range: 'Where is it?'
She turned, because Carla was up too and had grabbed her arm. She shook herself loose, but Carla seized her elbow again and told her sharply, 'Neya-Neya! Sit down! Neya-you know-'
Neya spouted a torrent at her that I would have had no symbols for if I had been at my notebook. Carla returned it, but not in a torrent; she was cool and controlled.
Wolfe said, 'I understand Serbo-Croat.'
They both said, 'Oh!'
He nodded. 'I used to knock around. I did some work for the Austrian Government when I was too young to know better. And I was in your country in 1921, and adopted a daughter-'
'I want that paper.'
'I know you do, Miss Lovchen. But I won't even discuss it, let alone return it to you, unless you children sit down and behave yourselves. None of this jumping up and cater-wauling; I don't like it; besides, it won't do you any good. Sit down!'
They sat.
'That's better. I mentioned that paper only to show you how I knew you were lying when you said you aren't in this country on a political mission-and by the way, I suppose you lied to the police too? Of course you did. Now that the paper's been mentioned-where did you get it, Miss Lovchen?'
'I…' She fingered her skirt. 'I got it.'
'Where and how? Is it yours?'
'I stole it.'
Neya snapped. 'You did not! I stole it myself!'
Wolfe shrugged. 'Split the honours. Who did you steal it from?'
'From the person who had it.'
'From the Princess Vladanka Donevitch?'
'I won't tell you.'
'Good. That's better than trying to lie. Is the princess in New York now?'
'I won't tell you anything about that paper.'
'You are in danger. You are actually in peril of your life. Faber's unsupported alibi is the only thing between you and an indictment for murder. Do you want my assistance in the removal of that danger?'
'Yes.' It looked for an instant as if she were going to smile at him, but she didn't. 'Yes,' she repeated, 'I do.'
'Are you prepared to pay me-my usual fee? Several thousand dollars, for instance?'
'My God, no.' She glanced at Carla and back at him. 'But… I might.'
'But when you sent Miss Lovchen here in the first place, you expected me to help you because you are my adopted daughter, didn't you?'
She nodded. 'I thought you might feel-'
'I carry this fat to insulate my feelings. They got too strong for me once or twice and I had that idea. If I had stayed lean and kept moving around I would have been dead long ago. You are aware that I have no proof that you are my daughter. You sent Miss Lovchen here with that record of adoption bearing my signature. Another paper. Did you steal that too?'
Carla ejaculated something indignant. Neya was on her feet, with her eyes flashing. 'If you think I did that, there's no use-'
'I don't think you did that. I just don't know. I asked you to stop jumping up. Please sit down, Miss Tormic. Thank you. I used to be idiotically romantic. I still am, but I've got it in hand. I thought it romantic, when I was a boy, twenty-five years ago, to be a secret agent of the Austrian Government. My progress towards maturity got interrupted by the World War and my experience with it. War doesn't mature men; it merely pickles them in the brine of disgust and dread. Pfui! After the war I was still lean and I moved around. In Montenegro I assumed responsibility for the sustenance and mental and physical thrift of a three-year-old orphan girl by adopting her. I did something else there, too, which advanced my maturity, but that has nothing to do with you. I saw that girl's ribs. The something else I did finished Montenegro for me, and I left the girl, I thought, in good hands, and returned to America.'
Wolfe leaned back and let his lids down a little. 'You go on from there, please.'
Neya said, 'You left me in Zagreb with Pero Brovnik and his wife.'
'That's right. Your name?'
'My name was Anna. When I was eight years old they were arrested as revolutionaries and shot. I don't remember that very well, but I know all about it.'
'Yes.' Wolfe looked grim. 'And for three years the money I continued to send to Zagreb was appropriated by someone in Brovnik's name, and when I got suspicious and went over there, in spite of the fact that I was no longer lean, I got nowhere. I couldn't find the girl. I got no satisfaction about the money. I got put in jail, and the American Consul got me out and I was given ten hours to leave the country.' He made a face. 'I have not been in Europe, or in jail, since. Where were you?'
'I was eleven years old then.'
'Yes. I can add. Where were you?'
