She looked at him a while before she spoke. 'I can't tell you that.'
'You'll either tell me that or march on out of here and not come back. And I have the paper which you stole and your friend left in my book for safekeeping. Now don't start cater-wauling.'
Carla said, 'Tell him, Neya.'
'But, Carla! then he'll know
'Tell him!'
'And tell the truth,' Wolfe advised, 'or I'll know that, and I'll know it even better after I've cabled Europe.'
She told him. 'When the Brovniks were arrested I was sent to an institution. A year later I was taken out by a woman named Mrs Campbell.'
'Who was she?'
'She was the English secretary of Prince Peter Donevitch.'
'What did she want with you?'
'She visited the institution and she took a liking to me. My ribs didn't show then. She wanted to adopt me, but she couldn't, legally, on account of you.'
'Why didn't she communicate with me?'
'Because… her connexion with Prince Donevitch. The kind of friends you had had in Yugoslavia, like the Brovniks. They knew you would make trouble, and they didn't want trouble from an American.'
'No. You can't take an American out and shoot him. So she just stole the money I sent for three years.'
'I don't know anything about that.'
'Where is she now?'
'She died four years ago.'
'Where did you go then?'
'I continued to live there.'
'With Donevitch?'
'In that house.'
'Did young Prince Stefan live there?'
'Yes, he-he and his sisters.'
'And his wife?'
'After-of course. When he was married, two years ago.'
'Were you treated as one of the family?'
'No.' She hesitated and then said more emphatically, 'No, I wasn't.'
Wolfe turned abruptly to Carla Lovchen and snapped at her, 'Are you Stefan's wife-the Princess Vladanka?'
Her eyes popped open, 'Me? Boga ti! No!'
'You had that paper which you put in my book.'
Neya said, 'I told you I stole that paper. I don't always lie.'
'Where did you steal it-Zagreb or New York?'
She shook her head. 'I can't tell you about that paper. Not even-no matter what you do.'
He grunted. 'Your secret political mission. I know. Die first. I used to play that silly dirty game myself. But since you lived in the same house with the Princess Vladanka, you must know her pretty well. Are you and she friends?'
'Friends?' Neya's forehead showed a crease. 'No.'
'What's she like?'
'She is clever, beautiful, selfish, and treacherous.'
'Indeed. What does she look like?'
'Well… she is tall. Her arms move like snakes. Her face is like this.' Neya described an oval with her fingers. 'Her eyes are as black as mine-sometimes blacker.'
'Is she in Zagreb now?'
'She was when I left. It was said she was going to Paris to see old Prince Peter and then to America.'
'You're lying.'
She looked straight at him. 'Sometimes it is necessary to lie. There are some things I can't tell.'
