Accustomed as I was to loony orders from him, I merely obeyed. I started at the wrist and made vigorous sweeps to the shoulder and back.
'That will do, thank you.-No doubt all of you, if you use bath brushes, wield them in a similar manner. Not, that is, with a circular motion, or around the arm, but lengthwise, up and down. So the cut on Miss Nichols's arm, as Mr. Goodwin described it to me, runs lengthwise, about halfway between the wrist and the elbow. Is that correct, Miss Nichols?'
Janet nodded, cleared her throat, and said, 'Yes,' in a small voice.
'And it's about an inch long. A little less?'
'Yes.'
Wolfe turned to Brady. 'Now for you, sir. Your professional knowledge. To establish a premise invulnerable to assault. Why did Miss Nichols carve a gash nearly an inch long on her arm? Why didn't she jerk the brush away the moment she felt her skin being ruptured?'
'Why?' Brady was scowling at him. 'For the obvious reason that she didn't feel it.'
'Didn't feel it?'
'Certainly not. I don't know what premise you're trying to establish, but with the bristles rubbing her skin there would be no feeling of the sharp glass cutting her. None whatever. She wouldn't know she had been cut until she saw the blood.'
'Indeed.' Wolfe looked disappointed. 'You're sure of hat? You'd testify to it?'
'I would. Positively.'
'And any other doctor would?'
'Certainly.'
'Then we'll have to take it that way. Those, then, are he facts. I have finished. Now it's your turn to talk. All of •ou. Of course this is highly unorthodox, all of you to-;ether like this, but it would take too long to do it properly,
ingly.'
He leaned back and joined his finger tips at the apex of is central magnificence. 'Miss Timms, we'll start with you. Talk, please.'
Maryella said nothing. She seemed to be meeting his gaze, but she didn't speak.
'Well, Miss,Timms?'
'I don't know-' she tried to clear the huskiness from her voice-'I don't know what you want me to say.'
'Nonsense,' Wolf said sharply. 'You know quite well. you are an intelligent woman. You've been living in that house two years. It is likely that ill feeling or fear, any motion whatever, was born in one of these people and extended to the enormity of homicide, and you were totally unaware of it? I don't believe it. I want you to tell me the things that I would drag out of you if I kept you here all afternoon firing questions at you.'
Maryella shook her head. 'You couldn't drag anything out of me that's not in me.'
'You won't talk?'
'I can't talk.' Maryella did not look happy. 'When I've got nothing to say.'
Wolfe's eyes left her. 'Miss Nichols?'
Janet shook her head.
'I won't repeat it. I'm saying to you what I said to Miss Timms.'
'I know you are.' Janet swallowed and went on in a thin voice, 'I can't tell you anything, honestly I can't.'
'Not even who tried to kill you? You have no idea who tried to kill you this morning?'
'No-I haven't. That's what frightened me so much. I don't know who it was.'
Wolfe grunted, and turned to Larry. 'Mr. Huddleston?'
'I don't know a damn thing,' Larry said gruffly.
'You don't. Dr. Brady?'
'It seems to me,' Brady said coolly, 'that you stopped before you were through. You said you know who murdered Miss Huddleston. If-'
'I prefer to do it this way, doctor. Have you anything to tell me?'
'No.'
'Nothing with any bearing on any aspect of this business?'
'No.'
Wolfe's eyes went to Daniel 'Mr. Huddleston, you have already talked, to me and to the police. Have you anything new to say?'
'I don't think I have,' Daniel said slowly. He looked more miserable than anyone else. 'I agree with Dr. Brady that if you-'
'I would expect you to,' Wolfe snapped. His glance swept the arc. 'I warn all you, with of course one exception, that the police will worm it out of you and it will be a distressing experience. They will make no
