holding, and Saul, squeezed in beside her, reached and took it.
'Let me out,' Byne said. 'Let us out or I’ll go out over you. Her name is Upson. Edith Upson.'
I shook my head. 'If you start a row you’ll only make it worse. Mr Panzer knows Mrs Usher, though she doesn’t know him. Let’s be calm and consider the situation. There must be-'
'What do you want?'
'I’m trying to tell you. There must be some good reason why you two arranged to meet in this out- of-the-way dump, and Mr Panzer and I are curious to know what it is, and others will be too-the press, the public, the police, the District Attorney, and Nero Wolfe. I wouldn’t expect you to explain it here in this din and smog. Either Mr Panzer can phone inspector Cramer while I sit and chat with you, and he can send a car for you, or we’ll take you to talk it over with Mr Wolfe, whichever you prefer.'
He had recovered some. He had played a lot of poker. He put a hand on my arm. 'Look, Archie, there’s nothing to it. It looks funny, sure it does, us here together, but we didn’t arrange it. I met Mrs Usher about a year ago, I went to see her when her daughter went to Grantham House, and when I came in here this evening and saw her, after what’s happened, naturally I spoke to her and we-'
'Save it, Dinky. Saul, phone Cramer.'
Saul started to slide out. Byne reached and grabbed his sleeve. 'Now wait a minute. Damn it, can’t you listen? I’m-'
'No,' I said. 'No listening. You can have one minute to decide.' I looked at my watch. 'In one minute either you and Mrs Usher come along to Nero Wolfe or we phone Cramer. One minute.' I looked at my watch. 'Go.'
'Not the cops,' Mrs Usher said. 'My God, not the cops.'
Byne began, 'If you’d only listen-'
'No. Forty seconds.'
If you’re playing stud, and there’s only one card to come, and the man across has two jacks showing and all you have is a mess, it doesn’t matter what his hole card is, or yours either. Byne didn’t use up the forty seconds. Only ten of them had gone when he stretched his neck to look for a waiter and ask for his check.
Chapter Thirteen
Surveying Elaine Usher from my desk as she sat in the red leather chair, I told myself that Saul’s picture of her, pieced together from a dozen descriptions he had got, had been pretty accurate. Oval face, blue eyes set close, good skin, medium-cut blonde hair, around forty. I would have said a hundred and fifteen pounds instead of a hundred and twenty, but she might have lost a few in the last four days. I had put her in the red leather chair because I had thought it desirable to have Byne closer to me. He was between Saul and me, and Saul was between the two subjects. But my arrangement was soon changed.
'I prefer,' Wolfe said, 'to speak with you separately, but first I must make sure that there is no misunderstanding. I intend to badger you, but you don’t have to submit to it. Before I start, or at any moment, you may get up and leave. If you do, you will be through with me; thenceforth you will deal with the police. I make that clear because I don’t want you bouncing up and down. If you want to go now, go.'
He took a deep breath. He had just come in from the dining-room, having had his coffee there while I reported on the summit conference at Tom’s Joint.
'We were forced to come here by a threat,' Byne said.
'Certainly you were. And I am detaining you by the same threat. When you prefer that to this, leave. Now, madam, I wish to speak privately with Mr Byne. Saul, take Mrs Usher to the front room.'
'Don’t go,' Byne told her. 'Stay here.'
Wolfe turned to me. 'You were right, Archie. He is incorrigible. It isn’t worth it. Get Mr Cramer.'
'No,' Elaine Usher said. She left the chair. 'I'll go.'
Saul was up. 'This way,' he said, and went and opened the door to the front room and held it for her. When she had passed through he followed and closed the door.
Wolfe levelled his eyes at Byne. 'Now, sir. Don’t bother to raise your voice; that wall and door are sound-proofed. Mr Goodwin has told me how you explained being in that restaurant with Mrs Usher. Do you expect me to accept it?'
'No,' Dinky said.
Of course. He had had time to realize that it wouldn’t do. If he had gone to see her because her daughter was at Grantham House, how had he learned that she was Faith’s mother? Not from the records and not from Mrs Irwin. From one of the other girls? It was too tricky.
'What do you substitute for it?' Wolfe asked.
'I told Goodwin that because the real explanation would have been embarrassing for Mrs Usher. Now I can’t help it. I met her some time ago, three years ago, and for about a year I was intimate with her. She’ll probably deny it. I’m pretty sure she will. Naturally she would.'
'No doubt. And your meeting her this evening was accidental?'
'No,' Dinky said. He had also had time to realize that that was too fishy. He went on, 'She phoned me this morning and said she was at the Christie Hotel, registered as Edith Upson. She had known that I was Mrs Robilotti’s nephew, and she said she wanted to see me and ask me about her daughter who had died. I told her I hadn’t been there Tuesday evening, and she said she knew that, but she wanted to see me. I agreed to see her because I didn’t want to offend her. I didn’t want it to get out that I had been intimate with Faith Usher’s mother. We arranged to meet at that restaurant.'
