on the stairs. It was Sylvia Marcy. At the foot, instead of turning toward the next flight down, she turned my way and approached, with the intention, as I thought, of switching on the coo, but I was wrong. She did not merely toss me a glance, she kept her eyes straight at my face as she advanced, and even swiveled her head to prolong it until she was nearly even with me, but she kept right on going and uttered no sound. I could have stuck out a foot and tripped her as she passed. She went to the door to Huck s 48 room, knocked, and entered without wait- mg. By then the elevator had stopped at my level, and I pulled the door open, stepped in and pushed the button marked B. Down in the basement I found the kitchen and walked in. It was big and clean and smelled good. An inmate I had not seen before, a plump little woman with extra chins, was at a table peeling mushrooms, and Mrs. O'Shea was across from her, sorting slips of paper. I spoke as I approached. 'I should have told you, Mrs. O'Shea, I doubt if Mr. Lewent will show up for dinner. From what he said when he asked me to stay, I think he feels that under the circumstances it would be better if he were not there.' She went on with the slips a moment before she looked up to reply. 'Very well. You were going to talk with me.' 'I got sidetracked.' I glanced at the cook. 'Here?' 'As well here as anywhere.' I parked half of my fundament on the edge of the table. She resumed with the ^ps of paper, distributing them in piles, ^d as I watched her arm and hand in quick, ^ft movement I considered whether they ^uld have struck the blow that killed 49 Lewent, though my mind might easily have been better occupied, since actually a tenyear-old could have done it with the right weapon and the right frame of mind. 'From what you said earlier upstairs,' I remarked, 'I got the impression that you feel sorry for Mr. Lewent--in a way.' She compressed her lips. 'Mr. Lewent is a thoroughly immoral man. And this trouble he's making--he deserves no sympathy from anyone.' 'Then my impression was wrong?' 'I didn't say that.' She sent the deep blue eyes straight at me, and they were much too cold to show sorrow for anyone or anything whatever. 'Frankly, Mr. Goodwin, I am not interested in your impressions. I speak with you at all only because Mr. Huck asked us to.' 'And I speak with you, Mrs. O'Shea, only because the man whose father built this house thinks he's been rooked and has hired me to find out. That doesn't interest you either?' 'No.' She resumed with the slips of paper.
I eyed her. My trouble with her, as with the rest of them, was that it would take some well-chosen leading questions to jostle 50 %?'' her loose, and all the best questions were out of bounds as long as Lewent was supposed to be still breathing. 'Look,' I said, 'suppose we try this. It's been more than two hours since I talked with you ladies up in the sewing room. Have you discussed the matter with Mr. Lewent? If so, when and where, and what was said?' She sent me a sharp sidewise glance. 'Ask him.' 'I intend to, but I want--' I got interrupted. A door in the kitchen's far wall was standing open, and through it, rolling almost silently on rubber tires, came a large cabinet of stainless steel. It was more than four feet high, its top reaching almost to the shoulders of Paul Thayer, who was behind it, pushing it. He rolled it across to the neighborhood of Mrs. O'Shea's chair and halted it. 'It's okay,' he told her. 'Just a bum wire, and I put in a new one. At your service. Invoice follows.' 'Thank you, Paul.' She had clipped the ^lips of paper together and was putting them m a drawer. 'I'm glad you got it fixed. Mr. ??dwin is staying for dinner, so I suppose y01^11 bring him up for cocktails. Harriet, 51 don't forget about the capers. Mr. Huck will not have it without the capers.' The plump little woman said she knew it, and Mrs. O'Shea left us, with, I noticed, the hip-swing in action, so it hadn't been a special demonstration for Huck. I turned to Paul Thayer. 'Lewent asked me to stay for dinner, but he's going to skip it, so do you think I rate a cocktail?' 'Sure, it's routine.' He was matter-offact. 'It was started by my aunt a couple of years ago when his legs went bad, and he has kept it up. How goes it? Have you spotted her?' 'Not to paste a label on.' I aimed a thumb at the cabinet. 'What's this, a dishwasher?'
'Hell no, a chow wagon. Designed by my aunt and made to order. Plug it in any outlet.' 'It's quite a vehicle.' I moved to it. 'Mr. Wolfe ought to have one for breakfast in his room. May I take a look?' 'Sure, go ahead. I've got to wash my hands.' He went to the sink and turned on a faucet. I opened the door of the cabinet. There was room enough inside for breakfast for a family, with many grooves for rh6 52 shelves so that the spaces could be arranged as desired. I slid a couple of them out and in tapped the walls, and inspected the thermostat.
