Gambit

afraid.' 'Well.' His quick keen eyes went back to Wolfe. 'Frankly, Wolfe, I'm inclined to agree with them. My bank doesn't happen to use Kalmus's firm, and neither do I personally, but he certainly is a reputable lawyer, and as far as I know an able one. What can you do that he can't do?' 'I won't know until I've done it.' Wolfe 107 straightened up. 'Mr Yerkes. Do you think Mr Blount killed that man?' 'Of course not. Certainly not.' But before he said it his eyes darted a glance at Sally, a dead giveaway. If he had really felt and meant that 'of course not' why glance at her? Either he simply didn't mean it or he was an extremely smooth customer who knew more tricks than one and also knew more about the death of Paul Jerin than he was supposed to. He didn't add one of the old stand-bys, such as that he had known Blount for many years and he wouldn't kill a fly. 'Neither do I,' Wolfe said, as if he did mean it. 'But the factual evidence pointing to him is weighty and can't be impeached. You know that?' 'Yes.' 'So I ignore it. There are other facts?for instance, that four other men, the four messengers, had opportunities to poison the chocolate, when they entered the library to report moves. I understand that on those occasions, some if not all, Jerin closed his eyes to concentrate. Is that true?' 'Yes. Usually he did, after the first three or four moves. He bent his head down and sometimes covered his eyes with his hands.' Yerkes turned to the client. 'You understand, Sally, my answering these questions doesn't mean that I'm siding with you against your father and mother. I'm not. But you have a 108 right to your opinion, and I'm willing to oblige you within reason.' Back to Wolfe. 'And I agree that you're not likely to be a hindrance. I know something of your record. But Kalmus is quite aware that the four messengers had plenty of opportunities, including me. That's obvious. The question is, why would I? Why would any of them?' Wolfe nodded. That's the point. Take you. You had no animus for Mr Jerin. But it's conceivable that you had, and still have, ill will toward Mr Blount. And Jerin's death was only one of two dismal consequences of his drinking that chocolate; the other is that Blount is in deadly peril. Is that somehow pleasing to you, Mr Yerkes? I have been hired to make an inquiry and I'm inquiring. Did you perhaps suggest to Blount that he should himself take the chocolate to Jerin? Or, when you informed him that Jerin was unwell, did you suggest that he should attend to the pot and cup?' The banker's eyes were narrowed, and his lips were tight. 'I see,' he said, low, so low that I barely got it, and I have good ears. 'That's how you... I see.' He nodded. 'Very clever. Possibly more than clever. Kalmus may have it in mind too?I don't know. You asked me two questions?no, three. The answer is no to all of them. But you have certainly hit on a point. This makes it... hmmm... Hausman, Farrow, and Kalmus ... hmmm. Of course I have no comment.' He turned to Sally. 'But I'm not so 109 sure you made a mistake.' Back to Wolfe. 'I do understand you? You're saying that Jerin was merely a pawn to be sacrificed in a deliberate plot to destroy Blount?' 'I'm suggesting it. It's my working hypothesis. Naturally you said no to my three questions; so would the other three. You would also say no if I asked you whether you have any knowledge of their relations with Blount that would be suggestive; and so would they. But a man's feeling toward another so intense that he is bent implacably on his ruin? such a feeling doesn't exist in a vacuum. It has discoverable roots, and I intend to find them. Or the feeling, intense feeling, might not be directed at Blount; it might be fastened on some desired object which only Blount's removal would render accessible. With Farrow, it might be control of an industrial empire, through his aunt; with Hausman, who is by nature fanatic, it might be some grotesque aspiration; with you or Kalmus, it might be Mrs Blount. I intend?' 'Mrs Blount's daughter is present, Wolfe.' 'So she is. I'm only speculating at random. I didn't inject Mrs Blount's name wantonly; Mr Goodwin, who has seen her and who is qualified to judge, says that she might well unwittingly lead a man to defy the second prescription of the Tenth Commandment, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife. But 1 am only speculating. I intend to find the roots. 110 I haven't the legions of the law, but I have three good men available besides Mr Goodwin, and there is no pressing urgency. Mr Blount won't be brought to trial this week or month.' He was talking to hear himself, rambling on about vacuums and roots and quoting the Bible. He hadn't the faintest notion that Charles W. Yerkes had murdered Paul Jerin in order to erase Matthew Blount, nor did he expect to get any drop of useful information from that bimbo. Merely he would rather talk than try some other way of occupying his mind to keep it off oi' the fix he was in. At that, he had a good listener. Yerkes wasn't missing a word. When Wolfe paused for breath he asked, 'Have you suggested this working hypothesis to the District Attorney's office?' Fine. A satisfactory answer to that, with a full explanation, would take a good three minutes. But Wolfe only said, 'No, sir. They're satisfied with Mr Blount. I am not.' Yerkes looked at Sally and then at me, but he wasn't seeing us; he was merely giving his eyes a change from Wolfe while he decided something. It took him some seconds, then he returned to Wolfe. 