The Black Mountain

that paper that says I am your daughter, so I came without really thinking. Now I don't know. You refused to give money to the cause. When I speak of freedom and the oppressor you make a face. It is true you have Montenegrin blood, you are of the race that fought back the savage Turks for five hundred years, but so are others, still in those mountains, who are licking the bloody feet of the tyrant. Have I looked into your heart? How do I know who you serve? How do I know if you too get your orders from Belgrade or Moscow?' 'You don't,' Wolfe said bluntly. She stared at him. 'You are not a fool,' he assured her. 'On the contrary, you would be a fool if you took my probity for granted, as little as you know of me. As far as you know it's quite possible that I'm a blackguard. But you haven't thought it through. To test your surmise about the death of Marko I need some facts from you, but what are they? Names and addresses and dates -- things that are already known to the enemy. I have 40 no r^eans of convincing you that I am not vem^ous, s0 I offer a suggestion. I will ask you questions. You will assume that I am a communist, owing allegiance either to Belgrade or Moscow, no matter which. You vyill also assume -- my vanity insists on it --- f)iat I am not far from the top in the cour^^ of depravity. So. Each question I put ask yourself if it isn't extremely likely either tnat I already know the answer or that 11: is readily available to me. If yes, tell i^e. If ^ don't. The way I act on the mfoP^^ion will show you whether you should trust me, but that's unimportant.' S^e was concentrating on it. 'It's a trick.' H^ nodded. 'And rather ingenious. For the record, I say that your misgiving about ine 1s groundless, but assuming that I am of tl^ enemy, I'll certainly try to pry something out of you that I don't already have, so you must keep your wit sharp. Shall we Start an(^ see how it goes?' S^e didn't like it. 'You might tell the police- We are not criminals, but we have a ri^ht to our secrets, and the police could make it very difficult.' ?^osh. You can't have everything. You can't have me both a Communist agent and a police informer, I'm not a chameleon. You^re making it a travesty, and you might 41 as well go. I'll manage without you.' She studied him. 'All right. Ask me.' 'Eat something first. That food is still palatable.' 'No, thank you.' 'Beer, then? A glass of wine? Whisky?' 'No, thank you. Nothing.' 'I'm thirsty. Archie? Beer, please. Two bottles.' I went to the kitchen for it. 42 Chapter 3 Three weeks and eight hours later, at eleven in the morning of the second Friday in April, Wolfe descended from the plant rooms in his elevator, entered the office, crossed to the chair at his desk, and sat. As usual, I had opened the morning mail, gone through it, and put it on his blotter under a paper-weight. 'That memo on top needs immediate attention,' I told him. 'Cartright of Consolidated Products is being gypped again, or thinks he is. Last time he paid our bill for twelve grand without a squeak. You're to call him.' He shoved the paper-weight off with such enthusiasm that it rolled across the desk and off to the floor. Then he picked up the pile of mail, squeezed it into a ball between his hands, and dropped it into his wastebasket. Of course it was childish, since he knew darned well I would retrieve it later, but it was a nice gesture, and I fully appreciated 43 it. The humor 'he was in, it wouldn't have surprised me ai^y if he had taken the other paperweight, a hunk of carved ebony that had once been msed by a man named Mortimer to crack tflis wife's skull, and fired it at me. And the humor I was in, I probably wouldn't have pothered to dodge. There had be'en plenty of activity during those 512 hours,. Saul Panzer, Fred Durkin, and Orrie Gather had all been summoned the first morning and given errands, and had been paid a total of $3,143.87, including expenses. I had put in a good sixteen hours a day, pai^t in the office and part on the go. Wolfe had worked on thirty-one different people, rr^ostly at his desk, but for five of them who couldn't be wrangled in he had gone outdoors and traveled, something he had ne^er done for a fee. Among the hours he had spent on the phone had been time for sLx calls to London, five to Paris, and three to Bari in Italy. Of course all that had been only a dab compared to the capers of the cops. As the days went by artd lead after lead petered out, things would have simmered down if it hadn't been for the papers. They kept hot on it for two reasons: first, they had a suspicion there were international complications and wanted to smoke them out; and 44 second, they thought it was the joke of the year that Nero Wolfe's best friend had been croaked, and Wolfe was supposed to be working on it, but apparently no one had even been nominated for a charge, let alone elected. So the papers kept it going, and the law couldn't relax a little even if it wanted to. Crarner had called on Wolfe five times, and Stebbins more than that, and Wolfe had been downtown twice to conferences at the DA's office. We had dined nine times at Rusterman's, and Wolfe had insisted on paying the check, which probably broke another precedent -- for an executor of an estate. Wolfe went early to spend an hour in the kitchen, and twice he raised hell -- once about a Mornay sauce and once about a dish which the menu called Supremes de Volatile en Papillate. I would have suspected he was merely being peevish if the look on the chefs' faces hadn't indicated that he was absolutely right. Of course Cramer