Gambit

say. I'm sorry I have nothing for you because you put me in your debt. You have just furnished me with a fact which suggests an entirely different approach to the problem. It will save me--' 'What fact?' Wolfe shook his head. 'No, sir. You wouldn't believe me. You wouldn't accept my interpretation of it. But I'm obliged to you, and I don't forget an obligation. If and when I learn something significant I'll stretch a point to share it with you as soon as may be. At present I have nothing to share.' 'Like hell you haven't.' Cramer got to his feet. He threw the cigar at my wastebasket, twelve feet away, and missed as usual. 'One little point, Wolfe. Anyone has a right to hire you to investigate something, even a homicide. But if you haven't been hired, and I know damn well you haven't, if you're horning in on your own, that's different. And if you are in possession of information the law is entitled to--I don't have to tell you.' He turned and marched out. I got up and went to the hall, decided he wouldn't properly appreciate help with his coat, and stood and watched until he was out and the door was closed. Turning back to the office, I started, 'So he gave you...,' and stopped. Wolfe was leaning back with his eyes 84 shut and his lips pushed out. He drew his lips in then out again, in and out, in and out. I stood and regarded him. That is supposed to be a sign that he's hard at work, but I hadn't the dimmest idea what he was working on. If it was the fact Cramer had just furnished, which one? Running over them in my mind, I stood and waited. The lip exercise is not to be interrupted. I had decided it was going to take a while and was starting for my desk when he opened his eyes, straightened up, and issued a command: 'Bring Miss Blount.' I obeyed. As I said, I don't use the elevator; I took the stairs, two flights. Finding the door of the south room closed, I knocked. I heard no footsteps, but in a moment the door opened. There had been no footsteps because she had no shoes on. 'Mr Wolfe wants you,' I said. 'With or without shoes, as you prefer.' 'Has anything happened?' Not knowing if he wanted her to know we had had a caller, I said, 'He just did lip exercises, but of course you don't know how important that is. Don't bother with your lips and hair, he wouldn't know the difference.' Of course that was ignored. She went to the dresser to use comb and lipstick, then to the chair near a window to put on her shoes, and ^en came. You get a new angle on a figure when it precedes you down stairs; she had nice shoulders, and her neck curved into them with a good line. As we entered the office Wolfe was 85 frowning at a corner of his desk, rubbing his nose with a finger tip, and we got no attention from him. Sally went to the red leather chair and, after sitting in silence for a full minute said, 'Good morning.' He moved the frown to her, blinked, and demanded, 'Why did you take a volume of Voltaire?5 Her eyes widened. 'Archie said I could take any book except the one you're reading.' 'But why Voltaire?' 'No special reason. Just that I've never read him...' 'Unh,' Wolfe said. 'We'll discuss it at lunch. There has been a development. Did Archie tell?' He stopped short. He had thoughtlessly allowed himself to speak familiarly to a woman. He corrected it. 'Did Mr Goodwin tell you that a policeman has been here? Inspector Cramer?' 'No.' 'He has. Uninvited and unexpected. He just left. Mr Goodwin can tell you later why he came and what was said. What I must tell you, he gave me some information that changes the situation substantially. The police have established, for Mr Cramer beyond question, three facts. One, that the arsenic was in the chocolate. Two, that no one had an opportunity to put it in the chocolate besides the cook, the steward, the four messengers, and your father. Three, that only your father could 86 have had a motive. None of the other six?I quote Mr Cramer?'had ever met Paul Jerin or had any connection with him or his.' Though all?' 'I told you that. Didn't I?' 'Yes, but based only on your knowledge, which was deficient. Mr Cramer's conclusions are based on a thorough and prolonged inquiry by an army of trained men. Though all three of those facts are important, the significant one is the third, that none of those six could have had a motive to kill Jerin. But Jerin was killed? with premeditation, since the arsenic was in hand. Do you play chess?' 'Not really. I know the moves. Do you mean you?' 'If you please. Do you know what a gambit is?' 'Why... vaguely...' 'It's an opening in which a player gives up a pawn or a piece to gain an advantage. The murder of Paul Jerin was a gambit. Jerin was the pawn or piece. The advantage the murderer gained was that your father was placed in mortal peril?a charge of murder and probable conviction. He had no animus for Jerin. Jerin wasn't the target, he was merely a pawn. The target was your father. You see how that alters 'ie situation, how it affects the job you hired me for.' ^ don't... I'm not sure...' You deserve candor. Miss Blount. Till half 6 87 an hour ago the difficulties seemed all but insurmountable. To take the job and your money I had to assume your father's innocence, but to demonstrate it I had to find evidence that one of those six men had had sufficient motive to kill Jerin and had acted on it. And the three most telling points against your father?that he had taken the chocolate to Jerin, that he had taken the pot and cup and rinsed them, and that he knew Jerin and could possibly have had a motive?those were merely accidental and had to be ignored. In candor, it seemed hopeless, and, conceiving nothing better for a start, I merely made a gesture; I had Mr Goodwin arrange for a public notice that I had been hired.' 