Rex Stout - Death of a Dude

I heard a girl in a cherry-coloured shirt call across to Sam Peacock, one of the two wranglers at Farnham's, who came late, "Get a haircut, Sam, you look awful," and his reply, "I ain't so bad now. You should have seen me when I was a yearling, they had to tie my mother up before she'd let me suck."

I saw Johnny Vawter and Woody bounce a couple of boiled dudes who were trying to take the accordion away from the musician. The hooch that had inspired them had been brought by them, which was customary. At the bar in a corner the only items available were fizz-water, ice, paper cups, soft stuff, and aspirin.

I heard more beats and off-beats, and saw more steps and off-steps, than I had heard and seen at all the New York spots I was acquainted with.

I heard a middle-aged woman with ample apples yell at a man about the same age, "Like hell they're milk-fake!" and saw her slap him hard enough to bend him.

I heard a dude in a dinner jacket tell a woman in a dress nearly to her ankles, "A sheet-snapper is not a prostitute. It's a girl or a woman who makes beds." I heard Gil Haight say to another kid, "Of course she's not here. She's got a baby to look after." I saw about eight dozen people, all kinds and sizes, look the other way, or stop talking, or give me the fish-eye, when I came near.

So back at the cabin, in bed under two blankets for the cold of the night, there was nothing for my mind to work on and it turned me loose for sleep.

That's the sample, but before skipping to Wednesday evening I must report an incident that occurred at the cabin late Tuesday afternoon. I had just got back from somewhere and was with Lily on what we called the morning terrace, the other one being the creek terrace, when a car came up the lane-a Dodge Coronet hardtop I had seen before-with two men in the front seat, and Lily said, "There they are. I was just going to tell you, Dawson phoned they wanted to see me. He didn't say why."

The car was there, at the edge of the lodgepoles, and Luther Dawson and Thomas R. Jessup were getting out. Seeing those two, I was so impressed that I didn't remember my manners and leave my chair until they were nearly to us. The defence counsel and the county attorney coming together to see the owner of the ranch Harvey Greve ran had to mean that something had busted wide open, and when I did get up I had to control my face to keep it from beaming. Their faces were not beaming as they exchanged greetings with us and took the chairs I moved up for them, but of course the county attorney's wouldn't be if something had happened that was messing up a murder case for him. Lily said their throats were probably dry and dusty after their drive and asked what they would like to drink, but they declined with thanks.

"It may strike you as a little irregular, our coming together," Dawson said, "but Mr Jessup wanted to ask you something and we agreed that it would be more in order for me to do the asking, in his presence." Lily nodded. "Of course. Law and order." Dawson looked at Jessup. They were both Montana-born-and-bred, but one looked it and the other didn't. Dawson, around sixty, in a striped blue-and-green shirt with rolled-up sleeves, no tie, and khaki pants, was big and brawny and leathery, while the county attorney, some twenty years younger, was slim and trim in a dark gray suit, white shirt, and maroon tie. Dawson looked at me, opened his mouth, shut it again, and looked at Lily. "Of course you're not my client," he said. "Mr Greve is my client. But you paid my retainer and have said you will meet the costs of his defence. So I'll just ask you, have you consulted-er, approached-anyone else about the case?"

Lily's eyes widened a little. "Of course I have."

"Who?"

"Well… Archie Goodwin. Mrs Harvey Greve. Melvin Fox. Woodrow Stepanian. Peter Ingalls. Emmett Lake. Mimi Deffand. Mort-"

"Excuse me for interrupting. My question should have been more specific. Have you consulted anyone other than local people? Anyone in Helena?"

If she had been any ordinary woman I would have horned in, but with Lily I didn't think it was necessary. It wasn't. "Really, Mr Dawson," she said, "how old are you? How many hostile witnesses would you say you have cross-examined?"

He stared at her.

"I suppose," she said, "that lawyers have as much right to bad habits as other people, but other people don't have to like them." She turned to me. "What about it, Archie? Is it any of his business whom I have or haven't consulted?"

"No," I said, "but that's not the point. From what he said, the question is actually being asked by Jessup, through him. It certainly is none of Jessup's business, and they both have a hell of a nerve. I don't know about Montana, but in New York if a prosecuting attorney asked the person who was paying the defence counsel who she had consulted, the Bar Association would like to know about it. Since you asked my opinion, if I were you I would tell both of them to go climb a tree."

She looked at one and then the other, and said, "Go climb a tree."

Dawson said to me, "You have completely misrepresented the situation, Mr Goodwin."

I eyed him. "Look, Mr Dawson. I don't wonder that you fumbled it; as you said, it's a little irregular. If you hadn't been fussed you would probably have handled it fine. Obviously something has happened that made Jessup think someone has been persuaded to butt in on his case, and he suspects that Miss Rowan did the persuading, and he wants to know, and so do you. Also obviously the way to handle it would have been to tell her what has happened and ask her if she had a hand in it, and it wouldn't hurt to say please. If you don't want to do it that way I guess you'll have to look around for a tree."

Dawson looked at the county attorney. Jessup said, "It would have to be understood that it's strictly confidential."

Dawson nodded. Lily said, "If you mean we have to promise not to tell anybody, nothing doing. We wouldn't broadcast it just for fun, but no promises."

Dawson turned to Jessup and asked, "Well, Tom?"

Jessup said, "I'd like to confer," rose, and said to Lily, "Will you excuse us briefly, Miss Rowan?"

Lily nodded, and for the conference they walked over to the hardtop and behind it, and Lily asked me if I had a guess. I held up crossed fingers and said one would get her two that there was going to be some kind of a break, but as to what kind and how much, her guess was as good as mine. I no longer had to control my face to keep it from beaming.

The conference didn't take long. I wouldn't have been surprised if Dawson had come back alone just to say he was sorry we had been bothered, but in a few minutes they both came and took their chairs, and Dawson said, "The decision was Mr Jessup's, not mine. I want to make it clear that I am here at all only because he thought it proper, and I agreed." He focused on Lily. "If you won't promise, Miss Rowan, you won't, and I merely want to say that I join him in hoping that you and Mr Goodwin will regard what he tells you as a confidence. If I told you, it would be hearsay, so he will."

In the last five days I had tried three times to get to Thomas R. Jessup for a private talk, and got stiff-armed. I'm not complaining, just reporting. There's no law requiring a prosecuting attorney to talk it over with any and all friends of the defendant. It was Morley Haight, the sheriff, who had questioned me as a possible suspect or material witness. I had seen Jessup only from a distance and was appreciating the chance to size him up.