'You realize,' he said, 'that tor a senior officer of an important financial institution the publicity connected with an affair like this is ... regrettable. Even a little... embarrassing. Of course it was proper and necessary for the police to see some of my 111 II friends and associates, to learn if I had had any kind of connection with that man Jerin, but it has been disagreeable. And now you, your men, private detectives, inquiring into my relations with Blount--that could be even more disagreeable, but I know I can't stop you. I admit your hypothesis is at least plausible. But I can save you some time and trouble, and perhaps make it less disagreeable for me.' He paused to swallow; it wasn't coming easy. 'It is common knowledge in the banking world that before long a choice will be made for a new president of my bank, and that I will probably be named, but some of the directors, a minority, at present favor another man. Matthew Blount is one of that minority, but naturally since he is now ... in the circumstances, he will not be able to attend the Board meeting next week. It wouldn't have taken much inquiry for you to learn this, hundreds of people know it, but I want to add that it has had no effect on my personal relations with Blount. It isn't that he's against me, it's only that he has greater obligations to the other man, and I understand it and so does he. I will not add that I didn't kill that man Jerin with the purpose of getting Blount charged with murder; I won't dignify anything so fantastic by denying it.' He rose. 'I wish you luck with your hypothesis. The other three, Hausman and Farrow and Kalmus, are merely men I know; 112 but Matthew Blount is my old and valued friend, and so is his wife.' He moved, to Sally. 'So are you, Sally. I think you should go home, that's where you belong at a time like this. I'm sure your father would want?' The doorbell rang, I could have left it to Fritz, since he was still in the kitchen and it wasn't ten o'clock yet, but I had to go to the hall anyway to see Yerkes out, so I went. There had been no picture in the papers of Victor Avery, M.D., but if you're expecting an upperbracket doctor to drop in and you see on the stoop a middle-aged well-fed specimen in a conventional gray overcoat, with scarf, and a dark gray homburg, when you open the door you greet him politely, 'Dr Avery?' As he removed the coat, with an assist from me, Yerkes came, followed by Sally, and I observed that apparently Avery was just another man Yerkes knew, not an old and valued friend; or it may have been only that Yerkes's mind was too occupied for more than a word and a nod, and Avery's attention was all for Sally. He took her hand and patted her arm and said, 'My dear child,' and let the hand go only when they reached the office door. When I joined them in the office after closing the door behind Yerkes, Avery was in the red leather chair and speaking, telling Sally that he had turned a matter over to an assistant so he could come. I noticed as I passed, looking down at him, that he had just the right amount 113 of gray in his hair to look the part. He turned to Wolfe. 'There aren't many things I wouldn't do for Miss Blount. In fact I feel responsible, since I brought her into the world. So I'm here, at your disposal, though I don't know exactly what for. She told me on the phone that she has employed you in her father's interest?professionally. If that's correct?to call a detective a professional man?' Wolfe nodded. 'The dictionary would permit it.' 'Good enough. Miss Blount also told me that you're acting independently other father's attorney. That seems to me a little difficult, a little awkward, but I'm not qualified to judge. The only profession I know anything about is medicine. She said you wanted to see me, and here I am. I would go much farther, to see the devil himself, if it might be of assistance to Miss Blount's father.' Wolfe grunted. 'Do you think he killed Paul Jerin?' 'No. I do not.' He didn't glance at Sally as Yerkes had. 'How long have you been a member of the Gambit Club?' 'Fifteen years.' 'How well do you know Mr Hausman?' 'Not well at all. I rarely see him except at the club. I see him once every year on Matthew Blount's birthday. Mrs Blount gives a party.5 114 'How well do you know Mr Yerkes?' 'Not much better than I know Hausman. Except at the club, only casually.' 'Mr Farrow?' 'I know him, certainly. You know he is Mrs Blount's nephew.' 'Yes. Mr Kalmus?' 'I have known him for years. Aside from our friendship, I attend him professionally.' Avery shifted in the chair, settling back. 'Those four men were the messengers, as of course you know.' 'Of course. More of them later. First the event itself. I understand it was Mr Kalmus who summoned you to go to Mr Jerin.' 'That's right. But I knew before that that Jerin was indisposed, about half an hour before, when Yerkes told Blount. I was at Table Five, next to Blount, Table Six.' 'It was then that Blount went to the library to take the pot and cup and clean them.' 'That's right.' 'Did Yerkes suggest to Blount that he do that?' 'I don't think so. If he did I didn't hear him.' 'Did anyone else suggest it?' 'I don't think so, but I don't know. Yerkes was the messenger for our tables, and he had brought me Jerin's sixth move, and I was concentrating on my reply. I was trying the Albin Counter Gambit. Houghteling had used ^ against Dodge in 1905 and had mated him on 115 the sixteenth move. But perhaps you don't play chess.' 'I don't know that gambit.' From Wolfe's tone he didn't care to. 'When you went in to Jerin, having been summoned by Kalmus, did you suspect poison at once?' 'Oh no, not at once. There was