked at me. Apparently he decided that I would probably eat it, for he shook his head and said, 'I'll read it.' He unfolded the paper. 'Printed at the top is 151 "From the desk of Daniel Kalmus." It's dated yesterday, February 14, 1962. It says, written by hand, in ink: "To Nero Wolfe: I hereby engage your professional services in my behalf and will pay you a reasonable fee plus necessary expenses. My attorney, Daniel Kalmus, will explain what I wish investigated, and you will work in collaboration with him and at his direction." It's signed, "Matthew Blount."' He looked at me. 'I see you've got it down.' 'Sure,' I said, and closed my notebook. He returned the paper to his pocket. 'All right,' he told Wolfe, 'I want to know. Monday you announced through Goodwin that you had been hired on behalf of Blount. Kalmus denied it. Tuesday you told me you had been hired but wouldn't say who had hired you. Wednesday, yesterday, Kalmus comes to you and, according to Goodwin, tells you that he wants to hire you but he has to get Blount's okay first. Last night Kalmus is murdered, and in his pocket is this note to you from Blount. I want to know and you're going to tell me. First, if you were hired Monday who hired you?' Wolfe's brows went up. 'Didn't Mr Goodwin tell you?' 'You know damn well he didn't. He told us damn little. I wanted to hold him as a material witness, but the DA said no. Who hired you?' 'Isn't it obvious?' Wolfe turned a hand over. 152 'Since she went there with Mr Goodwin last evening, and I hadn't yet been engaged by Mr Kalmus or Mr Blount? Surely you can add two and two. Miss Blount, of course.' Cramer nodded. 'Yeah, I can add. Now that you know I already know, you tell me. I also know she has been here since Monday night, and she's here now. I want to see her.' 'She's under a doctor's care and you must have his permission. Dr Edwin A. Voll�' 'Nuts. She discovered a dead body and left before the police arrived. Where is she, in the kitchen?' 'Mr Goodwin discovered the body and you kept him all night.' Wolfe turned to me. 'Tell Miss Blount to bolt the door.' I swiveled to get the house phone, but Cramer roared, 'Your goddam clowning!' and I swiveled back and grinned at him, and told Wolfe, 'I hate to disturb her. If he starts upstairs there'll be time enough.' 'That's the first thing you wanted to know,' Wolfe told Cramer. 'Miss Blount was and is my client. Now her father is too if I accept the engagement. Next?' Cramer had his fingers curled over the chair arms, regaining control. He must have told himself many times over the years never to let Wolfe get him roaring, and here he had done it again. I expected him to get out a cigar and give ^ a massage, but Fritz saved him the trouble and expense by coming with my orange juice 153 and coffee on a tray, and by the time he had put it on my desk and gone, and I had picked up the glass and taken a sip, Cramer had himself in hand. He cleared his throat. 'You remember,' he said, a little hoarse, 'that I said Tuesday I knew damn well you hadn't been hired. Okay, maybe I was wrong. But I also said that I thought you had got hold of something, some piece of information or evidence, that you thought would spring Blount, or at least might, and now I'm sure of it. It's a fair guess that you got it from the daughter. You used it to get Kalmus here. You told him what it was, or gave him a good hint, good enough so he told Blount and advised him to hire you, and Blount wrote you this note.' He tapped his chest. 'But Kalmus went ahead and did something with that piece of information himself without calling you in, and he got himself killed, and you learned about it or suspected it, and when Goodwin went there last night, taking the daughter along to get him in, he expected to find a corpse.' He paused for breath. 'You and your goddam tricks. You probably told Kalmus to try something. I'd bet a dollar to a dime that you know who killed him. All right, you've jockeyed yourself into a fee, and Kalmus is dead, but your client is still in jail. Can you pry him loose or can't you? I'm not going to tell you for the twentieth time that if and when the DA thinks he can get you for obstructing 154 justice by withholding evidence I'll do all I caQ,n to make it stick, and it looks as if this is it. Do ~. \ have to get a warrant for the arrest of Saratt^ Blount as a material witness?' Wolfe, leaning back, took in air, all he hao^j room for, which was plenty, and let it out. 'Da^ before yesterday,' he said, 'I told you that y