'Very neat,' I said admiringly. 'Just what I want for my ninetieth birthday.' 'I'll remember and send you one.' He was patting his hands with a paper towel. 'Do so.' I neared him. 'Tell me something. Did Lewent say anything--uh--disagreeable about Miss Riff to you this afternoon?' He squinted at me. 'What are you talking about?' 'I'm just asking. Did he?' 'No. I haven't seen Lewent this afternoon, not since he brought you up to my room and left us. Now I've answered, why did you ask?' 'Something someone said. Forget it.' 'Who said what?' I shook my head. 'Later. If you don't want to forget it, I'll save it for after dinner. We'll be late for cocktails.' He tossed the paper towel at a wastebas^t, missed it, growled something, went and Picked it up and dropped it in, told me to ^me on, and led the way to the elevator. The provision for drinks in Huck's room, 53 which was large and lush with luxury, was ample and varied. They were on a portable bar near the center of the room, and alongside it was Huck in his wheelchair, freshly shaven, his hair brushed with care, wearing a lemon-colored shirt, a maroon bow tie, and a maroon jacket. Also the plaid woolen shawl that had covered his lower half had been replaced by a maroon quilted one. The room was lit softly but well enough, with lamps around--one of them a rosy silk globe at the end of a metal staff clamped to the frame of Huck's chair. As Thayer and I approached, Huck greeted us. 'Daiquiri as usual, Paul? And you, Mr. Goodwin?' Having spotted a bottle of Mangan's Irish in the collection, I asked for that. Huck poured it himself, and Sylvia Marcy passed it to me. She had changed from her nurse's uniform to a neat little number, a dress of exactly the same color as Huck's shirt, as well as I could tell in that light; but she hadn't changed her coo. Mrs. O'Shea stood off to one side, sipping something on the rocks, and Dorothy Riff was there by the bar with a half-emptied long one. With my generous helping of Mangan's, I backed 'v^ a little and looked and listened. I have goo^ 54 eyes and ears, and they have had long training under the guidance of Nero Wolfe, but I couldn't see a movement or hear a word or tone that gave the faintest hint that one of them knew a body with a crushed skull was lying only fifty feet away, waiting to be found. They talked and got refills and laughed at a story Huck told. It was a nice little gathering, not hilarious, but absolutely wholesome. At the end Huck made it more wholesome still. Mrs. O'Shea was starting to leave, and he called to her, and when she rejoined us he leaned over to reach a low rack at the side of his chair. Coming up with three little boxes bearing the name of Tiffany, he addressed the females. 'I'm sure you know, you three, that if it weren't for you my life would be miserable, crippled as I am. It is you who make it not merely bearable, but pleasant, really pleas- ^t, and I've been thinking how I can show '^ appreciation.' He tapped the top box with a finger. 'I ^s going to give these to you next Wednes^y? my birthday, but I decided to do it today on account of Mr. Goodwill. His mis- slon h^e, at the instance of my brother-inaw? is an imputation against you that I feel 55 is utterly unjustified. Mr. Lewent is my wife's brother and so must be humored to the limit of tolerance; he was born in this house, and I will never challenge his right to live here and die here; but I want you to know that I have complete confidence in you, all three of you, and to make that as emphatic as possible I'm making this little presentation in the presence of Mr. Goodwin. Mrs. O'Shea?' He extended a hand with one of the boxes, and the housekeeper stepped up and took it. 'Miss Riff?' She took hers. 'Miss Marcy?' She took hers. As they got their eyes on their loot there were exclamations and expressions of delight. Sylvia Marcy let out a running broad coo that would have brought tears to my eyes if I hadn't been so busy using them. 'They're good timekeepers too,' Huck said, beaming. Without being too vulgar I managed to get enough of a look to see that the presents were all wristwatches, apparently just alike, and if the red stones were Burma rubies Sylvia's coo was no exaggeration. Paul Thayer, looking flabbergasted, poured rum 56 into his glass and gulped it down. Mrs. O'Shea, her little box clasped tightly in her hand, hustled from the room, and in a moment I heard the faint hum of the elevator. Before long I heard it again, and the wide door of the room opened and Mrs. O'Shea reappeared, pushing the stainless steel portable oven on rubber tires; it was nearly as tall as she was, and much bigger around. Miss Marcy moved the bar away, and Mrs. O'Shea put the oven there, beside Huck's chair. 'I'll just serve the soup?' she suggested. 'Now you know,' Huck reproached her, 'I'd rather do it myself.' He swung a shelf of the chair around to make a table, and reached to a rack attached to the oven for a napkin. There was a general movement toward the door, and I joined it. In the hall Thayer and I were in the rear, and he muttered at 'ie, 'The damn old goat's got a caliph complex. All three of 'em!' Going to the stairs to descend, we passed within a few feet of the door to Lewent's room- As far as I could tell, no one gave it a glance. 57 5 At ten minutes to eight, with the meal nearly over for the five of us at table, I said I didn't care for coffee, which wasn't true, excused myself on a pretext, and went up to the third floor, opened the door of Lewent's room, and entered. I had decided to discover the body. They had all been agreeable enough at dinner, except Thayer, who was sulking about something, but it was plain that they were humoring me only because Huck
