employer's conjugal privities. Which of you three would he have come to?Mr. Hildebrand, Mr. Jordan, or you?'
Miss Lowell was wary. 'On your hypothesis, you mean.'
'Yes.'
'None of us.'
'But if he felt he had to?'
'Not with anything as intimate as that. He wouldn't have 170
let himself have to. None of us three has ever got within miles of him on anything really personal.'
'Surely he confides in you, his agent and manager?'
'On business matters, yes. Not on personal things, except superficialities.'
'Why were all of you so concerned about the gun in his desk?'
'We weren't concerned, not redly concerned--at least I wasn't. I just didn't like it's being there, loaded, so easy to get at, and I knew he didn't have a license for it.'
Wolfe kept on about the gun for a good ten minutes--how often had she seen it, had she ever picked it up, and so forth, with special emphasis on Sunday morning, when she and Hildebrand had opened the drawer and looked at it. On that detail she corroborated Hildebrand as I had heard him tell it to Cramer. Finally she balked. She said they weren't getting anywhere, and she certainly wasn't going to stay for dinner if afterward it was only going to be more of the same.
Wolfe riodded in agreement. 'You're quite right,' he told her. 'We've gone as far as we can, you and I. We need all of them. It's time for you to -call Mr. Koven and tell him so. Tell him to be here at eight-thirty with Mrs. Koven, Mr. Jordan, and Mr. Hildebrand.'
She was staring at him. 'Are you trying to be funny?' she demanded.
He skipped it. 'I don't know,' he said, 'whether you can handle it properly; if not, I'll talk to him. The validity of my claim, and of his, depends primarily on who killed Mr. Getz. I now know who killed him. I'll have to tell the police but first I want to settle the matter of my claim with Mr. Koven. Tell him that. Tell him that if I have to inform the police before I have a talk with him and the others there will be no compromise on my claim, and I'll collect it.'
'This is a bluff.'
'Then call it.'
'I'm going to.' She left the chair and got the coat around her. Her eyes blazed at him. 'I'm not such a sap!' She started for the door.
171
'Get Inspector Cramer, Archie!' Wolfe snapped. He called, 'They'll be there by the time you are!'
I lifted the phone and dialed. She was out in the hall, but I heard neither footsteps nor the door opening.
'Hello,' I told the transmitter, loud enough. 'Manhattan Homicide West? Inspector Cramer, please. This is--'
A hand darted past me, and a finger pressed the button down, and a mink coat dropped to the floor. 'Damn you!' she said, hard and cold, but the hand was shaking so that the finger slipped off the button. I cradled the phone.
'Get Mr. Koven's number for her, Archie,' Wolfe purred.
T twenty minutes to nine Wolfe's eyes moved slowly from left to right, to take in the faces of our assembled visitors. He was in a nasty humor. He hated to work right after dinner, and from the way he kept his chin down and a slight twitch of a muscle in his cheek I knew it was going to be real work. Whether he had got them there with a bluff or not, and my guess was that he had, it would take more than a bluff to rake in the pot he was after now.
Pat Lowell had not dined with us. Not only had she declined to come along to the dining room; she had also left untouched the tray which Fritz had taken to her in the office. Of course that got Wolfe's goat and probably got some pointed remarks from him, but I wasn't there to hear them because I had gone to the kitchen to check with Fritz on the operation of the installation that had been made by Levay Recorders, Inc. That was the one part of the program that I clearly understood. I was still in the kitchen, rehearsing with Fritz, when the doorbell rang and I went to the front and found them there in a body. They got better hall service than I had got at their place, and also better chair service in the office.
When they were seated Wolfe took them in from left to right--Harry Koven in the red leather chair, then his wife, 172
then Pat Lowell, and, after a gap, Pete Jordan and Byram Hildebrand over toward me. I don't know what impression Wolfe got from his survey, but from where I sat it looked as if he was up against a united front.
'This time,' Koven blurted, 'you can't cook up a fancy lie with Goodwin. There are witnesses.'
He was keyed up. I would have said he had had six drinks, but it might have been more.
'We won't get anywhere that way, Mr. Koven,' Wolfe objected. 'We're all tangled up, and it will take more than blather to get us loose. You don't want to pay me a million dollars. I don't want to lose my license. The police don't want to add another unsolved murder to the long list. The central and dominant factor is the violent death of Mr. Getz, and I propose to deal with that at length. If we can get that settled-'
'You told Miss Lowell you know who killed him. If so, why don't you tell the police? That ought to settle it.'
Wolfe's eyes narrowed. 'You don't mean that, Mr. Koven?'
'You're damn right I mean it!'
