of the yellow ones, facing Wolfe, and Heydecker, the big broad-shouldered man, was speak- ing.
His eyes were at Jett. 'We came,' he said, 'for infor- mation, and I suppose you did too, Greg. Unless you got more at the DA's office than we did.' 'I got damn little,' Jett said. 'I didn't even see Howie, my old schoolmate. They didn't answer ques- tions, they asked them. A lot of them I didn't answer and they shouldn't have been asked-about our affairs and our clients. Naturally I answered the relevant ones, the routine stuff about my relations with Bertha Aaron and my whereabouts and movements yesterday afternoon. Not only mine, but others'. Particularly if anyone had spoken at length with Bertha, and if anyone had left the office with her or soon after her. Obviously they think she was killed by someone connected with the firm, but they don't say why-at least not to me.'
'Nor me,' Edey said. He was the compact under- sized one and his thin tenor fitted him fine.
'Nor me,' Heydecker said. 'What has Wolfe told you?'
'Not much. I haven't been here long.' Jett looked at Wolfe.
Wolfe obliged. He cleared his throat. 'I presume that you gentlemen have come with the same purpose as Mr. Jett. He asks for any information that will give light, with emphasis on the reason for Miss Aaron's coming to see me. He assumes-'
Heydecker cut in. 'That's it. What was she here for?'
'If you please. He assumes from the circumstances that she was killed because she was here, to prevent a revelation she meant to make, and that is plausible. But surely the police and the District Attorney haven't withheld all of the details from you. Haven't they told you that she didn't see me?'
'No,' Edey said. 'They haven't told me.'
'Nor me,' Heydecker said.
'Then I tell you. She came without appointment. Mr. Goodwin admitted her. She asked to see me on a confi- dential matter. I was engaged elsewhere, upstairs, and Mr. Goodwin came to tell me she was here. We had a matter under consideration and discussed it at some length, and when we came down her dead body was here.' He pointed at Heydecker's feet. 'There. So she couldn't tell me what she came for, since I never saw her alive.'
'Then I don't get it,' Edey declared. The brilliant idea man was using his brain. 'If she didn't tell you, you couldn't tell the police or the District Attorney. But if they don't know what she came to see you about, why do they think she was killed by someone in our office? It's conceivable that they got that information from someone else, but so soon? They started in on me at seven o'clock this morning. And I conclude from their questions that they don't merely think it, they think they know it.'
'They do, unquestionably,' Heydecker agreed. 'Mr. Goodwin. You admitted her. She was alone?' That was the brilliant trial lawyer.
'Yes.' Since we weren't before the bench I omitted the 'sir.'
'You saw no one else around? On the sidewalk?'
'No. Of course it was dark. It was twenty minutes past five. On January fifth the sun set at 4:46.' By gum, he wasn't going to trap me.
'You conducted her to this room?'
'Yes.'
'Leaving the outer door open perhaps?'
'No.'
'Are you certain of that?'
'Yes. If I have one habit that's totally automatic, it's closing that door and making sure it's locked.'
'Automatic habits are dangerous things, Mr. Good- win. Sometimes they fail you. When you brought her to this room did you sit?'
'Yes.'
'Where?'
'Where I am now.'
'Where did she sit?'
'About where you are. About three feet closer to me.'
'What did she say?'
'That she wanted to see Nero Wolfe about something urgent. No, she said that at the door. She said her case was private and very confidential.'
'She used the word 'case'?'
'Yes.'
'What else did she say?'
'That her name was Bertha Aaron and she was the private secretary of Mr. Lament Otis, senior partner in the law firm of Otis, Edey, Heydecker, and Jett.'
'What else did she say?'
Naturally I had known that the time would come to lie, and decided this was it. 'Nothing,' I said.
