Sturgis said he could. The sergeant turned to me: “Will you go up to the inspector's office, Goodwin? I've got an errand on the main floor.”
He went on out and I followed him without saying anything. There was no one there I wanted to exchange telephone numbers with.
I took the elevator back upstairs. I had to wait quite a while in Cramer's anteroom. Apparently he was having a party in there, for three dicks came out, and a little later a captain in uniform, and still later a skinny guy with grey hair whom I recognized for Deputy Commissioner Alloway. Then I was allowed the gangway. Cramer was sitting there looking sour and chewing a cigar that had gone out.
“Sit down, son. You didn't get a chance to show us how downstairs. Huh? And we didn't show you much either. There was a good man working on Gebert for four hours this morning, a good clever man. He couldn't start a crack. So we gave up the cleverness and tried something else.”
“Oh, that's it.” I grinned at him. “That's what those guys are, something else.
It describes them all right. And now you're turning him loose?”
“We are.” Cramer frowned. “A lawyer was beginning to heat things up, I suppose hired by Mrs. Frost. He got a habeas corpus a little while ago, and I couldn't see that Gebert was worth fighting for, and anyway, I doubt if we could have held him. Also the French consul started stirring around. Gebert's a French citizen. Of course we're putting a shadow on him, and what good will that do?
When a man like that has got knowledge about a crime there ought to be some way of tapping him the way you do a maple tree, and draw it out of him. Huh?”.
I nodded. “Sure, that'd be all right. It would be better than…” I shrugged.
“Never mind. Any news from the boys at Glennanne?”
“No.” Cramer clasped his hands behind his head, leaned back into them, chewed his cigar, and scowled at me. “You know, I hate to say this to you. But it's what I think. I wouldn't like to see you get hurt, but it might have been more sensible if we had had you down in Room Five all day instead of that Gebert.”
“Me?” I shook my head. “I don't believe it. After all I've done for you.”
“Oh, don't kid me. I'm tired, I'm not in a mood for it. I've been thinking. I know how Wolfe works. I don't pretend I could do it, but I know how he does it.
I admit he never yet has finished up on the wrong side, but you only have to break an egg once. It's just possible that in this case he has got his feet tangled up. He's working for the Frosts.”
“He's working for a Frost.”
“Sure, and that's funny too. First he said Lew hired him, and then the daughter.
I never knew him to shift clients like that before. Has it got anything to do with the fact that the fortune belongs to the daughter, but that it has been controlled by Lew's father for twenty years? And Lew's father, Dudley Frost, is a great one for keeping things to himself. We put it up to him that we're investigating a murder case and asked him to let us check the assets of the estate because there might be a connection that would be helpful. We asked him to cooperate. He told us to go chase ourselves. Frisbie up at the D.A.'s office tried to get at it through court action, but apparently there's no loophole. Now why did Wolfe all of a sudden quit Lew and transfer his affections to the other side of the family?”
“He didn't. It was what you might call a forced sale.”
“Yeah? Maybe. I'd like to see Nero Wolfe forced into anything. I noticed it happened right after McNair was croaked. All right; Wolfe had got hold of some kind of positive information. Where did he get it from? From that red box. You see, I'm not trying to play foxy, I'm just telling you. His stunt at Glennanne was a cover. Your play with Gebert was a part of it too. I haven't got an iota of proof of anything, but I'm telling you. And I warn you and I warn Wolfe: don't think I'm too dumb to find out eventually what was in that red box, because I'm not.”
I shook my head sadly. “You're all wet, inspector. Honest to God, you're dripping. If you've quit looking for the red box let us know, and well take a shot at it.”
“I haven't given it up. I'm making all the motions. I don't say Wolfe is deliberately covering a murderer, he'd have to get more than his feet tangled before he'd be fool enough to do that, but I do say he's withholding valuable evidence that I want. I don't pretend to know why; I don't pretend to know one damn thing about this lousy case. But I do think it's in the Frost family, because for one thing we haven't been able to uncover any other connection of
McNair's that offers any line at all. We don't get anything from his sister in
Scotland. Nothing in McNair's papers. Nothing from Paris. No trail on the poison. My only definite theory about the Frosts is something I dug up from an old family enemy, some old scandal about Edwin Frost disinheriting his wife because he didn't like her ideas about friendship with a Frenchman, and forcing her to sign away her dower rights by threatening to divorce her. Well, Gebert's a Frenchman, but McNair wasn't, and then what? It looks as if we're licked, huh?
Remember what I said Tuesday in Wolfe's office? But Wolfe is absolutely not a damned fool, and he ought to know better than to try to sit on a lid which sooner or later can be pried off. Will you take him a message from me?”
“Sure. Shall I write it down?”
“You won't need to. Tell him this Gebert is going to have a shadow on him from now on until this case is solved. Tell him that if the red box hasn't been found, or something else just as good, one of my best men will sail for France on the Normandie next Wednesday. And tell him that I know a few things already, for instance that in the past five years $60,000 of his client's money has been paid to this Gebert, and the Lord knows how much before that.”
“Sixty grand?” I raised the brows. “Of Helen Frost's money?”
“Yes. I suppose that's news to you.”
