saw how wrong I was. What he suggested, that whoever took the gun should put it out in sight somewhere, naturally I would have done that if I could-but I was afraid that if I told what I had done no one would believe me. It would sound like I was just trying to explain it away. Could I have a refill?”
I caught the waiter’s eye and gave him the sign.
She carried on. “Then Sunday, the news about Corey Brigham-of course that made it worse. And then yesterday, with Nero Wolfe again-you know how that was. And all day today, detectives and district attorneys with all of us-they were there all morning, and we have been at the district attorney’s office all afternoon, in separate rooms. Now I have to tell about it, I know that, but I don’t think they’ll believe me. I’m sure they won’t. But they will if you say you went with me and saw me throw it in the river.”
The waiter was coming with the refills, and I waited until he had gone.
“You left out something,” I told her. “You left out about hiring a crew of divers to search the river bottom and offering a trip to Hollywood and ten thousand dollars in cash to the one who found the gun.”
She surveyed me. “Are you being droll?”
“Not very. But that would give it color and would stand up just as well. Since you’ve been answering questions all day, I suppose you have accounted for your movements Thursday morning. What did you tell them?”
She nodded. “I’ll have to admit I lied, I know that. I told them that after breakfast I was on the terrace until about half past eleven, and then I went shopping, and then I went to lunch on the
“Where did you tell them you went?”
“To three shoe shops.”
“Did you name the shops?”
“Yes. They asked. Zussman’s, and Yorio’s, and Weeden’s.”
“Did you buy any shoes?”
“Yes, I-” She chopped it off. “Of course not, if I wasn’t there. How could I?”
I shook my head at her. “Drink up. What was the name of the girl who hung onto the clapper so the bell couldn’t ring, or was it a boy?”
“Damn it, don’t be droll!”
“I’m not. You are. Beyond remarking that they’ll check at those three shops, and that if you tried that mess on them they’d find that you didn’t get your car from the garage that morning, there’s no point in listing the dozen or so other holes. I should be sore at you for thinking I could be sap enough to play with you, but you meant well, and it’s a tough trick to be both noble and nimble. So drink up and forget it-unless you want to tell me who
“Of course I don’t!”
“Just protecting the whole bunch, including Nora?”
“I’m not protecting anybody! I just want this awful business to stop!” She touched my hand with fingertips. “Archie. So I made a mess of it, but it wouldn’t be a mess if you would help me work it out. We could have done it Wednesday night. We didn’t take my car, we took a taxi-or we walked to the East River and threw it in. Won’t you help me?”
And there you are. What if I had lost sight of basic facts? The circumstances had been favorable. When I first saw her Monday afternoon on the terrace, as she approached with the sun full on her, I had realized that no alterations were needed anywhere, from the top of her head clear down to her toes. Talking with her, I had realized that she was fine company. At Colonna’s Tuesday evening I had realized that she was good to be close to. Not to mention that by the time I was too old to provide properly for the family her father would have died and left her a mint. What if I had lost my head, made a supreme effort, rushed her off her feet, and wrapped her up? I would now be stuck with a female who got so rattled in a pinch that she thought she could sidetrack a murder investigation with a plant so half-baked it was pathetic. There you are.
But she meant well, so I let her down easy, paid for the drinks without entering it on my expense pad, helped her into a taxi, and had no hard feelings as I took another one, to 20th Street.
Nothing doing on the reports. Neither Cramer nor Stebbins was around, and all Rowcliff had for me was a glassy eye.
As I said, Cramer didn’t shake loose until noon the next day, Wednesday. I lunched on sandwiches and milk at a desk he let me use, digging out what was wanted, got home with it at four o’clock and got at the typewriter, and had just finished and was putting the original and a carbon on Wolfe’s desk when he came down from the plant rooms. He got arranged in his chair, picked up the original, and started his brain exercise. I give it here, from the original from the Jarrell file, not for you to exercise your brain-unless you insist on it-but for the record.
May 29 1957
AG for NW
JARRELL TIMETABLES
(Mostly from police reports, but some from AG is included. Comments are AG’s. Some items have been firmly
