matters as a civilian consultant-since it has been published in newspapers. Do you regard Wolfe as a competent investigator?”
Shattuck smiled. “I’m a politician. You’re not apt to find me in a minority of one.”
“Well, he’s investigating Cross’s death. For us. If you find out who wrote you that letter, tell him that. That ought to satisfy him.”
“It satisfies me,” Shattuck declared. “I wonder if you’d mind-could I ask Mr. Wolfe a couple of questions?”
“Certainly. If he wants to answer them. I can’t order him to. He’s not in the Army.”
Wolfe grunted. He was displaying all the signs, long familiar to me, of impatience, annoyance, discomfort, and an intense desire to get back home where chairs had been built to specifications to fit the case, and the beer was cold. He snapped:
“Mr. Shattuck. Perhaps I can make your questions unnecessary. Whether they come from idle curiosity, or are in fact sparks from the flame of your burning patriotism, Captain Cross was murdered. Does that answer them?”
Silence. Nobody made a sound. The look that General Fife flashed at Colonel Ryder met one coming back at him, and they both held. Colonel Tinkham’s finger tip made contact with his mustache. Lieutenant Lawson stared at Wolfe, frowning. Shattuck’s eyes, narrowed with a gleam in them, went from face to face.
Lieutenant Lawson said, “Oh, lord.”
Chapter 2
Wolfe was pretending that nothing startling was happening. Not that any of the others could tell there was any pretense about it; nobody else knew him as I did. They probably were not even aware that his half-closed eyes were not missing the slightest twitch of a muscle among the group.
“I’m afraid,” he said dryly, “that there’s nothing in it for you, Mr. Shattuck. No votes, no acclaim, no applause from the multitude. I made the announcement in your presence because there’s no way of proving it and probably never will be. Not a scrap of evidence. Anyone could have taken the hotel elevator and gone to Captain Cross’s room on the twelfth floor, but no one was seen doing so. The mountain of the police machinery has labored-and no mouse. The window was wide open, and he was below on the pavement, squashed, dead. That’s all.”
“Then why the devil,” Lawson demanded, “do you say he was murdered?”
“Because he was. He was as likely to fall from that window by accident as I would be to run for Congress-by accident. He did not deliberately jump out or crawl out. He phoned Colonel Ryder at eight o’clock that evening that he would come to the office in the morning to make a report; that he had had no sleep for two nights and had to rest. He sent a telegram to his fiancee in Boston that he would see her on Saturday. And then committed suicide? Pfui.”
“Oh,” Fife said, crossing his arms on the back of the chair again. “I thought-perhaps you had something.”
“I have that.” Wolfe wiggled a finger at him. “The man was murdered. But no guiding thread can be fastened to the smashed body on the pavement or in the room it fell from. The police have done a thorough job, and there is nothing. Some other point of departure is needed. If the motive was personal, out of his past as a man, the police may find it. They’re trying to. If it was professional, out of his work as a soldier, we may find it in the course of our present activities. That is, if we are to continue? Along the line as it is being developed? With the same personnel?”
Fife studied the corner of Ryder’s desk.
Wolfe said brusquely, “I put a question, General.”
Fife’s head jerked to him. “By all means. Continue? Certainly.”
Shattuck said in a tone of satisfaction, “I don’t think I need to ask you any questions, Mr. Wolfe.”
“May I” Tinkham inquired, “offer a comment?”
“Go ahead,” Fife told him.
“About the-personnel, as Mr. Wolfe put it. This is a complicated and difficult business; we all know that, even if it’s all we know. And judging from what happened to Cross, if Mr. Wolfe is correct, somewhat dangerous. It’s not the sort of enterprise to be entrusted to a kindergarten, and if that’s Mr. Wolfe’s opinion of us- specifically of me-”
“Skin tender?” Fife demanded. “The orders come from me.”
“I was trying,” Wolfe declared, “to educate you, Colonel, not obliterate you.”
“I’m not worrying about my skin.” Tinkham’s voice had emotion in it, which for him was remarkable. “I would like to stay on this job. I merely want to be sure I understand the purpose of Mr. Wolfe’s question about personnel.”
“To get an answer.” Wolfe was eyeing him. “I got it.”
“All the same,” Lawson broke in, addressing General Fife, “Colonel Tinkham has a point. For example, sir, you said just now the orders come from you. But they don’t. At least they haven’t in the two weeks I’ve been in on this. They come either from Colonel Ryder or from Nero Wolfe, and that’s apt to be confusing, and besides, from the tone Wolfe takes he ought to have four stars on his shoulder, and he hasn’t.”