'You didn't tell me you were going to.' 'I seldom tell a client what I'm going to do. I tell you now because I need your help. That gesture brought Mr Cramer and he brought the fact that it would be fatuous to proceed on the assumption that one of the others had premeditated the murder of Paul Jerin. But, holding to my assumption that your father hadn't, one of the others must have. Why? Jerin was nothing to him, but he went there, with the poison, prepared to kill him, and he did; and what happened? A chain of circumstances pointed so clearly to your father as the culprit that he is in custody without bail, in grave jeopardy. By the operation of cause, calculated cause, and effect. The three mo^t 88 telling points against your father were not accidental; they were essential factors in the calculation. Is that clear?' 'I think ... yes.' She looked at me, and back at Wolfe. 'You mean someone killed Paul because he knew they would think my father did it.' 'I do. And if it was Mr Kalmus he also knew he would be in a position, as your father's counsel, to protect his gain from his gambit.' 'Yes.' Her hands were clenched. 'Of course.' 'So I propose to proceed on that theory, that Jerin was merely a pawn in a gambit and the true target was your father. If I continue to assume your father's innocence, no other theory is tenable. That gives me a totally new situation, for I now have indications, if the theory is to hold?some facts and some surmises. We'll test them. To avoid verbal complexities I'll call the murderer Kalmus, though I may be slandering him.' He stuck a finger up. 'The first fact. Kalmus knew that Jerin would drink or eat something during the game into which arsenic could be put. Preferably, he knew that Jerin would drink chocolate. Did he?' Sally was frowning. 'I don't know. He may have. He may have heard me mention it, or father may have told him. Paul always drank chocolate when he played chess with father.' 'That will serve.' Another finger. 'The ^cond fact. Kalmus knew what the 89 arrangements were. He knew that Jerin would be alone in the library, and that he would be a messenger and so would have an opportunity to use the arsenic. Did he?' 'I don't know, but he must have. Father must have told all of them, the messengers.' Another finger. The third fact. Kalmus knew that investigation would disclose an acceptable motive for your father. He knew of your association with Jerin and of your father's attitude toward it. Did he?' 'He knew I knew Paul, of course. But my father's attitude?if you mean he might have wanted to kill him, that's just silly. He thought he was?well, what you called him yourself, a freak.' 'He disapproved of your associating with him?' 'He disapproved of my associating with various people. But he certainly didn't have any?' 'If you please.' Wolfe snapped it. 'This isn't a court, and I'm not a prosecutor trying to convict your father. I'm merely asking if Kalmus knew that inquiry would reveal circumstances that could be regarded as a possible motive for your father. I take it that he did. Yes?' 'Well... yes.' 'That will do. So much for the facts. I call them facts because if one or more of them can be successfully challenged my theory is 90 untenable. Now the surmises, two of them. They can't be tested, merely stated. They are desirable but not essential. First, Kalmus knew that your father would himself take the chocolate to Jerin. Ideally, he suggested it, but I'll take less than the ideal. Second, when Mr Yerkes brought word that Jerin was indisposed, Kalmus suggested to your father that it might be well to dispose of the pot and cup. Since Kalmus was a messenger, he had had opportunity to observe that Jerin had drunk most of the chocolate. And he ran no risk of arousing suspicion of his good faith. Since Jerin had been taken ill suddenly, it was a natural precaution to suggest. You said yesterday that your father told you and your mother exactly what had happened. Did he say that anyone had suggested that he see to the pot and cup?' 'No.' Sally's fists were so tight I could see the white on her knuckles. T don't believe it, Mr Wolfe. I can't believe it. Of course Archie was right, I thought Clan Kalmus might want... I thought he wouldn't do everything he could, everything he ought to do ... but now you're saying he killed Paul, he planned it, so my father would be arrested and convicted. I can't believe it!' 'You need not. As I said, I specified Kalmus only to avoid verbal complexities. It could have been one of the others--Hausman, Yerkes, Farrow--or even the cook or steward, 91 though they are less probable. He must fit my three facts, and he should be eligible for my two surmises. Above all, he must meet the most obvious requirement, that he had a compelling reason to wish to ruin your father, to take his liberty if not his life. Do any of the others qualify? Hausman, Yerkes, Farrow, the cook, or steward?' She shook her head. Her mouth opened and shut, but no words came. 'One of them might, of course, without your knowledge. But that was another reason for specifying Kalmus; you had yourself supplied a possible inducement for him. And now, with this theory, I must of course see him in any case. If he is guiltless and is proceeding on the assumption that the death ofJerin was the sole and final objective of the murderer, unless I intervene your father is doomed. It may be that the fact known