with all the others. The file had him alibied for the twenty-sixth, the afternoon Rachel Abrams was killed, but digging into it we find that it's loose. We'd want to dig more on it if he was alive to take to a jury and we had to face a defense, but he's dead and there'll be no jury. We can't get a check on December fourth, the day he says he was at his office in the evening and found Dykes's manuscript and read it. There are no other dates to check.'
Wolfe grunted. 'How are the others on the dates? Did you go over that?'
'Some. They're all about the same as Corrigan; there's nothing too tight to rip open. As I think I told you once, none of them is completely eliminated by an alibi-except O'Malley the day Rachel Abrams was killed. He was in Atlanta, but now that we know what was in the manuscript he's out anyway. All it spilled about him was that he had been disbarred
for bribing a juror, and God knows that was no secret. Unless you think the confession lies about the manuscript?'
'No. On that point I credit it unreservedly.'
'Then it doesn't matter where O'Malley was.' Cramer reached to empty his bottle into his glass and settled back. 'Now about the typewriter at the Travelers Club. It's still there, in an alcove off of the writing room, but it was overhauled about two months ago. That doesn't stop us, because in the firm's files we found two items Corrigan had typed on it, memoranda to Mrs. Adams. We got the original of the anonymous letter to the court informing on O'Malley and it was typed on that machine, absolutely no question about it. Corrigan used it occasionally. He ate dinner there two or three times a week and played bridge there Thursday evenings. None of the others is a member. Two of them, Kustin and Briggs, have been brought there once or twice by Corrigan for dinner, but that's all. So it looks-'
'This,' Wolfe cut in, 'is important. Extremely. How closely was it examined? A dinner guest might conceivably have used a typewriter, especially if he needed one that couldn't be traced to him.'
'Yeah, I know. Saturday you called it a focus of interest. I had Stebbins handle it himself, with instructions to make it good, and he did. Besides, look at it. Say you're Kustin or Briggs, going there as a guest to eat with Corrigan. Say you use that typewriter for that particular purpose. You can't do it, you can't even get in that room, without either Corrigan or an attendant knowing about it, probably both of them, and that would be pretty damn dumb. Wouldn't it?'
'Yes.'
'So it looks as if Corrigan did inform on his partner. That alone makes the confession a lot easier to buy, signed or unsigned, and the DA's office feels the same way about it. Isn't that practically what you said Saturday? Is there anything wrong with that argument?'
'No.' Wolfe made a noise that could have been a chuckle. 'I will accept an apology.'
'The hell you Will. For what?'
'You accused me, or Mr. Goodwin, of making that cryptic notation on Dykes's letter of resignation. Well?'
Cramer picked up his glass and drank, in no hurry. He set the glass down. 'Uh-huh,' he conceded. 'I still say it looked like a typical Wolfe stunt, and I'm not apologizing. That's
the one detail in that confession that it's hard to dope. The confession says he made the notation in December, so of course it wasn't there when they all saw the letter last summer, that's all right, but it must have been there a week ago Saturday when the letter was sent to you. Yet three of them say it wasn't. Phelps asked his secretary, a girl named Don-dero, to see if it was in the files, and she dug it out and took it to him. O'Malley had come to the office that morning, for a conference at Corrigan's request, and was with Phelps in his room when the girl brought the letter in, and they both looked at it. They won't swear the notation wasn't on it, but they both think they would have noticed it if it had been, and they didn't notice it. Not only that, the girl says she would testify under oath that there was no such notation on the letter. She says she would positively have noticed it if it had been. Phelps dictated his letter to you, and she typed it, and Phelps signed it, and she put it and Dykes's letter of resignation, and the other material written by Dykes, into an envelope addressed to you, and sent for a messenger and took the envelope to the anteroom and left it with the switchboard girl to be given to the messenger when he came. So how do I dope it?'
Wolfe upturned a palm. 'Phelps and O'Malley leave it ogea The girl is lying.'
'What the hell for?'
'Force of habit. The etiquette of the sex.'
'Nuts. We couldn't brush it off with a gag if we had to take it to a jury. As it is, I suppose we can let it slide. We have to if we're going to buy the confession.'
Wolfe turned his head. 'Archie. We gave Mr. Cramer the letter from Dykes bearing the notation?'
'Yes, sir.'
'The envelope too? The envelope it came to us in?'
'No, sir.'
'We have the envelope?'
'Yes, sir. As you know, we keep everything until a case is closed-except what we hand to the cops.'
Wolfe nodded. 'It may possibly be needed to save us from a charge of accessories.' He returned to Cramer. 'What about the District Attorney's office? Are they willing to let it slide?'
'They think it's minor. If the rest of the confession stands up, yes.'
'Has the confession been shown to Corrigan's associates?'
'Certainly.'
'Do they credit it?'
