The Father Hunt

'Yes.'

'Then I need a new label for him. This is fantastic. It doesn't fit anything I thought I knew about him. Not that he would ignore a responsibility; he fulfills any and all responsibilities; but he decides when he is responsible and when he isn't. He certainly wouldn't have felt responsible if I had impregnated Carlotta Vaughn or any other woman, or a dozen. Bert McCray thinks it was blackmail, but it wasn't. It's inconceivable that he has ever, submitted to blackmail by anybody for anything. It's fascinating. I understand from Avery Ballou that this Elinor Denovo is

dead, but didn't she ever tell anyone what the money was for?'

'While alive, no. But a letter opened by her daughter after her death said this money is from your father. And again, this money came from your father. Mr. Goodwin and I see no reason to question it.'

'Fantastic. Unbelievable.' Jarrett narrowed his eyes to slits, put his elbows on the chair arms, and rubbed his left palm with his right. Then he came up and was on his feet. 'I'm no good sitting down.' He moved, across to the bookshelves and looked at titles, then to the globe and rotated it, slowly, twice around. He came and stood in the center of the room, looking down at me as if I were a pretty girl on a cloud, then turned to Wolfe. 'I don't do anything at the bank, you know. I know nothing about banking. But they don't keep me and pay me only because my father owns stock that he won't sell. They say I have insight. I don't know what to call it, I can't label that, but I do sometimes see -things that they have not seen. I have never tried to force it, and I'm not going to try to force this, but I want to see it more than I have ever wanted to see anything. My father!'

He went to the red leather chair and sat. 'It would be pointless to ask me anything about Carlotta Vaughn. Bert McCray told me that her child was conceived in the summer of nineteen forty-four. I had been rejected by the army and spent that summer working in a war-materials plant in California. I know nothing that could possibly help you.' He got up again. 'Come and have dinner with me.' He looked at me. 'You too. Sometimes it helps to have people around, I don't know why.'

'I doubt,' Wolfe said, 'if it would help to have Mr. Goodwin and me around. We're in a pickle. I wrote you that I would appreciate it if you would call at my office. I retract that. I don't appreciate it at all.'

'I suppose not.' He turned and sort of wandered toward the hall, but stopped and swung around. 'The pickle you're in is nothing to mine. I thought I had my father plain and clear, and now this! I'm going to see it-I don't know when, but I will. I have to.'

I had circled around him and was in the hall, but he didn't see me as he came to the front, where I had the

door open. I shut the door after him, returned to the office, and stood looking down at Wolfe. With his chin down he had to have his eyes wide open to glare at the globe. After ten seconds of that he raised his head to growl at me. 'Sit down. Confound it, you know I like eyes at a level.'

'Yeah. Shall I get the darts out?'

'No. How much have we spent?'

That was dangerous. That question meant, If I return the retainer and drop it, how much am I out? That hadn't happened often, but it wasn't unthinkable. I went to my chair and sat. 'I admit,' I said, 'that we've never had a tougher one, and it may be too tough even for you, but why can't we just hang on until Eugene sees it? He'll tell us, and we'll check it and hand it to the client, and she'll think-'

'Shut up!'

That was better. There wasn't going to be a battle about

quitting. He scowled at me and demanded, 'Do we aban

don that wretch?' ''

I thought that was hitting below the belt, to call a vice-president a wretch just because he couldn't impregnate a woman. 'Yes,' I said, 'any odds you want. Of course I'll see that doctor, but we might as well cross him off now.'

'Do we also abandon Mr. McCray?'

I grinned at him. Even in that pickle, that called for a grin. 'I'm right with you,' I said. 'We have never considered McCray; we were considering only Jarretts. You were considering McCray for the first time when I went to let that wretch out, and so was I. He is our only source for the fact that the checks were charged to Cyrus M. Jarrett. We have had no corroboration of it. Might they have been actually charged to McCray? Certainly. Might he have had opportunities to impregnate Carlotta Vaughn during the summer of nineteen forty-four? Certainly. But in that case, Jarrett knew nothing about the checks, and why didn't he just kick me out?'

I waved a hand. 'I reported it verbatim. Jarrett said, 'Those checks are in the files of the Seaboard Bank and Trust Company. Who told you about them?' The next day, Thursday, why did the name Carlotta Vaughn, just the name, get me to him? Why was he ready with those

places and dates for that summer? His whole reaction, everything he said.' I shook my head. 'The checks came from Cyrus M. Jarrett. Since you had a good two minutes to consider McCray I'm surprised that you bothered to mention him.'

'You saw Mr. Jarrett and I didn't.'

'And I have no desire to see him again. Forget McCray.'

'Then we're left with nothing.'

'We have Saul and Fred and Orrie. And me. And, oh, yes, excuse me, we have you.'

He looked at his current book, always there on the desk, picked it up, dropped it, and glared at