get it done. Did anybody see him?'
'No.' f ' ' •
I took a breath. At least, then, we weren't floating with our bellies up. I said, 'All right. Then it's a question of how you feel. How you feel about this, for instance, that Paul Chapin didn't shoot your husband at all.'
She stared at me. 'What do you mean – I saw him -' 1^ I 'You didn't see him shoot. Here's what'
I'm getting at, Mrs. Burton. I know your husband didn't hate Paul Chapin. I know he felt sorry for him and was willing to go with the crowd because he saw no help for it. How about you, did you hate him?
Disregard what happened tonight, how much did you hate him?'
For a second I thought I had carried her along; then I saw a change coming in her eyes and her lips beginning to tighten up. She was going to ritz me out. I rushed in ahead of it:?
'Listen, Mrs. Burton, I'm not just a smart pup nosing around somebody's back yard seeing what I can smell.'I really know all about this, maybe even some things you don't know. Right now, in a cabinet down in Nero Wolfe's office, there is a leather box. I put it there. This big.
It's beautiful tan leather, with fine gold tooling on it, and it's locked, and it's full nearly to the top with your gloves and stockings. Some you've worn. – Now wait a minute, give me a chance. It belongs to Paul Chapin. Dora Ritter hooked them and gave them to him. It's his treasure. Nero Wolfe says his soul is in that box. I wouldn't know about that, I'm ^, no expert on souls. I'm just telling you.
The reason I want to know whether you hate Paul Chapin, regardless of his killing your husband, is this: what if he didn't kill him? Would you like to see them hang it on him anyway?' I She was looking at me, with the idea of ritzing me out put aside for the moment.
She said, 'I don't know what you're driving at. I saw him dead. I don't know what you mean.' i '^ 'Neither do I. That's what I'm here to find outr' I'm trying to make you understand that I'm not annoying you just for curiosity, I'm here on business, and it may turn out to be your business as well as mine. I'm interested in seeing that Paul Chapin gets no more than is coming to • him. Right now I don't suppose you're | interested in anything. You've had a shock that would lay most women flat. Well, you're not flat, and you might as well talk to me as sit and try not to think about it.
I'd like to sit here and ask you a few things. If you look like you are going to faint I'll call the family and get up and go.'
She unclasped her hands. She said, 'I don't faint. You may sit down.'
'Okay.' I used the chair Alice had left.
'Now tell me how it happened. The shooting. Who was here?'
'My husband and I, and the cook and the maid. One of the maids was out.'
'No one else? What about the woman you called Alice?' 1 'That is my oldest friend. She came to… just a little while ago. There was no one else here.' t*x ^ u,
'And?' •. ^ – -..^' –
'I was in my room dressing. We were dining out, my daughter was out somewhere. My husband came to my room for a cigarette; he always… he never remembered to have any, and the door between our rooms is always open.
The maid came and said Paul Chapin was there. My husband left to go to the foyer to see him, but he didn't go direct; he went back through his room and his study. I mention that because I stood and ^stened. The last time Paul had come my husband had told the maid to keep him in -he foyer, and before he went there he had gone to his study and got a revolver out of the drawer. I had thought it was childish. This time I listened to see if he did it again, and he did, I heard the drawer opening. Then he called to me, called my name, and I answered what is it, and he called back, nothing, never mind, he would tell me after he had speeded his guest. That was the last… those were his last words I heard. I heard him walking through the apartment – I listened, I suppose, because I was wondering what Paul could want. Then I heard noises – not loud, the foyer is so far away from my room, and then shots. I ran. The maid came out of the dining-room and followed me. We ran to the foyer. It was dark, and the light in the drawing-room was dim and we couldn't see anything. I heard a noise, someone falling, and Paul's voice saying my name. I turned on the light switch, and Paul was there on his knee trying to get up. He said my name again, and said he was trying to hop to the switch. Then I saw Lome, on the floor at the end of the table. I ran to him, and when I saw him I called to the maid to go for Dr. Foster, who lives a floor below us. I don't know what Paul did then, I didn't pay any attention to him, the first I knew some men came -' (alright, hold it.'.,, She stopped. I looked at her a minute, getting it. She had clasped her hands again and was doing some extra breathing, but not obtrusively. I quit worrying about her. I took out a pad and pencil, and said,
'This thing, the way you tell it, needs a lot of fixing. The worst item, of course, is the light being out. That's plain silly. – Now wait a minute, I'm just talking about what Nero Wolfe calls a feeling for phenomena, I'm trying to enjoy one. Let's go back to the beginning. On his way to see Paul Chapin, your husband called to you from the study, and then said never mind. Have you any idea what he was going to say?'.; r 5 'No, how could I -' • •.
'Okay. The way you told it, he called to you after he opened the drawer. Was that the way it was?'
I She nodded. 'I'm sure it was after I .heard the drawer open. I was listening.'
'Yeah. Then you heard him walking to the foyer, and then you heard noises.
What kind of noises?'
'I don't know. Just noises, movements.
It is far away, and doors were closed. The noises were faint.' 4* ^ 'Voices?' ^ 'No. I didn't hear any.'
'Did you hear your husband closing the foyer door after he got there?'
