'It's a bad day all around. Now Miss Rooney and Wayne Safford have been pinched. The police seem to think they left out something about that Tuesday morning. I was just telling Mr. Wolfe when you came--' ; 'I want to see him,' she said.
'Who? Mr. Wolfe?'
'Yes. Immediately.'
'What about?'
Curtains for Three 125
I'll be damned if her brows didn't go up. The hulity I thought I had seen was only on the surface. 'I'll tell him that,' she stated, me being mud. 'I Bust see him at once.'
'You can't, not at once,' I told her. 'You could rush in a taxi, but you might as well wait till I go to ty-fifth Street and get my car, because it's after o'clock and he's up with the orchids, and he ildn't see you until six even though you are the only it he's got still out of jail.' 'But this is urgent!'
'Not for him it isn't, not until six o'clock. Unless want to tell me about it. I'm permitted upstairs. you?' 'No.'
'Then shall I go get my car?' 'Yes.' I went.
XII
three minutes past six Wolfe, down from the plant s, joined us in the office. By the time Dorothy and jphad got there she had made it perfectly plain that as as I was concerned she was all talked out, our conation during the ride downtown having consisted ' her saying at one point, 'Look out for that truck,' me replying, 'I'm driving,' so during the hour's it I hadn't even asked her if she wanted a drink, ad when Wolfe had entered and greeted her, and got i bulk adjusted in his chair behind his desk, the first ling she said was, 'I want to speak to you privately.' Wolfe shook his head. 'Mr. Goodwin is my confiden
126 Bex Stout
tial assistant, and if he didn't hear it from you he soon would from me. What is it?'
'But this is very--personal.'
'Most things said in this room by visitors are. What is it?'
'There is no one I can go to but you.' Dorothy was in one of the yellow chairs, facing him, leaning forward to him. 'I don't know where I stand, and I've got to find out. A man is going to tell the police that I forged my father's name to a check. Tomorrow morning.'
Her face was human again, with her eyes pinched.
'Did you?' Wolfe asked.
'Forge the check? Yes.'
I lifted my brows.
'Tell me about it,' Wolfe said.
It came out, and was really quite simple. Her father hadn't given her enough money for the style to which she wanted to accustom herself. A year ago she had forged a check for three thousand dollars, and he had of course discovered it and had received her promise that she would never repeat. Recently she had forged another one, this time for five thousand dollars, and her father had been very difficult about it, but there had been no thought in his head of anything so drastic as having his daughter arrested.
Two days after his discovery of this second offense he had been killed. He had left everything to his daughter, but had made a lawyer named Donaldson executor of the estate, not knowing, according to Dorothy, that Donaldson hated her. And now Donaldson had found the forged check among Keyes' papers, with a memorandum attached to it in Keyes' handwriting, and had called on Dorothy that afternoon to tell her that it was his duty, both as a citizen and as a lawyer, considering the manner of Keyes' death, to give the
Curtains for Three 127
to the police. It was an extremely painful duty, had asserted, but he would just have to grin and
it.
I will not say that I smirked as I got these sordid scratched into my notebook, but I admit that I no difficulty in keeping back the tears. Wolfe, having got answers to all the questions that [ occurred to him, leaned back and heaved a sigh. 'I i understand,' he murmured, 'that you felt impelled rid of this nettle by passing it on to someone, even if I grasped it for you, what then? What do I with it?'
'I don't know.' It is supposed to make people feel to tell their troubles, but apparently it made athy feel worse. She sounded as forlorn as she aked.
'Moreover,' Wolfe went on, 'what are you afraid The property, including the bank balance, now be ags to you. It would be a waste of time and money for District Attorney's office to try to get you indicted brought to trial, and it wouldn't even be consid Unless Mr. Donaldson is an idiot he knows that, him so. Tell him I say he's a nincompoop.' Wolfe jled a finger at her. 'Unless he thinks you killed father and wants to help get you electrocuted. as he hate you that much?' 'He hates me,' Dorothy said harshly, 'all he can.' 'Why?'
'Because once I let him think I might marry him, he announced it, and then I changed my mind. He strong feelings. It was strong when he loved me, it is just as strong now when he hates me. Any ay he can use that check to hurt me, hell do it.' 'Then you can't stop him, and neither can I. The check and your father's memorandum ape le 128 Rex Stout
gaily in his possession, and nothing can keep him from showing them to the police. Does he ride horseback?'
'Oh, my God,' Dorothy said hopelessly. She stood up. 'I thought you were clever! I thought you would know what to do!' She made for the door, but at the sill she turned. 'You're just a cheap shyster too! I'll handle the dirty little rat myself!'
