A Right to Die

'When you stand I must crane. Will you sit?'

She sat down, on the edge of the chair. 'Who were they?'

'I may name them later, or may not. Obviously they were identifying you as someone they had seen somewhere. It-'

'Where?'

'Let me finish a sentence. Mr. Goodwin has told you of the information furnished by Mr. Vaughn regarding his movements that Monday evening. As evidence of Mr. Whipple's innocence that information was invaluable, but it had a flaw. Faced with it, you might say that the account you gave Mr. Vaughn was an invention; that you had not entered the building; even that you had not driven there. Therefore it was necessary to establish the fact that you had entered the building and approximately the times you entered and left. That has been done. The white man was Mr. Saul Panzer, who has no peer as an investigator. The Negroes were reputable citizens who live in Harlem. For the present I withhold their names; you may learn them later, in a courtroom, if the point becomes an issue.'

'Are you…' She let it hang. Her face had taken me along on her trip as she realized she had been flushed out of the tall grass. 'You mean they saw me?'

Wolfe turned a palm up. 'Could I make it any plainer, madam?'

He sure could. Me, I would have just said yes. I happen to prefer a straightforward lie to one with curves, but I adniit it's a question of personal taste. It isn't that he wants to have an out; he simply likes them fancy.

She looked at me, saw only a manly truth-loving phiz, returned to Wolfe, and took a skip. 'Peter Vaughn,' she said with feeling. 'I owe this to him.' Another skip. 'My husband.' Still another. 'Do the police know?'

'Not yet.' Wolfe opened a drawer and took out a document. 'I suppose they'll have to eventually, but it's barely possible that they won't. Archie?'

I arose and took the document and handed it to her and stayed on my feet, since she would soon need a pen.

'Read it,' Wolfe said. 'I made it as brief as possible.' She was a slow reader. I thought she would never finish the first page, and she took even longer with the second. Finally she looked up. 'If you think I'm going to sign this,' she said, 'you're crazy.'

'You won't even consider it?'

'I will not.'

'Get Mr. Cramer, Archie.'

'Who is Mr. Cramer?'

'A police inspector.'

I was at my desk, starting to dial.

'Don't do that!' she yelled. I could use a nicer word, but a yell is a yell. As I went on dialing, she bounced out of the chair, to me, and grabbed my arm and jerked. She turned to Wolfe and presumably was glaring; her back was to me.

'I won't squabble,' Wolfe snapped. 'You will sign that statement, now, or you will stay until Mr. Cramer comes.' He turned his head and roared. 'Saul!'

The door opened and Saul was there. 'This woman prevented Archie from making a telephone call,' Wolfe told him. 'Don't let her do it again.'

Three men and one poor little woman. Saul advanced. I lifted the receiver, which I had cradled. 'Don't,' she said. She touched my arm. 'Please don't. I'll sign it.' The document was on the floor, where it had dropped when she bounced. Saul picked it up and handed it to her. She went to the chair and sat, and I took her a pen. The little stand beside the chair was mainly for signing checks, but it would do for signing statements too.

'All three copies,' Wolfe said, and I got the two carbons from a drawer and took them to her. As she did each one I took it and gave the signature a look. It slanted up, which I understand means something, I forget what. I went to my desk and put them in the locked drawer. Saul went over to a chair by the bookshelves.

Dolly Brooke said, begging, not telling, 'My husband mustn't know. The police mustn't know.'

Wolfe eyed her. 'It's thorny,' he said. 'With that statement I could get Mr. Whipple released from custody, but to clear him conclusively I must expose the murderer. The statement would be more to the point if it said that when you knocked at the door Miss Brooke admitted you, and you killed her.'

She goggled. 'Are you crazy?'

'No. Did you? Kill her?'

'No!'_

'I hope not. If you did, as long as I reserve that statement, I'll be withholding vital evidence; and I prefer to reserve it, tentatively. You say the police mustn't know. On the contrary, they probably must, sooner or later; but I would like to postpone it until I can name the murderer, and it's possible that by then your movements that evening will be of no consequence. I have-'

'You won't tell them?'

'Not immediately. I have a question that is of consequence. I want you to concentrate on it all your powers of observation and memory. If you didn't kill her, the person who did left the apartment and building within minutes, perhaps seconds, of the time you arrived. Possibly as you arrived. He may have been in the third-floor hall, leaving, as you mounted the stairs, and retreated to the floor above, remained there