great as yours, Calida, though she is your daughter.” He turned to goggle at his son.
“It's your fault, Lew. Absolutely. You offered this man Wolfe his opportunity.
Haven't you time and time again-”
Wolfe leaned far forward in his chair and reached until the tip of his finger hovered delicately within an inch of the brown tweed of Mrs. Frost's coat. He appealed to her: “Please. Stop him.”
She shrugged her shoulders. Her brother-in-law was going right on. Then abruptly she rose from her chair, stepped around behind the others, and approached me.
She came close enough to ask quietly, “Have you any good Irish whiskey?”
“Sure,” I said. “Is that it?”
She nodded. “Straight. Double. With plain water.”
I went to the cabinet and found the bottle of Old Corcoran. I made it plenty double, got a glass of water, put them on a tray stand, and took it over and deposited it beside the orator's chair. He looked at it and then at me.
“What the deuce is it? What? Where's the bottle?” He lifted it to his off-center nose and sniffed. “Oh! Well.” His eyes circled the group. “Won't anyone join me?
Calida? Lew?” He sniffed the Irish again. “No? To the Frosts, dead and alive,
God bless 'em!” He neither sipped it nor tossed it off, but drank it like milk.
He lifted the glass of water and took a dainty sip, about half a teaspoonful, put it down again, leaned back in his chair and thoughtfully caressed his moustache with the tip of his finger. Wolfe was watching him like a hawk.
Mrs. Frost asked quietly, “What is that about Inspector Cramer?”
Wolfe shifted to her. “Nothing, madam, beyond what your nephew has told you.”
“He is coming here to consult with you?”
“So he said.”
“Regarding the…the death of Miss Lauck?”
“So he said.”
“Isn't that…” She hesitated. “Is it usual for you to confer with the police about the affairs of your clients?”
“It is usual for me to confer with anyone who might have useful information.”
Wolfe glanced at the clock. “Let's see if we can't cut across, Mrs. Frost. It is ten minutes to four. I permit nothing to interfere with my custom of spending the hours from four to six with my plants upstairs. As your brother-in-law said with amazing coherence, this thing is simple. I do not deliver an ultimatum to
Mr. Llewellyn Frost, I merely offer him an alternative. Either he can pay me at once the amount I would have charged him for completing his commission-he knew before he came here that I ask high fees for my services-and dismiss me, or he can expect me to pursue the investigation to a conclusion and send him a bill.
Of course it will be much more difficult for me if his own family tries to obstruct-”
Mrs. Frost shook her head. “We have no wish to obstruct,” she said gently. “But it is apparent that you have misconstrued a remark my daughter Helen made while you were questioning her, and we…naturally, we are concerned about that. And then…if you are about to confer with the police, surely it would be desirable for you to understand…”
“I understand, Mrs. Frost.” Wolfe glanced at the clock. “You would like to be assured that I shall not inform Inspector Cramer of my misconstruction of your daughter's remark. I'm sorry, I can't commit myself on that, unless I am either dismissed from the case now with payment in full, or am assured by Mr. Llewellyn
Frost-and, under the circumstances, by you and your brother-in-law also-that I am to continue the investigation for which I was engaged. I may add, you people are quite unreasonably alarmed, which is to be expected with persons of your station in society. It is highly unlikely that your daughter has any guilty connection with the murder of Miss Lauck; and if by chance she possesses an important bit of information which discretion has caused her to conceal, the sooner she discloses it the better, before the police do somehow get wind of it.”
Mrs. Frost was frowning. “My daughter has no information whatever.”
“Without offense-I would need to ask her about that myself.”
“And you…wish to be permitted to continue. If you are not, you intend to tell
Inspector Cramer-”
“I have not said what I intend.”
“But you wish to continue.”
Wolfe nodded. “Either that, or my fee now.”
“Listen, Calida. I've been sitting here thinking.” It was Dudley Frost. He sat up straight. I saw Wolfe get his hands on the arms of his chair. Frost was going on: “Why don't we get Helen down here? This man Wolfe is throwing a bluff. If we're not careful we'll find ourselves coughing up ten thousand dollars of
Helen's money, and since I'm responsible for it, it's up to me to prevent it.
Lew says hell have it next week, but I've heard that before. A trustee is under the most sacred
