Rex Stout - Death of a Dude

Wolfe was frowning. "Not, I trust, with Mr Haight."

"Of course not. With the one person whose interests are always identical with mine. My wife. You'll hear from me soon."

"The sooner the better."

Jessup nodded. "Probably this evening. Where can I reach you? At Miss Rowan's?"

Wolfe, still frowning, said yes, and Jessup opened the door and got out, went to his car, and got in. When he backed at an angle to turn around, a log stopped him and he had to maneuver. That's why I always park facing out; I like a clean quick exit, aside from the fact that sometimes the situation demands it. As the Ford went jolting along the gulch rim I said, "So now it depends on a woman."

"He's an ass," Wolfe growled. "There are no two people alive whose interests are always identical."

"Yeah, a lawyer should know better. Also he's a damn liar. Without the Veale slant he wouldn't even have given you a nod, let alone come to Whedon's Graveyard to meet you." I turned the key and the engine took, and we moved. In three minutes it would be six o'clock, so I was glad I had phoned Lily. As we reached the blacktop I asked him whether he would rather go slow for the bumps, which would prolong it, or take them as they came and get it over with, but got no reply but a glare.

When we were about a mile from Lame Horse he suddenly spoke. "Stop the car."

His voice was louder than necessary, close to a shout, but it always was in a moving vehicle. Also no "please," but it was no time or place for etiquette. I slowed, eased off of the blacktop, set the brake, and said, "Yes?"

"Will Mr Stepanian's telephone be available at this hour?"

"Probably. He has living quarters in the back."

"If it is, get Saul. What time is it in New York?"

"Eight o'clock. A little after. He'll be at home. Thursday's poker night."

"Get him. I don't like the possibility, however remote, that we are at table three times a day with a murderer, and for this we don't need credentials. Tell him we want to know if there was any contact between Miss Kadany or Mr Worthy and Mr Brodell during his visits to New York. Can you get pictures to send him-covertly?"

"Possibly, but I doubt if I need to. She's an actress, and he'll have no trouble getting pictures of her. For Worthy, his publisher will almost certainly have some. Perhaps I should ring Miss Rowan first and tell her."

"You'll tell her later, or I will. I'll pay Saul's fee and expenses."

"She will want to."

"Then she may. That's of no consequence."

I said okay and released the brake. As I steered back onto the blacktop I filed for future reference his amazing statement that a grand or two, maybe more, was of no consequence.

Chapter 6

The Monroe County Register, eight pages, was published in Timberburg once a week, on Friday afternoon, and copies of it arrived at Vawter's in Lame Horse around five o'clock. At the cabin we were usually willing to wait until Saturday to get our copy, or even Monday or Tuesday, but that Friday I was at Vawter's when it came, not by accident, and I got two extra copies. At five-thirty Wolfe and I were in his room discussing an item on the front page which said:

JESSUP PUTS NERO WOLFE

ON HUCKLEBERRY MURDER CASE

Famous New York Sleuth

to Probe Slaying

of Philip Brodell

(Special Exclusive)

County Attorney Thomas R. Jessup announced today that he has arranged with Nero Wolfe, the internationally known private detective, and his confidential assistant, Archie Goodwin, to act as special investigators in the inquiry into the murder of Philip Brodell of St. Louis, a guest at the ranch of William T. Farnham, near Lame Horse, on July 25th.

Asked by a Register reporter if he expected Wolfe and Goodwin to get evidence that would strengthen the case against Harvey Greve, who is in the county jail charged with the murder, Jessup said, "Not specifically or necessarily. If I considered the case against Greve to be weak he wouldn't have been charged and held without bail. It is simply that I learned that Nero Wolfe was available, and this case has aroused intense and nation-wide interest, and I felt that the people of Monroe County, the people of the entire State of Montana, would expect me to use the services of such an outstanding investigator as Nero Wolfe if that was possible, and it was."

The county attorney added, "Wolfe and Goodwin will of course be under my supervision and control. There will be no additional expense to the county, since they ask no fee, and any evidence they secure will be scrutinized and checked by my office. If they find no new evidence no harm will be done. If they do find new evidence, and my office finds it to be valid and material, I think the people of Monroe County will agree with me that they have rendered us a service."

Asked if he was aware that it is generally known that Archie Goodwin, who is a guest at the cabin of Miss Lily Rowan, owner of the Bar JR Ranch, has been trying to find evidence that would weaken the case against Greve, not strengthen it, the county attorney stated that the personal opinion or interest of Archie Goodwin, or of anyone else, would not be permitted to affect the performance of his duty.

"What I want," he said, "and what the people of Monroe County want, is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."

Asked by a Register reporter if he had been consulted about the entry of Wolfe and Goodwin into the investigation, Sheriff Morley Haight said, "No comment." Further questions got the same reply. "No comment."

Nero Wolfe, reached by telephone at Miss Rowan's cabin, where he is also a guest, would say only that he would say nothing because he thought it proper that all information about his participation in the case should come only from County Attorney Jessup.

Word of this development came just as we were preparing to go to press, and we're giving ourselves a pat on the back at being the first paper in the country to get it into type. It isn't often a weekly gets a national scoop. We're sending five copies of this edition to the Library of Congress. Hang onto yours. It may be worth money some day.

Reading it, Wolfe had made a face several times, but in our discussion of it he had criticized only two words. He said "sleuth" was a vulgarism, and "supervision" was jugglery. But he admitted that everybody knows that if an elected person means everything he says he's a damn fool, so there was no argument.

There had been an argument the previous evening when Jessup had phoned to say he had decided that it would be in the public interest to accept our offer to assist him in the investigation, and we could get our credentials at his office at eleven o'clock in the morning, and Wolfe had said I would go for them. I was a little surprised that Jessup hadn't said that Wolfe must come too, but probably he was afraid that he would try to talk him into letting us go through the file, which hadn't been mentioned. The argument had come afterward between Wolfe and me. I had said that my first stop after getting the credentials would be the Presto filling station for some conversation with Gil Haight, and he said no, and I said that aside from the chance of starting something I wanted the satisfaction of seeing his face when I flashed the credentials on him.