try to guess, so on the way uptown in a taxi that’s what I did. When I pushed the button in the vestibule of the Fifth Avenue mansion I had considered only half of them.
I was wondering which I would be for Hackett, the hired detective or the guest, but he didn’t have to face the problem. Celia was there with him and took my coat as I shed it and handed it to him, and then fastened on my elbow and steered me to the door of a room on the right that they called the hall room, and on through it. She shut the door and turned to me.
'Mother wants to see you,' she said.
'Oh?' I raised a brow. 'You said you did.'
'I do, but it only occurred to me after Mother got me to decoy for her. The Police Commissioner is here, and they wanted to see you but thought you might not come, so she asked me to phone you, and I realized I wanted to see you too. They’re up in the music room, but first I want to ask you something. What is it about Edwin Laidlaw and that girl? Faith Usher.'
That was turning the tables. Wolfe’s idea had been that I might manage, without showing any cards, to find out if she was on to our client’s secret, and here she was popping it at me and I had to play ignorant.
'Laidlaw?' I shook my head. 'Search me. Why?'
'You don’t know about it?'
'No. Am I supposed to?'
'I thought you would, naturally, since it’s you that’s making all the trouble. You see, I may marry him some day. If he gets into a bad jam I’ll marry him now, since you’ve turned out to be a skunk. That’s based on inside information but is not guaranteed. Are you a skunk?'
'I'll think it over and let you know. What about Laidlaw and Faith Usher?'
'That’s what I want to know. They’re asking questions of all of us, whether we have any knowledge that Edwin ever knew her. Of course he didn’t. I think they got an anonymous letter. The reason I think that, they wanted to type something on our typewriters, all four of them-no, five. Hackett has one, and Cece, and I have, and there are two in Mother’s office. Are you thwarting me again? Don’t you really know?'
'I do now, since you’ve told me.' I patted her shoulder. 'Any time you’re hard up and need a job, ring me. You have the makings of a lady detective, figuring out why they wanted samples from the typewriters. Did they get them?'
'Yes. You can imagine how Mother liked it, but she let them.'
I patted her shoulder again. 'Don’t let it wreck your marriage plans. Undoubtedly they got an anonymous letter, but they’re a dime a dozen. Whatever the letter said about Laidlaw, even if it said he was the father of her baby, that proves nothing. People who send anonymous letters are never-'
'That’s not it,' she said. 'If he was the father of her baby, that would show that if I married him we could have a family, and I want one. What I’m worried about is his getting in a jam, and you’re no help.'
Mrs Irwin had certainly sized her up. She had her own way of looking at things. She was going on. 'So now suit yourself. If you’d rather duck Mother and the Police Commissioner, you know where your hat and coat are. I don’t like being used for a decoy, and I’ll tell them you got mad and went.'
It was a toss-up. The idea of chatting with Mrs Robilotti had attractions, since she might be stirred up enough by now to say something interesting, but with Police Commissioner Skinner present it would probably be just some more ring-around-a-rosy. However, it might be helpful to know why they had gone to the trouble of using Celia for bait, so I told her I would hate to disappoint her mother, and she escorted me out to the reception hall and on upstairs to the music room, where we had joined the ladies Tuesday evening after going without brandy.
The whole family was there-Cecil standing over by a window, and Mr and Mrs Robilotti and Commissioner Skinner grouped on chairs at the far end, provided with drinks, not champagne. As Celia and I approached, Robilotti and Skinner arose, but not to offer hands. Mrs Robilotti lifted her bony chin, but not getting the effect she had in mind. You can’t look down your nose at someone when he is standing and you are sitting.
'Mr Goodwin came up on his own,' Celia said. 'I warned him you were laying for him, but here he is. Mr Skinner, Mr Goodwin.'
'We’ve met,' the Commissioner said. His tone indicated that it was not one of his treasured memories. He had acquired more grey hairs above his ears and a couple of new wrinkles since I had last seen him, a year or so back.
'I wish to say,' Mrs Robilotti told me, 'that I would have preferred never to permit you in my house again.'
Skinner shook his head at her. 'Now, Louise.' He sat down and aimed his eyes at me. 'This is unofficial, Goodwin, and off the record. Albert Grantham was my close and valued friend. He would have hated to have a thing like this happen in his house, and I owe it to him-'
'Also,' Celia cut in, 'he would have hated to ask someone to come and see him and then not invite him to sit down.'
'I agree,' Robilotti said. 'Be seated, Goodwin.' I didn’t know he had the spunk.
'It may not be worth the trouble.' I looked down at Mrs Robilotti. From that slant her angles were even sharper. 'Your daughter said you wanted to see me. Just to tell me I’m not welcome?'
She couldn’t look down her nose, but she could look. 'I have just spent,' she said, 'the worst three days of my life, and you are responsible. I had had a previous experience with you, you and the man you work for, and I should have known better than to have you here. I think you are quite capable of blackmail, and I think that’s what you have in mind. I want to tell you that I won’t submit to it, and if you try-'
'Hold it, Mom,' Cecil called over. 'That’s libellous.'
'Also,' Skinner said, 'it’s useless. As I said, Goodwin, this is unofficial and off the record. None of my
