chair.
She sat, still clutching her bag, and gazed at him. Wolfe told me to get my notebook and I did so. A man getting a notebook and pen ready sometimes makes quite an effect.
Wolfe returned her gaze. 'I suppose Mr. Goodwin told you that I wanted to speak with you about Mrs. Whitten.'
She nodded. 'Yes, that's what he said – no, he said on behalf of Mrs. Whitten.'
Wolfe waved it away with a finger. 'He may have used that phrase. He likes it. In any case, I'll come straight to the point. I think I can arrange it so that Mrs. Whitten will not prosecute, if you'll help me.'
'Prosecute?' She was only so-so at faking surprise. 'Prosecute who?'
'You, Miss Alving. Have you no notion of what charge Mrs. Whitten can lay against you?'
'Certainly not. There isn't any.'
'When did you last see her?'
'I never have seen her – that is, I've never met her.'
'When did you last see her?'
'I don't know – a long while – months ago. I only saw her two or three times – never to speak to.'
'That was months ago?'
'Yes.'
'Do you owe her anything?'
'No.'
'Does she owe you anything?'
'No.'
'Have you ever had anything to do with her – anything at all?'
'No.'
'Have you any reason to expect or fear anything from her, good or bad?'
'No.'
'Then will you please tell me why, when Mr. Goodwin told you I wanted to speak with you on behalf of Mrs. Whitten, you left your work immediately and came here with him?'
Julie looked at him, and then at me as if it was up to me to answer that one. Seeing that I was no nearer ready with something adequate than she was, she went back to Wolfe.
'Why wouldn't I?' she demanded. 'After what has happened, wouldn't I want to know what she wanted?'
Wolfe nodded approvingly. 'That was much the best you could do, and you did it. But it's not good enough. If you maintain this attitude, Miss Alving, I'm afraid I'm out of it, and you'll have others to deal with. I would advise you to reconsider. I think you're wrong to assume that they will believe you, and not Mrs. Whitten, when she tells them that you attacked her with a knife and your target was her heart.'
'I didn't!' Julie cried. That was only so-so too.
'Nonsense. Of course you did. I can understand your reluctance, since nothing has been published about it, and for all you know Mrs. Whitten may be at the point of death. But she isn't. Your blade didn't get beyond the rib, and twelve stitches were all that was necessary to make her capable of riding here to my office. Except for a little loss of blood she's as good as ever. She hasn't even reported it to the police, not wishing to give the public another mouthful to chew on – a mortal assault on her by the former friend of her murdered husband. So the limit of a charge against you would be assault with intent to kill.'
Wolfe waved that aside as if it were a mere peccadillo. 'And if you'll be frank with me and answer some questions, I undertake to arrange that Mrs. Whitten will not prosecute. If you had achieved your purpose, if she were dead, that would be different and I wouldn't be so foolish as to expect frankness from you. I wouldn't ask you to confess a murder, Miss Alving.'
She was doing her best and I admired her for it. But the trouble was that she had to decide on her line right there facing us, and having to make up your mind with Nero Wolfe's eyes, open an eighth of an inch, on you, is no situation for an amateur.
However, she wasn't made of jelly. 'When did this – when and where was Mrs. Whitten attacked?'
'I'll refresh your memory,' Wolfe said patiently, 'if you want it that way. A quarter to ten last evening, in front of her house, as she got out of her car.'
'It wasn't in the papers. I should think a thing like that would be in the papers.'
'Only if the papers heard of it, and they didn't. Naturally you searched for it. I've told you why Mrs. Whitten didn't report it.'
Julie was still making up her mind. 'It seems to me you're expecting a good deal – I mean, even if I did it, and I didn't. If I had, the way it looks to me, I wouldn't know whether you were trying to get me to confess to a murder or not. I wouldn't know whether she were dead, or had just lost some blood as you said. Would I?'
She had him there. He sat and gazed at her a long moment, grunted, and turned to
