Rex Stout - The Father Hunt

Wolfe asked, "Does he know he is your son?" Jarrett was set for it and wasn't fazed. "I've answered that," he said. "I said he knows nothing about me. You don't merely assume that he is my son, you conclude it, because you can conceive of no other circumstance that would account for my taking the responsibility for Carlotta Vaughn's misfortune. To deny it would be pointless; you wouldn't believe me. If this Amy Denovo hires you to learn more about her father I know what you'll do, and I've had enough of you. His mother's name was Florence Vance. In nineteen fourteen she was twenty and I was twenty-three. She was a waitress in a restaurant in Boston. She died five days after the child was born. No; Floyd Vance does not know I am his father. If you have a material question ask it."

"There are many I could ask," Wolfe said, "but you have covered the essential points. It is only my curiosity that would be satisfied by knowing how you got word to Floyd Vance, two weeks ago, that I was looking for Amy Denovo's father, and I can't insist on that. I do have a comment. If you had told Mr. Goodwin when he first called on you what you have just told me, it is extremely likely that Floyd Vance would never have been identified

as the murderer of Elinor Denovo. Also Amy Denovo's problem would have been solved and she would not have to pay me for two weeks of strenuous effort. You say you never slight a responsibility. You are clearly responsible for the added strain and expense my client has had to bear. If you send me a check in payment for the work I have done for her, I will return the retainer she gave me and charge her nothing. Should you decide to do that, the amount is fifty thousand dollars. If you do, or if you don't, it will add to my knowledge of my fellow man. Archie, that chair is hard to rise from. Mr. Jarrett may want your arm."

He didn't. I went, but he ignored me. He pulled his feet in, swung his torso forward in a kind of lunge, and made it. The blue pill must have had something. I'll say this for him, he never wasted words. No other man I had ever met would have simply let Wolfe's comments ride, but he did. That was the third time I saw him make an abrupt exit, and the big difference was that the first two times the exit line had been his. Walking out, his step was surer than it had been coming in. I got to the hall ahead of him, and to the front door. When he appeared on the stoop the chauffeur opened the door of the Heron and crossed the sidewalk and started up, but Jarrett shook his head and made it down alone, and the chauffeur didn't offer to help him in. Evidently he knew the signs.

As the Heron rolled I shut the door, went to the alcove, and said, "I hope you could hear all right. We can't report or repeat anything."

Saul slid the panel shut. Amy, leaving the stool, misjudged the distance to the floor and landed off balance. I took her arm, and she said, "Thank you," politely. Her cheeks had less color than usual.

I said politely, "You're welcome. You heard all right?" "Yes. I don't… Do you mind if I go now?" "Certainly not. How about an escort? Saul or me." "I'd rather not. I don't want to talk. I don't… feel like it. When I get… I'll give you a ring. But I have already decided one thing. My mother named me Amy Denovo, and that's my name." "Good for you." "I don't have to see him now, do I? I don't want to."

"Of course not. He's probably settled back, reading a book about Germany. Ring me any time."

She turned and started off but was blocked by Saul coming from the kitchen. "Your shoes," he said.

"Thank you," she said politely, and took my arm with her left hand while she put them on with her right. "Don't come," she said, and went.

When the door had closed behind her Saul said, "She took it fine. Don't pay me for today. I wasn't needed."

17

The purpose of this footnote is to add to your knowledge of your fellow man. Cyrus M. Jarrett's check for fifty grand-personal, not a bank check-came in the mail on January twenty-sixth, three days after the jury brought in their first-degree verdict on Floyd Vance.

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