40 Rex Stout
'Mion?' Cramer wasn't interested. 'Not one of mine.'
'It soon will be. Alberto Mion, the famous opera singer. Four months ago, on April nineteenth. In his studio on East End Avenue. Shot--'
'Oh.' Cramer nodded. 'Yeah, I remember. But you're stretching it a little. It was suicide.'
'No. It was first-degree murder.'
Cramer regarded him for three breaths. Then, in no hurry, he got a cigar from his pocket, inspected it, and stuck it in his mouth. In a moment he took it out again.
'I have never known it to fail,' he remarked, 'that you can be counted on for a headache. Who says it was murder?'
'I have reached that conclusion.'
'Then that's settled.' Cramer's sarcasm was usually a little heavy. 'Have you bothered any about evidence?'
'I have none.'
'Good. Evidence just clutters a murder up.' Cramer stuck the cigar back in his mouth and exploded, 'When did you start keeping your sentences so goddam short? Go ahead and talk!'
'Well--' Wolfe considered. 'It's a little difficult. You're probably not familiar with the details, since it was so long ago and was recorded as suicide.'
'I remember it fairly well. As you say, he was famous. Go right ahead.'
Wolfe leaned back and closed his eyes. 'Interrupt me if you need to. I had six people here for a talk last evening,' He pronounced their names and identified them. 'Five of them were present at a conference in Mion's studio which ended two hours before he was found dead. The sixth, Miss James, banged on the stu
Curtains for Three 41
|dio door at a quarter past six and got no reply, presum
; ably because he was dead then. My conclusion that
itMion was murdered is based on things I have heard
'said. I'm not going to repeat them to you--because it
would take too long, because it's a question of emphaKsis and interpretation, and because you have already
heard them.'
'I wasn't here last evening,' Cramer said dryly.
'So you weren't. Instead of 'you,' I should have said the Police Department. It must all be in the files. They were questioned at the time it happened, and told their stories as they have now told them to me. You can get it there. Have you ever known me to have to eat my words?'
'I've seen times when I would have liked to shove them down your throat.'
'But you never have. Here are three more I shall not eat: Mion was murdered. I won't tell you, now, how I reached that conclusion; study your files.'
Cramer was keeping himself under restraint. 'I don't have to study them,' he declared, 'for one detail --how he was killed. Are you saying he fired the gun himself but was driven to it?'
'No. The murderer fired the gun.'
'It must have been quite a murderer. It's quite a trick to pry a guy's mouth open and stick a gun in it without getting bit. Would you mind naming him?'
Wolfe shook his head. 'I haven't got that far yet. But it isn't the objection you raise that's bothering me; that can be overcome; it's something else.' He leaned forward and was earnest. 'Look here, Mr. Cramer. It would not have been impossible for me to see this through alone, deliver the murderer and the evidence to you, and flap my wings and crow. But first, I have no ambition to expose you as a zany, since you're not; and
42 Rex Stout
second, I need your help. I am not now prepared to prove to you that Mion was murdered; I can only assure you that he was and repeat that I won't have to eat it--and neither will you. Isn't that enough, at least to arouse your interest?'
Cramer stopped chewing the cigar. He never lit one. 'Sure,' he said grimly. 'Hell, I'm interested. Another first- class headache. I'm flattered you want me to help. How?'
'I want you to arrest two people as material witnesses, question them, and let them out on bail.'
'Which two? Why not all six?' I warned you his sarcasm was hefty.
'But'--Wolfe ignored it--'under clearly defined conditions. They must not know that I am responsible; they must not even know that I have spoken with you. The arrests should be made late this afternoon or early evening, so they'll be kept in custody all night and until they arrange for bail in the morning. The bail need not be high; that's not important. The questioning should be fairly prolonged and severe, not merely a gesture, and if they get little or no sleep so much the better. Of course this sort of thing is routine for you.'
'Yeah, we do it constantly.' CramePs tone was unchanged. 'But when we ask for a warrant we like to have a fairly good excuse. We wouldn't like to put down that it's to do Nero Wolfe a favor. I don't want to be contrary.'