and his army had covered all the routine. The car the shots had been fired from had been hot, stolen an hour earlier from where it had been parked on West Fifty-sixth Street, and abandoned soon after the shooting, on Second Avenue. The scientists, from fingerprint-lifters and bullet-gazers on up, had supplied a lot of 45 dope but no answers, and the same goes for the three or four dozen who went after the woman angle, which after a couple of weeks was spread to include several more, going back four years instead of one, in addition to the original seven. One day Cramer told Wolfe he could go over the whole file if he wanted to, some three hundred reports of sessions with eighty-four people, and Wolfe took him up. He spent eleven hours at it, at the DA's office. The only result was that he made nine suggestions, all of which were followed, and none of which opened a crack. He left the women and the feelings they had aroused to the cops, and kept Saul and Fred and Orrie, not to mention me, on the international angle. A great deal was accomplished. We learned a lot about the ten organizations listed in the Manhattan phone directory whose names began with 'Yugoslav.' Also that Serbs don't care much for Bosnians, and less for Croats. Also that the overwhelming majority of Yugoslavs in New York are anti-Tito, and practically all of them are anti-Russian. Also that eight per cent of the doormen on Park Avenue are Yugoslavs. Also that New Yorkers who are, or whose parents were, from Yugoslavia are fairly cagey about opening up to strangers and are inclined to shut the valves tight if 46 they get the notion that you're being nosy. Also many other things, including a few that seemed to offer a faint hope of starting a trail that could lead to the bird who had put three bullets in Marko Vukcic, but they all blew a fuse. In the first four days of the three weeks we saw Caria twice more. Saturday noon she came and asked Wolfe if it was true, as announced, that there would be no funeral. He said yes, in accordance with Marko's wish, in writing, that he be cremated and that there should be no services. She objected that there were hundreds of people who wanted to show their respect and love for him, and Wolfe replied that if a man's prejudices were to be humored at all after he was no longer around to impose them, surely he should be allowed to dictate the disposal of his own clay. The best she could get was a promise that the ashes would be delivered to her. Then she had asked about progress in the investigation, and he had said he would report when there was anything worth reporting, which hadn't satisfied her at all. She came again late Monday afternoon. I had had enough of answering the damn doorbell and left it to Fritz. She came charging in and across to Wolfe's desk, and 47 blurted at him, 'You told the police! They've had Leo down there all day, and this afternoon they went to Paul's place and took him too! I knew I shouldn't trust you!' 'Please ?' Wolfe tried, but she had pulled the cork and it had to come. He leaned back and shut his eyes. She went on ranting until she had to stop for breath. He opened his eyes and inquired, 'Are you through?' 'Yes! I'm all through! With you!' 'Then there's no more to say.' He jerked his head. 'There's the door.' She went to the red leather chair and sat on the edge. 'You said you wouldn't tell the police about us!' 'I did not.' He was disgusted and tired. 'Since you mistrust me you will credit nothing I say, so why should I waste words?' 'I want to hear them!' 'Very well. I have said nothing to the police about you or your associates or your surmise about Marko's death, but they are not donkeys, and I knew they would get onto it. I'm surprised it took them so long. Have they come to you?' 'No.' 'They will, and it's just as well. I have only four men, and we are getting nowhere. 48 They have regiments. If you tell them about coming to see me Thursday night they'll resent my withholding it, but that's of no consequence. Tell them or not, as you please. As for giving them the information you gave me, do as you please about that too. It might be better to let them dig it up for themselves, since in the process they might uncover something you don't know about. So much for that. Since you're here I may as well tell you what progress I have made. None.' He raised his voice. 'None!' 'Nothing at all!' 'Nothing.' 'I won't tell the police what I told you, but that doesn't matter. If you haven't, you will.' Suddenly she was on her feet with her arms spread out. 'Oh, I need you! I need to ask you ? I need to tell you what I must do! But I won't! I won't!' She turned and was gone. She moved so fast that when I got to the hall she already had the front door open. By the time I reached it she was out and the door was shut. Through the one-way glass panel I saw her going down the steps, sure and supple, like a fencer or a dancer, which was reasonable, since she had been both. That was the last we saw of her during the three weeks, but not the last we heard. 49 Word of her came four days later, Friday morning, from an unexpected quarter. Wolfe and I were having a session in the office with Saul and Fred and Orrie, one of a series, trying to think up some more stones to look under, when the doorbell rang and a moment later Fritz entered to announce, 'A man to see you, sir. Mr. Stahl of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.' Wolfe's brows went up, he glanced at me, I shook my head, and he told Fritz to bring the man in. The hired help, including me, exchanged glances. An FBI man was no rare