The Father Hunt

'That can wait,' Wolfe said. 'I'm fully occupied with the job I'm on. On behalf of Miss Denovo, I thank you for coming. I know you told Mr. Goodwin that you could supply no information that would help, but it is a common occurrence for a man to have knowledge of a fact and to be quite unaware of its significance. I once questioned a young woman for three days on what she regarded as irrelevant trivialities, and finally got a fact that exposed a murderer.'

'I'm afraid I can't spare three days.' Thorne took a sip of brandy and stirred it in his mouth with his tongue. 'This cognac is marvelous. Speaking of facts, evidently you knew one I didn't, from that ad… I suppose that ad in the Times was yours?'

'Yes.'

'Alias Elinor Denovo. Carlotta something alias Elinor Denovo. Why the 'alias' if Denovo was her married name? Her daughter's name is Amy Denovo.'

'That's one of the complications, Mr. Thorne. A client's communications with a detective she has hired are not legally privileged, but they are often confidential.'

'Goodwin said on the phone that you're blocked.'

'We're stumped.'

'But you still think it was premeditated murder?'

'Miss Denovo does, as Mr. Goodwin told you ten days ago. Do I? Yes, for reasons you might think deficient. But getting you here is not merely stumbling around in the dark. It isn't fatuous to assume that some recent event

induced the murder and that something connected with that event, however remotely, was seen or heard by you. In conversation with her, how did you address her? Mrs. Denovo, or Elinor?'

'Elinor.'

'Then I shall. How many others there called her Elinor?'

'Why… Let's see… three. No, four.'

'Their names?'

'Now listen.' Thome flipped a hand. 'That wouldn't be just irrelevant trivialities, it would be drivel. It would take three weeks, not just three days. Goodwin said someone at my place might be involved in it, and I told him there wasn't the slightest chance. Simply impossible. Nobody there had any personal relations with her. Even I didn't, actually. We often had meals together, lunch and dinner and even breakfast sometimes, but only to talk business.' He turned to me. 'I told you I soon saw she had lines she didn't want crossed.' Back to Wolfe: 'I can give you the names, sure, but I'm telling you, that will get you nowhere.'

'I would expect it to. On an excursion such as this you get nowhere again and again. Very well, we'll try another tack. When and where did you last see Elinor?'

'That Friday around noon at the studio. I was taking a plane to the coast on business, to see a scriptwriter I wanted.'

'What studio?'

'Mine, of course.'

'Did she speak of her plans for that evening?'

'Yes. We did. She was going to see a preview of a movie for a look at an actor we thought we might want to use.'

'A preview where? At a theater?'

'No, a studio in the Bronx. That's why she took her car. Of course I went over all this with the police. They said she left the studio a little after ten that evening, and I told them she probably went for a drive. She often did. She said it relaxed her. I never saw her relaxed, not really.'

'Who went to the preview with her?'

'No one.' Thome emptied his glass and put it on ttc stand, started a hand for the bottle, and pulled it back. 'That's marvelous cognac.'

'Help yourself. I have nine bottles left. We'll start with that Friday and work back. How much were you with Elinor that morning?'

'Not much. There was a staff conference, but she had to leave it when someone came. Later I-'

'Who came?'

'A woman from an agency about a replacement their client didn't like. Just routine. Agencies' clients never like anything. Later I dictated some notes to her. Of course I had my secretary and she had hers, but she still did shorthand, and dictating to her made it different. It came out better. She was a very remarkable woman. She had offers of twice, three, or four times as much as she could make with me, agencies and public-relations people, but she turned them all down.'

'Why?'

'I don't know. My guess was that they were mostly big outfits and she liked the complete freedom she had with me.'

'What if I asked you to tell me everything you heard her say that morning? Could you do it?'