It was Cramer I was afraid of at that point. Maybe if I had let Wolfe alone he could have managed him, but my nerves were on edge, and I knew if the inspector once got his paws on that box it would be a mess, and I knew damned well he couldn't take it away from me. I bounced up and got it. I pulled it from under
Wolfe's hand and held it in my own. Cramer growled and stared at me, and I returned the stare but I don't growl. Wolfe snapped:
“That box is my property. I am responsible for it and shall continue to be so until it is legally taken from my possession. I see no reason why Mrs. Frost should not look at it, to save delay. I have as much at stake as you, Mr.
Cramer. Hand it to her, Archie. It is unlocked.”
I crossed to her and put it in her extended hand, black-gloved. I didn't sit down again because Cramer didn't; and I stayed five feet closer to Mrs. Frost than he was. Everybody looked at her, even Glenna McNair. She put the box on her lap with the keyhole toward her, and opened the lid part way; no one could see in but her; she was deliberate, and I couldn't see a sign of a tremble in her fingers or anywhere else. She looked in the box and put her hand in, but didn't take anything out. She left her hand inside, with the lid resting on it, and gazed at Wolfe, and I saw that her teeth were on her lip again.
Wolfe said, leaning a little toward her, “Don't suspect a trick, Mrs. Frost.
There is no forgery in the contents of that box; it is genuine. I know, and you know, that all I have said here today is the truth. In any event, you have lost all chance at the Frost fortune; that much is certain. It is also certain that the fraud you have practiced for nineteen years can be proved with the help of
Mr. McNair's sister and corroboration from Cartagena, and will be made public; and of course the money goes to your nephew and brother-in-law. Whether you will be convicted of the three murders you committed, frankly, I cannot be sure. It will doubtless be a bitterly fought trial. There will be evidence against you, but not absolutely conclusive, and of course you are an extremely attractive woman, just middle-aged, and you will have ample opportunity for smirking at the judge and jury, weeping at the proper intervals for arousing their compassion; and unquestionably you will know how to dress the part-ah, Archie!”
She did it as quick as lightning. Her left hand had been holding the lid of the box partly open, and her right hand, inside, had been moving a little-not fumbling, just efficiently moving; I doubt if anyone but me noticed it. “I'll never forget the way she handled her face. Her teeth stayed fastened to her lip, but aside from that there was no sign of the desperate and fatal thing she was doing. Then, like a flash, her hand came out of the box and went to her mouth with the bottle, and her head went back so far that I could see her white throat when she swallowed.
Cramer jumped for her, and I didn't move to block him because I knew she could be depended on to get it down. As he jumped he let out a yell:
“Stebbins! Stebbins!”
I submit that as proof that Cramer had a right to be an inspector, because he was a born executive. As I understand it, a bom executive is a guy who, when anything difficult or unexpected happens, yells for somebody to come and help him.
Chapter Nineteen
Inspector Cramer said, “I'd like to have it in the form of a signed statement.”
He chewed at his cigar. “It's the wildest damned stuff I ever heard of. Do you mean to say that was all you had to go on?”
It was five minutes past six, and Wolfe had just come down from the plant rooms.
The Frosts and Glenna McNair had long been gone. Calida Frost was gone too. The fuss was over. The chain was on the front door to make it easier for Fritz to keep reporters out. Two windows were wide open and had been for over two hours, but the smell of bitter almonds, from some that had spilled on the floor, was still in the air and seemed to be there to stay.
Wolfe, nodding, poured beer. “That was all, sir. As for signing a statement, I prefer not to. In fact, I refuse. Your noisy indignation this afternoon was outrageous; furthermore, it was silly. I resented it then; I still do.”
He drank. Cramer grunted. Wolfe went on, “God knows where Mr. McNair hid his confounded box. It appeared to me more than likely that it would never be found; and if it wasn't it seemed fairly certain that the proof of Mrs. Frost's guilt would at best be tedious and arduous, and at worst impossible. She had had all the luck and might go on having it. So I sent Saul Panzer to a craftsman to get a box constructed of red leather and made to appear old and worn. It was fairly certain that none of the Frosts had ever seen Mr. McNair's box, so there was little danger of its authenticity being challenged. I calculated that the psychological effect on Mrs. Frost would be appreciable.”
“Yeah. You're a great calculator.” Cramer chewed his cigar some more. “You took a big chance, and you kindly let me take it with you without explaining it beforehand, but I admit it was a good trick. That's not the main point. The point is that you bought a bottle of oil of bitter almonds and put it in the box and handed it to her. That's the farthest north, even for you. And I was here when it happened. I don't dare put it on the record like that. I'm an inspector, and I don't dare.”
“As you please, sir.” Wolfe's shoulders lifted a quarter of an inch and fell again. “It was unfortunate that the outcome was fatal. I did it to impress her.
I was thunderstruck, and helpless, when she-er-abused it. I used the poisonous oil instead of a substitute because I thought she might uncork the bottle, and the odor…That too was for the psychological effect-”
“Like hell it was. It was for exactly what she used it for. What are you trying to do, kid
