'I need no assurance from you, Fritz. Who put it on the plates?'
'Zoltan and I did.' He pointed. 'At that table.'
'And left them there? They were taken from that table by the women?'
'Yes, sir.'
'Each woman took one plate?'
'Yes, sir. I mean, they were told to. I was at the range.'
Zoltan spoke up. 'I watched them, Mr. Wolfe. They each took one plate. And believe me, nobody put any arsenic--'
'Please, Zoltan. I add another conclusion: that no one put arsenic in one of the portions and then left to chance which one of the guests would get it. Surely the poisoner intended it to reach a certain one--either Mr. Pyle, or, as an alternative, some other one and it went to Mr. Pyle by mishap. In any case, it was the portion Pyle ate that was poisoned, and whether he got it by design or by mischance is for the moment irrelevant.' His eyes were at the girls. 'Which one of you took that plate to Mr. Pyle?'
No reply. No sound, no movement.
Wolfe grunted. 'Pfui. If you didn't know his name, you do now. The man who left during the fish course and who is now dying. Who served him?'
No reply; and I had to hand it to them that no pair of eyes left Wolfe to fasten on Peggy Choate, the redhead. Mine did. 'What the heck,' I said. 'Speak up, Miss Choate.'
'I didn't!' she cried.
'That's silly. Of course you did. Twenty people can swear to it. I looked right at you while you were dishing his soup. And when you brought the fish--'
'But I didn't take him that first thing! He already had some! I didn't!'
M
3 at Wolfe's Door
Wolfe took over. 'Your name is Choate?'
'Yes.' Her chin was up. 'Peggy Choate.'
'You deny that you served the plate of caviar, the first course, to Mr. Pyle?'
'I certainly do.'
'But you were supposed to? You were assigned to him?'
'Yes. I took the plate from the table there and went in with it, and started to him, and then I saw that he had some, and I thought I had made a mistake. We hadn't seen the guests. That man'? she pointed to Felix?'had shown us which chair our guest would sit in, and mine was the second from the right on this side as I went in, but that one had already been served, and I thought someone else had made a mistake or I was mixed up. Anyway, I saw that the man next to him, on his right, hadn't been served, and I gave it to him. That was you. I gave it to you.'
'Indeed.' Wolfe was frowning at her. 'Who was assigned to me?'
That wasn't put on. He actually didn't know. He had never looked at her. He had been irritated that females were serving, and besides, he hates to twist his neck. Of course I could have told him, but Helen lacono said, 'I was.'
'Tour name, please?'
'Helen lacono.' She had a rich contralto that went fine with the deep dark eyes and dark velvet skin and wavy silky hair.
'Did you bring me the first course?'
'No. When I went in I saw Peggy serving you, and a man on the left next to the end didn't have any, so I gave it to him.'
'Do you know his name?'
'I do,' Nora Jaret said. 'From the card. He was mine.' Her big brown eyes were straight at Wolfe. 'His name is Kreis. He had his when I got there. I was going to take it back to the kitchen, but then I thought, someone had stage fright but I haven't, and I gave it to the man at the end.'
'Which end?'
'The left end. Mr. Schriver. He came and spoke to us this afternoon.'
She was corroborated by Carol Annis, the one with hair like
Poison 4 la Carte
15
corn silk who had no sense of humor. 'That's right,' she said. 'I saw her. I was going to stop her, but she had already put the plate down, so I went around to the other side of the table with it when I saw that Adrian Dart didn't have any. I didn't mind because it was him.'
'You were assigned to Mr. Schriver?'
'Yes. I served him the other courses, until he left.'
It was turning into a ring-around-a-rosy, but the squat was bound to come. All Wolfe had to do was get to one
